English Language and Literature Commons^™

Human Cloning As The Other In Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, Wen Guo

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Human Cloning as the Other in Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go" Wen Guo analyzes Kazuo Ishiguro's novel with focus on Ishiguro's analogy between human cloning and people of marginality in contemporary society. Guo discusses the novel's ambience of doubt and suspense and elaborates on how the theme of otherness is addressed by Ishiguro's mock-realism in a landscape of science fiction. Further, Guo analyses the "unhomely" Hailsham of the novel, the clones' self-pursuit, and their ethical attitudes. Guo argues that in Ishiguro's novel a person's ethical choices are determined by his/her situation which confirms Ishiguro's beliefs with …

Rædende Iudithðe: The Heroic, Mythological And Christian Elements In The Old English Poem Judith, Judith Caywood

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This project, devoted to the Old English epic fragment Judith, argues that the title character arises from the complex multicultural forces that shaped Anglo-Saxon society, positing that she exists between the mythological, the heroic and the Christian. Simultaneously Christian saint, Germanic warrior and pagan demi-goddess or supernatural figure, Judith arbitrates amongst the seemingly incompatible forces that shaped the poet’s world, allowing the poem to serve as an important site for the making of a new Anglo-Saxon mythos, one which incorporates these disparate yet co-existing elements. Judith becomes a single figure who is able to reconcile these opposing forces within …

Characters Through Time, Alyssa Venezia

Honors Thesis

T. S. Eliot once wrote that we “often find that not only the best, but the most individual parts of [an author’s] work may be those in which the dead poets, his ancestors, assert their immortality most vigorously” (Eliot 37). By focusing on character adaptations, one comes to understand how authors of children’s books are able to adapt classic literature into age-appropriate texts that retain the merits of the original. Five sets of characters shall be analyzed to demonstrate the success of the adaptations presented in children’s literature. In the first, Sir Bedivere from Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte Darthur …

John Milton: Not War, Not Peace, Not Exactly Grotian, William T. Abbott

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Foreword

This paper will be of value in answering continuing questions regarding John Milton's position on war and peace. The questions continue and are valid because Milton's works, as considered in the paper, offer support for both pro-war and pro-peace interpretations. The paper also addresses a middle-ground interpretation-that Milton's position can best be understood in light of the legal theories of Hugo Grotius, the seventeenth-century Dutch scholar who is generally accepted as the father of modern international law.

The works considered include, among others, the Nativity Ode, the sonnets, Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, Samson Agonistes (including post 9/11 controversy involving …

T.S. Eliot: A Never-Ending Exploration, Kristina Krupilnitskaya

Honors Thesis

The following thesis explores the work of T.S. Eliot before and after his conversion to the Anglican Church. While the paper explores the stylistic qualities of Eliot's poetry, the main focus of the essay lies in bridging the pre and post conversion works together in order to show that both of the periods were significant in the poet's life. While many critics viewed Eliot's early poetry as a lot more exploratory and challenging, calling his later poetry banal and bland, my essay aims to show that even though the poetry had shifted in its content, its significance, complexity, and experimentality …

Introduction: Cultural Nationalism In Scottish Literary Studies: The View From Elsewhere, Anthony Jarrells

Studies in Scottish Literature

Introduces the issues and contributors to this post-Referendum SSL symposium, on non-Scottish perspectives on Scottish cultural nationalism, which includes discussions of teaching Scottish literature in Italy, Germany, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States, together with a response from a senior Scottish scholar, notes the interest elsewhere in contemporary Scottish writing, and suggests that the effect of the debates surrounding the Referendum, and the involvement of many writers in it, will have a continuing effect on the future of Scottish literary studies.

Wee Malkies Abroad: Scottish Literature Seen From The United Arab Emirates, Manfred Malzahn

Studies in Scottish Literature

Discusses the recent Scottish Referendum in relation to concepts of national identity in the United Arab Emirates and explores the ways in which Scottish authors and literary works can be of interest to students in UAE, drawing also on previous experience teaching in Tunisia, stressing the interest of shorter, contemporary Scottish texts, but noting also the continuing resonance of a few older Scottish texts, including works of R. L. Stevenson.

Ossianic Telegraphy: Bardic Networks And Imperial Relays, Eric Gidal

Studies in Scottish Literature

Relates James Macpherson's Fragments of Ancient Poetry (1760) and other Ossianic poems to evolving Scottish networks of commerce and communication, especially commercial telegraphy and the postal system, and posits associations also with comments in Adam Smith's Lectures on Jurisprudence and Theory of Moral Sentiments, to suggest that Macpherson's remediation of oral poetry asserted ideas of authorial identity and readership as "relays" in a new imperial network.

Notes On Contributors To Vol. 41

Studies in Scottish Literature

Brief biographical entries on the 25 scholars who have contributed to this volume.

Changing Times: A Post-Indyref View From Italy, Carla Sassi

Studies in Scottish Literature

Discusses the responses of Italian university students to the Scottish Referendum of 2014, briefly surveys the history and recent development of Scottish literary studies in Italian universities, and comments on teaching the novels of Walter Scott to Italian readers.

