English Language and Literature Commons^™

The Book That Made Me: A Girl, Daniel Pollack-Pelzner

Faculty Publications

In this installment of The Book That Made Me, a series from Public Books reflecting on the books that have changed our lives, Daniel Pollack-Pelzner reflects on the freedom he received—to become a whole other person, in a whole other place—from an unexpected source.

"Our Attachments Are Our Temples": Addiction, Recovery, And The Metamodernist Movement, Ashlie M. Contos

English Department Theses

There is currently a profound debate occurring across the globe regarding the nature of addiction: whether or not addiction is a disease. Within the last decade, addiction research and publications have flooded the market, which challenge the disease model for understanding addiction. This new research suggests that addiction is a learned behavior thus addiction begins as a habit that, if continued, becomes an ingrained behavior, but it is not a disease, like diabetes or heart disease.

Concurrently, there is much discussion within academia as to what is presently occurring in literary and critical theory trends. Although there is still much …

Look At That Little Macho: Surveillance And Hegemonic Masculinity In Junot DíAz's The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao, Ludanne Francis

Honors Theses

No abstract available.

( Re ) Claiming History And Visibility Through Rhetorical Sovereignty: The Power Of Diné Rhetorics In The Works Of Laura Tohe, Jessica Marie Safran Hoover

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the intricate intersections of code switching, trickster discourse and rhetorical sovereignty in the scholarship of Diné author Laura Tohe, as Tohe operationalizes survivance and alliance in complex ways, ways that “actuate a presence” in the face of ongoing attempts to render American Indian peoples absent from American rhetorical, literary, and geographic landscapes. Existing research in American Indian literatures and rhetorics often focus on the need for reclaiming rhetorical sovereignty. Yet, little work has been done to emphasize connections between the use of code switching, translation, and trickster discourse in order to give visibility to past and contemporary …

Allan Explores African Literature And Its Impact On The U.S., Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

Although for decades now we have become familiar with the vibrancy and impact of African-American literature in this country, little is publicly mentioned about its roots.

Someone who has researched and taught both African and African-American literature is Dr. Tuzyline Allan. A native of Sierra Leone in West Africa, she has been around, academically speaking. Allan obtained her bachelor’s degree in English from Durham University in England, a master’s degree in English from New York University (NYU), and a doctorate in English from Stony Brook University in New York. Today she is a professor in the Department of English in …

Breaking The Silence, Allison Schuette

English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Horse And The Heroic Quest: Equestrian Indicators Of Morality In Lancelot, Don Quixote, And Tolkien, Kirsten G. Rodning

English MA Theses

There is a strong connection in Don Quixote and the works of Chretièn de Troyes and J.R.R. Tolkien between a character’s moral decisions and the way that said character treats his horse or horses. The Horse and the Heroic Quest: Equestrian Indicators of Morality in Lancelot, Don Quixote, and Tolkien studies the moral factors that affect the way heroic characters are revealed to readers and how these morals relate to the ways in which characters interact with horses. This ecocritical study focuses on the protagonists in Chretièn’s Lancelot, Cervantes’s Don Quixote, and Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and …

World War I, Anti-German Hysteria, The “Spanish” Flu, And My Ántonia, 1917–1919, Charles Johanningsmeier

English Faculty Publications

At first glance, My Ántonia might seem to have nothing to do with World War I. Despite the fact that Cather’s fourth novel was written between the fall of 1916 and June 1918, the war is nowhere mentioned in it, and no evidence exists to suggest that Cather consciously intended to embed any type of commentary about the war within its pages. Nevertheless, My Ántonia is inextricably connected to the war, chiefly because its early sales and reception among American readers were very likely heavily influenced by the xenophobic attitudes that the war exacerbated.

Strange Things Keep Happening To Me: Postcolonial Identity And Henry James's Ghosts, Conor J. Scruton

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

While there have been many studies of Henry James's ghost stories, there has been surprisingly little scholarship written on postcolonial tensions in these works. In American literature, the figure of the Native American ghost is a common expression of Western settler guilt over native erasure and land seizure. In both his American and British ghost stories, though, James focuses more on the horror within the colonizer than the terrifying, ghostly other from the edge of the empire. As such, these ghost stories serve as a more significant critique of colonialism and imperialism than Gothic texts that merely demonstrate the colonizer’s …

Looking Outward: Archival Research As Community Engagement, Whitney Douglas

English Literature Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article examines archival research as a generative community literacy practice. Through the example of a community-based project centered on archival research, I examine the increased possibility the archives hold as a site for rhetorical invention based on collaboration that includes contemporary community members and the recovered rhetoric of historical figures. I argue that archival research as community literacy practice creates conditions for a communal form of literacy sponsorship and offer a framework for approaching the archives.

