James Baldwin's Classroom And What He Can Teach Educators About Queer Representation, 2025 Murray State University
James Baldwin's Classroom And What He Can Teach Educators About Queer Representation, Matthew Callahan
Honors College Theses
This is an extended analysis of James Baldwin's "A Talk to Teachers" about how to bring representation into the classroom. I use Baldwin's other essays and fiction along with educational research to look into the way Baldwin understands education and the importance of bringing healthy queer representation into the classroom. I provide both theoretical observations along with practical implications of what this means for educators in the classroom and what they can do to help all their students feel seen, represented, and welcome in the classroom.
Project Maplemon: Peeling Back The Secrets Of Queer Writing Through Stylometric Demographic Identification, 2024 The Graduate Center, City University of New York
Project Maplemon: Peeling Back The Secrets Of Queer Writing Through Stylometric Demographic Identification, Theodore D. Manning
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Project MapLemon is a corpus for stylometric demographic identification of 54,000+ words across 345 participants, originally created to obtain a baseline corpus for linguistic variation among North American English speakers. The corpus contains responses from 30 linguistic backgrounds, and 40 US states and 6+ Canadian provinces. Project MapLemon has innovated a new method for data collection for linguistic variants in the natural, digital written word. Project MapLemon utilizes a hand-drawn map and asks the participant to give directions via this map, as well as asking participants for a recipe for lemonade. In addition to its novel collection methods, MapLemon contains …
Beyond Me: Class, Sexuality, And The Work Of The Autobiographical Fragments Of Audre Lorde, Dorothy Allison, And Eileen Myles, 2024 The Graduate Center, City University of New York
Beyond Me: Class, Sexuality, And The Work Of The Autobiographical Fragments Of Audre Lorde, Dorothy Allison, And Eileen Myles, Erin E. Heiser
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
This dissertation looks at what I am calling the “autobiographical fragments” of three working-class, lesbian (or queer) authors: Audre Lorde, Dorothy Allison, and Eileen Myles whose writing is stylistically quite different from one another’s, but who nonetheless have all produced bodies of work that represent bits of their lives over and over and in different ways, sometimes overlapping in time and narrative detail. While there are certainly other writers whose work shares many of the same characteristics, I argue that the autobiographical fragment has special significance for marginalized subjects. Woven throughout the dissertation are many of my own autobiographical fragments …
The Redemption Of History: Poetics And Politics In The Modern Epic, 2024 The Graduate Center, City University of New York
The Redemption Of History: Poetics And Politics In The Modern Epic, Giacomo R. Bianchino
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
This dissertation, “The Redemption of History: Poetics and Politics in the Modern Epic.” provides a materialist theory of the modern epic, focusing on the way that the poets deployed this form towards political ends. Building on theories of the epic going back to the German Romantics, it argues that the modern form is predicated on the idea that it has departed from the conditions that made the ancient form possible. It examines the way that writers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century developed the idea that the immediacy of the social “totality” expressed by the ancient epopee was …
Defying Normativity: Reclaiming A Narrative Of Queer Resistance In Young Adult Literature, 2024 The Graduate Center, City University of New York
Defying Normativity: Reclaiming A Narrative Of Queer Resistance In Young Adult Literature, Christopher Morabito
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
At the heart of this dissertation lies a single question: how Queer is Queer Young Adult Literature? As many scholars have argued, Queerness is, in many ways, a literacy, and literature is one of the greatest sponsors of Queer Literacy. While there is certainly no one comprehensive definition of what it means to be queer, it is also true that the general understanding of queerness has changed quite drastically in the last few decades. What was once used as a term to describe someone who is outside of social conventions has slowly begun to lose its sense of “otherness,” and …
The Criterion (2024), 2024 College of the Holy Cross
Milton’S Exploration Of The Demonic Consciousness, 2024 College of the Holy Cross
Milton’S Exploration Of The Demonic Consciousness, Niall Mckenna
The Criterion
No abstract provided.