The View From Elsewhere: A Response, Andrew Hook

Studies in Scottish Literature

Reviews and responds to the symposium contributors, recounting briefly growing up as a Scot in England and Scotland, and doing National Service, and drawing on 60 years experience studying, researching, and teaching in both Scotland and the United States, commenting that while Scottish studies in the 1960s was primarily concerned with traditional culture and reclaiming a folk tradition, its future probably lies in interdisciplinary study focused on contemporary Scotland and modern Scottish writing.

'Singing Of Psalms Of Which I Could Never Get Enough': Labouring Class Religion And Poetry In The Cambuslang Revival Of 1741, Elspeth Jajdelska

Studies in Scottish Literature

Describes and discusses the nature and uses of poetry by Scottish labouring-class participants in the revival at Cambuslang, near Glasgow, in 1741, drawing on the manuscript account of the revival collected by the parish minister, William McCulloch; setting the poems in the context of recent scholarly reconsideration of 17th and 18th century Scottish religious culture; relating the poems to the Scottish use of metrical psalms in kirk services and domestic devotions; and commenting in detail on poems by Alexander Bilsland and George Tassie, and a report on religious poetry reading by Ann Wylie.

Burns's Politics 'In Another View': Late 1792/Early 1793, Robert P. Irvine

Studies in Scottish Literature

Presents a reconsideration of Burns's political views in 1792-1793, examining in detail the original performance context of his poem "The Rights of Woman," in the Dumfries Theatre in November 1792, and the political context of his song "Why should na poor people mow," as first sent in letters to Robert Cleghorn in December 1792 and to Robert Graham of Fintry in January 1793, arguing that such "political" poems might be read less in terms of French or metropolitan revolutionary politics than in terms of major cultural and social changes in the Scottish community and networks to which Burns belonged.

Radical Attribution: Robert Burns And 'The Liberty Tree', Corey E. Andrews

Studies in Scottish Literature

Discusses the political symbolism of liberty trees in the American and French revolutions, and in Scotland in Burns's period, as background to reconsidering the song "The Liberty Tree," first printed among Burns's work by Robert Chambers in 1838, the authorship of which has remained a subject for debate among Burnsians; examines the song closely in terms of phrasing to argue that it is unlikely to be by Burns; and draws a distinction between attributing the song to Burns and its evident reliance on his iconic standing both in his own time and among later Scottish radicals.

Sir Walter Scott's The Monastery And The Representation Of Religious Belief, Chad T. May

Studies in Scottish Literature

Examines Sir Walter Scott's novel The Monastery, written while he was also working on his better-known medieval novel Ivanhoe, and discusses its representation of the historical religious transition of Scotland from a Catholic to a Protestant country; focuses especially on Scott's treatment of the supernatural, in the figure of the White Lady, and argues that Scott uses her to allow representation of a personal religious experience or religious vision that otherwise fitted uneasily with his generally secular project for historical representation in fiction; and concludes by briefly sketching the significance of this atypical, transitional novel for understanding religious …

John Stuart Blackie's Altavona: A Late Victorian Reaction To The Highland Clearances, Brooke Mclaughlin Mitchell

Studies in Scottish Literature

Reviews the career of John Stuart Blackie (1809-1895), poet, professor successively of humanity in Aberdeen and of Greek in Edinburgh, and a tireless advocate for the Scottish Highlands and Celtic culture; sketches his growing criticism of Highland landlords and the eviction of crofters from Scottish estates, in relation to more recent perspectives; and discusses his successive literary treatments of the Clearances in his "Highland Sonnets," his long poem "The Highlander's Lament," and, most fully, in his 'novel' or mixed-genre prose work Altavona: Fact and Fiction from My Life in the Highlands (1882), commenting also on Blackie's revisions to the book …

John Byrne's The Slab Boys: Technicolored Hell-Hole In A Town Called Malice, William Donaldson

Studies in Scottish Literature

Presents a detailed discussion and appreciation of the Slab Boys tetralogy, a sequence of four plays by the Scottish playwright and painter John Byrne, beginning with The Slab Boys (1978), focused on a group of apprentices in the color-mixing room of a Paisley carpet-factory in the 1950s, and then tracing the divergence of their lives through three later plays, The Loveliest Night of the Year (1979, later titled Cuttin' A Rug), Still Life (1982), and Nova Scotia (2008); examines Byrne's characterization, "excoriatingly destructive wit," and "rambunctiously demotic language"; analyzes the tetralogy's continuing major themes of the relation between art …

Back To The Future: Remembering The 1707 Act Of Union In The 2014 Referendum Campaign, Leith Davis

Studies in Scottish Literature

Discusses the political rhetoric , imagery, and arguments, used in the debates over the 1707 Act of Union between Scotland and England, and traces their reuse in the debates that preceded the Scottish Referendum on independence in September 2014, depicting the 1707 act, not as an historical inevitability, but as "an anomalous success" after a century of earlier attempts at an incorporating union and as "a site of contestation long after its ratification."

