English Language and Literature Commons^™

I Am A Witch, R. L. Boyer

The Mythic Circle

No abstract provided.

Deliverance Of Dreams, Nicolo Santilli

The Mythic Circle

No abstract provided.

The Shaman Comforts The Fledgling's Soul, Joseph Murphy

The Mythic Circle

No abstract provided.

The Shaman Meets With The Man In The Moon, Joseph Murphy

The Mythic Circle

No abstract provided.

Saturn's Complaint, Kevan Bowkett

The Mythic Circle

No abstract provided.

A Wild God, David Sparenberg

The Mythic Circle

No abstract provided.

Editorial, Gwenyth E. Hood

The Mythic Circle

No abstract provided.

Only A Body “Who Nobody Owns:” Adolescent Identity In Neil Gaiman’S The Graveyard Book, Aleesa Marie Millet

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book presents a child, Nobody (Bod) Owens, who grows up in a graveyard with ghosts and a vampire as primary guardians. While Bod is not technically an adolescent for the entire novel, he is constantly struggling with adolescent themes—primarily being in a liminal state—and the graveyard provides a heterotopian space for Bod to escape “normal” society and to develop an “othered” identity. Gaiman’s strategic use of monsters reflects adolescence as he presents the repressive human organization, the “Jacks of All Trades,” trying to control society, while Bod becomes a queer monster/human hybrid representing the resistant individual. …

Josephine Lawrence: A Writer Of Her Time, Deidre A. Johnson

English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Dark Avunculate: Shame, Animality, And Queer Development In Oscar Wilde’S “The Star-Child”, Rasmus R. Simonsen

Rasmus R Simonsen, PhD

This article will outline the inequalities of the relationship between the Star-Child and his temporary master, known only as the Magician, in order to argue that Wilde’s fairy tale should be read as the formalization of a queer interval that traumatizes the Victorian norm of maturation. This is not to suggest that “Wilde’s Victorian readers [would] seem to have found [any]thing untoward about the fairy tales” (Duffy 328); nothing, at least, that hinted at the “homoromantic dimensions” which were to become so devastatingly central to his libel trial of 1895 (338). John-Charles Duffy has nevertheless shown that a complex interweaving …

A Miniseries Of Unfortunate Events: Realizing The Full Potential Of Lemony Snicket's Book Series Through Television Adaptation, Ryan T. Pait

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, a series of 13 children’s books, seemed like it had the potential to become a massive franchise in a similar vein to the Harry Potter film series. Snicket’s books feature three plucky protagonists, a sinister villain, and constantly-shifting settings—all elements that could make a successful movie series. A film adaptation, titled Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events was made in 2004. It adapted the first three books in the series, and became a moderate financial and critical success. Despite the success, no further films were made.

As a fan of Snicket’s …

Jameson's Story: A Tale Of The Human Condition Through Fiction, Steven Kubitza

Honors Projects

A work of fiction focusing on two characters living in the same world, but under much different circumstances. One must try and find out who he is while the other is attempting to uphold his way of life in a society threatening to take it away. The story delves into the ideas of a somewhat dystopian world; one in which our society could ultimately mirror in the near future. The work is unfinished, which is explained in the reflection paper at the beginning of the document.

If I Had An F: A Feminist Picture Book For Boys, Kelly Tieger

Graduate Student Independent Studies

This independent study uncovers and meets a need in contemporary children's literature: a book explicitly expressing Feminism as a critical democratic value for everyone. The study includes a comprehensive review of available children's picture books on the topics of gender identity, roles, and expressions after finding a notable absence of books dealing with, or even mentioning the word Feminism. Specifically, this picture book serves the previously unaddressed population of cis-gendered gender conforming boys aged eight to eleven by engaging them specifically in the topic of Feminism. The study posits that picture books can act as catalysts for positive change within …

Designing Social Stories For The Brooklyn Children's Museum, Brigid Tuschen

Graduate Student Independent Studies

The author found that there was a significant amount of recent research done on how best to use social stories in the classroom and none in a museum setting, which led her to research and write two social stories for the Brooklyn Children's Museum.

