Literature in English, North America, Ethnic and Cultural Minority Commons^™

Introduction: Concise Collection On Teaching The Works Of Phillis Wheatley Peters, Part Ii, Mona Narain, Sarah Ruffing Robbins

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

This short essay introduces part two of a two-part Concise Collections special issue on teaching Phillis Wheatley Peters. It discusses how the life and works of the poet can be taught in various educational settings.

Mad Or Uncontrollable? Reading Female Madness In Three Gothic Texts, Amy Marie Bueno

Dissertations and Theses

My thesis employs comparative close reading framed by disability studies to analyze representations of female madness in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea, and Isabel Allende’s “If You Touched My Heart.” Drawing on theories of socially constructed disability, it argues that Bertha, Antoinette, and Hortensia are framed as “mad women” not through inherent pathology, but through patriarchal violence, colonial domination, and institutional power. By integrating the social model of disability with feminist theory, this thesis examines how women are rendered disabled within societies influenced by Social Darwinism and eugenic ideologies.

This thesis further incorporates Gothic theory and …

Children Past Curfew: Surveillance, Resistance, And Childhood In Philippine Martial Law Children's Literature, Krisna Marie T. Balolong

Children's Literature (MA) Theses

This paper examines how two Philippine children's books depict state surveillance and its effects on a child's perspective of family, authority figures, and childhood. Through analysis of Augie Rivera's Isang Harding Papel and Sandra Nicole Roldan's At the School Gate, this project makes a connection between children's literature and surveillance studies, offering new framework to engage with children’s literature depicting authoritarian regimes and state violence, especially in cases where children were targets of their governments. Each book is examined by their representations of state surveillance during the Martial Law era of the Philippines, as well as each characters’ individual …

Pecan Grove Review Volume 23, St. Mary's University

Pecan Grove Review

Creative writings by students, faculty, and staff of the St. Mary's University community.

Portal To The Possible: Naming The Liberatory Classroom Applications Within Afrofuturist And Queer-Futurist Ya Literature, Westley Wrenn Cardani

English Honors Papers

This thesis is an intertwining of disciplines and chronologies. Using English and educational theories, I employ thematic literary analysis, close readings, and lesson plan design to answer the following question: How do works of Afrofuturist and queer-futurist Young Adult literature present us with liberatory possibilities, and how can those stories be effectively pedagogically employed in classrooms to cultivate ‘future imaginings’? In this work, although it pertains to all students, I am especially concerned with the capacity of Black, Brown, queer, and trans* students to dream and construct futures given the operations of systems of oppression which attempt to tell them …

Displacement And Belonging: The Search For Identity Through Latina Literature, Noelia A. Alvarado Torres

Literary and Intercultural Studies | Senior Theses

How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez and Infinite Country by Patricia Engel are two novels that highlight the Latino search for identity and belonging in the United States.  The characters in these books navigate adolescence and adulthood in the face of displacement, each illustrating how history, culture, and society interfere with the search for one’s self. They also highlight the multicultural experience of being shaped by different spaces that at times contradict one another. Furthermore, these books, written by women and with women at the center, bring forth a voice that often gets left out in …

Borrowed Mantles: Neoclassicism, Theology, And The Construction Of Authority In Phillis Wheatley-Peters, Zoe N. Lament

Honors Theses

This thesis examines how Phillis Wheatley-Peters established literary and intellectual authority within an eighteenth-century world that questioned both her authorship and her intellectual capability as an enslaved Black woman. Rather than focusing on the external validation provided by the prefatory materials to Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773), this study argues that Wheatley-Peters constructs authority through the poetry itself. Specifically, it explores how her use of neoclassical poetic conventions alongside Christian theological language functions to establish credibility and strengthen her moral and intellectual arguments.

Through close readings of poems including "On Being Brought from Africa to America" and …

Modernism’S Wild Child: The Interplay Of Modernist And Children’S Literature, Rachel Riffel

All Master's Theses

Within literary criticism, American and British modernism are often characterized by the disillusioned writers and creators who established an elitist literary community during the early 20^th century. This period is also distinguished by the Harlem Renaissance highlighting Black art, culture, and writing. Gertrude Stein, T. S. Eliot, Langston Hughes and Arna Bontemps are well-known for contributing core texts to modernism and the Harlem Renaissance that expressed existential themes and developed experimental techniques. What many readers don’t know, however, is that these authors and many other contemporaries wrote stories and poetry for children. In this thesis, I explore the children’s …

Resistance And Innovation: The Cultural Work Of Popular Romance Novels, Chelsee M. Niebergall

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

Popular romance fiction is the highest-grossing genre in contemporary publishing, yet it remains one of the least examined in academic scholarship. As this thesis argues, while texts of this genre have been marginalized and stigmatized for their perceived lack of literary sophistication, they prove to be some of the most radical in terms of cultural impact. Their dismissal is not incidental but symptomatic of the very systems of oppression the romance novels work to disrupt. This thesis will examine these radical texts and uncover the cultural work they perform on their readers by using an analytical framework newly developed here, …

From Transparency To Complexity: Enhancing English Reading Skills In Turkmen-Speaking Adults, Mahrijemal Taganova

Education Dissertations

The recent increase in Turkmen immigration to the United States has highlighted

significant challenges these immigrants face due to language barriers, despite their high

educational qualifications and professional backgrounds. This study investigates whether a linguistics-based approach to reading instruction can improve English literacy among Turkmen-speaking adults.

