The Wheel Of Fire: An Obsessive-Compulsive Reading Of Frodo Baggins,
2025
Misty Mountains (Utah) Smial of the Tolkien Society
The Wheel Of Fire: An Obsessive-Compulsive Reading Of Frodo Baggins, Andreas J.W. Minshew
Journal of Tolkien Research
Although addiction has been the main psychological framework for understanding the Ring’s influence, it does not fully capture Frodo’s inner conflict. This paper argues that an obsessive-compulsive reading accounts for his ego-dystonic relationship with the Ring and his lack of an initial period of using it for pleasure, both of which differentiate his experience from other Ringbearers. This reading, rather than in opposition to addictive or post-traumatic frameworks, can coexist with both to bring added nuance to how readers and scholars understand Frodo’s experience.
"You Know The Rules": A Dramatic Experiment In Aromantic Literary Theory,
2025
Clark University
"You Know The Rules": A Dramatic Experiment In Aromantic Literary Theory, April Chronowski
English
This paper proposes a new literary theory framework based on the zine "an aromantic manifesto" by yingchen and yingtong, as well as the work of Erving Goffman, using theater as a device to examine romantic relationships. Blending English and sociology, I focus each chapter on a different literary period and examine two plays each: early modern (Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus and William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing), modern (Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Djuna Barnes' "To The Dogs"), and contemporary (Caryl Churchill's Cloud 9 and Margaret Edson's W;t). In tandem with analysis of formal elements---like …
False Virtues And Fragile Honor: The Weight Of Reputation In Shakespeare’S Works,
2025
CUNY Hunter College
False Virtues And Fragile Honor: The Weight Of Reputation In Shakespeare’S Works, Amanda Sheps
Theses and Dissertations
"False Virtues and Fragile Honor: The Weight of Reputation in Shakespeare’s Works" analyzes the intersection between honor and social standing in William Shakespeare's Othello and Much Ado About Nothing, specifically in regards to the gender roles prevalent in the plays' societies. In both plays, women who are perceived as a threat to the prevailing norms of society are ostracized, ridiculed, and may even face violence at the hands of their male love interests. The innocence of Desdemona and Hero, however, calls into question the validity of this cruel treatment. These negative reactions reflect the pressure that men have to preserve …
“More Than What [They] Made Us To Be”: From Passing To Perception In Victorian And Modern Vampire Media,
2025
Chapman University
“More Than What [They] Made Us To Be”: From Passing To Perception In Victorian And Modern Vampire Media, Lauren Sieberg
English (MA) Theses
Throughout Victorian Gothic horror fiction, vampires function as deviant figures, maneuvering within social confines of passing until their status quo-threatening identity is exposed. Of the popular vampires from this period, most gradually fail to maintain status as social insiders—as demonstrated with Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula or Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla, who possess the temporary capacity to pass until their hidden monstrosity is revealed over time. Even if Gothic monsters are confined to a limited space and time far from society, this is still not enough; in accordance with the Victorian culture of morality policing by dominant groups, the vampiric Other …
The Robert Burns Portraits Revisited,
2025
University of South Carolina - Columbia
The Robert Burns Portraits Revisited, Patrick Scott
Faculty Publications
Illustrated lecture for the 2025 annual meeting of the Robert Burns Association of North America, in Atlanta, Georgia, on the major portraits of the Scottish poet Robert Burns (1759-1796), and on the dissemination of the well-known Nasmyth portrait through engravings, copies, and adaptations, charting the delayed emergence of the other portraits now generally recognized, surveying recurrent efforts to get other 'discoveries' accepted as depicting Burns, and suggesting possible dramatic further news likely to come later in the year.
