Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Literature in English, North America Commons™
Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Discipline
-
- American Literature (15)
- American Studies (15)
- Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (15)
- Women's Studies (11)
- Literature in English, British Isles (6)
-
- American Popular Culture (5)
- Literature in English, North America, Ethnic and Cultural Minority (5)
- Film and Media Studies (4)
- History (4)
- Modern Literature (4)
- Religion (4)
- Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion (4)
- Social and Behavioral Sciences (4)
- Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (3)
- Political Science (3)
- Cultural History (2)
- Philosophy (2)
- Political Theory (2)
- Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies (2)
- Theatre and Performance Studies (2)
- United States History (2)
- Acting (1)
- African American Studies (1)
- American Film Studies (1)
- Children's and Young Adult Literature (1)
- Christianity (1)
- Comparative Methodologies and Theories (1)
- Keyword
-
- American literature (10)
- American poetry (8)
- American women authors (7)
- Books-Reviews (3)
- Gender (3)
-
- Queer theory (3)
- Religion (3)
- Absalom Absalom! (2)
- American Gothic (2)
- Dystopia (2)
- Edith Wharton (2)
- Emily Dickinson (2)
- Fandom (2)
- Feminism (2)
- Feminist theory (2)
- Masculinity (2)
- Modernism (2)
- Motherhood (2)
- Myth (2)
- Performance (2)
- Poetry (2)
- Robert Frost (2)
- Shakespeare (2)
- Trauma (2)
- Virginia Woolf (2)
- William Faulkner (2)
- 1748-1816 (1)
- 19th century literature (1)
- A Rose for Emily (1)
- Affect Theory (1)
- Publication Year
- Publication
- Publication Type
Articles 1 - 30 of 53
Full-Text Articles in Literature in English, North America
True Love Waits: A Barthesian Reading Of Desire And Delay In Flaubert And James, Yasmin Patel
True Love Waits: A Barthesian Reading Of Desire And Delay In Flaubert And James, Yasmin Patel
Scripps Senior Theses
This thesis explores the theme of amorous waiting in the literature of Gustave Flaubert and Henry James. Roland Barthes' definition of waiting, as articulated in A Lover's Discourse, is used as a tool to examine the waiting conditions of characters in Madame Bovary, The Beast in the Jungle, and The Ambassadors. By using the Barthesian framework, this thesis identifies and analyzes different forms of gender-based waiting and their distinctive consequences. However, it also notes that the primary texts further complicate the relationship between romantic waiting, gender, and autonomy. Ultimately, this analysis shows us that amorous waiting goes beyond a simple …
‘I Have Had My Vision:’ Visions And The Escape From Expectations In The House Of Mirth And To The Lighthouse, Madison Yardumian
‘I Have Had My Vision:’ Visions And The Escape From Expectations In The House Of Mirth And To The Lighthouse, Madison Yardumian
Scripps Senior Theses
“I have had my vision,” Lily Briscoe declares in the triumphant culminating line of To the Lighthouse, indicating the fulfillment of her artistic vision on a project over ten years in the making. In her success, Lily Briscoe disproves those who have told her “women can’t write, women can’t paint” and actualizes her ability to create, all the while rejecting gendered and heteronormative expectations which prioritize heterosexual marriage over her artistic pursuits (Woolf, TL 86). Strikingly, this language of vision also recurs throughout The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton, a text published 22 years after To the Lighthouse, …
Witnessing Difference: An Exploration Of Living In The Aftermath Of Trauma In Post-Holocaust America In Cynthia Ozick’S “Rosa”, Anastasia Kourotchkina
Witnessing Difference: An Exploration Of Living In The Aftermath Of Trauma In Post-Holocaust America In Cynthia Ozick’S “Rosa”, Anastasia Kourotchkina
Scripps Senior Theses
This thesis examines the process of witnessing in Cynthia Ozick’s novella Rosa as a crucial part of living in the aftermath of Holocaust. By using Kelly Oliver’s concept of witnessing, I approach the process of witnessing trauma as the process of restoring subjectivity. As my analysis of Ozick’s Rosa shows, what prevents both Rosa and those around her to bear witness to trauma is the failure to imagine oneself as implicated in the traumas of the other. I conclude that the tendency to ignore the essential connection and dependence that exists between the Self and the other is enabled by …
‘I Have Had My Vision:’ Visions And The Escape From Expectations In The House Of Mirth And To The Lighthouse, Madison Yardumian
‘I Have Had My Vision:’ Visions And The Escape From Expectations In The House Of Mirth And To The Lighthouse, Madison Yardumian
Scripps Senior Theses
