English Language and Literature Commons^™

Adam’S Task: Naming And Subcreation In Good Omens, Janet Brennan Croft

Mythcon

Names are, in one sense, the outward indication of a power negotiation. The namer, the one who bestows a new name or uses an already-given name, reveals, through the choice of name they give or use, their relationship to that which they name. The act may indicate a more or less equal relationship; it may be an attempt to exert power over someone or something by imposing a name on it or by using a name that will influence those who hear it; or it may be a signal of submission and subordination, using a name to flatter or …

(Un)Fair(Ly) Unknown: New And Neglected Arthurian Television Programming, Carl B. Sell, Richard Fahey, Michael Torregrossa, Rachael K. Warmington

Mythcon

The Arthurian tradition abounds with Fair Unknowns, characters whose identity and true worth is revealed only slowly over the course of an adventure. In this session, we’d like to adopt the motif to look at new and neglected television series that make interesting use of the legend and deserve more recognition by scholars.

Moderator: Carl B. Sell
Panelist: Michael Torregrossa
Panelist: Richard Fahey
Panelist: Rachael K. Warmington
Tech Mod: Tim Lenz

'Her Enchanted Hair': Rossetti, 'Lady Lilith,' And The Victorian Fascination With Hair As Influences On Tolkien, Kathryn Colvin

Mythcon

The Victorian poet and painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti appears upon first glance to be an unlikely inspiration for J.R.R. Tolkien’s legendarium: though both were medievalists, Tolkien’s reputation for chaste prose contrasts sharply with Rossetti’s famously “fleshly” work. However, a close reading of both—setting Rossetti’s poetry, particularly “Lady Lilith” and its accompanying painting, alongside Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and posthumously published material from The Silmarillion and The History of Middle-earth—reveals a compelling and previously unexplored connection between the Victorian cultural mythology of magic hair (as epitomized by the “hair-mad” Rossetti) and Tolkien’s detailed and often supernatural portrayals of …

Philology And The Lived Imagination: Vico, Collingwood, And Tolkien, Reno Lauro

Mythcon

This paper endeavors to uniquely address a question proposed by Tom Shippey in a guest editorial for Mallorn issue 45. “[R.G.] Collingwood and Tolkien were both Fellows of Pembroke College for nearly a decade till 1934, when Collingwood took up a Chair at C.S. Lewis’s college, Magdalen. Did the three of them ever talk about, agree about, disagree about the subject of folktales, on which Collingwood was working and publicly lecturing in the 1930s?” (Shippey 4). In order to answer Shippey’s question, I suggest that ‘folktales’ may not be the only or best way into this investigation. While we know …

Cities And Strongholds Of Middle-Earth, Part 1, Cami Agan, Birgitte Breemerkamp, Nicholas Birns, Marie Bretagnolle, Robin Anne Reid

Mythcon

The Cities and Strongholds of Middle-earth panels bring together seven of the chapters to appear in the upcoming volume of the same name from MythPress. The volume explores the habitations of Middle-earth across the ages, as well as the cultures responsible for those built structures. Presenters will briefly explain their chapters in order to leave plenty of room for discussion.

Moderator: Cami Agan
Panelist: Nicholas Birns
Panelist: Birgitte Breemerkamp
Panelist: Marie Bretagnolle
Panelist: Robin A. Reid
Tech Mod: Tim Lenz

Q&A With Mythopoeic Award Winners, Dennis Wise, James Gifford, Theodora Goss, Yoon Ha Lee

Mythcon

Q&A with Mythopoeic Award Winners (Roundtable) Steward of Mythopoeic Awards Dennis Wise will lead conversation and Q&A with some of last year’s Mythopoeic Society Award winners: James Gifford, Theodora Goss, and Yoon Ha Lee.