Eng 200: The Consciousness Of Reality Through Poetry, Jill Matthews

English 100-200-300 Conference

No abstract provided.

Eng 200: A Heroine In Her Own Right: A Character Analysis Of Penelope In The Penelopiad, Ar’Meishia Burrow

English 100-200-300 Conference

No abstract provided.

Roasted: Coffee, Insult, Rhetoric, David Pharis Gifford

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

While insult has been a frequent topic for rhetorical study in the past, little if any work has gone toward the formation of a systematic theory of insult. Karina Korostelina has proposed a theory of intergroup identity insults, which appears promising from a socio-cultural perspective. However, her theory does not address the particularly rhetorical characteristics of insults, preferring instead to analyze them with reference to their socio-historic context. While her theory proves sound under scrutiny, it does little to shed light on pejorative rhetoric as rhetoric.

In what follows, I would like to propose certain characteristics of pejorative rhetoric that …

Singular They: The Best Epicene Pronoun, Brittney Grubber

Student Research Conference Select Presentations

The English language does not possess a third person epicene pronoun, and speakers must fill the gap, which they do most commonly with "they". Scholars understand the implications of a gender neutral pronoun for non-binary persons, but besides linguists, they do not thoroughly examine grammatical reasons for the resistance to new pronouns. This paper addresses the grammatical issues and options available to the language, including the strengths and weaknesses of "they." Even with minor faults, "they" is widely used in both spoken and written English and should be adopted by Standard English.

“Shadowy Objects In Test Tubes”: Ishiguro’S Never Let Me Go As An Example Of Freud’S “Uncanny” And Agamben’S “Bare Life”, Fabian Rempfer

2017 Awards for Excellence in Student Research and Creative Activity – Documents

According to Freud, “the idea of being buried alive by mistake is the most uncanny thing of all” (10). He vividly describes a fear many people cannot grasp because it is too abstract to think about even though death is the indisputable consequence of being alive. The difference is, however, that we are consciously living through our own demise, being aware that death is inevitable and at hand, which rightly depicts one of the most frightening situations a human being can experience. Therefore, human beings desperately attempt to prevent death by trying to cheat it and even avoid it all …

Games & Disguise: The Businessman In 19th & 20th Century Literature, Megan Koperna

Senior Honors Projects

No abstract provided.

Write What You Know: The Process Of Writing A Young Adult Novella, Grace Morgan

Honors Projects in English and Cultural Studies

One tragedy, two lives changed forever. This novella follows the paths of two characters coping with the death of loved ones. It examines the themes of grief, friendship, family, self-discovery and inner strength. Specifically, how these things manifest and change after experiencing extreme loss. The dual narrative compares and contrasts the varying ways people react to grief. This project on creative writing followed the writing process from brainstorming to final draft.

Beauty Outside Our Doors: Conservation Stories Of Black Hawk County, University Of Northern Iowa. Environmental Literature (Spring 2017).

Environmental Literature Project

Beauty Outside Our Doors collects stories, poems, essays, and interviews with people of Black Hawk County, Iowa, giving voice to their relationship to the land, in their own words. From beekeeping to family farms to kayaking down the Cedar River and nature therapy, this work serves as a witness to the beauty to be found here—and the challenges we still face as citizens and lovers of the natural world.

Published as a collaboration between the Soil and Water Conservation District and students in the Spring 2017 Environmental Literature class at the University of Northern Iowa, this unique anthology invites you …

Embodying Gender And Class In Public Spaces Through An Active Learning Activity: “Out And About In The Eighteenth Century", Ann Campbell

English Literature Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article explains how and why the learning activity "out and about in the eighteenth century" fosters students' understanding of historical and cultural issues related to gender and class in eighteenth-century novels.

Inexhaustible Magic: Folklore As World Building In Harry Potter, Samantha G. Castleman

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The practice of secondary world building, the creation of a fantasy realm with its own unique laws and systems has long been a tradition within the genre of fantasy writing. In many notable cases, such as those publications by J.R.R. Tolkien and H.P. Lovecraft, folklore exhibited in the world of the reader has been specifically used not only to construct these fantasy realms, but to add depth and believability to their presentation. The universe of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series demonstrates this same practice of folklore-as-world-building, yet her construction does much more than just create a fantasy realm. By using …