“I have had my vision,” Lily Briscoe declares in the triumphant culminating line of To the Lighthouse, indicating the fulfillment of her artistic vision on a project over ten years in the making. In her success, Lily Briscoe disproves those who have told her “women can’t write, women can’t paint” and actualizes her ability to create, all the while rejecting gendered and heteronormative expectations which prioritize heterosexual marriage over her artistic pursuits (Woolf, TL 86). Strikingly, this language of vision also recurs throughout The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton, a text published 22 years after To the Lighthouse, …
Reproduction Or Replication? Deconstructing The Myth Of Maternal Glorification In Sexton's "Those Times" And "The Double Image", Kaila Sivan Finn
Reproduction Or Replication? Deconstructing The Myth Of Maternal Glorification In Sexton's "Those Times" And "The Double Image", Kaila Sivan Finn
Scripps Senior Theses
This thesis’s interpretation of “The Double Image” and “Those Times” explores the reproduction of gender norms between mother and daughter. These poems imagine motherhood as a rather grim replication of body image issues, lack of self-identity, and the internalization of sacrifice. When considering both the context of the 1950s as well as our current moment, the grotesquity of Sexton’s description of motherhood is particularly shocking. The renaissance of women in domestic roles troubled Sexton’s poetry and Sexton herself. Therefore, in considering these poems’ impacts on American culture, it is critical to imagine how shocking such a grotesque portrayal of “domestic …
A Sermon Writ In High Heaven: Astrology And Interpretation In Moby-Dick, Amanda Gallop
A Sermon Writ In High Heaven: Astrology And Interpretation In Moby-Dick, Amanda Gallop
Scripps Senior Theses
This thesis explores Herman Melville's use of astrology in Moby-Dick in relation to the novel's stance on meaning-making and interpretation. It analyzes Ishmael and Ahab's respective methods of interpretation established in the first half of the novel, then explores Stubb's use of astrology in "The Doubloon" chapter. I propose that Stubb's astrological soliloquy poses a potential solution to the conflict between Ishmael and Ahab's diametrically opposed methods, thus offering an avenue into a new understanding of the novel's epistemological project.
A Revision Of A Revision: Reading The Heroic Slave As A Response To Uncle Tom's Cabin, Isabelle Phan
A Revision Of A Revision: Reading The Heroic Slave As A Response To Uncle Tom's Cabin, Isabelle Phan
Scripps Senior Theses
Frederick Douglass and Harriet Beecher Stowe have long been heralded as complementary contemporaries, working towards the similar goal of transforming antebellum society through abolitionist literature. This essay explores the ways in which their relationship is complicated by reading Douglass’ only work of fiction The Heroic Slave as a response to Uncle Tom’s Cabin. This argument is predicated on the separate argument that Uncle Tom's Cabin is its own revision of Douglass’ first autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave: specifically, I find that Stowe’s insistence on a Christian framework of abolition in her revision of Douglass' …
Geometry Of Night, Jenny Patton
Geometry Of Night, Jenny Patton
Journal of Humanistic Mathematics
No abstract provided.
"Woven Into The Deeps Of Life": Death, Redemption, And Memory In Bob Kaufman's Poetry, Peter Davis
"Woven Into The Deeps Of Life": Death, Redemption, And Memory In Bob Kaufman's Poetry, Peter Davis
Pomona Senior Theses
The scholars who have taken up the task of writing about Bob Kaufman have most often done so in response to a perceived demand: the lack of Kaufman scholarship, readership, anthology, publicity, canonization. The basis of this need is clear: Kaufman is almost never included as even a third-string Beat, a fringe Surrealist, or an underappreciated Jazz performer. To the committed readers of Kaufman – and almost all of his readers seem to be committed ones – it’s unforgivable. These various canons, major (mid-century American poets, Beat poets) and minor (Jazz poets, American Surrealists), are clearly missing one of their …
Human Monsters: Examining The Relationship Between The Posthuman Gothic And Gender In American Gothic Fiction, Alexandra Rivera
Human Monsters: Examining The Relationship Between The Posthuman Gothic And Gender In American Gothic Fiction, Alexandra Rivera
Scripps Senior Theses
According to Michael Sean Bolton, the posthuman Gothic involves a fear of internal monsters that won't destroy humanity apocalyptically, but will instead redefine what it means to be human overall. These internal monsters reflect societal anxieties about the "other" gaining power and overtaking the current groups in power. The posthuman Gothic shows psychological horrors and transformations. Traditionally this genre has been used to theorize postmodern media and literary work by focusing on cyborgs and transhumanist medical advancements. However, the internal and psychological nature of posthumanism is fascinating and can more clearly manifest in a different Gothic setting, 1800s American Gothic …
