English Language and Literature Commons^™

The Divided Self: Gothic Duality In Literature, Sarah Anna Meeks

Masters Theses

Gothic literature of the nineteenth century is haunting due to its frequent use of ghosts and monsters. However, the true terror lies in a deeper horror, one that is more intimate and destabilizing– a fright that leaps out of the text, looking into the heart of the reader: the fractured mind of the self torn between reality and repression, haunted by its own, newly manifested internal disunity rather than external monsters. The characters of Gothic fiction are typically caught in a psychological turmoil. They battle with split morals between duty and desire, morality and madness, and science and spirituality. Specifically, …

Emphasis On The External: Deceptive Beauty In Lady Audley’S Secret And The Picture Of Dorian Gray, Arden Cravy

Honors Theses

The novels Lady Audley’s Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon and The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde both present major themes of beauty, authenticity, and morality while maintaining their didacticism. This thesis comes as a surprise due to the beliefs and intentions of the authors, both of whom claim other motivations than the betterment of their readers. The parallels between these narratives ascribe to the fallible Victorian perspectives regarding external appearance and internal motivations. The danger of assumed authenticity becomes apparent in these authors’ works as they grapple with the realities of human nature. Wilde and Braddon each depict …

“Mysterium Tremendum Et Fascinans”: Melian’S And Lúthien’S Numinosity, Alexandra (Oleksandra) Filonenko

Mythopoeic Society Seminar Proceedings

At the heart of all the positive changes in Middle-earth, and at the starting point for undoing the great evil wrought by male characters (divine or otherwise), are two female characters: Melian the Maia and her daughter Lúthien. They form a kind of mythological complex of mother and daughter goddesses, similar to that of Demeter and Persephone. Melian, as a static, maternal figure, forms a sacred centre of Beleriand to which all in need of protection gravitate, while Lúthien, representing a dynamic principle, can be considered the greatest hero of Tolkien’s Legendarium, performing feats unmatched by any male character. Yet …

Grendel's Mother Talks Back: Contemporary Women's Mythopoeic Revisions, Anna Smol

Mythopoeic Society Seminar Proceedings

"Grendel's Mother Talks Back: Contemporary Women's Mythopoeic Revisions" examines how twenty-first-century feminist adaptations and translations examine the significance and point of view of Grendel's Mother, a character from the Old English poem Beowulf. In contrast to past views of Beowulf, especially in J.R.R. Tolkien's influential essay on the poem, these women writers and scholars argue for the central role of Grendel's Mother and give voice to her story. The paper discusses the main features of these adaptations, covering topics of narrative voice, borderlands, violence, and motherhood, and generally questions the concept of monstrosity as applied to Grendel's Mother. The paper …

Sex, The Body, And Learning Gender: Demons In The World Of The Five Gods, Erin E. Mcbrien

Mythopoeic Society Seminar Proceedings

“Sex, the Body, and Learning Gender” analyzes the relationship between the physical body, sexual orientation, and gender as characterized within Lois McMaster Bujold’s World of the Five Gods series, with a particular emphasis on her Penric and Desdemona novellas. Using the framework of Bussey and Bandura’s social learning theory, and a close reading of Bujold’s text, this paper explores how the demonic characters within this series are an example of gender as a learned concept rather than a biological imperative. This is further developed by examining how the demonic characters both imprint on and contrast against the more societally-bound sorcerers …

Belief After The Death Of King Arthur: Lev Grossman’S Postsecular Portrayal Of Nimue In The Bright Sword, Liz Busby

Mythopoeic Society Seminar Proceedings

This paper explores Lev Grossman’s 2024 novel The Bright Sword as a postsecular retelling of the Arthurian legend, focusing on the character of Nimue. Unlike previous modern portrayals that align Nimue with pagan traditions in opposition to Christianity, Grossman presents her as both a practitioner of magic and a sincere Christian believer. Through this duality, Nimue embodies the tensions and contradictions of faith in a postmodern age, where belief persists amid doubt, historical trauma, and religious pluralism. Drawing on postsecular theory, the paper situates Grossman’s work within a broader literary tradition that includes Marion Zimmer Bradley’s The Mists of Avalon …

Still Perilous, Still Fair: Perspectives On The Legacy, Or How (Not)Eowyn And (Not)Galadriel Made The Magic Work, Janet Croft, Leslie Donovan

Mythopoeic Society Seminar Proceedings

An informal and wide-ranging conversation between the co-editors of Perilous and Fair: Women in the Works and Life of J.R.R. Tolkien will cover the genesis and development of the project and the pitfalls and traps for the unwary we encountered along the way. We'll talk about the technicalities of our process as editors -- from developing the call for papers through choosing the cover art. And we'll assess the influence the collection has had on subsequent scholarship, and the continuing significance of some of the work included.