The Configuration Of Society In "The Dispossessed" And "Blindness", 2024 College of the Holy Cross
The Configuration Of Society In "The Dispossessed" And "Blindness", Patrick Ryan
The Criterion
In both Ursula K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed and José Saramago’s Blindness, character’s are posited into scenarios where the structure of society is either foreign, dilapidated, or outright missing. This essay aims to rationalize why the authors arranged their respective worlds this way, and illuminate points of comparison and contrast between the two works. To achieve this goal, this essay specifically analyzes the types of societies seen within the two novels, and what role individual characters have in shaping them. Additionally, through a supplementary examination of related secondary sources, this essay hopes to answer fundamental questions about the portrayal …
Language And The Lord Of The Rings: The Expansion Of A Universe, 2024 College of the Holy Cross
Language And The Lord Of The Rings: The Expansion Of A Universe, Thomas Beutz
The Criterion
Tommy Beutz’s essay, “Language and The Lord of the Rings: The Expansion of a Universe” explores J.R.R. Tolkien’s world-building through the lens of linguistics. Beutz argues that Tolkien’s creation of Middle-Earth, anchored in his invented languages, extends beyond the bounds of the text. Drawing on Tolkien’s background as a philologist, Beutz contends that the languages of Middle-Earth are not mere literary devices but rather the foundation of its entire mythology. By examining linguistic markers embedded in the primary text, Beutz reveals how Tolkien hints at a larger world outside the narrative. Through an analysis of historical accounts and characters’ …
The Facade Of Names In Benjamin Clark’S “The Emigrant”, 2024 College of the Holy Cross
The Facade Of Names In Benjamin Clark’S “The Emigrant”, Brad Donegan
The Criterion
No abstract provided.
Downfall To Friendliness?: Analyzing Common Tropes In The Boy Who Loved Too Much, 2024 College of the Holy Cross
Downfall To Friendliness?: Analyzing Common Tropes In The Boy Who Loved Too Much, Heather Paglia
The Criterion
One of the most commonly held misconceptions regarding the disabled population is that living with any disability automatically decreases the quality of life. It is assumed that any deviation from society’s established norm for the perfect brain and body must be a burden. Both the physical and social implications associated with disability have forged in the minds of many the idea that a disabled life could not possibly be a good life. This overarching negativity, however, is turned on its head when considering Williams Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder more accurately described as happy syndrome. This so-called disability is not …
Eliot’S Raid On The Ineffable, 2024 College of the Holy Cross
Eliot’S Raid On The Ineffable, Louie Alexandris
The Criterion
In the poem Four Quartets, T.S Eliot employs a fragmentary form to dramatize the disjointed continuity of time. Within the poem though, the fluctuation or fragmentation of the form is also in service to the whole by showing the unending exploration of man to reach the “still point” of divine contemplation. For Eliot, the fragmentary nature of the form in Four Quartets is in service to the whole, because the continual fluctuation of musicality embodies a journey or exploration for the “still point” of the world to achieve true contemplation. In that sense, Eliot’s poem is an artistic success, …
“No Friend Like A Sister”: Christina Rossetti’S Fantastic Departure From Pre-Raphaelite Poetics And Art In “Goblin Market”, 2024 College of the Holy Cross
“No Friend Like A Sister”: Christina Rossetti’S Fantastic Departure From Pre-Raphaelite Poetics And Art In “Goblin Market”, Anna M. Lee
The Criterion
Christina Rossetti’s poetics and artistic vision in her seminal poem, “Goblin Market,” have yielded a range of critical theories, from positions on sisterhood to the ambiguous position of capitalist markets. While considering the socioeconomic and cultural context behind the poem’s development and resonance among contemporary feminist movements, readers also ought to consider the actual “goblin brotherhood” — the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB) — behind Rossetti’s authorial ventures. This paper argues that Rossetti’s fantastical methods draw influence from and participate in the PRB’s poetics and artistic traditions, while subverting the same conventions within a feminist paradigm. Rossetti not only envisions a homosocial …
The Search For Worth: How Relationship Conflicts Reveal The Universal Nature Of Insecurity, 2024 College of the Holy Cross
The Search For Worth: How Relationship Conflicts Reveal The Universal Nature Of Insecurity, Grace C. Conroy
The Criterion
Since the beginning of time, romantic relationships and their dynamics have taken center stage in media--whether in books, plays, or other forms of literature. In this essay, a comparison of couples' relationships in James Joyce's "The Dead" and Marina Carr's play "The Mai" reveals the core human element of insecurity, prevalent in moments of marital conflict.
