Insurgent Knowledge: The Poetics And Pedagogy Of Toni Cade Bambara, June Jordan, Audre Lorde, And Adrienne Rich In The Era Of Open Admissions,
2018
CUNY Graduate Center
Insurgent Knowledge: The Poetics And Pedagogy Of Toni Cade Bambara, June Jordan, Audre Lorde, And Adrienne Rich In The Era Of Open Admissions, Danica B. Savonick
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Insurgent Knowledge analyzes the reciprocal relations between teaching and literature in the work of Audre Lorde, June Jordan, Toni Cade Bambara, and Adrienne Rich, all of whom taught in the Search for Education, Elevation, and Knowledge (SEEK) educational opportunity program at the City University of New York in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Drawing on archival research and analysis of their published work, I show how feminist aesthetics have shaped U.S. education (especially student-centered pedagogical practices) and how classroom encounters with students had a lasting impact on our postwar literary landscape and theories of difference. My project demonstrates how, …
Sickly Sentimentalism: Sympathy And Pathology In American Women's Literature, 1866-1900,
2018
CUNY Graduate Center
Sickly Sentimentalism: Sympathy And Pathology In American Women's Literature, 1866-1900, Nicole Zeftel
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Sickly Sentimentalism: Pathology and Sympathy in American Women’s Literature, 1866-1900 examines the work of four American women novelists writing between 1866 and 1900 as responses to a dominant medical discourse that pathologized women’s emotions. The popular fiction of Metta Fuller Victor, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Sarah Orne Jewett, and E.D.E.N. Southworth mobilized sentimental style and sympathetic affect to challenge the medical trend of treating female sentiment as a sickness. At the level of narrative, this challenge took the form of deviating from the domestic and marriage plots prevalent in women’s popular fiction of their period. Through forms of sentimental writing my …
Darwin's Failures: Childless Women In The Nineteenth-Century British Novel,
2018
CUNY Graduate Center
Darwin's Failures: Childless Women In The Nineteenth-Century British Novel, Rose P. O'Malley
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
This dissertation uses feminist neo-materialist and evolutionary theory to examine non-maternal relations among childless female characters in nineteenth-century British novels. In both the nineteenth century and the present day there is a tendency to use the authority of evolutionary biology to define women as essentially reproductive beings; their entire physical and intellectual organization is seen as geared toward childbearing and childrearing. Reading childless female characters with this tradition in mind, as well as the more open-minded counter-narrative of feminist engagements with evolution, opens up new questions about their meaning: Are they truly biological failures, or not? What avenues of physical …
“The Childish, The Transformative, And The Queer”:
Queer Interventions As Praxis In Children’S Cartoons,
2018
CUNY Graduate Center
“The Childish, The Transformative, And The Queer”: Queer Interventions As Praxis In Children’S Cartoons, Heather Wright
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
In Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, Scott McCloud considers “the simplified reality of the cartoon,” establishing a definition and theory for the medium (30). McCloud believes that cartoons possess “a special power” that is tied to their unique ability to “focus our attention on an idea” (31). Put simply, there is something about cartoons that allows for an easy exchange of concepts. Cartoons can teach. Using cartoons, a general term, to refer to both comics and animation, this thesis examines the transformative power of queer world building and intervention in recent children’s cartoons and how it functions, and can …
Dolls Who Speak: Sex Robots, Cyborgs And The Image Of Woman,
2018
CUNY Graduate Center
Dolls Who Speak: Sex Robots, Cyborgs And The Image Of Woman, Victoria E. Pihl Sorensen
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
This thesis examines the emerging phenomenon of sex robots from a feminist materialist perspective. I explore the current scholarly and popular debates on sex robots, and suggest a reading of sex robots in their machinic, literary and cinematic expressions to move beyond the moral-ethical impasse that seems to dominate sex robot discussions. Employing Donna Haraway’s “Cyborg Myth” on a methodological and theoretical level, I argue for an interdisciplinary approach to studying sex robots, which proceeds carefully so as to avoid contributing to sex panic, and which thinks critically about what it might mean to assess sex robots from a feminist …
Buying Time: Consuming Urban Pasts In Nineteenth-Century Britain,
2018
CUNY Graduate Center