'I Am Not Writing Anything Just Now': A Letter From Walter Scott To Sarah Smith, February 13, 1814, John T. Knox

Studies in Scottish Literature

Describes and reproduces a letter written by Sir Walter Scott to the actress Sarah Smith (later Mrs Bartley), in February 1814, in which he tells her shortly before the anonymous publication of his novel Waverley that "I am not writing anything just now"; discusses Scott's interest in Smith's career, his brief comments on the dramatist Joanna Baillie, and the extent to which Smith was in his confidence about his writing.

Preface To Ssl 41, Patrick G. Scott, Anthony Jarrells

Studies in Scottish Literature

Reports the international readership of the journal and discusses the ways in which the journal, with a primary focus on Scottish literary studies, nonetheless recognizes that Scottish literature is of current political significance and interest.

Scottish Writers, American Students: A View From Virginia, David E. Latane

Studies in Scottish Literature

Discusses cultural (and statistical) similarities and differences between Scotland and Virginia, and explores how these affect the response and interest of university students to studying Scottish literature, especially contemporary literature, and to a summer course taught in Glasgow.

Assimilation, Hybridity, And Identity: A Visitor During Indyref, Evan Gottlieb

Studies in Scottish Literature

Recounts the experience of growing up as a Jewish kid among Scottish-Canadians and of being in Scotland during the Referendum in 2014, expressing admiration for the level and character of informed debate among voters.

'Epitaph' On Grizzel Grim: A Newly-Discovered Manuscript In The Hand Of Robert Burns, Jonathan Henderson, Pauline Mackay, Pamela Mcintyre

Studies in Scottish Literature

Describes and reproduces a newly-discovered Burns manuscript, with notes and numerical calculations relating to his work as an Excise Officer, and the four-line 'Epitaph' on Grizzel Grim (Kinsley II:926); discusses its publication history, attribution to Burns, and relation to Burns's ballad of similar title; gives a collation of variant readings; and transcribes related notes about the manuscript from the Craufurdland Castle papers.

Book Review: Beckett At 100: Revolving It All, Jennifer Jeffers

Jennifer M. Jeffers

No abstract provided.

Rhizome National Identity: "Scatlin's Psychic Defense' In Trainspotting, Jennifer Jeffers

Jennifer M. Jeffers

No abstract provided.

Beyond Irony: The Unnamable's Appropriation Of Its Critics In A Humorous Reading Of The Text, Jennifer Jeffers

Jennifer M. Jeffers

In traditional Beckett criticism, the most conventional interpretation of the narrator's activity in The Unnamable posits that the narrative is attempting to establish "his" own self-identity, but "[h]is search for self-knowledge has failed because it has produced only fiction" (Solomon 83). Another variety of this interpretation poses the Unnamable's dilemma in Existential language: "Existence affirms merely that something is; essence denotes what it is ... By the time we reach The Unnamable, the collapse of essence is virtually complete; the voice is a mere existence crying out that it exists" (Levy 104). As Dennis A. Foster argues in his Lacanian …

Trends In The Contemporary Irish Novel: Sex, Lies, And Gender, Jennifer Jeffers

Jennifer M. Jeffers

The 1990s Irish novel presents its own brand of uniqueness and sophistication to the contemporary Anglophone novel. In this article I divide the development of the 1990s Irish novel into three groups. The first type of novel that emerges in the 1990s concerns the presentation of a different image of Ireland, one that magnifies gender construction and sexual preference. The second group of novels concerns the act of reading itself and the difficulty in determining truth from lies. These novels impair the reader's ability to read in an effort to show that everything is a form of interpretation: memories, history, …

"Reclamation Of 'Injurious Terms' In Emma Donoghue's Fiction, Jennifer Jeffers

Jennifer M. Jeffers

Featuring new essays by international literary scholars, the two-volume Companion to Irish Literature encompasses the full breadth of Ireland's literary tradition from the Middle Ages to the present day. * Covers an unprecedented historical range of Irish literature * Arranged in two volumes covering Irish literature from the medieval period to 1900, and its development through the twentieth century to the present day * Presents a re-visioning of twentieth-century Irish literature and a collection of the most up-to-date scholarship in the field as a whole * Includes a substantial number of women writers from the eighteenth century to the present …

Beckett's Masculinity: New Interpretations Of Beckett In 21st C, Jennifer Jeffers

Jennifer M. Jeffers

From Murphy to Rockaby to Worstward Ho, Beckett’s Masculinity illustrates how Samuel Beckett’s work functions as a testament to the site of memory for the historically erased twentieth-century Protestant, Anglo-Irish community. Jennifer Jeffers ably shows how Beckett converted his own personal traumatic loss of a masculine, patriarchal national identity into a sustained group of obsessive images in his texts. As Beckett’s work matured, he utilized the strategies of emasculation and gender distortion to dismantle Western masculinity. Beckett’s Masculinity shows that Western hegemonic masculinity was a source of private trauma and anxiety for Beckett; yet, he eventually transformed the twentieth-century …

Book Review: Saying I No More: Subjectivity And Consciousness In The Prose Of Samuel Beckett, Jennifer Jeffers

Jennifer M. Jeffers

No abstract provided.