Moving “Passed” Life For Death, 2024 College of the Holy Cross
Moving “Passed” Life For Death, Gwyneth Morrissey
The Criterion
The paper Moving “Passed” Life for Death explores Emily Dickinson's poem #479, "Because I could not stop for Death," focusing on the theme of movement expressed through the word "passed." It analyzes the contradictory qualities of movement and stopping and how they interplay. At the same time, it looks into how the poem's periodic stopping points highlight the natural cycle of life and death, challenging the conventional and fearful understanding of dying. Dickinson's use of "passed" ultimately alludes to the persistence of life after death, altering readers' perceptions of mortality. The essay presents an intriguing interpretation of life, death, and …
Mythos And Meaning: Medieval Appropriations Of Mythological Types In The Consolation Of Philosophy And Later Western Literatures, 2024 Seton Hall University
Mythos And Meaning: Medieval Appropriations Of Mythological Types In The Consolation Of Philosophy And Later Western Literatures, Francis J. Hunter
Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)
Often referred to as the last Roman and first medieval, Boethius, author of The Consolation of Philosophy, has been widely received as an unoriginal philosopher who sought to preserve Platonic thought as the Western Roman Empire fell. However, this essay features an investigation into the literary originality of Boethius who initiates a line of Christian and Platonic literatures to follow in the medieval European tradition. Boethius demonstrates himself to be a poet who makes great use of philosophy rather than as a philosopher writing poetry. Boethius’ poetic influence is felt most strongly in major aspects of Dante’s Divine Comedy and …
Fallen Creator And Failed Christ: An Exploration Of Religious Imagery And Metafiction In Ian Mcewan’S Atonement, 2024 University of Mary Washington
Fallen Creator And Failed Christ: An Exploration Of Religious Imagery And Metafiction In Ian Mcewan’S Atonement, Tabitha Robinson
Student Research Submissions
This paper examines the religious imagery in Atonement by Ian McEwan through a close reading of the structure and main characters Briony, Cecilia and Robbie. The novel is deeply concerned with questions of sin and redemption, which intersect with religious symbolism and metafiction to create the story. This paper reads Briony as both a creator god and a failed Christ figure and Cecilia and Robbie as Adam and Eve characters, showing the text’s self-awareness through its use of narrative to create meaning. It argues that the field of religious studies offers many theories and terms that enrich the field of …
Exploring Fragmentation In Ali Smith’S Autumn, 2024 University of Mary Washington
Exploring Fragmentation In Ali Smith’S Autumn, Emily Koberlein
Student Research Submissions
This paper seeks to explore the effect of fragmentation in Ali Smith’s Autumn. Through examination of academic literature that compares traditional fragmentation utilized in modernist literature to the effects of fragmentation and its reappearance in contemporary literature, this essay seeks to examine the effects, implications, and practice of using fragmentation in contemporary work. As seen in Autumn, the fragmented nature of contemporary works functions as a method of consistency rather than to create a disconnect between the author and their text. The use of fragmentation is seen in this text’s structure, the relationship of its main characters, and the disjointed …
With Love, ; An Interdisciplinary And Intersectional Look At Why Creativity Is Essential, 2024 Whittier College
With Love, ; An Interdisciplinary And Intersectional Look At Why Creativity Is Essential, Theo Starr Gardner
Whittier Scholars Program
My Whittier Scholars Program self-designed major, Teaching Creativity, is a mixture of Art, Literature, and Education classes. My research and praxis classes have been focused on the ‘how?’s and 'why?’s of creativity, so it felt only right that my project should be a constructivist, generative project. The project I have been working on throughout my time at Whittier, and that has just fully come to fruition on April 11th, 2024, was a solo art gallery/open mic event entitled ‘With Love,’. With Love, was conceptually inspired by the research I’ve conducted on creativity and creative arts education over the past few …
Diaspora And Identity In Jhumpa Lahiri's Unaccustomed Earth, 2024 University of Mary Washington
Diaspora And Identity In Jhumpa Lahiri's Unaccustomed Earth, Riley Prater
Student Research Submissions
My paper, entitled “Identity and Diaspora in Jhumpa Lahiri’s Unaccustomed Earth” was written for and approved by Dr. Haffey in her 21st Century Fiction (449U) seminar class. The paper explores the complex relationship between first generation Bengali American characters and their identities in the wake of diaspora. This paper shows that Lahiri works to create a kind of liminal space in which her first generation characters exist - a space between being both Bengali and American. Lahiri does so through exploring family relationships, culture, and the pull between heritage and assimilation in order to highlight a new culture of existing …