Buying Time: Consuming Urban Pasts In Nineteenth-Century Britain, Dory Agazarian
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
This dissertation is about how historical narratives developed in the context of a modern marketplace in nineteenth-century Britain. In particular, it explores British historicism through urban space with a focus on Rome and London. Both cities were invested with complex political, religious and cultural meanings central to the British imagination. These were favorite tourist destinations and the subjects of popular and professional history writing. Both cities operated as palimpsests, offering a variety of histories to be “tried on” across the span of time. In Rome, British consumers struggled when traditional histories were problematized by emerging scholarship and archaeology. In London, …
The Communal "I": Exclusion And Belonging In American Autobiography,
2018
CUNY Graduate Center
The Communal "I": Exclusion And Belonging In American Autobiography, Melissa Coss Aquino
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
The Communal “I” in American autobiography emerges as an aesthetic response to the pressure of using “the master’s tools” to write from a community on the margins to disclose identity in the conflicts of exclusion and belonging. In this case “the master’s tools” to refer to several distinct elements the communal “I” is tasked with navigating: the use of what we have come to identify as standard English, the form and function of European autobiography as a celebration of individual exceptionalism, and the contradictory pressures on these autobiographies to both elevate and protect the communities in question from further marginalization. …
Symbols Purely Mechanical: Language, Modernity, And The Rise Of The Algorithm, 1605–1862,
2018
CUNY Graduate Center
Symbols Purely Mechanical: Language, Modernity, And The Rise Of The Algorithm, 1605–1862, Jeffrey M. Binder
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
In recent decades, scholars in both Digital Humanities and Critical Media Studies have encountered a disconnect between algorithms and what are typically thought of as “cultural” concerns. In Digital Humanities, researchers employing algorithmic methods in the study of literature have faced what Alan Liu has called a “meaning problem”—a difficulty in reconciling computational results with traditional forms of interpretation. Conversely, in Critical Media Studies, some thinkers have questioned the adequacy of interpretive methods as means of understanding computational systems. This dissertation offers a historical account of how this disconnect came into being by examining the attitudes toward algorithms that existed …
The Bard And The Word: The Influence Of The Bible On The Writings Of William Shakespeare,
2018
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
The Bard And The Word: The Influence Of The Bible On The Writings Of William Shakespeare, Emily Gray
Honors Theses
Widely hailed as the single greatest writer and poet of the English language, William Shakespeare is not only revered for the sheer quantity and wide-ranging genres of his writing, but also the exceptional written quality, well-executed thematic diversity, and ability to explore the timelessness of the human experience. With the 400th anniversary of the publication of the King James Bible occurring in 2011 and the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death following in 2016, scholarship on Shakespeare’s use of biblical material underwent a significant resurgence. The focus of much of this scholarship has been on simply identifying the numerous references rather …
The Separate Spheres Of Women And Science,
2018
San Jose State University
The Separate Spheres Of Women And Science, Annie Hays, Barbara Huizar, Crista Johnson, Steven Le, Samantha Tate
Frankenstein @ 200: Student Posters
Through the 19th century ideology of separate spheres, Frankenstein shows how the exclusion of women from science is detrimental to science and destructive to society.
Frankenstem? Technology Ethics In Silicon Valley: Student Poster Session Program,
2018
San Jose State University
Frankenstem? Technology Ethics In Silicon Valley: Student Poster Session Program, San Jose State University, Department Of English And Comparative Literature
Frankenstein @ 200: Student Posters
Program of student posters presented as part of “Deep Humanities,” One-Day Symposium: FrankenSTEM? Technology Ethics in Silicon Valley, organized by Dr. Revathi Krishnaswamy & Dr. Katherine D. Harris, Department of English and Comparative Literature, San Jose State University on May 1, 2018, 10-4pm, Room 225, King Library, San Jose State University.
Dehumanizing The Human Body,
2018
San Jose State University
Dehumanizing The Human Body, Shelby Escott
Frankenstein @ 200: Student Posters
How does death affect the way in which the human body ceases to represent humanity?