More Perilous And Fair, Cami Agan, Clare Moore, Robin A. Reid Dr.

Mythopoeic Society Seminar Proceedings

An overview of the conference's theme and speakers.

Table Of Contents - Jaepl - Volume 30, Wendy Ryden

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

No abstract provided.

Front Matter - Jaepl - Volume 30, Wendy Ryden

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

No abstract provided.

Full Issue Of The Journal Of The Assembly For Expanded Perspectives On Learning Volume 30, Wendy Ryden, Jonathan M. Marine

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

No abstract provided.

Writing Without Peter: Reflections On Peter Elbow And His Legacy: Peter Elbow The Philosopher, Irene Papoulis

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

On the occasion of Peter Elbow’s passing, we read many tributes and praises commemorating him and the foundational contributions he made to the multi-faceted field of writing studies. But as we know, even as Peter’s ideas were lauded and embraced, they were also questioned by many, including other renowned members of our profession.

“Narrative Medicine Saved My Life”: Writing Is A Verb As Well As A Noun, Marian M. Maccurdy, Sarah Robinson

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Dedicated to Professor Peter Elbow 4/14/1935 – 2/6/2025

I, Marian, began my career as a graduate student in medieval literature who had a teaching assistantship to fund her degree. As a graduate student I lived in a world that saw writing as a noun, something done and finished, not as a verb, a process that shows us a world that is as ever-changing as we are. But as a writing teacher I found myself sliding into the world that writers inhabit, and

The Giving And The Receiving: Spiritual Traditions And Teaching, Aepl Summer Conference 2025, Estes Park, Co., Bhushan Aryal, Beverly Brannon, Geri Deluca, Nate Mickelson, Laurence Musgrove, Kristin B. Rajan, Adrian Matt Zytkoskee

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Editor’s note: This past year, AEPL held its first full, in-person conference since the pandemic at our beloved Estes Park location in the Rockies. To commemorate the return of this staple event for our organization, here’s a snapshot of one of the workshops, led by immediate past AEPL Chair, Geraldine DeLuca, “Writing Our Spiritual Autobiographies,” in which DeLuca asked attendees to consider, where and how did we begin, spiritually? What sustains us now? Deluca provided three prompts by Wallace Stevens, Karen Armstrong, and Audre Lorde to aid attendees in their reflection and writing processes. These prompts appear at the end …

Review: Williams, Bronwyn T. Literacies In Times Of Disruption: Living And Learning During A Pandemic., Ashna Singh

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

This review is structured around three central concepts that Williams develops throughout this book: affect, assemblages, and the connection between memory and identity. In Literacies in Times of Disruption: Living and Learning During a Pandemic, Williams focuses on the narratives of over thirty university students at the University of Louisville to examine how their literacy practices and emerging identities were influenced by physical, emotional, and structural crises.

Bringing Mindfulness Into First-Year Composition, Matt Lemas

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

I first stumbled upon the relationship between mindfulness and writing sometime after college. I had been meditating for a few years—not perfectly, but enough to notice the way it softened the inner critic and procrastinator that usually accompanied me to the page.

James Moffett’S Basic Principles, Jonathan M. Marine, Stephen Lafer

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

The tricky part about trying to distill James Moffett’s basic principles is that there are so many of them. In literature, the “major” poets are separated form the “minor” for a number of reasons, but one critical criteria is development; major poets have to develop across the span of their careers, either writing in new forms, or about and with new ideas or themes. Suffice to say, Moffett developed a great deal across his career, from a focus on pedagogy to a focus on spirituality and mindfulness along with increasing consideration of educational assessment and policy. Of course, I’m overgeneralizing …

Book Reviews Introduction: Is It Just Me?, Curtis Porter

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Each of the reviews in this issue of JAEPL focus on a book that was published long before this particular crisis. The books span very different academic fields and very different research methodologies. Yet each reviewer gives a glimpse of how the research behind each book emerged from lived challenges and illustrates how that research sheds light on the daily work and daily struggle that we collectively face.

Contributors: Jaepl - Volume 30, Wendy Ryden

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Contributors: JAEPL - Volume 30

Review: Cope, Emily M. Evangelical Writing In A Secular Imaginary: The Academic Writing Of Christian Undergraduates At A Public University., Kelly M. Sauskojus

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Emily Murphy Cope’s Evangelical Writing in a Secular Imaginary: The Academic Writing of Christian Undergraduates at a Public University (2024) empirically considers how evangelical students negotiate their identities in their academic writing.