Literature in English, British Isles Commons^™

A Little World In Ruins: Rosamond Vincy And The Insufficiency Of Performative Gender Roles In George Eliot’S Middlemarch, Allan Spencer

Global Tides

In George Eliot’s Middlemarch, Rosamond Vincy in many ways represents the conventional Victorian woman and takes on the limited roles that are permitted for women in her society. However, none of these proves sufficient to bestow upon Rosamond any sense of fulfillment or power, both of which she persistently desires and pursues throughout the novel. This essay explores these roles, specifically the “The Angel in the House,” who is exemplified in the poetry of Coventry Patmore, and the myth of the courtly lover, a symptom of the medievalism that was revived and romanticized in nineteenth-century England. Her performance as …

There And Back Again: The Epic Hero's Journey Through Gift-Giving, Emily J. Tomusko

The Downtown Review: An Interdisciplinary Journal Written and Peer-Reviewed by Mandel Honors College Students at Cleveland State University

Both The Hobbit and Beowulf have a place in the hearts of many readers across the world. In this article, we will discuss the concept of Anglo-Saxon gift-giving and the importance it played in the culture. This cultural norm was present in multiple forms of medieval literature, particularly in the epic poem mentioned above, Beowulf. I believe that this precedent of gift-giving was transmitted to the citizens of the culture as a form of “medieval propaganda” that encouraged the people to abide by said cultural norm, and expressed the punishment of failing to follow through. Furthermore, I believe that …

“He Was The Mirror Of The World”: Social Constructivist Reflections In Le Roman De Silence, Hillary O'Brien

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

This essay attempts to clarify the purpose of ambiguity and indecision within Heldris of Cornwall's Roman de Silence. Using the framework laid out by Judith Butler, it seeks to understand the way that the protagonist's performance of gender and class reflects the social context in which she lives.

Refiguring George Macdonald: Science And The Realist Novel, Karl Hoenzsch

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

This article analyzes George MacDonald’s realist novels. It looks at how David Elginbrod, Alec Forbes of Howglen, and Lilith engage with scientific discourse and epistemological concerns of the period. These scientific and epistemological dealings include a positive evaluation of evolution, a resistance to pseudoscience and Calvinism, an endorsement of non-dualism, and an analysis of scientific models and methods. The generic classification of Lilith as a realist novel with fantastical elements is discussed.

Temptation, Sin, And The Human Condition In Shakespeare's Macbeth, Maria Cusimano

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

William Shakespeare’s Macbeth is colored with religious overtones. His play incorporates elements of religious beliefs of Renaissance England. Aside from its historical basis, Shakespeare’s Macbeth alludes to stories from Scripture as well as Renaissance religious practices and beliefs, particularly regarding witchcraft, prophecy, and the dangers of sin. Through this myriad of sources, Shakespeare offers a vivid and grotesque depiction of a man demise due to his involvement with sin, offering a profound caution to his audience of the dangers of temptation and sin.

Erichtho’S Mouth: Persuasive Speaking, Sexuality And Magic, Lauren E. Devoe

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Since classical times, the witch has remained an eerie, powerful and foreboding figure in literature and drama. Often beautiful and alluring, like Circe, and just as often terrifying and aged, like Shakespeare’s Wyrd Sisters, the witch lives ever just outside the margins of polite society. In John Marston’s Sophonisba, or The Wonder of Women the witch’s ability to persuade through the use of language is Marston’s commentary on the power of poetry, theater and women’s speech in early modern Britain. Erichtho is the ultimate example of a terrifying woman who uses linguistic persuasion to change the course of nations. Throughout …

Examination, Exertion, And Exemplification: Wives Of Anglican Clergymen In Jane Austen’S Northanger Abbey, Sense And Sensibility, And Mansfield Park, Lauren K. Sauzer Dunn

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Jane Austen’s Anglicanism shaped her works, especially her novels Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, and Mansfield Park. Austen is didactic regarding the future of the clergy of the Church of England through the clergymen in these novels (Henry Tilney, Edward Ferrars, and Edmund Bertram, respectively), but her didacticism is clearest through these characters’ wives, Catherine Morland, Elinor Dashwood, and Fanny Price. Mansfield Park and the marriage of Edmund and Fanny are the most explicit exploration of Austen’s view of what was necessary for the future of the Church as it continued changing in the nineteenth century.

Re-Writing The Irish Gender Paradigm In Seamus Heaney’S "Oysters" And Eavan Boland's "How It Once Was In Our Country", Kristy Snow

Honors Program Theses and Projects

No abstract provided.