Actors As Teachers: The Art Of Storytelling, Catherine Corbett

Graduate Student Independent Studies

Aims to create a show for young children that is inclusive of children along a broad range of development.

A Blend Of Genres: The Enchanting Power Of The Harry Potter Series, Kayla Pawek

Honors Theses, 1963-2015

Since its inception in 1997, the Harry Potter series has captivated the minds and hearts of its ever-increasing readership. I began this project hoping to discover just what it is about the series that keeps readers of all ages clamoring for more. I turned to other universally beloved stories—Greek myths and childhood folktales—to find the answer. By analyzing the structure of the Harry Potter series using Vladimir Propp’s structure of the folktale and Joseph Campbell’s Heroic Journey of the myth, I came closer to understanding how this series speaks to both children and adults so deeply.

Shakespeare And Boyhood: Early Modern Representations And Contemporary Appropriations, Marvin Tyler Sasser

Dissertations

This dissertation demonstrates that Shakespearean boyhood, both in early modern plays and contemporary reimaginings for young readers, critiques patriarchal and hegemonic ideals through the rhetoric and behavior of boy characters. Although critics have called Shakespeare’s boy characters indistinguishable, I find that they provide Shakespeare a unique resource to offer persuasive skepticism about heroic conventions, education, and political instability. This project begins by examining the lexical network of boy in order to chart its uses in early modern England. The subsequent three chapters establish how Shakespeare uses boys to comment on a range of ideal manhoods, such as the chivalrous …

The Importance Of Appearances In Literature: What Does It Mean To Be A Redhead In Literature?, Chelsea J. Anderson

Honors Theses

In literature, appearances always seem to play a major part of each character. The physical descriptions of each character are important to the development of the story. Therefore, it seems that a character’s physical appearance becomes an important part of character development, and his/her physical traits help to determine the type of character he/she will be. Often times, different hair colors carry associations along with them. Redheads have been associated with certain temperaments and personality traits throughout history. In literature, red-headed characters often have the temperaments, traits, and negative connotations associated with redheads. One of the major assumptions made about …

Not So Magical: Issues With Racism, Classism, And Ideology In Harry Potter, Tiffany L. Walters

All NMU Master's Theses

Although it is primarily a young adult fantasy series, the Harry Potter books are also focused on the battle against racial purification and the threat of a strictly homogeneous magical society. This thesis examines the intricacies and depth of the racial ideologies presented in the books, as well as how they can be equated with historical and real world issues. More specifically, this thesis will study the delineations of human and non-human beings, and how the institutional biases they struggle against are supported by traditional principles. Though these are important ideas worthy of discussion, I also hope that further examination …

"Keep Funding Or Else... It's Mustaches": Building A Community Of Literacy At Owl Creek, Ian Whitlow

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The following research report on literacy practices presents an analysis of the data collected over the course of four months at Owl Creek middle school in Northwest Arkansas. Following a qualitative research protocol, I interacted with middle school students who participated in the Razorback Writers after-school literacy outreach program sponsored by the University of Arkansas. This report details the two major literacy practices encouraged in this after school program - the collective read-aloud sessions focusing on the graphic novel I Kill Giants, and the students' creation of their own graphic novels, which were developed in group workshops. In the following …

The Implementation Of Common Core: Graphic Novels In The Classroom, Chesnie R. Keeler

Honors Theses

The Common Core State Standards are alive and thriving in schools across the nation, and teachers are constantly looking for the best possible ways to implement these rigorous standards with student interests in mind. These standards set goals, or benchmarks, for students to reach at any specified grade level throughout their primary and secondary education; school districts, administrators, and teachers have the choice of deciding how students meet these standards. As a pre-service teacher who will enter the teaching profession, I examine how graphic novels can be implemented into the English Language Arts classroom by analyzing Maus, Persepolis, …

