English Language and Literature Commons^™

"The Worry That You Are Yourself": Darl's Unforgivable Neurodiversity In As I Lay Dying, Neal Hallgarth

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

"This paper is concerned with the character of Darl Bundren and the repeated motif of madness in William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying. Possible psychiatric explanations for Darl's madness, including linguistic evidence for his psychotic breakdown, are explored. The paper does not agree with the critical use of words such as "insane" or "crazy" as the book itself questions the verity of such labels. Critical analyses concerning Darl tend to be sympathetic but use derogatory language when defending the character. Articles related to the relatively new idea of neurodiversity will counter the backhanded sympathy with which the critics regard Darl. …

Developing A Pedagogy Of Pluralistic Linguistic Expression In The First Year Composition Classroom, April Dawn Ridgeway

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

"Over the past 40 years, the field of composition has recognized of the importance of legitimizing students' linguistic diversity in the composition classroom. However, a framework for a pedagogy of linguistic diversity does not yet exist. This thesis seeks to provide such a framework by identifying a new genre of academic writing entitled Pluralistic Linguistic Expression (PLE). First, this thesis begins with the research question, how do educators respect students' linguistic diversity in writing while still teaching them rhetorically appropriate discourse? A review of the historical approaches to PLE and the current pedagogical research provides a framework for further discussion. …

Mitt Romney’S Paralipsis: (Un)Veiling Jesus In “Faith In America”, Richard Benjamin Crosby

Faculty Publications

Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith has been a topic of suspicion and debate among Christian conservatives. Romney addressed the issue in a 2007 address titled “Faith in America.” This article argues that Romney’s use of paralipsis helps to explain the divergent popular and academic responses to the speech. Paralipsis may be used as more than a mere stylistic device; it may also be employed as a comprehensive rhetorical strategy in an increasingly polarized political culture.

Oath Rhetoric, Political Identity, And The Case Of Jon Huntsman, Richard Benjamin Crosby

Faculty Publications

Oath rhetoric took center stage during the 2011-2072 presidential campaign, particularly during the Republican primary races. Several conservative organizations invited candidates to sign pledges, vows, or, as I label them collectively, oaths in an effort to secure the candidates' allegiance to particular polices and communities. Through a close concept-oriented analysis of a representative artifact (the Pro-Life Presidential Leadership Pledge) and candidate Jon Huntsman's refusal to sign it, this essay concludes that oaths serve important rhetorical functions at the personal, cultural, and political level. Whereas traditional political argument in the democratic tradition is meant lo create openings for action, oath rhetoric …

Batman And The Superhero Fairytale: Deconstructing A Revisionist Crisis, Travis John Landhuis

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Contemporary superhero comics carry the burden of navigating historical iterations and reiterations of canonical figures—Batman, Superman, Green Lantern et al.—producing a tension unique to a genre that thrives on the reconstruction of previously established narratives. This tension results in the complication of authorial and interpretive negotiation of basic principles of narrative and structure as readers and producers must seek to construct satisfactory identities for these icons. Similarly, the post-modern experimentation of Robert Coover—in Briar Rose and Stepmother—argues that we must no longer view contemporary fairytales as separate (cohesive) entities that may exist apart from their source narratives. Instead, through strategies …

Postmodern Humanism And The "Exhaustion Of Easy Life", Mason Beets

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The twenty-first century appears to herald a new epoch, one in which religion and other similar belief systems appear to have run their course. However, this should not necessarily mean that other forms of spirituality and interconnectedness must fade away. Within America, there is a humanistic undercurrent that is gaining strength within our postmodern condition, even as we begin to challenge several of the tenets of postmodernity itself. The groundswell of American humanism has a notable and wholly unintended effect: it ideologically rehabilitates modes or vehicles of thought that might otherwise be labeled as defunct, or inapplicable to the changing …

"Rosa Alchemica," "The Tables Of The Law," And "Adoration Of The Magi," Edited And With An Introduction, Brady J. Peneton

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

"This volume contains an introduction to William Butler Yeats' early occult short stories "Rosa Alchemica," "The Tables of the Law," and "The Adoration of the Magi." Panned by critics over the last century, the three stories contained in this volume are both controversial and difficult. The introduction explains the language of occultists and alchemists in terms of Jungian psychology and describes how alchemical doctrine influenced Yeats' writing and the largely alchemical mythology contained in A Vision. Yeats' desire for apocalypse is identified as a desire for the general population to see the divine through symbol and to discover the psychological …

Standard Issue: Public Discourse, Ayers V. Fordice, And The Dilemma Of The Basic Writer, Joyce Olewski Inman

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Cold Shoulder: An Alaskan Adventure, Christine C. Berlin

Graduate Research Papers

Multicultural novels are a must for school libraries. Where books about world cultures abound, lacking are sufficient books about Native Americans, especially Eskimos, set in present day. The purpose of this project is to create a resource that introduces life and Yup~ik culture in present-day bush Alaska. This project is limited to the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta in Alaska.