Tech Mod: Cait Rottler

“Now It’S All Simple:” Ideology And Solidarity In Mckay’S Romance In Marseille, Reilly Flynn

MAD-RUSH Undergraduate Research Conference

Survival strategy, or an individual’s chosen method of living with dignity and security in an oppressive social order, can be viewed as a reflection of identity. Claude McKay’s recently published 1932 novel Romance in Marseille presents a wide variety of survival strategies practiced by many diasporic Africans. These characters hail from a variety of backgrounds, races, genders, sexual orientations, and disability statuses, but they are nevertheless united by common class conditions. Through this, solidarity and shared ideology emerge. Solidarity is crucially an important revolutionary force, but it is not infallible. With an eye on manifestations of ideology and identity in …

Desire And Beauty: Ancient Philosophy Molding Modern Cinema In Vertigo, Garrett Johnson, Nicholas Scott Olson

Liberty University Research Week

Graduate

Textual or Investigative

More Than Misogyny: The Role Of Women In The Ramayana, Sadie Barham, Stephen Bell

Liberty University Research Week

Undergraduate

Textual or Investigative

“The Greatest Poet In Ireland”: Yeats’S Changing Perspective On The Sacred Role Of Poet, Lillianna Wright, Nathaniel Ross Valle

Liberty University Research Week

Undergraduate

Textual or Investigative

Everybody's Magazine: American Modernist Concerns In The Creative Content, Timothy Brophy, Nathaniel Ross Valle

Liberty University Research Week

Undergraduate

Textual or Investigative

Effect Of Covid-19 On Elementary Students' Use Of Language Online, Emma Polen

Undergraduate Research and Scholarship Symposium

The COVID-19 pandemic ushered in an unprecedented period of online communication among children. This paper aims to exemplify how the reliance on digital communication platforms compelled by COVID-19 affected elementary students’ use of language. Within the study, children used primarily visual language on digital sites with friends. There were two main forms of primary research in this study. The first consisted of a survey of 16 parents of elementary school children in my school district. The second was an observation of Zoom chat room activity among three eight-year-olds. Both methods of conducting research build on the existing understanding that digital …

Mark Twain: A Life Story To Tell Stories Of Life, Megan Bynum

Undergraduate Research Conference

No abstract provided.

Enriching The American Literary Canon Through Chaim Potok’S Work, Sara Williams, Andrew Walker

Liberty University Research Week

Graduate

Textual or Investigative

The Gilded Finch: An Exploration Of Class Conflict, Mattea Harrison, James Nutter

Liberty University Research Week

Undergraduate

Creative and Artistic

The Potential Positive Effects Of Early Childhood Literacy, Mary Ray, Carolyn Towles

Liberty University Research Week

Undergraduate

Textual or Investigative

Finding Hope In My Miscarriage, Ashley Mcconnell

KUCC -- Kutztown University Composition Conference

This narrative describes what it was like as a full-time working mother dealing with the hardships of stress relating to work, home, children, and marriage resulting in a miscarriage.

History Mysteries: Research For A Historical-Fiction Mystery Set During The 1918 Spanish Flu In New England, Mark Lawton, Tess Martinus

Liberty University Research Week

Graduate

LUO Remote

Creative and Artistic

Poetry As Social Justice In The English Review, Hannah Wilson, Hunter Hogsed, Nathaniel Ross Valle

Liberty University Research Week

Undergraduate

Textual or Investigative

A Live Conference Program

KUCC -- Kutztown University Composition Conference

No abstract provided.

Standardized Testing: The Act Leaving Children Behind, Sadie Doss

KUCC -- Kutztown University Composition Conference

Standardized Testing has been common throughout our educational system in the past few decades. Through the No Child Left Behind Act, our society has discovered the flaws of incentivizing these tests. This act has created lasting effects that has shaken up the integrity of our educational system. The common victim: the children being subjected by this act.

A Life Supply Of Roads, Navon Cooper

KUCC -- Kutztown University Composition Conference

I compare the decisions that I've chosen in life to a poem by Robert Frost.

