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Articles 1 - 30 of 49
Full-Text Articles in English Language and Literature
Moments Of Excess: Type 1 Diabetes And The Myth Of Control In Adolescent Fiction For Girls, Michelle E. Legault
Moments Of Excess: Type 1 Diabetes And The Myth Of Control In Adolescent Fiction For Girls, Michelle E. Legault
Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations
This thesis is the first academic work to analyze the stories of the Type 1 diabetic teen girls of adolescent fiction. In novels for adolescent readers, these girls are often White, female, heterosexual, and middle class—resulting in a collective disability narrative that portrays an “every girl” and lacks cultural or political dimensions. This thesis explores the narratives of five fictional teen protagonists with Type 1 diabetes. They are: Stacey McGill from the Baby-Sitters Club series by Ann M. Martin, Rachel Deering in Lurlene McDaniel’s Will I Ever Dance Again? (1982), Mackenzie “Zie” Clark in Sarah White’s Let Me List the …
“Hideous Things Have Happened Here”: Rape Myths, Rape Culture, And Healing In Adolescent Literature, Holly J. Greca
“Hideous Things Have Happened Here”: Rape Myths, Rape Culture, And Healing In Adolescent Literature, Holly J. Greca
Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations
Adolescent novels about rape are one way to discuss rape and rape culture with a young audience. These novels can depict and challenge aspects of rape culture, including the myths that ultimately reinforce a culture hostile to rape victims. Considering the prevalence of rape in society at large, as well as its prevalence among adolescents, this thesis examines the elements of rape culture at play within adolescent rape novels, which can serve as pieces of activism as they give voice to adolescent survivors of rape. Adolescent rape novels explore the internal struggles of survivors as well as the external process …
Vampire Narratives: Looking At Queer-Centric Experiences In Comparison To Hetero-Centric Norms In Order To Model A New Queer Vampiric Experience, Marah Heikkila
Vampire Narratives: Looking At Queer-Centric Experiences In Comparison To Hetero-Centric Norms In Order To Model A New Queer Vampiric Experience, Marah Heikkila
Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations
This thesis examines vampire narratives such as Twilight, The Vampire Diaries, True Blood, From Dusk Till Dawn, The Gilda Stories, and Fledgling using queer and sexuality studies frameworks to look at salient patterns in the texts. The project focuses on how gender performances take place in the text, what the performances mean, and what the implications of them are. In addition to gender performance, in the thesis, I also look at how vampire narratives influence and transform binaries related to gender and sexuality. Furthermore, while popular narratives such as Twilight are fan favorites, there are …
The Memory Of Mythmaking: Transgenerational Trauma And Disability As A Collective Experience In Afrofuturist Storytelling, Jessica Tapley
The Memory Of Mythmaking: Transgenerational Trauma And Disability As A Collective Experience In Afrofuturist Storytelling, Jessica Tapley
Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations
This project closely examines the relationship between transgenerational trauma, disability, and myth, particularly within Black speculative fiction, Afrofuturism, and Africanfuturism. Through the lenses of critical race theory, trauma theory, disability studies, and feminist theory, I will closely analyze how myth functions across five Black speculative fiction novels. I argue that disability appears as a common thread throughout each of these novels as a unique part of Black history and experience. Disability culture specifically offers community interdependence, a rejection of body and mind binaries, and a rejection of hierarchies in the pursuit of accessibility. I further demonstrate how myth centers racial …
Feminism By Proxy: Jane Austen’S Critique Of Patriarchal Society In Pride And Prejudice And Emma, Alexis Miller
Feminism By Proxy: Jane Austen’S Critique Of Patriarchal Society In Pride And Prejudice And Emma, Alexis Miller
Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations
Reading Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Emma from a feminist perspective reveals Austen’s desire for progressive marriages built on equality and love. Comparing the characteristics and eventual marriages of Austen’s heroines, Elizabeth Bennet and Emma Woodhouse, to other women and relationships in her novels highlights their uniqueness as women of agency who desire more than the society of Regency England offered women. Through such comparisons, Austen brilliantly displays her critique of the patriarchal society and the limitations that it set on women. Her critique is further established in the two novels through her emphasis on breaking down the false patriarchal …
Body Image/Imagining Bodies: Trauma, Control, And Healing In Graphic Memoirs About Anorexia, Kristine M. Gatchel
Body Image/Imagining Bodies: Trauma, Control, And Healing In Graphic Memoirs About Anorexia, Kristine M. Gatchel
Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations
Over the past decade, there has been a significant increase of graphic narratives focusing on the intersection of comics and medicine, a subgenre known as graphic medicine. These memoirs, known as graphic pathographies, are written from those who interact with disease in various capacities from patient, to doctor, to caregiver. This project closely examines three graphic pathographies written about the eating disorder anorexia nervosa. Prior writing, both fictional and personal memoir, on anorexia has often been considered as problematic for its ability to function as a how-to manual for anorexics. Anorexia is a complex disease that exists largely within the …
Players In A Storm: Climate And Political Migrants In The Tempest And Othello, Darcie Rees
Players In A Storm: Climate And Political Migrants In The Tempest And Othello, Darcie Rees
Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations
This paper presents a reading of migrants and their relationships with political and environmental slow violence in William Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Othello. Using Steve Mentz’s work with water and shipwreck, Lowell Duckert’s work on water in Shakespeare, Rob Nixon’s concept “slow violence,” Patricia Fumerton’s book on vagrancy in sixteenth and seventeenth century England, and Ken Hiltner’s work with environmental advocacy of the same time, I read the social history of vagrancy of the time (presented by Hiltner and Fumerton) alongside the Poor Laws. This social history is combined with water-focused ecocriticism, shipwreck and a postcolonial reading of migrancy. Ultimately, …
Sculpted From Clay, Shaped By Power: Feminine Narrative And Agency In Wonder Woman, Mikala Carpenter
Sculpted From Clay, Shaped By Power: Feminine Narrative And Agency In Wonder Woman, Mikala Carpenter
Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations
By applying deconstructive and feminist theories to the Wonder Woman saga, this thesis develops a potential definition of feminine narrative in contrast to the normative and exclusionary patriarchal narrative that reigns supreme in popular culture and Western ideology. Though much of comics discourse functions on the assumption that superhero narratives are homogenous reflections of this ideological hero narrative, I posit that the Amazonian princess's resilience and iconicity stem from her own narrative's uniquely deconstructive nature: Where the patriarchal story would demand dominance, destruction, and violence, the feminine narrative that Diana models advocates for equality, nurturance, and emotional and rational communication. …
Exploring The Political Impact Of Literature And Literary Studies In American Government, Taylor Dereadt
Exploring The Political Impact Of Literature And Literary Studies In American Government, Taylor Dereadt
Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations
This thesis explores the role of literature and practices of literary study in American government. Specifically, it looks at how the President’s Council on Bioethics (PCBE) and the Supreme Court have deliberately embraced the humanities to fulfill their respective responsibilities. I begin by examining the interpretive practices these groups employ, then turn to lists of recommended reading published by the PCBE and Justice Anthony Kennedy. I investigate how their endorsements of texts such as Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, My Antonia, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and To Kill a Mockingbird promote certain constructions of traditional American values that …
The Organization Of Turn-Taking In Fieldwork Settings: A Case Study, Amy Brunett
The Organization Of Turn-Taking In Fieldwork Settings: A Case Study, Amy Brunett
Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations
This linguistic study explores the role of turn-taking within 3 fieldwork sessions between a linguist and a native Mocho’ speaker, aiming to address who overlaps more frequently and whether overlapping speech is a cooperative or competitive resource throughout the exchanges. I questioned whether the fieldwork recordings would have turn-taking similar to a conversation or whether the turn-taking would function like an interview, however, the turn-taking in these recordings function in a unique manner. Based on my analysis, the fieldwork exchanges have their own organization of turn-taking that incorporates aspects that are similar to both naturally-occurring conversation and classic interviews, encouraging …
"We Met In A Bar By Happenstance": Master Narratives In Couples Stories, Brent A. Miller
"We Met In A Bar By Happenstance": Master Narratives In Couples Stories, Brent A. Miller
Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations
The focus of this study is on uncovering the underlying cultural assumptions, or Master Narratives, across four couples narratives that I elicited. I use Deborah Tannen's work and definitions to frame my analysis (2008). She identifies three narrative types: small-n narrative, the accounts of specific events or interactions that speakers said had occurred with one another; big-N Narrative, the themes speakers develop in telling about one another and in support of which they told the small-n narratives; and Master Narrative, the culture-wide ideologies shaping the big-N Narratives. Specifically, I identify two Master Narratives that underscore couples narratives in a broad …
Cannibalism In Contact Narratives And The Evolution Of The Wendigo, Michelle Lietz
Cannibalism In Contact Narratives And The Evolution Of The Wendigo, Michelle Lietz
Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations
This thesis examines the relationship between colonization and cannibalism, beginning with cannibalism as represented in colonial contact narratives. I address the tendency of the colonizers to presume cannibalism of the indigenous people with whom they come into contact, and how the assumption dictates the treatment of aboriginals by colonizing Europeans. Texts discussed in this light include The Tempest, She, Robinson Crusoe and the journals of Christopher Columbus. Additionally, I address the effects of colonization on the indigenous associations of cannibalism in conjunction with the evolution of the wendigo. To illustrate this evolution, I primarily draw on traditional oral …
A Comprehensive Literature Review Of Juvenile Programs, Policies, And Monitoring Systems, Jason Herter
A Comprehensive Literature Review Of Juvenile Programs, Policies, And Monitoring Systems, Jason Herter
Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations
This paper investigates past literature on juvenile-based programs, policies, and monitoring systems. It shows what strides practitioners have taken to reduce recidivism and how programs have tried to limit past failures. By showing what has worked and what has failed, we can develop future research and designs, measure the effects of different theories, and even add more important categories to future programs. This research presents information that may assist practitioners who work directly with juveniles and those who are involved in researching and developing future juvenile programs and policies.