The Double-Sided Message Of The Lego Movie: The Effects Of Popular Entertainment On Children In Consumer Culture, Jordan Treece

English Seminar Capstone Research Papers

One of the most popular and highest rated films of 2014, The Lego Movie, has entertained billions of viewers in the past year. Although it has already proven itself to be a favorite of adults, The Lego Movie’s targeted audience is children who will identify with the imaginative and fun characters that take the form of their favorite building toys. Such a strong platform that provides excellent age appropriate entertainment to the world’s most impressionable generation gives The Lego Movie a prime opportunity to communicate to children in an unusually powerful way. For decades, researchers have explored the way entertainment …

The Nerd Hour Is At Hand: Portrayals Of Geeks And Nerds In Young Adult Literature Ad Popular Media, Jessica M. Stanley

Theses & Honors Papers

Turn on the television, open a book, or even walk down the street and you will no doubt notice at least one geek or nerd. Most Americans today have heard these terms, and each individual probably has his own working definition of what they mean. Unpacking those definitions, however, is tricky. What is a nerd? What is a geek? How does one identify a person as belonging to these groups? To analyze how modern culture understands geeks and nerds, one must first understand the history behind these terms. While most Americans today recognize and use the words "geek" and "nerd," …

"Because I'M A Girl, I Suppose!":Gender Lines And Narrativeperspective In Harry Potter, Melanie J. Cordova

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Explores one of the interesting challenges in reading the Harry Potter series: the reader must eventually face the fact that Harry is not a totally reliable narrator or viewpoint character, especially as far as the female characters closest to him are concerned. Hermione especially suffers from his “teenage boy myopia.”

St. Jerome's Narnia: Transformation And Asceticism In The Desert And Beyond The Wardrobe, John Gavin

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Compares “two exercises in Christian myth-making”—C.S. Lewis’s Narniad and The Life of Paul the Hermit, the earliest work of the ascetic St. Jerome. Both are entertaining, and even whimsical at times, and feature communication with intelligent animals and a restoration of Paradise. Both also feature characters who model the value of asceticism and the solitary contemplative life.

Magical Genders: The Gender(S) Of Witches In The Historical Imagination Of Terry Pratchett's Discworld, Lian Sinclair

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Fruitfully explores the similarities between Pratchett’s theory of narrative causality and the gender theories of Butler and Foucault; all deal with an urge to fit gender performance into an established story. Pratchett’s witches engage in a balancing act between the gender expectations of their society and their own quests for agency and power.

Isn't It Romantic? Sacrificing Agency For Romance In The Chronicles Of Prydain, Rodney M.D. Fierce

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Addresses the vexed question of Princess Eilonwy’s gesture of giving up magic and immortality to be the wife of Taran and queen of Prydain. Was it a forced choice and a sacrifice of the capable and strong-willed girl’s agency and power, or does it proceed logically from her depiction throughout the series?

Editorial, Janet Brennan Croft

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

The majority of articles in this issue of Mythlore have to do with a selection of female characters in fantasy and their issues of agency, visibility, relationship, and gender roles.

Constructing Lothiriel: Rewriting And Rescuing The Women Of Middle-Earth From The Margins, Karen Viars, Cait Coker

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Examines the presence and absence of female characters in Tolkien, in the Peter Jackson films, and in fanfiction, paying particular attention to a “footnote character,” Lothíriel, and what the body of fanfiction built around her brief mention as the daughter of Imrahil and wife of Éomer reveals about reader engagement with Tolkien’s texts.

Brienne Of Tarth And Jaime Lannister: A Romantic Comedy Within Hbo's Game Of Thrones, Inbar Shaham

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

“Romantic comedy” is not a genre whose conventions one would readily associate with the television series Game of Thrones, but this article makes a case for the evolving relationship between Brienne of Tarth and Jaime Lannister as an intrusion of the “green world” of spring and summer into the bleak winter of the show. The unconventional ways in which both characters perform their genders are part of the interest and challenge of this relationship.