Sleight Of Hand: Gender, Performance, And (In)Sincerity In E. D. E. N. Southworth’S The Hidden Hand, Samantha Martin
Sleight Of Hand: Gender, Performance, And (In)Sincerity In E. D. E. N. Southworth’S The Hidden Hand, Samantha Martin
Scripps Senior Theses
One of the many cultural anxieties that existed during the nineteenth century in antebellum America centered on the dubious status of authenticity of one’s emotions, gender expression, or socioeconomic class. The fluctuating socioeconomic landscape of antebellum America destabilized the logic of categorization, rendering it an ineffectual means by which to evaluate others’ identities. In her novel The Hidden Hand, or, Capitola the Madcap, E. D. E. N. Southworth explores instead of censures the transformative properties of the self, specifically in terms of gender and class. Her interest in this lack of authenticity, or transparency regarding one’s self and intentions, …
An American Myth In The (Re)Making: The Timeless Fantasy Appeal Of 'The King And I', Lina Purtscher
An American Myth In The (Re)Making: The Timeless Fantasy Appeal Of 'The King And I', Lina Purtscher
Scripps Senior Theses
It is now well-known that The King and I has little claim to truth. Recent research has exposed the inaccuracy of the “biographical” works on which the musical is based: Anna Leonowens invented many things about her personal background and experiences. Much of her life, then, is a contrived fantasy. Yet her life of fantasy has been resurrected in countless adaptations, including the 1951 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical and its 2015 revival production, that ceaselessly draw audiences. The fascination of American audiences with Anna’s tale lies their belief in the timeless American ideals that her fantasy employs: those of freedom …
Performativity And Domestic Fiction In Antebellum America: The Power Dynamics Of Class And Gender Performance, Blair Hedigan
Performativity And Domestic Fiction In Antebellum America: The Power Dynamics Of Class And Gender Performance, Blair Hedigan
Scripps Senior Theses
This thesis analyzes the role of performativity within the domestic novel during antebellum America; specifically, the ways in which E.D.E.N. Southworth’s The Hidden Hand and Louisa May Alcott’s Behind a Mask subverted cultural and societal norms by exploring the performative nature of class and gender. Through their respective protagonists, the two authors sought to question the power dynamics of an overwhelmingly patriarchal society. By granting their protagonists agency through performance, Southworth and Alcott explored the ways in which women might alter existing power structures to reject the restrictions gender essentialism placed upon antebellum women, and to advocate for women’s rights, …
Leonard Cohen's New Jews: A Consideration Of Western Mysticisms In Beautiful Losers, Alexander Lombardo
Leonard Cohen's New Jews: A Consideration Of Western Mysticisms In Beautiful Losers, Alexander Lombardo
CMC Senior Theses
This study examines the influence of various Western mystical traditions on Leonard Cohen’s second novel, Beautiful Losers. It begins with a discussion of Cohen’s public remarks concerning religion and mysticism followed by an assessment of twentieth century Canadian criticism on Beautiful Losers. Three thematic chapters comprise the majority of the study, each concerning a different mystical tradition—Kabbalism, Gnosticism, and Christian mysticism, respectively. The author considers Beautiful Losers in relation to these systems, concluding that the novel effectively depicts the pursuit of God, or knowledge, through mystic practice and doctrine. This study will interest scholars seeking a careful exploration …
Reader's Guide: A Foray Into Violence, Trauma And Masculinity In In Our Time, Sara-Rose Beatriz Bockian
Reader's Guide: A Foray Into Violence, Trauma And Masculinity In In Our Time, Sara-Rose Beatriz Bockian
CMC Senior Theses
Modernism has been called “a reaction to the carnage and disillusionment of the First World War and a search for a new mode of art that would rescue civilization from its state of crisis after the war” (Lewis, 109) Hemingway attempts this rescue by re-thinking aspects of the novel that were taken for granted in earlier periods, just as the conventions of modern life were taken for granted pre-WWI. Furthermore, his work tries to rectify the dissonance between a pre and post-war self through the exploration of social conventions relating to violence, trauma and masculinity.
Against The Pursuit Of 'Life's Delirium': Modern Queer Readings Of Kate Chopin's "The Awakening" And Fanny Fern's "Ruth Hall", Nina Posner
Scripps Senior Theses
This essay explores modern queer readings of The Awakening and Ruth Hall, with an emphasis on feeling, time, femininity, and maternity.