Phonemic Inventory Of The Shor Language, Uliana Kazagasheva
Phonemic Inventory Of The Shor Language, Uliana Kazagasheva
Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations
This thesis describes the phonemic inventory and morphophonological properties of the Shor language. Shor is a Turkic language spoken in southwest Siberia, in the area designated as Mountainous Shoriya. It is one of more than 100 minority languages spoken in the territory of Russia, and it is currently on the verge of extinction. The language is characterized by agglutinative morphology, vowel harmony, and consonant assimilation typical of Turkic languages, which are discussed in the project. The main phonological processes, morphotactics, and some aspects of grammar are described and discussed in this thesis. Along with the discussion of the morphophonology of …
What Is The Negro Woman's Story?: Negro Story Magazine And The Dialogue Of Feminist Voices, Maureen Convery
What Is The Negro Woman's Story?: Negro Story Magazine And The Dialogue Of Feminist Voices, Maureen Convery
Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations
Too often, writing by and about Black women has been sidelined in scholarly work about African American writing prior to the post-World War II era. This is especially true in the recently emergent school of work surrounding the Chicago Black Renaissance. This thesis focuses on a single literary magazine, Negro Story, in order to explore the complexity of Black female identity in the 1940s through the work of the female editors and contributors to the periodical. These contributors come from varied racial and socioeconomic backgrounds, but their work takes on a cohesive quality as the stories are constantly in conversation …
Illustrating Adolescent Awareness: Teaching Historical Injustices And Promoting Agency Through Picture Books In Secondary Classrooms, Melissa Hoak
Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations
Picture books, often marketed to and written for young children, are typically thought of only as tools to inspire early literacy. They rarely make their way into secondary lesson plans, and with their seemingly simple illustrations and text, they are mostly deemed (socially, if not academically) inappropriate for accomplished readers. This thesis explores the advantages of including picture books when teaching four young adult texts: Pam Muñoz Ryan’s Esperanza Rising (2000), Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief (2005), Jacqueline Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming (2014), and Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis (2003). Picture books can serve as valuable companions to anchor texts such as …
Tricking For Change: Establishing The Literary Trickster In The Western Tradition, Christopher Michael Stuart
Tricking For Change: Establishing The Literary Trickster In The Western Tradition, Christopher Michael Stuart
Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations
This thesis proposes a new category for literary analysis called the literary trickster figure. Over the last few centuries, the trickster figure has been reduced from a cultural hero to a dubious character. If we trace the trickster’s western roots back to Hermes, Mercury, and Loki and take global trickster scholarship into consideration, criteria can be established and the role of the literary trickster can be assessed. The literary trickster’s role is to undermine the established order (social and political hierarchies), create disorder and bring awareness to systemic issues in order to bring about change. Once the literary trickster category …
Parody And The Pen: Pippi Longstocking, Harriet M. Welsch, And Flavia De Luce As Disrupters Of Space, Language, And The Male Gaze, Kelsey Mclendon
Parody And The Pen: Pippi Longstocking, Harriet M. Welsch, And Flavia De Luce As Disrupters Of Space, Language, And The Male Gaze, Kelsey Mclendon
Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations
In opposition to a literary tradition of damsel-in-distress female characters, Astrid Lindgren’s Pippi Longstocking, Louise Fitzhugh’s Harriet the Spy, and Alan Bradley’s The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie provide examples of empowered, intelligent, and capable young girls living in a mid-20th century environment and successfully subverting patriarchal norms. Drawing on Laura Mulvey’s theory on women as spectacle, Hélène Cixous’s concept of l’ecriture feminine, and New Historicist influences, I explore the common threads within these post-World War II era texts. Pippi’s strength and humor, Harriet’s spying and writing, and Flavia’s scientific expertise and detectival work illustrate their …
Haec Fortis Sequitur Illam Indocti Possident: A Linguistic Analysis Of Demonstratives In Genres Of Early Latin Fragments, Erica L. Meszaros
Haec Fortis Sequitur Illam Indocti Possident: A Linguistic Analysis Of Demonstratives In Genres Of Early Latin Fragments, Erica L. Meszaros
Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations
This study examines the claim that demonstratives are used more frequently in Latin comedies than in other genres (Karakasis, 2014; Palmer, 1975), as well as additional hypotheses regarding the use of demonstratives within this language. To examine these claims, I created a corpus composed of fragments of Early Latin authors of comedic, tragic, and non-dramatic works. I examined demonstratives within this corpus for frequency, form, syntactic role, affective force, co-occurrence with personal pronouns, and use in multimembral demonstrative sets. This study provides the first quantitative evaluation of demonstrative use for often neglected authors of Early Latin. It also identifies those …
"Trifles Of Value": Craft As Communication In Victorian Literature, Amanda C. Larson
"Trifles Of Value": Craft As Communication In Victorian Literature, Amanda C. Larson
Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations
This thesis argues that craft functions in the nineteenth century as a form of communication that expresses female identity in Elizabeth Gaskell's Cranford and Margaret Oliphant's Miss Marjoribanks. By looking at the novels through the lens of Talia Schaffer's craft paradigm in connection with Thing theory, it is possible to make connections between the role of craft and identity, which in turn raises questions about craft and female agency. These connections to female agency illuminate tensions between craft and the economy, gender disparity in the arts, and the limitations of class. In order to explore these notions it is …
Only A Body “Who Nobody Owns:” Adolescent Identity In Neil Gaiman’S The Graveyard Book, Aleesa Marie Millet
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. …
Blood Money: The Commodification Of Menstrual Education In The United States, Meghan Radosevic
Blood Money: The Commodification Of Menstrual Education In The United States, Meghan Radosevic
Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations
girl’s first menstrual cycle is often considered the first step of the seemingly ritualistic passage into womanhood. However, most girls within the United States who experience menarche fail to view it as a rite of passage, and instead see it as an event they must endure rather than celebrate. Menstruation is a mystifying process for young girls, and the mystification is intensified through the lack of open conversations between pre- and post-menarcheal females. While pedagogical strategies in period education have evolved over time, the one constant within menstrual education is silence. This thesis aims to write into the silence surrounding …
A Study Of Vowels /Ɛ/ And /Ɪ/ In African American English And Standard American English, Lindsay Stefanski
A Study Of Vowels /Ɛ/ And /Ɪ/ In African American English And Standard American English, Lindsay Stefanski
Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations
This study examines the vowels /ɪ/ as in tin and /ɛ/ as in ten in African American English (AAE) and Standard American English (SAE) spoken in the Detroit, Michigan area. I first analyzed the acoustic properties of a number of speech samples to determine vowel quality and duration measurements. I then performed speech perception tests using the same speech samples. My analyses support and contradict claims about AAE and SAE, particularly with respect to speaker participation in vowel shifts such as the Northern Cities Shift (NCS), Southern Shift (SS), and pin-pen merger. My investigation of AAE and SAE vowels also …
"For 'Tis Your Thoughts That Now Must Deck Our Kings": Affect In Shakespearean Performance, Elizabeth Dieterich
"For 'Tis Your Thoughts That Now Must Deck Our Kings": Affect In Shakespearean Performance, Elizabeth Dieterich
Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations
Because Shakespeare’s plays have been performed consistently for four hundred years, Shakespearean performance is in an ideal position to demonstrate how performance transmits the meanings of texts. This thesis argues that performances of Shakespeare’s plays create meaning through the transmission of affect. Renaissance conventions of audience-actor engagement were based on character tropes and staging practices of medieval theater, to which audiences responded viscerally. To illustrate these responses, I draw upon 3 Henry VI and Richard III. I then examine Hamlet, Twelfth Night, and As You Like It for their treatment of representation, empathy, and the power of …
Wimps, Dorks, And Reluctant Readers: Redefining Literacy In Multimodal Middle Grade Diary Books, Rachel Lee Rickard
Wimps, Dorks, And Reluctant Readers: Redefining Literacy In Multimodal Middle Grade Diary Books, Rachel Lee Rickard
Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations
Since the release of Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid, the multimodal, middle-grade diary book has gained popularity. The series features “handwritten,” journal entries and drawings and has elicited many imitators, the most prominent of which is Rachel Renee Russell’s Dork Diaries. While the diary form is not new to children’s literature, these series reinvent the established conventions through drawings and supplementary online environments. Both series are routinely identified as for reluctant readers; however, their diversity of form actually leads to complex reader engagement. My purpose is to refute the idea that the books are useful only …
Brave New Forms: Adaptation, Remediation, And Intertextuality In The Multimodal World Of Hugo Cabret, Chelsea Marie Bromley
Brave New Forms: Adaptation, Remediation, And Intertextuality In The Multimodal World Of Hugo Cabret, Chelsea Marie Bromley
Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations
Digital technologies have changed the way readers approach, experience, and respond to texts. In our hyper-mediated culture, images and texts converge and disseminate across multiple media platforms, changing once-passive readers and spectators into active agents in the intellectual and creative process of interpretation. This thesis examines the multimodal world of Hugo Cabret—the hybrid graphic novel, the film adaptation, and the novel’s official website—in an effort to better understand how intertextuality, convergence culture, and remediation play with media forms, represent an ideological shift toward participatory culture, and rework older, traditional media in the creation of new media and new media users. …
Subteen, Preteen, Tween: Preadolescent Literature Inside And Out, Bethany Fort
Subteen, Preteen, Tween: Preadolescent Literature Inside And Out, Bethany Fort
Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations
This thesis focuses on the inside and outside of preadolescent literature, a subgenre that has been widely neglected by literary scholars, educators, and book publishers. In Chapter 2, I analyze the themes within The Giver by Lois Lowry and use the developmental stage of preadolescence to define a subgenre of preadolescence, which has distinct characteristics that separate it from the other subgenres of children’s literature. In Chapter 3, I focus on the outside of preadolescent literature, using the results of bookseller and author surveys and research on the history of the tween retail market to uncover the subtle messages being …
Analyzing The Depictions Of The Multiracial Child Character In Children's Media, Rachael C. Jackson
Analyzing The Depictions Of The Multiracial Child Character In Children's Media, Rachael C. Jackson
Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations
The 2000 U.S. Census is the first in which a person could mark more than one racial identification box. Acknowledging this identity marks progress by recognizing an underserved population, but the media lags behind in the representation of Multiracial people in texts. My analysis of contemporary media examples (1) has the capacity to initiate conversations about the bigger social implication of race and diversity in the media; (2) sheds light on the rarity of Multiracial characters and the ways in which Multiracial characters are depicted; (3) suggests that greater access to Multiracial characters is granted to older audiences; (4) recognizes …
Transatlantic Intimacies: The Homoerotic Affect Worlds Of Nineteenth-Century Print Culture, Melissa R. Pompili
Transatlantic Intimacies: The Homoerotic Affect Worlds Of Nineteenth-Century Print Culture, Melissa R. Pompili
Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations
The thesis argues that during the late-nineteenth century, an alternative means of same-sex erotic communication was conceived of in transatlantically published American and British künstlerroman novels written by female authors. This alternative discourse was communicated affectively to initiated readers by way of metaphorical descriptions of painting, music, accompanying illustrations, and photography, and these novels all participate in the work of moving non-normative sexuality into the public sphere at the turn of the century. Through readings of works by Kate Chopin, Julia Magruder, and Amy Levy, the thesis explores the ways that these affective interactions were constructed, and the manner in …
The Power Of Belief: Innocents And Innocence In Children's Fantasy Fiction, Haley Elizabeth Atkinson
The Power Of Belief: Innocents And Innocence In Children's Fantasy Fiction, Haley Elizabeth Atkinson
Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations
The power of belief is a reoccurring theme in fantasy fiction for children and young adults. Oftentimes such belief merely affects the internal make-up of children or child-likecharacters,giving them the confidence that they need to act upon the world, but at other times belief acts to magically impose an imagined reality onto a physical reality. Fairies are brought back from thedead, destinies are divined through a golden compass, phantom stags lead the way to hidden swords. This thesis explores the power of belief and its associations with the innocence of childhood as found in J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan and Wendy …