Targeting Nonconformity In Elizabethan England: Colonial Rhetoric As A Tool Of Religious Differentiation, John Corum

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Christopher Marlowe’ early modern plays were unequivocally controversial and often seen as testament to his presumed atheism. However, these assumptions focus on the depicted conflicts using religious terms, sometimes overlooking the geopolitical implications of the portrayed demographics. In this project, I argue Marlowe examines not only the religious institutions of early modern England, but also the moral compromises necessitated by England’s colonial endeavors. Through close readings of The Jew of Malta, Tamburlaine, and The Tragic History of Doctor Faustus as well as contributions from various scholarly perspectives, I conclude that Marlowe’s analysis critiques the treatment of religious minorities as …

Absolving The Sin: Redemptive Feminine Figures In Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Wife Of Bath's Prologue" And John Milton's Paradise Lost, Rory Griffiths

Theses and Dissertations

Geoffrey Chaucer and John Milton have been ceaselessly studied in isolation to one another, but undergraduate students must begin to study them in conjunction. Chaucer’s “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue” serves as social critique of medieval misogynist practices that allows students to study social practices as they study his language. Milton’s Eve in Paradise Lost reflects the religious and social instability that marked the Interregnum of the English Civil War, allowing Eve to embody the culture’s desire to return to a virtuous Church. Students will learn to examine the space of the authorial paradox, primarily the questions of authority that …

Performing Marriage In Shakespeare: The Tempest, Robert B. Pierce

Selected Papers of the Ohio Valley Shakespeare Conference

No abstract provided.

Shakespeare Disenchanted: From Chivalric Court To Elizabeth's And James I'S Courts, David George

Selected Papers of the Ohio Valley Shakespeare Conference

No abstract provided.

Commedia Dell’Arte Influences On Shakespearean Plays: The Tempest, Love’S Labor's Lost, And The Taming Of The Shrew, Amy Drake

Selected Papers of the Ohio Valley Shakespeare Conference

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

Selected Papers of the Ohio Valley Shakespeare Conference

No abstract provided.

“A Masque Is Treason’S Licence”: Masquing And Mockery In The Revenger’S Tragedy, Gabriel Rieger

Selected Papers of the Ohio Valley Shakespeare Conference

No abstract provided.

English National Identity In English Colonial And Imperial Literature And Undergraduate Publication Research, Megan A. Medeiros

Senior Honors Projects

This project is divided into two parts. The purpose of the first part was to construct, research and write a substantial historical thesis paper on a topic relevant to nationalism and national identity in Modern European history. The purpose of the second part was to research and explore the process of publishing a historical paper in an academic journal.

In reference to the first part of the project, the thesis paper concerns English national identity as represented by several renowned and well-read English authors in their works of literature. In doing so, the paper considers the characteristics, norms, and structures …

Shakespeare And Boyhood: Early Modern Representations And Contemporary Appropriations, Marvin Tyler Sasser

Dissertations

This dissertation demonstrates that Shakespearean boyhood, both in early modern plays and contemporary reimaginings for young readers, critiques patriarchal and hegemonic ideals through the rhetoric and behavior of boy characters. Although critics have called Shakespeare’s boy characters indistinguishable, I find that they provide Shakespeare a unique resource to offer persuasive skepticism about heroic conventions, education, and political instability. This project begins by examining the lexical network of boy in order to chart its uses in early modern England. The subsequent three chapters establish how Shakespeare uses boys to comment on a range of ideal manhoods, such as the chivalrous …

“The Bedroom And The Barnyard: Zoomorphic Lust Through Territory, Procedure, And Shelter In ‘The Miller’S Tale’” & Haunchebones, Danielle N. Byington

Undergraduate Honors Theses

“The Bedroom and the Barnyard: Zoomorphic Lust Through Territory, Procedure, and Shelter in ‘The Miller’s Tale’” is an academic endeavor that takes Chaucer’s zoomorphic metaphors and similes and analyzes them in a sense that reveals the chaos of what is human and what is animal tendency. The academic work is expressed in the adjunct creative project, Haunchebones, a 10-minute drama that echoes the tale and its zoomorphic influences, while presenting the content in a stylized play influenced by Theatre of the Absurd and artwork from the medieval and early renaissance period.

Magic And Femininity As Power In Medieval Literature, Anna Mcgill

Undergraduate Honors Theses

It is undeniable that literature reflects much about the society that produces it. The give-and-take relationship between a society and its literature is especially interesting when medieval texts are considered. Because most medieval plots and characters are variants of existing stories, the ways that the portrayals change has the potential to reveal much about the differences between medieval societies separated by distance and time. Changes to the treatment of these recurring characters and their stories can reveal how the attitudes of medieval society changed over time. Perceptions of magic and attitudes toward its female practitioners, both real and fictional, changed …

Shifting Identity/Shifting Discourse: Re‐Naming In Contemporary Literature By Zadie Smith, Jeffrey Eugenides, And Salman Rushdie, Jennifer Krengel

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

Re­‐naming one’s self is an empowering act of self­‐definition; re­‐naming others is an attempt to codify, contain and censure identity. Re­‐naming emerges as a compelling theme in contemporary transnational literature, appearing in three notable texts: Zadie Smith's White Teeth (2000), Jeffrey Eugenides' Middlesex (2002) and Salman Rushdie's memoir Joseph Anton (2012). These texts depict stories of diaspora, the forced migration or dispersal away from a homeland. Communities of diaspora negotiate between two cultures: an originary culture and the culture of the new geographic location. From these negotiations emerge a third, hybridized identity that reimagines the majority culture and challenges structural …