Rinceaux: Authority And Botanical Transcendance In Medieval Authorship,
2025
University of Rhode Island
Rinceaux: Authority And Botanical Transcendance In Medieval Authorship, Kyle J. Gunning
Senior Honors Projects
“Rinceaux: Authority and Botanical Transcendence in Medieval Authorship” is a research paper I composed which followed a semester of research that sought to explore various constructions of authorship throughout the late-medieval period. My research considered the field of Chaucer Studies as its main subject, making central the ways in which methodologies such as paleography, codicology, and literary analysis can provide different contexts with which we may understand late-medieval writing and authorship. Throughout the research period I consulted scholarship from a variety of disciplines, analyzed digital manuscript facsimiles, compared textual variations in manuscript transliterations, and studied modern printed editions of medieval …
The Castle Is Still Here, And Yes, It's Still Scary: Reconstructing The Gothic Through Contemporary Short Story,
2025
Bellarmine University
The Castle Is Still Here, And Yes, It's Still Scary: Reconstructing The Gothic Through Contemporary Short Story, Alyssa Kilroy
Undergraduate Theses
Since Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto published in 1764, the literary Gothic has grown and spread to include a multitude of subgenres in a variety of formats. Gothic literature has served as both a product and a showcase of its contextual influences, providing a deeper look at humanity's deepest flaws, fears, and passions that shape our societies. While the Gothic's historically fluid identity allows Frankenstein to exist in a literary realm alongside Wuthering Heights, something consistent in its core continues to appeal to modern audiences and remains relevant in contemporary literature and other media. This project offers a …
Double, Double, Toils And Troubles: Analyzing The “Magical” Relationships Between University Leaders’ Personality Traits And Their Self-Efficacy In Leadership Situations,
2025
University of New Orleans
Double, Double, Toils And Troubles: Analyzing The “Magical” Relationships Between University Leaders’ Personality Traits And Their Self-Efficacy In Leadership Situations, Fay Ludvine Boudreaux
LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations
This present study investigated the relationship between higher education leaders’ personality traits and their self-efficacy in leadership situations. A total of 151 leaders employed across the nine institutions within the University of Louisiana System completed a survey that prompted them to identify their personal values, traits, and skill sets, as derived from the online Pottermore quiz, the official Harry Potter Hogwarts House sorting instrument. This niche personality metric was chosen to cater to higher education’s evolving landscape, as it welcomes an influx of Millennials into leadership positions. Participants’ responses were eventually recoded to “sort” them into their respective Houses: Gryffindor, …
Divergent Paths Of Homosexuality: Clive And Alec In E.M. Forster's Maurice,
2025
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Divergent Paths Of Homosexuality: Clive And Alec In E.M. Forster's Maurice, Samantha J. Dean
Honors Theses
E. M. Forster’s Maurice is a paramount text in queer literary circles, though it is highly under analyzed and discussed. This thesis analyzes E. M. Forster's Maurice and takes the focus away from the main protagonist, Maurice, and instead focuses on an in-depth analysis of the two main love interests of the novel, Clive and Alec, and how they represent two paths of homosexuality, Clive representing social visibility and homosexual repression and Alec representing social invisibility and homosexual freedom, through a close reading of the text, with the help of theory from Foucault. It begins with an introduction to the …
Sisterly Bonds Beyond The Grave: The Ethical Implications Of Posthumously Publishing Jane Austen’S Persuasion,
2025
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Sisterly Bonds Beyond The Grave: The Ethical Implications Of Posthumously Publishing Jane Austen’S Persuasion, Ashleigh Jay
Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)
By the time that Jane Austen died in 1817, she had only published four novels. After her death, her family retained her other writings. Later that year, they published one of Austen’s finished manuscripts which became the novel Persuasion. This act of posthumous publication invokes inquiries into whether the action was ethical. In order to better understand the ethics of publishing Persuasion posthumously, one can look at information from Jane Austen’s life and ideas around posthumous actions. Even though Persuasion by Jane Austen was published posthumously, Austen’s choice to leave the manuscript with her sister and her completion of …
“The Atmosphere That Supports Life On Earth”: An Ecocritical Approach To Tolkien’S Arda,
2025
Seton Hall University
“The Atmosphere That Supports Life On Earth”: An Ecocritical Approach To Tolkien’S Arda, Elizabeth Anne Turello
Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)
Ecocriticism speaks to the relationship between the environment and literature, a progressively vital topic of discussion. What is often overlooked, however, is the necessity of the theory’s applicability to stories of speculative fiction; that is, ones existing outside the realm of the real world or, as is the case with the father of modern-day fantasy J.R.R. Tolkien, a mythology set in the ancient days of our world (“Arda”). At first, it may seem contradictory to learn about our surroundings through fictionalized ones seemingly irrelevant to Earth’s own; this apparent contradiction is not valid, though, as the relationship between humans and …
“His Better Half”: Hindley And Heathcliff As Social Foils In Emily Brontë’S Wuthering Heights,
2025
University of Northern Iowa
“His Better Half”: Hindley And Heathcliff As Social Foils In Emily Brontë’S Wuthering Heights, Bethany Rozario Steinhagen
The Compass
Critical analyses of Emily Bronte’s Victorian classic Wuthering Heights often portray Hindley Earnshaw, Catherine’s older brother, as a mere analog to the Brontes’ own older brother Branwell. This paper claims that Hindley’s character is not only far more developed than commonly assumed, but that he is also integral to the development of Heathcliff becoming Heathcliff himself. Both men’s journeys can further be seen as parallel methods of navigating rigid Victorian social expectations. This analysis explores the foil relationship between these two men, who can both be described as each other’s ‘better half,’ shining a new light not only on the …