The Stillness In Time: A Reflective Narrative, Molly Heller

KUCC -- Kutztown University Composition Conference

This piece is a narrative that spans just about four and a half pages (double spaced). It describes a trip to my former middle school and all of the memories that flood back with it by taking the reader on a mental tour of the building. Written in first person, it provides a sense of my individual middle school experience in a way that feels relatable and personal. Throughout the piece, I make reference to the parallels and differences between my life in quarantine and my life in middle school.

A Moment In These Times, Samantha Smith, Ky Gainer, Allyson Mosley, Zoey Knauf, Emma Meakim, Athena Garrison

KUCC -- Kutztown University Composition Conference

This poster presentation Collects short essays by fall 2020 Effective Composition students. The authors share small moments they have experienced during the pandemic. This collection serves as a time capsule so that, years from now, others can understand what everyday life was like during Covid-19.

Outlaw Heroes: A Beacon Of Hope For The Eighteenth And Nineteenth Century Irish Peasantry, Mary Babcock

Phi Alpha Theta Pacific Northwest Regional Conference

Outlaw heroes have long been popular figures in Irish folklore, as the lower-class praised them for their Robin Hood-like actions of robbing the rich and giving to the poor. Why the Irish lower-class, specifically the peasantry, supported this is puzzling; what led the Irish peasanty to idolize such criminal activities? This paper explores this question and proposes that the Irish people idolized outlaw hearos such as highwaymen, Tories, and rapparees because they represented defiance during a time of great oppression. This paper explores the moral guidelines outlaw heroes needed to follow to remain in the public’s favor, the social and …

May Swenson's Exploration Of Existence And Purpose Through Poetry, Lauren Cunningham

Student Research Symposium

May Swenson explores the idea of belonging, purpose and life by exemplifying that these topics are affected by nature, upbringing, and the environment surrounding an individual, as well as exploring if we experience life or if we are life. Through her writing, Swenson argues that all life is equally valuable, and a being’s purpose is dependent upon belief and circumstance. Presentation Time: Wednesday, 9-10 a.m. Zoom link: https://usu-edu.zoom.us/j/81298203941?pwd=WXZkRjhqdlZNTVlidXk3UnB1K2VtUT09

Entertainment Media Perceptions Of Minorities In Young Adult Adaptations, Kynnadie Bennett

Scholars Week

This is an exploration of stereotypical and racist portrayals of minorities, specifically African-American, Latinx, and Native American communities, in film and television in the past and how that has affected representation in film adaptations of young adult literature. Young adult literature is one of the highest-selling genres in literature, purchased by both young adults and actual adults. In recent years, young adult literature has been adapted into film and television series and while representation has improved since the early years of entertainment history, there are still problems in the industry: many of the stereotypes remain, some minorities lack representation, and …

She Lives: Bringing The Bride Of Frankenstein To Life In The Comics, Michael Torregrossa

Far West Popular Culture Association Annual Conference

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein recently celebrated its two-hundredth anniversary, and its story remains vibrant in popular culture, especially in the comics medium. I’ve done a number of conference papers in the past devoted to representations of the Creature and his creator, Victor Frankenstein, in comics and comic art, but I’ve only recently begun to look at how the character of the Bride of Frankenstein has been depicted. I’d like to use this opportunity to further that work and look more closely at continuations and recastings of her story. The Bride has no chance at life in Shelley’s novel, as she is …

"The Greek Gods Don't Exactly Show Up For Their Kids' Basketball Games": Adapting Epic Convention Through Family Dramas In Rick Riordan's The Last Olympian, Hannah Mcginnis

Capstone Showcase

Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians saga bridges the gap between ancient myth and modern coming-of-age. In this article, the assertion that The Last Olympian is essentially an epic for the new generation invites an examination of the Homeric-heroic tropes and characteristics which are attributed to Riordan's characters. This analysis explains that through the combined motifs of time, age, and family, Riordan actively adapts and subverts these Classical conventions into a modern mythography for young readers.