English Language and Literature Commons^™

"Playing Superhero": Agency And The Role Of The Teenaged Superhero, Jessica R. Saunders

Theses & Honors Papers

The discussion of agency within Young Adult Literature is an extensive topic that includes various criteria, such as power in various types of relationships and social ideologies. In the media form of graphic novels, the concept of agency is taken to a separate level because the primary teenagers depicted in graphic novels are titled as superheroes with abilities that surpass the norm. The role of being a teenaged superhero becomes conditional, depending on whether the teenager demands agency in the form of controlling his/her abilities or are assigned the role by their adult prototypes and society. The texts that this …

Exploring African American Identity In Harlem: Carl Van Vechten's Nigger Heaven, Michelle Lynn Simone

Theses & Honors Papers

Carl Van Vechten became a predominant figure within Harlem Renaissance literary circles because of his patronage of black artists and his 1926 novel Nigger Heaven. The novel depicts scenes of cabarets and Harlem night life, emphasizing themes of racial prejudice and the struggle for identity in the black culture. Van Vechten's fictional portrayal of Harlem received mixed reviews--to say the least. Many black authors and critics aligned themselves with W.E.B. Du Bois and lambasted the bawdy scenes and racially derogatory title. Others, including James Weldon Johnson and Langston Hughes, defended Van Vechten' s astute observations of Harlem and his skillful …

Kate Chopin In Transition From Local To Naturalism, Roselyn Cornwell Hines

Theses & Honors Papers

My thesis concentrates on Mrs.Katherine O'Flaherty Chopin, a Southerner who published between 1889 and 1899, and who, for years, was considered an obsolete Local Colorist. She is now enjoying a revival of interest which must be attributed to her importance as a writer who exhibited those precepts upon which modern literature is based - those found in the movements of Realism and Naturalism.

With literary roots in the Local Color mode,Mrs.Chopin's early works exemplify, to some extent at least, all of its principles. While she falters somewhat in the dominant literary technique, we find the Local Colorist's emphasis on geography, …