Drawing on a comprehensive review of empirical studies, this paper evaluates the impact

of phonological awareness on reading and listening skills, the role of orthographic knowledge in

decoding and spelling, and the importance of morphological awareness for vocabulary

development and reading comprehension among EFL (English as a foreign language) learners. The analysis reveals that …

Re-Membering Self, Rewriting Histories, Reclaiming Futures: Chicanafuturist Agency In V. Castro's The Haunting Of Alejandra, Julia Reade

Regeneración: A Xicanacimiento Studies Journal

Re-membering Self, Rewriting Histories, Reclaiming Futures: Chicanafuturist Agency in V. Castro's The Haunting of Alejandra by Julia Reade.

“We Sing Too:” Pedagogical Approaches For Listening To Children In Indigenous Picturebooks, Rachel Stubbs, Anja Dressler Araujo, Kari Dressler, Jadyn Fischer-Mcnabb, Aubrey Hanson, Erin Spring

Occasional Paper Series

This article explores how storytelling, particularly through picture books, facilitates learning across boundaries of age, culture, gender, and education. In this article, we emphasize the value of picture books in integrating Indigenous oral traditions into the classroom, highlighting how these texts foster a reciprocal relationship between listener and storyteller. By focusing on the act of listening, our article argues that Indigenous picture books require active participation and decentering of the individual, positioning listeners as part of a larger collective. This article also underscores the importance of viewing children as active, responsible, and agential members of their communities, aligning with Indigenous …

Investigating The Relationship Between Noun Classes And Plant Folk Taxonomy In Chasu Language Of Kilimanjaro Region In Tanzania, Peter Rabson Mziray

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

The current study investigates the relationship between noun classes and plant folk taxonomy in Chasu (G 22). The study focuses on two objectives: the first objective is to describe the plant folk taxonomy in Chasu and the second objective is to determine the relationship between noun classes and plant folk taxonomy in Chasu. Data were collected from rural villages in Same and Mwanga districts by using free listing, field interviews (jungle-walk-and-identify), and written texts containing Chasu plant names. The findings reveal that Chasu folk taxonomy reflects different ethnobotanical categories; including a unique beginner which is mmea/mimea ‘plant(s)’, and three life …

Love Amid The Rage: Feminist Affect In Women's Life-Writing, Genesis Siverio

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The aim of this thesis is to show the ways women’s emotions or affect, particularly rage and love, are described by women writers in their most intimate stories. I discuss the way emotion has been demeaned, and how feminist scholars have instead viewed the body as a place of insight, reclaiming a knowledge from the senses. In the midst of white supremacy and heteropatriarchy, women give voice to their affectual experiences and cultivate the feelings they have so often been denied. Focusing on the particular ways women’s anger manifests in their lives and in their bodies, I zoom in on …

Zero/Low Textbook Cost Syllabus For [39335 Eng 2100 - Htrf Writing I], Ju Ly Ban

Open Educational Resources

This class is a warm-up for the many writing assignments you will encounter, no matter your major. We will read, write, and talk through texts in different genres, learning how to (1) understand what a writing task is asking for (2) build clear arguments (3) find strong evidence and (4) manage time and writing anxiety. These skills will help you revisit, rethink, and expand your own resources.

You are the writer. (Yes, even if you use ChatGPT. We will talk about how to use it well, too.) And you already have your resources. Let’s begin in an imaginary living room—the …

On The Sisterhood: How A Network Of Black Women Writers Changed American Culture, Danica Savonick

Criticism

The Sisterhood: How a Network of Black Women Writers Changed American Culture by Courtney Thorsson. Columbia University Press, 2023. Pp. 296. $28.95 hardback, $19.00 paperback.

The Influence Of The Pearl-Maiden On The Imagination Of J. R.R. Tolkien, Jane Beal

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

No abstract provided.

I’D Rather (S)He Was Dead: Resurrection & Gender Transition In Superhero Comics, Jonathan Sexton, Eitan Runyan

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

No abstract provided.

From Hildeburh To Héra: Recuperating Women’S Presence In Beowulf, J.R.R. Tolkien’S The Lord Of The Rings, And Kenji Kamiyama’S The War Of The Rohirrim, Christopher Vaccaro

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

No abstract provided.

The Tragedy Of Arwen Evenstar In “The Tale Of Aragorn And Arwen” And In Her Legacy On Film, Nicole Duplessis

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

No abstract provided.