"To Keep Men In Awe": Religious Subversion And Anti-Providentialism In Marlowe's Tamburlaine And The Jew Of Malta,
2025
Mississippi State University
"To Keep Men In Awe": Religious Subversion And Anti-Providentialism In Marlowe's Tamburlaine And The Jew Of Malta, Will White
Honors Theses
In early modern England, the term “atheist” held quite a different meaning from its modern usage. Most often, it referred not to person who rejected God’s existence, but who rejected the validity of divine providence: the notion that God exerts control and order over the events of Earth. This understanding of atheism informs the reading of the 16th century playwright Christopher Marlowe, whose connection to atheistic ideas is perhaps more visible than any of his contemporaries. In this thesis, I argue that the unifying element of religion in Marlowe’s drama is anti-providentialism – a rejection of providence. I examine two …
J.R.R. Tolkien In Central Europe: Context, Directions, And The Legacy (2023), Edited By Janka Kaščáková And David Levente Palatinus,
2025
Valparaiso University
J.R.R. Tolkien In Central Europe: Context, Directions, And The Legacy (2023), Edited By Janka Kaščáková And David Levente Palatinus, Andrew Higgins
Journal of Tolkien Research
Book review, by Andrew Higgins, of J.R.R. Tolkien in Central Europe: Context, Directions, and the Legacy (2023), edited by Janka Kaščáková and David Levente Palatinus
Fantasy And Faith: Lewis And Tolkien On Magic In Fantastical Literature,
2025
Liberty University
Fantasy And Faith: Lewis And Tolkien On Magic In Fantastical Literature, Zion Lang
Senior Honors Theses
Despite biblical warnings against the occult, Christian authors C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien incorporated many kinds of magic into their works of fantasy. These authors had an orthodox view of the occult, but they also believed that fantasy magic differs from the esoteric: its purpose is imaginative, rather than power-seeking, and it is usually part of the imagined laws of the fantasy world. Lewis focused on the mythic side of fantasy and included more ambiguous magic. Tolkien focused on fantasy as eucatastrophic fairy tale, and his works include somewhat divine supernatural forces. Nonetheless, both authors saw fantasy …
Mimetic Theory & Middle-Earth: Untangling Desire In Tolkien’S Legendarium By Matthew J. Distefano,
2025
Hope College
Mimetic Theory & Middle-Earth: Untangling Desire In Tolkien’S Legendarium By Matthew J. Distefano, Curtis Gruenler
Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature
Matthew Distefano’s friendly volume extends considerably the conversation about resonances between two twentieth-century literary giants, J. R. R. Tolkien and René Girard. Distefano not only clarifies essential aspects of Tolkien’s work by reading it through the lens of Girard’s mimetic theory but also, through his particular interest in how Hobbits provide models of positive mimetic desire, highlights, extends, and one might even say enacts aspects of Girard’s theory that are easily overlooked.
The Liberty To Bind Oneself: Chesterton And The Oath Of Fëanor,
2025
Ave Maria University
The Liberty To Bind Oneself: Chesterton And The Oath Of Fëanor, Matthew Mckenna
Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature
This paper does two things. First, it reads the oath of Fëanor in The Silmarillion through the lens of Chesterton’s philosophy of oaths, and suggests that Tolkien was speculatively influenced by Chesterton on this topic. It accomplishes this by an exposition of Chesterton’s philosophy of vows followed by an in-depth exposition of the oath of Fëanor throughout The Silmarillion. Its thesis is that the oath of Fëanor works according to the mode of Chesterton’s philosophy of oaths, that is, the oath compels the oath-taker to act. Viewing the oath of Fëanor through the framework of Chesterton’s philosophy of oath …
Tolkien, Tabletop, And Orcs: The Impact Of Participatory Neomedievalisms On Authority,
2025
Arkansas Tech University
Tolkien, Tabletop, And Orcs: The Impact Of Participatory Neomedievalisms On Authority, Tyler Bell
ATU Theses and Dissertations 2021 - Present
Different medieval and fantasy works have utilized race in different ways. Medieval Europe used race as a structural relationship to morally and religiously other certain people groups. J.R.R. Tolkien used race in a similar way, othering the fantasy races like orcs as a way to give the audiences clear antagonists. Direct film and video game adaptations of Tolkien uphold him as the authority on fantasy race, using orcs as antagonists and glorifying violence against them. The table-top role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons initially held up the antagonistic portrayal of orcs, but through different editions, the restrictions placed on orcs have …
What Is A Nation? Colonial Legacies, Identity, And Reclaiming In Métisse Autobiographical Narratives – A Case Study Of Sugar And Slate And Garçon Manqué,
2025
University of New Mexico
What Is A Nation? Colonial Legacies, Identity, And Reclaiming In Métisse Autobiographical Narratives – A Case Study Of Sugar And Slate And Garçon Manqué, Thaïs Maëlle Autin
Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs
This thesis examines the question of national belonging in autobiographical narratives of second-generation immigrant métisse women. I study the similar aesthetic manner in which individuals with different regional and cultural influences grapple with concepts of identity, gender, racism, exile, and negotiation, and the way in which the authors anchor themselves in a broader familial and national heritage. I argue that such an enterprise can be understood as part of the alternative heritage wave, based on Andrew Higson’s theory. The texts put in question traditional understandings of nation. Doing so opens the possibility of engaging in a dialogue that expands the …
Evelyn Waugh And The Problems Of Representing Conversion,
2025
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Evelyn Waugh And The Problems Of Representing Conversion, Alec J. Miller
Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research
Evelyn Waugh’s conversion to Catholicism in 1930 raised the question of how his writing would change. The satires he wrote before his conversion, Decline and Fall (1928) and Vile Bodies (1930), are hilarious but have no spiritual vision. Critics attacked his second novel after his conversion, A Handful of Dust (1934), for not being fitting for a Catholic writer to have made. Yet, Waugh makes a religious point in A Handful of Dust, exploring the wages of spiritual apathy without showing a path out. Later in Waugh’s career, he makes his finest attempt in the Sword of Honour trilogy …
