Like Shapes Moving In Another World: An Identification And Interpretation Of Mythical Figures In C. S. Lewis’ Novel The Silver Chair,
2024
Southern Adventist University
Like Shapes Moving In Another World: An Identification And Interpretation Of Mythical Figures In C. S. Lewis’ Novel The Silver Chair, Benjamin S. Perkin
Student Research
As a result of his conversion to Christianity, author C. S. Lewis felt compelled to formulate a unique definition of myth. From his perspective, myth is a means through which God communicates His truth to the non-Christian world. Myth recognizes the yearning for home all people experience yet cannot satisfy, but while it correctly diagnoses humanity’s symptoms, myth fails to treat the underlying disease responsible for them. The influence of non-Christian, specifically Greek, myth can be felt most strongly in The Silver Chair, the sixth installment of Lewis’ series The Chronicles of Narnia. Through the allusions this essay explores, in …
Feminism And Female Identity In Adaptations Of Pride And Prejudice Throughout The 20th And 21st Centuries,
2024
University of Mississippi
Feminism And Female Identity In Adaptations Of Pride And Prejudice Throughout The 20th And 21st Centuries, Emily Suh, Emily Suh
Honors Theses
To many of her fans in the world, Austen is undeniably a feminist author, especially for her time in the nineteenth century. In a time where women were dependent upon male family members for their livelihoods, most of Austen’s heroines exhibit a sort of independence and strong will with a mind of their own, including in Pride and Prejudice. Elizabeth is the model for what an independent woman is, a woman who is not so concerned with the monetary value of matrimony and only falls in love because she wants to. Furthermore, female audiences tend to like Elizabeth more than …
The Villainess Does Damage Control: Cultural Rescue In The Man Of Law’S Tale,
2024
Brigham Young University
The Villainess Does Damage Control: Cultural Rescue In The Man Of Law’S Tale, Lucy Esplin
Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism
In the late fourteenth century, Geoffrey Chaucer wrote his masterwork, The Canterbury Tales, a satirical frame narrative centered on English society. The tales follow a group of pilgrims spanning a wide range of English society, who engage in a storytelling contest as they embark on their pilgrimage. One story is the “Man of Law’s Tale,” a crusader romance that follows the pious Constance in her missionary-like journeys. She first travels to Syria to marry a Sultan, after negotiations between the Roman and Syrian rulers demanded the Sultan be baptized and control over Jerusalem would be handed over to Christians (Chaucer …
Painted As Political: The Cultural Significance Within Zitkala-Ša’S Boarding School Narratives,
2024
Brigham Young University
Painted As Political: The Cultural Significance Within Zitkala-Ša’S Boarding School Narratives, Toni Aguiar
Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism
Zitkala-Ša was a Dakota writer, educator, and political activist who was and is widely influential within and outside of Native American communities during the twentieth century. As a child, Zitkala-Ša was sent to school at White's Indiana Manual Labor Institute, which spurred her writings in “School Days of an Indian Girl” recounting her experiences at the school and the struggles she faced. Though many scholars debate the activist choices she made in her later life as either pro or anti assimilation, some also extend this political criticism into her childhood experiences. My paper argues an alternative reading of these boarding …
“Viewed In Prospect Or Retrospect”: Dorothy Wordsworth’S “Revisiting” On The 1820 Continental Tour,
2024
Brigham Young University
“Viewed In Prospect Or Retrospect”: Dorothy Wordsworth’S “Revisiting” On The 1820 Continental Tour, Eve Dixon Fennimore
Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism
This paper argues that Dorothy Wordsworth, in her often overlooked Journal of a Tour on the Continent, was essentially “revisiting” places that she was viewing for the first time, as she had visited them secondhand through William's stories and writings about them. In 1820, Dorothy, William, and Mary Wordsworth embarked on a tour of the continent in the inverse direction of William’s youthful 1790 trip. For thirty years, Dorothy had heard stories and read about his experiences, building up an image in her mind of what the Continent would be like which changed her own exploration of the sights. …
Blake’S Green Symbols Of Humanity, Society, And Spirituality,
2024
Southern New Hampshire University
Blake’S Green Symbols Of Humanity, Society, And Spirituality, Angela J. Heagy
Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism
William Blake is an exemplar of Romantic poetry characterized by depictions of the occult, the divine, and human nature. Despite Blake’s reputation as a Romantic poet, many critics claim that there is not sufficient evidence to consider him a nature writer. As a result, Blake’s name is frequently omitted from ecological discussions; some scholars go so far as to claim that Blake’s poetry demonstrates a disregard for nature altogether. This article argues that an eco-critical analysis of Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience reveals nature to be Blake’s continual source of inspiration. Within this collection, nature represents the struggles …
Sacrifice And Emotional Communities In Early Modern Literature,
2024
Belmont University
Sacrifice And Emotional Communities In Early Modern Literature, Kathryn C. Patton
English Theses
The early modern period in England was a time of intense political, religious, and cultural upheaval. Between the Protestant Reformation and urbanization, England experienced significant ideological changes as well as the growing pains of overpopulation and plague in its major cities. The literature of the time illustrates the emotional complexity that many of the authors and citizens experienced firsthand as a result of the tumult in England. This thesis focuses specifically on the period during the reigns of Queen Elizabeth I and James I, using the works of Sir Philip Sidney and John Donne as structural buoys for the paper, …
Mixed Feelings: The Emotional Appeals Of Zitkala-Ša’S American Indian Stories,
2024
CUNY Queens College
Mixed Feelings: The Emotional Appeals Of Zitkala-Ša’S American Indian Stories, Kayla Joan Baur
Publications and Research
Zitkala-Ša (Lakota: Zitkála-Šá, meaning Red Bird) was among the first to write about the experiences of Native American children in the U.S. Indian boarding school program to an English-speaking audience. As a writer and political activist, Zitkala-Ša uses emotional appeals and cultural ideas she learned through her white education to expose the very boarding school institutions that taught her. In American Indian Studies (1921), Zitkala-Ša critiques the violence that the Indian boarding school system inflicts on young Native Americans. She presents these critiques through emotional appeals that take two forms: one, a more traditional sentimental appeal associated with middle-class white …
Conflicting Ethe In _Anna Karenina_: A Reexamination Of Tolstoy’S Complex Female Protagonist,
2024
Harding University
Conflicting Ethe In _Anna Karenina_: A Reexamination Of Tolstoy’S Complex Female Protagonist, Hannah Diles
Honors Theses
Tolstoy’s novel Anna Karenina depicts the world as an endless array of choices and experiences to which one assigns meaning to. His characters, like real people, must navigate their world of complex ethical systems using their own moral ethos. Readers and critics alike critique Anna as a heroine for living out her moral ethos, pitting it against the social and feminist ethos of late 19th century upper class Russian society. Anna’s story is either interpreted as a cautionary tale or Anna is portrayed as a feminist heroine who tragically died for love. Throughout this paper, I argue that Anna is …
Little Cricket On The Hearth: The Quiet Feminism Of _Little Women_,
2024
Harding University
Little Cricket On The Hearth: The Quiet Feminism Of _Little Women_, Caroline Anderson Klein
Honors Theses
Since the advent of the cult of domesticity, the stakes for female characters in domestic literature have been notoriously high. There was no room for flaws, rebellious decisions, and certainly no room for mistakes—whether of the woman’s own accord, or simply as collateral damage of a male character’s immorality. In this shallowly Calvinist domain, women were never more than one broken guardrail away from social ruin or death. In writing Little Women, Louisa May Alcott breaks these molds through unflinching kindness to her female characters from childhood to adulthood, even unto death. Alcott achieves this quietly feminist feat by …
Final Master's Portfolio,
2024
Bowling Green State University
Final Master's Portfolio, Savannah Packman
Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects
This portfolio uses Marxist and feminist film theory to analyze various forms of visual media. It analyzes Mark Mylod's film The Menu (2022), Julie Taymor's film Across the Universe (2007), the historic V-J Day Kiss photograph, and popular TikTok videos. This portfolio focuses on the impact of capitalism in the political and economic sphere. It also analyzes images of women throughout history and critiques how these images have been used to formulate the American body politic.