Shakespeare And Black Masculinity In Antebellum America: Slave Revolts And Construction Of Revolutionary Blackness, Elisabeth Mayer
Shakespeare And Black Masculinity In Antebellum America: Slave Revolts And Construction Of Revolutionary Blackness, Elisabeth Mayer
Scripps Senior Theses
This thesis explores how Shakespeare was used by Antebellum American writers to frame slave revolts as either criminal or revolutionary. By specifically addressing The Confessions of Nat Turner by Thomas R. Gray and "The Heroic Slave" by Frederick Douglass, this paper looks at the way invocations of Shakespeare framed depictions of black violence. At a moment when what it means to be American was questioned, American writers like Gray and Douglass turned to Shakespeare and the British roots of the English language in order to structure their respective arguments. In doing so, these texts illuminate how transatlantic identity still permeated …
Re-Calling The Past: Poetry As Preservation Of Black Female Histories, Rachel Miller-Haughton
Re-Calling The Past: Poetry As Preservation Of Black Female Histories, Rachel Miller-Haughton
Scripps Senior Theses
This paper discusses the poetry of Audre Lorde and Natasha Trethewey, and the ways in which they bring to attention the often-silenced histories of African American females. Through close readings of Lorde’s poems “Call” and “Coal,” and Trethewey’s “Three Photographs,” these histories are brought to the present with the framework of the words “call” and “re-call.” The paper explores the ways in which Lorde creates a new mythology for understanding her identity as “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet” in her innovative, intersectional feminist poetry. This is used as the framework for understanding modern poets like Trethewey, whose identity as a …
Salade Producto, Vincent J. Matsko
Salade Producto, Vincent J. Matsko
Journal of Humanistic Mathematics
Mathematics and food -- a timeless combination.... (This recipe is a humorous piece about elementary calculus.)
Poetic Labor: Meaning And Matter In Robert Frost's Poetry., Lina Pan
Poetic Labor: Meaning And Matter In Robert Frost's Poetry., Lina Pan
CMC Senior Theses
This thesis examines Frost’s conception of poetry as the labor of human value. It investigates how Frost consciously shaped his notions of “sound of sense” and metaphor, which he deemed fundamental elements of poetic labor, in contradistinction to the Modernist poetics of Eliot and Pound. The author closely examines a representative sample of Frost’s poetry and prose as critiques of Modernist poetic theory and its implications for what Frost deemed the essential human function of poetry. The thesis will interest scholars studying strains of English poetic thought that developed concurrently with and against Modernist poetic thought. More broadly, it will …
The Philosophy Of Ecology In John Steinbeck's The Grapes Of Wrath, Stephanie A. Steinbrecher
The Philosophy Of Ecology In John Steinbeck's The Grapes Of Wrath, Stephanie A. Steinbrecher
Scripps Senior Theses
This thesis explores the possibilities for ecocritical study in fiction through John Steinbeck’s 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath. Major ecocritical interpretation has yet to gain much traction in novels; by focusing on human nature, this form’s “anthropocentric” posture seems itself to be antithetical to ecocritical efforts, which aim to unseat humans as the center of the moral universe. However, by analyzing The Grapes of Wrath’s formal, narratorial, and thematic valences, I argue that principles of social justice concurrently imply environmental justice in the philosophical currents of the text. Tenets of deep ecology and Aldo Leopold’s “land ethic” …
Off The Road: Imperialism And Exploration In The American Road Movie, Andy Wright
Off The Road: Imperialism And Exploration In The American Road Movie, Andy Wright
Pitzer Senior Theses
This essay explores the imperialist nature of the American road movie as it is defined by the film’s era of release, specifically through the lens of how road movies abuse the lands that are travelled through. To accomplish this, my essay analyzes a classic road movie, Easy Rider, a more contemporary parody, Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, and the futuristic film, The Martian. All of these films treat everything that which is not the metropolitan traveller in a distinctly oppressive sense, and each time a new generation of filmmakers makes a road movie, it becomes …
Voices In Crisis: An Exploration Of Masculine Identity In Modernist Narratives, Amy Cannistraro
Voices In Crisis: An Exploration Of Masculine Identity In Modernist Narratives, Amy Cannistraro
Scripps Senior Theses
The period following World War I can be characterized in literature by the trauma and changes that promoted crises of masculinity. These crises, however, are not discussed between the men that suffer similar feelings of insecurity and anxiety; not approached as a tension in need of resolution. Exploring the narrative voices of Nick, Jake, Darl and Anse in The Great Gatsby, The Sun Also Rises, and As I Lay Dying, this thesis addresses the ways in which this unspoken phenomenon is essential to the modernist male narrative. I propose that, despite the widespread nature of this phenomenon, …
