English Language and Literature Commons^™

A Classroom Stuck In Time : The Theoretical Ambitions Of Curriculum And The Reality Of Classroom Practice, Rebecca Mcgrath

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This master’s thesis explores the diversity of full-length texts taught in the American literature courses at one New Jersey high school. Chapter one begins with an overview of American literature anthologies and covers the integration of more diverse texts throughout the 1960s and beyond.

Chapter two offers summary and analysis of the case study conducted for this paper. The case study includes interviews and surveys of teachers as well as student surveys and analysis of documents, such as the course curriculum and the state standards.

Analysis of the data reveals that while the curriculum advocates for diversity in race and …

Politics And Prophecy : Melville's America In Moby-Dick And Benito Cereno, Michelle T. Fernandes

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The goal of this thesis is to explore and identify Herman Melville’s position on a government that participated in slavery in the 1850’s. By examining the stories of Moby- Dick and Benito Cereno Melville’s distrust in government is exposed. The period in which he wrote was filled with political and social reforms during which he took influence from other vocal authors and slaves involved in revolt. I use two research strategies: (1) a look at literary and social events during Melville’s writing and (2) his personal correspondences. In the first part of the exploration is Melville’s attack on a government …

Dynamic Future : Movements Beyond Postmodernism In Three Contemporary American Novels, Christopher Aleixo Teixeira

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This thesis explores the criticism of and attempts to move beyond postmodernism in three contemporary American novels. Jonathan Safran Foer in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close offers a view in which shared experience, and specifically traumatic experience, necessitates the creation of metanarrative communities. Chuck Palahniuk in Fight Club navigates the difficulty of addressing postmodern concerns without accepting the conclusions of postmodern thinkers. Karen Tei Yamashita in Tropic o f Orange posits an ever expanding world which can only be truly understood through metanarrative.

Sorry, Not Sorry : Speech As Action For Women In The Works Of Aemilia Lanyer And John Milton, Tiffany Ann Errickson

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Using the works of Aemilia Lanyer, John Milton, and Lucy Hutchinson, I will be exploring the idea of speech as action in 17th Century England and its connection to agency and community amongst women. These authors chose to show a distinct strength and sense of power in Eve and her descendants; each female subject not only has a voice, but uses it to her benefit. This is an enormous gift from an author, to whom words and language are the fruit of awareness, knowledge and power. Each representation uses their language as both a shield and sword to defend themselves …

Ghettoizing Black Women's Literature : A Socio-Historic Study Of Black Women Writers And The White Publishing Industry, Kimberly Wiley Luna

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This paper contributes to the conversation of race/publishing by concentrating on black women’s literature, exploring how it has been produced over the course of the last one hundred years and the impact of the white/black divide which has created a power structure where white publishers are able to assert control over black women’s writing. The focus is on three commercially successful female African American writers— Nella Larsen, Gwendolyn Brooks and Rita Dove. All three women were published by mainstream New York publishing houses made up of primarily white editors and publishers.

The research in this paper is informed by editorial …

Beelzebub : Satan's Consort In John Milton's Paradise Lost, Beth Tippenreiter

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This thesis contends that Beelzebub is the erotic and political consort of Satan in John Milton’s 1667 poem, Paradise Lost. Chapter one first examines Milton’s relative contemporary, Christopher Marlowe, and his play The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus. Within Doctor Faustus, we find not only an earlier representation of the erotic and political consort relationship between Beelzebub and Satan, here named Belzebub and Lucifer, but that the primary purpose of Marlowe’s Belzebub is to be Lucifer’s consort. Chapter two’s section one focuses on the erotic consort relationship between Milton’s Beelzebub and Satan. Questions and concerns of intimate language and sexual …

Robo-Teaching? : Automated Essay Scoring And K-12 Writing Pedagogy, Swati Viren Chauhan

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This paper will examine the current state, and future, of AES in secondary literacy education through a review of current research in the topic. An analysis of the history of assessment will seek to explain why AES systems have gained such popularity within high-stakes assessment, and how the use of AES in secondary education, high-stakes testing affects pedagogy. This paper will also look into reliability and validity issues that are presented when using AES as a form of scoring essays. Finally, this paper explores some ways that AES can be used effectively within the K-12 writing classroom, rather than solely …

Putting Pedagogical Compositional Theory In Action : A Case Study Of Process Based Approaches To Exploring Unfamiliar Writing Tasks, Brett Conrad

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

In this paper, I explore how employing process theory can aid eleventh grade AP English Language and Composition students in adjusting their writing to an unfamiliar composing task: the AP exam’s argument essay. I also investigate how to assist developing writers in adapting their composing to the unknown through their use of prewriting, drafting, and revising, and in their use of these reflective writing strategies that Mary Jo Reiff and Anis Bawarshi (2011) call “discursive resources”: accessing prior knowledge, possessing genre awareness, crossing boundaries, developing problem solving dispositions, and identifying as novice writers. Furthermore, I examine how to implement these …

Secular Transformations And Spiritual Manifestations : Three Poems By Auden, Zachary Rosenblum

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This thesis addresses the spiritual subtext in W. H. Auden’s poetry and the way this subtext is manifest as an imagining of the secular in spiritual terms. Through biographical and critical texts, Auden’s poetry can be understood as a method of exploring his own spiritual framework. “The Unknown Citizen,” “For the Time Being,” and “The Shield of Achilles,” written between 1939 and 1952, Auden’s spiritual concerns can be observed.

Each of the poems grows on the foundation of the previous one. “The Unknown Citizen” (1939) is the least spiritual, ironizing Auden’s own perspective; Auden uses this ironizing process again for …

"Academia, Here I Come!" : Plain Language And Academese In The Postsecondary Academy, Heather Lockhart

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Since the birth of the plain language movement forty years ago, proponents of plain language have seen a considerable uptick in plain language advocacy, use, legislation, and regulation within government, legal, and business organizations. Those who have adopted this style believe that its most important benefits include increased clarity, ease of both reading and writing, and accessibility. In spite of these benefits, one field that has not yet embraced plain language is academia—a field that, as many have argued, could benefit from adopting a plainer writing style in order to make academic texts more accessible. The uncertainty about plain language’s …