Cold Shoulder is a middle grade novel exploring life in Alaska through the eyes of an eleven year old boy. For the first time in his life, the main character is an outsider trying to find his way in a new land and …

Portrayal Of Characters With Disabilities Within K-6 Fictional Literature, Katie Roling

Graduate Research Papers

The purpose of this study was to determine how fully characters with disabilities were developed in children's literature. The researcher examined a set of children's fictional books which contained persons with mental and physical disabilities. The sample of books used was gathered using the following method: the Children's Core Collection database was searched using the advanced option. The key words entered were handicapped and disabled, with the limitation to fiction books. The recommendation level chosen was Core Collection and Highly Recommended. Books with a publication year of 2002 or newer were selected. The grade levels criteria used were grades K-6. …

Getting Graphic: Exploring The Inferential Thinking Skills That Are Required To Comprehend Graphic Novels, Angela Brauns

Graduate Research Papers

The purpose of this study was to explore the extent to which graphic novels require inferential thinking skills for comprehension in grades 3-8. The questions asked in this study were: 1. What aspects of content in graphic novel texts require inferential thinking for reader comprehension? 2. What aspects of mood or tone in graphic novel texts require inferential thinking for reader comprehension?

The Laws Of Verse : The Poetry Of Alice Meynell And Its Literary Contexts, 1875-1923, Jared Hromadka

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Like other poets who came to prominence in the nineteenth century but continued to publish well into the twentieth, Alice Meynell’s work has come gradually to be occluded by the work of her younger contemporaries, among them T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound. The available scholarship records this process of occlusion in the form of an almost complete absence of serious discourse on Meynell’s work following her death in 1922 until the beginnings of a modest revival of interest in her writing beginning in the 1980s. This study aims to address that gap by giving a more complete account of …

Clogging The System, Harrison Postler

Honors Program Theses

This thesis manifested itself in the form of a one-act play, which I wrote and directed at the University of Northern Iowa's Interpreters Theatre. The play is entitled "Clogging the System" and is a comedy with seven characters and one toilet, none of which were played by me. I endeavored to examine how shame functions within our society and how it is indoctrinated at a very young age by using toilets as a vehicle to explore shame based around bodily waste. Additionally, I have incorporated the burgeoning field of literature concerning how humans negotiate the taboo placed upon doing two …

Percy Shelley’S Prose Fiction: Zastrozzi, St. Irvyne, The Assassins, The Coliseum, Diane Hoeveler

English Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Beat Consumption: The Challenge To Consumerism In Beat Literature, Amien Essif

Pursuit - The Journal of Undergraduate Research at The University of Tennessee

Critics of the Beat generation, from their contemporaries to the present day, often contend that the Beats’ opposition to consumer culture was superficial. Writers like Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William S. Burroughs failed, according to these critics, to present a coherent and principled response to consumerism. This paper, however, argues that while in many ways the Beats continued to participate in consumer culture, they developed a distinct form of consumption—Beat consumption—which attempted to regain sovereignty for the Beat consumer. Through an analysis of Kerouac’s The Dharma Bums and On the Road as well as several of Ginsberg’s seminal works, …

A Woman Is A Dish For The Gods': Shakespeare's Use Of Myth To Criticize Patriarchy, Marissa Polascak

Honors Theses

William Shakespeare's canon is famous throughout the world, studied by scholars as well as read by laymen for leisure. These scholars and laymen value Shakespeare's works for their content and form, at the same time that they criticize them for their flaws. On the surface, it is clear that Shakespeare touches on many issues in his poems and plays, such as love and war, but hidden underneath are messages that are ambiguous. These hidden messages are a product of censorship. During the Renaissance, Sir Francis Walsingham established the State apparatus which helped to protect society against counter-Reformation activists. This apparatus …

Emerging Media In 18th Century Literature: How Jane Austen Invented Facebook, Rebecca Shaver

Honors Theses

The focus on the downfalls and misunderstandings of the Austen anthology has allowed critics to ignore her incredible ability to scientifically dissect the intricate workings of social circles and networks comprised of psychologically accurate characters and interactions. For instance, her portrayals of gender roles (heterosocial/sexual and homosocial/sexual) within those circles were so apt that they often still true today. The transcendental human nature of individuals like Emma's Emma Woodhouse and Mansfield Park's Fanny Price causes us to question how Austen amplifies and enlightens our understanding of how modern social networks, like Facebook or Twitter, stem directly from historically complex affective …

Who's Allowed To Ride The Short Bus?: Un-Defining Disability, Hannah Widdifield

Honors Theses

However easy it may be to do, criminalizing - or less maliciously, categorizing - disability does not make it easier to accommodate. Clumping people with "special needs" together does not meet those needs any more efficiently and labeling those needs as "special" is vague and ineffective. The disabled aren't pegged into their roles for practical reasons, but because of inherited stigmas that are continuously encouraged by institutional policies, popular culture, and art. My thesis is in part an attempt to uncover and articulate a personal and social history of disability. In it I try to puzzle out how misconceptions regarding …

Who Is Still Afraid Of The Big Bad Wolf?, Laura Decrane

Honors Theses

One of the most well known villains of all time is the Big Bad Wolf. Usually a male entity, he has been present in child and adult literature for centuries and continues to unsettle readers in the twenty-first century. The Big Bad Wolf is consistently portrayed in a negative light because he originated in a time when wolves were feared, making him the perfect example to terrify village children. Over time, as a result of social and cultural changes, writers have transformed the wolf so that he is no longer the terror that plagued the nineteenth century. Instead, the Big …

“Man’S Country. Out Where The West Begins”: Women, The American Dream, And The West In Joan Didion’S Slouching Towards Bethlehem, Coleen Maidlow

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines the feminist perspective in Didion’s collection of essays Slouching Towards Bethlehem. Throughout the text, Didion looks closely at the West and the changing social climate which surrounds her. Her essays chronicle women struggling to find a balance between the domestic and independence promised by myth the West. I analyze how women are granted only limited participation within the American Dream because of the masculine power structures which dominate our society. As the values of the American Dream shift, the women that Didion depicts attempt to find identity and independence despite the restrictive forces around them.