The Germ Theory Of Dystopias: Fears Of Human Nature In 1984 And Brave New World, Clea D. Harris
The Germ Theory Of Dystopias: Fears Of Human Nature In 1984 And Brave New World, Clea D. Harris
Scripps Senior Theses
This project is an exploration of 20th century dystopian literature through the lens of germ theory. This scientific principle, which emerged in the late 19th century, asserts that microorganisms pervade the world; these invisible and omnipresent germs cause specific diseases which are often life threatening. Additionally, germ theory states that vaccines and antiseptics can prevent some of these afflictions and that antibiotics can treat others. This concept of a pervasive, invisible, infection-causing other is not just a biological principle, though; in this paper, I argue that one can interpret it as an ideological framework for understanding human existence …
Hamlet #Princeofdenmark: Exploring Gender And Technology Through A Contemporary Feminist Re-Interpretation Of Hamlet, Allegra B. Breedlove
Hamlet #Princeofdenmark: Exploring Gender And Technology Through A Contemporary Feminist Re-Interpretation Of Hamlet, Allegra B. Breedlove
Scripps Senior Theses
Exploring the process of designing, producing, directing and starring in a multimedia feminist re-interpretation of Shakespeare's Hamlet set in a contemporary social media landscape.
Dark Journeys: Robert Frost's Dantean Inspiration, Elena Segarra
Dark Journeys: Robert Frost's Dantean Inspiration, Elena Segarra
CMC Senior Theses
This paper examines the way in which Robert Frost incorporates Dantean ideas and imagery into his poetry, particularly in relation to the pursuit of reason and truth. Similarly to Dante, Frost portrays human reason as limited. Both authors nevertheless present truth as a desire that often drives people’s journey through life. Frost differs from Dante by dwelling in apparent contradictions rather than appealing to a clarifying divine light. The paper considers themes of loss, human labor, suffering, and justice, and it also analyzes Scriptural and Platonic inspirations. It focuses on the image of the journey used by both Frost and …
“Of The Woman First Of All”: Walt Whitman And Women's Literary History, Vivian Delchamps
“Of The Woman First Of All”: Walt Whitman And Women's Literary History, Vivian Delchamps
Scripps Senior Theses
This thesis contemplates Walt Whitman's role in the lives of 19th and 20th century women writers and his significance to early American feminism. I consider the ways women inspired him to develop pro-feminist ideas about maternity, womanhood, and female liberation.
Annie Proulx's Wyoming: Subversive Storytelling From The Bunchgrass Edge Of The World, Elizabeth P. Tyson
Annie Proulx's Wyoming: Subversive Storytelling From The Bunchgrass Edge Of The World, Elizabeth P. Tyson
Scripps Senior Theses
Annie Proulx’s three Wyoming short story collections, Close Range, Bad Dirt, and Fine Just the Way It Is, tell regional stories that push against the myths surrounding the American West. Elements of Naturalism in her work reverse the paradigm of man’s dominance over the frontier. The cyclical nature of time in her stories shows the unfulfilling nature of nostalgia. She uses folk storytelling techniques to take an insider’s perspective and to utilize the subversive nature of dark humor.
Magical Me: Self-Insertion Fanfiction As Literary Critique, Melody Strmel
Magical Me: Self-Insertion Fanfiction As Literary Critique, Melody Strmel
Scripps Senior Theses
This thesis examines the traditions of textual interaction that impact the forms of reading engaged in with fanfiction. This thesis continues by exploring how self-insertion fanfiction functions as a medium through which authors express their reading of the text primary through the emotional impact of the text through wish fulfillment, and the interaction of their cultural moment and the text. Furthermore, it argues that self-insertion fanfiction is a mode of literary critique in which the author acknowledges the effect of a mediated world on their perception of self and reality. Through this recognition of a constructed self, the author rejects …
“It Made The Ladies Into Ghosts”: The Male Hero's Journey And The Destruction Of The Feminine In William Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom! And Toni Morrison's Song Of Solomon, Catherine Ruth Schetina
“It Made The Ladies Into Ghosts”: The Male Hero's Journey And The Destruction Of The Feminine In William Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom! And Toni Morrison's Song Of Solomon, Catherine Ruth Schetina
Scripps Senior Theses
This thesis is a consideration of the intertextual relationship between William Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom! and Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon. It considers the objectification and destruction of women and female-coded men in the service of the male protagonist's journey to selfhood, with particular focus on the construction of race, gender, and class performances.