American Space Monkeys: Analyzing Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club As A Transmedia Text Through Fan Appropriations And Commoditization,
2018
Syracuse University
American Space Monkeys: Analyzing Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club As A Transmedia Text Through Fan Appropriations And Commoditization, Danielle Bertolini
Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All
American Space Monkeys considers Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club in its relationship to changing iterative forms across media. It traces the narrative from its original publication in 1996 through the present day, examining the ways in which Fight Club leverages its status as a transmedia text to expand and commoditize the narrative; this is especially relevant when compared with another successful transmedia franchise, Harry Potter. Furthermore, in looking at Palahniuk’s independent and collaborative expansion of the narrative, as well as fan contributions and reactions to the text, this paper argues that, not only are capitalism and transmedia inherently tied together, but …
Resisting Borders, Resisting Control: Examining The Multiplicity Of Identities In A Map Of Home And The Girl In The Tangerine Scarf,
2018
Syracuse University
Resisting Borders, Resisting Control: Examining The Multiplicity Of Identities In A Map Of Home And The Girl In The Tangerine Scarf, Zainab Abdali
Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All
In this project I examine identities as they are expressed through the use of language in the novels A Map of Home by Randa Jarrar and The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf by Mohja Kahf. Both novels are coming-of-age narratives of two Arab and Muslim-American female protagonists that depict their exploration of identity as they undergo experiences of war, migration, displacement, and racism in their respective contexts. I explore the protagonists’ negotiation of identity in the face of familial and societal pressure to conform to clearly demarcated categorizations of identity, arguing that the protagonists recognize clear borders between identities as …
Indicted Knights: Female Agency And The Adjudication Of Rape In Arthurian Romances,
2018
University of Southern Mississippi
Indicted Knights: Female Agency And The Adjudication Of Rape In Arthurian Romances, Jessica Carrell
Honors Theses
Although Arthurian Romance is a genre often thought to provide a somewhat idealized portrayal of the relationship between the sexes, there are a surprising number of instances of sexual assault represented in Middle English texts. In a genre styled towards women, it is appropriate to consider what cultural or social function the representations of such episodes serve. How, then, do such imaginative representations relate to the historical record of sexual assault accusations and adjudication? As this thesis demonstrates, examining past literary representations of the adjudication of sexual misconduct in Middle English romances such as Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur and Chaucer’s …
Naturalism And The New Woman: Fated Motherhood In Kate Chopin's The Awakening And Edith Wharton's The House Of Mirth,
2018
University of Southern Mississippi
Naturalism And The New Woman: Fated Motherhood In Kate Chopin's The Awakening And Edith Wharton's The House Of Mirth, Lindsay J. Patorno
Honors Theses
Proto-feminist novels have garnered great critical attention in recent decades, largely owing to the reclamation efforts of feminist scholars from the 1960s onwards. These feminist scholars have remarked the fin-de-siècle emergence of a recurring narrative archetype: the unabashed New Woman, whose exploits in what were traditionally male-dominated spheres distinguished her from the domesticated matrons and sentimental bachelorettes of past literary paradigms. While the New Woman is now a commonplace among feminist critics, the following thesis uniquely interprets this feministic archetype in conjunction with the concurrent movement of American literary naturalism—a genre that proffers a deterministic worldview and is often regarded …
A Flourynge Aege: Tracing The Sacred And Secular In The Book Of St. Albans,
2018
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
A Flourynge Aege: Tracing The Sacred And Secular In The Book Of St. Albans, Allison Treese
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
With the introduction of the printing press to England around the mid-fifteenth century, English authors were not only writing under the lingering influence of Chaucer and the conventions of established medieval genres, but now had to confront the implications for reading and readership that printing brought with it along with the already turbulent political climate of the fifteenth century. Though this cultural shift was arguably a gradual one, with the earliest printers taking special care to remain faithful to the manuscripts they were copying, and conventional scribes likewise being commissioned to make copies of printed works, there were nevertheless radical …
'Where History Meets The Future' : A Historiographic Exploration Of Mississippi : The View From Tougaloo.,
2018
University of Louisville
'Where History Meets The Future' : A Historiographic Exploration Of Mississippi : The View From Tougaloo., Khirsten L. Echols
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
“Where History Meets the Future”: A Historiographic Exploration of Mississippi: The View from Tougaloo explores the historical narratives of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, with a special emphasis on Tougaloo College in Tougaloo, Mississippi. In particular, this dissertation examines the ways in which Tougaloo’s official history omits the voices of its student populations. It offers, then, a revisionist reading of the school’s history, constructing a narrative from the perspective of students. Based on hours of archival research and examination of the school’s student newspaper, this dissertation constructs a method that incorporates student voices into the historical narrative. The collection of …
There Is Water In The World For Us : The Environmental Theories Of Alice Walker.,
2018
University of Louisville
There Is Water In The World For Us : The Environmental Theories Of Alice Walker., Janae Lewis Hall
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The emergence of African-American Environmental thought responds to the ongoing erasure of Black experiences and their perspectives on nature. Mainstream environmentalism maintains a legacy of perceived innocence and incorruptibility towards the land, while Black Environmentalism demonstrates the limitations of that ideology. Limitations include the erasure of history in regards to stealing land from Indigenous people, the brutality of slavery, legalized lynching, forced removal from the land, exploitation in sharecropping, destruction of sacred lands, heavy pollution in urban centers, and harmful environmental policies. For Black and Indigenous peoples, it is impossible to view American soil as innocent. This project surveyed the …
Breaking With Tradition(?) : Female Representations Of Heroism In Old English Poetry.,
2018
University of Louisville
Breaking With Tradition(?) : Female Representations Of Heroism In Old English Poetry., Kathryn A. Green
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
For the Anglo-Saxons, strength, bravery, and the willingness to put oneself in harm’s way for king and kingdom were not only part of contemporary society but recurring themes in Old English literature. Poems like Beowulf and The Battle of Maldon reinforce the important bond between lord and retainer and the heroic ethos key to that relationship. Women were not historically part of this relationship and, therefore, not subject to the heroic code in the same way; consequently, they are rarely seen as anything more than conventional mothers, queens, wives, sisters, daughters, and virgins, all identified by their relationships to men, …