Navigating Identity Through Education In Literature And In The Classroom,
2024
Chapman University
Navigating Identity Through Education In Literature And In The Classroom, Sofia Sakzlyan
English (MA) Theses
This thesis explores the intricate relationship between education, identity formation, and oppression, drawing from psychosocial and sociocultural perspectives. I delve into how education serves as a critical arena where individuals encounter various internal psychological conflicts and external social influences that shape their sense of self. By analyzing the perspectives of writers such as Paulo Freire, bell hooks, Kate Chopin Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Erin Gruwell, the thesis seeks to answer how education impacts the self and how it intersects with systems of oppression. Furthermore, I explore the role of education in fostering critical consciousness and empowerment, particularly in the face …
The New Westward Expansion: Settler Colonialism And Gentrification In Paula Fox’S Desperate Characters And Kali Fajardo-Anstine’S Sabrina And Corina,
2024
Chapman University
The New Westward Expansion: Settler Colonialism And Gentrification In Paula Fox’S Desperate Characters And Kali Fajardo-Anstine’S Sabrina And Corina, Miranda Roberts
English (MA) Theses
This thesis explores two underexplored works of gentrification literature—Paula Fox’s novel, Desperate Characters (1970) and Kali Fajardo-Anstine’s short story collection, Sabrina & Corina (2019). Desperate Characters offers a nuanced and critical examination of characters with privilege who move into Brooklyn in the 1960s, which involves the displacement of Black and Latinx communities; Fajardo-Anstine’s collection introduces Denver as a site of dramatic gentrification in the new century, by portraying Latinx characters from older neighborhoods who must adjust to the disintegration and cohesiveness of their communities in the face of gentrification. In my discussion of these works, I draw from pre-existing scholarship …
Into The Center: A Descriptive Study For Understanding The Post-Pandemic Tutor Experience At Butler University’S Writers’ Studio,
2024
Butler University
Into The Center: A Descriptive Study For Understanding The Post-Pandemic Tutor Experience At Butler University’S Writers’ Studio, Hannah Salsbery
English Graduate Theses
University writing centers have become an important part of higher education, as the peer-to-peer tutoring model allows for student writers and tutors to collaborate throughout the writing process in ways that promote individualized learning. The Butler University Writers’ Studio is no exception; however, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic can still be felt on it, as on many university campuses and student populations. This descriptive project uses focus groups and survey data to suggest ways the tutoring experience at the Butler University Writers’ Studio has changed since the pandemic. While the tensions that may find their way into a writing …
Visibility In The Redacted Space: What Censored Poetry Reveals About Guantanamo Bay Prison And The Individuals Trapped Inside,
2024
Ursinus College
Visibility In The Redacted Space: What Censored Poetry Reveals About Guantanamo Bay Prison And The Individuals Trapped Inside, Chase Portaro
English and Creative Writing Capstone Projects
This paper discusses what readers can understand about Guantanamo Bay and the larger setting of America's Islamophobic "War on Terror" through the poetry of individuals detained inside of Guantanamo Bay Military Prison. In 2002, Mark Falkoff, with the help of a team of lawyers, translators, and human rights advocates published a collection of twenty-two detainee-authored poems, titled Poems from Guantanamo: The Detainees Speak. This paper discusses the emerging neo-colonial subjectivity of America's War on Terror, as it analyzes the available writings of Guantanamo poets. The new language of subjectivity of victims of contemporary American empire is defined by suppression, as …
"Old Cod": The Power Of Storytelling In Conor Mcpherson's The Weir,
2024
Chapman University
"Old Cod": The Power Of Storytelling In Conor Mcpherson's The Weir, Sarah Johnson
English (MA) Theses
This paper examines the representation of Irish storytelling in Conor McPherson’s 1997 play The Weir. Drawing on postcolonial theory as well as the historical context of Ireland during the play’s release, I argue that The Weir is uniquely positioned at the intersection of traditional and modern values. Further, I assert that fairy legend is a tool used by the play’s characters to both understand and escape a fluctuating cultural landscape, and ultimately, a way to articulate their own values. Using textual analysis, I examine the rhetorical choices of the play’s storytellers and compare it with established conventions of Irish …
The Affable Raphael: Milton's Surrogate Instructor In Paradise Lost.,
2024
University of Louisville
The Affable Raphael: Milton's Surrogate Instructor In Paradise Lost., Beau Kilpatrick
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
John Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667) is a beautifully written epic that continues to be a stalwart text in the English literary canon, with unlimited potential for interpretation. In this dissertation I propose that Paradise Lost can be read as a pedagogical lesson for Milton’s “fit audience,” where the author implements his views on education in the context of heaven, hell, and Paradise. In the poem, Milton presents three pedagogical methodologies: first, the wrong way to knowledge is presented through Satan’s manipulations of the fallen angels and Eve; second, the divine way to knowledge is illustrated via Michael’s prophecy to Adam …
How Setting Impacts The Progression Of Male Queer Protagonists In Proxy And Aristotle And Dante Discover The Secrets Of The Universe,
2024
Montclair State University
How Setting Impacts The Progression Of Male Queer Protagonists In Proxy And Aristotle And Dante Discover The Secrets Of The Universe, Cesar Negroni
Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects
Alex London's novel Proxy explores the life of a male queer teenager named Sydney Carton, who resides in a Science Fiction dystopia, and is forced to evade punishment for crimes he did not commit. Benjamin Alire Saénz’ novel Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe explores the life of a male queer protagonist Ari Mendoza, who lives in an idealistic version of the 1980s, and struggles with coming to terms with his sexuality. In this essay, I assert that each male queer protagonist is shaped by their respective settings due to the nature of their constantly changing environments. …
Interior Chinatown: Chinatown As A Performative Space,
2024
Chapman University
Interior Chinatown: Chinatown As A Performative Space, Audrey Fong
English (MA) Theses
This thesis focuses on Charles Yu’s Interior Chinatown: A Novel (2020), exploring the function of Chinatown in Los Angeles within the novel as a space of creation, that of “Asia” for Hollywood and home for Taiwanese immigrants. I argue that Interior Chinatown offers a unique look at the perception or notion of Chinatown, paying attention to the way Hollywood has shaped it and used it to create a sense of China and “Asia” in the cultural imagination. Through satire and the blurring of the reel and the real, Yu is able to criticize the inner workings of Hollywood’s relationship with …
“Beating Back The Past”: The Psychological Justifications Of Violence In Toni Morrison’S Fiction,
2024
College of the Holy Cross
“Beating Back The Past”: The Psychological Justifications Of Violence In Toni Morrison’S Fiction, Catherine Buhse
English Honors Theses
This thesis examines the traumatic experiences that consume characters’ lives and, in the absence of psychological healing efforts, manifest into violent actions in Toni Morrison’s three novels The Bluest Eye, Sula, and Beloved. I focus on the gendered experience of the female characters Pecola, Sula, Eva, and Sethe, except for the male character, Cholly in The Bluest Eye. Focusing on Morrison’s humanization of violent characters and her sharing of their full life stories, I establish the characters’ internal justifications for their violence to challenge the accepted depiction of all criminals as evil. The three chapters follow the manifestation of trauma …
