Beowulf And Théoden: Differing Teaching Methods Of Hrothgar And Gandalf,
2025
University of British Columbia
Beowulf And Théoden: Differing Teaching Methods Of Hrothgar And Gandalf, Ali Mirzabayati
Journal of Tolkien Research
Most studies on the character of Théoden in The Lord of the Rings center on Germanic heroic themes like courage and oath-keeping, often emphasizing his renewal by Gandalf at Meduseld and his death at the Battle of Pelennor Fields. This perspective overlooks Théoden's growth in wisdom and hope between these events. During this period, Théoden learns about the various forces in Middle-earth and contemplates his role in the broader world, leading to a profound sense of humility. Building on Tolkien's inspiration from Beowulf, this paper compares Théoden and Beowulf to explore their learning processes and heroic outcomes. This comparison …
On Inventions Of A Present: The Novel In Its Crisis Of Globalization,
2025
Texas State University
On Inventions Of A Present: The Novel In Its Crisis Of Globalization, Robert T. Tally Jr.
Criticism
A review of Inventions of a Present: The Novel in Its Crisis of Globalization by Fredric Jameson. London: Verso, 2024. Pp. 272. $34.95, hardcover.
The Extraction Unconscious: Solar-Powered Utopias In Catching The Sun (2015) And In The Name Of Lithium (2021),
2025
University of Toronto
The Extraction Unconscious: Solar-Powered Utopias In Catching The Sun (2015) And In The Name Of Lithium (2021), Isidora Cortés-Monroy
Critical Humanities
By comparing the depictions of future energy regimes in the two ecodocumentaries, Catching the Sun (2015) and In the Name of Lithium (2021), this article explores representations of post-carbon futures from the US and Argentina. Read closely alongside Frederic Jameson’s notions of utopias, the article delineates the extent to which a solar powered future challenges and reiterates current neocolonial extractivist structures. Basing myself on Patricia Yaeger’s concept of an “energy unconscious,” I argue that these solar utopias maintain an “extraction unconscious” that continues to produce sacrifice zones where primary commodities needed for the energy transition can be found. By analysing …
The Radical Potential Of Ecopoetics: Ecological Intimacy In Forrest Gander’S Twice Alive,
2025
King's College London
The Radical Potential Of Ecopoetics: Ecological Intimacy In Forrest Gander’S Twice Alive, Thomas Storey
Critical Humanities
Ecopoetics is a contested term, one defined by its capaciousness. Through its focus on deep ecology, it draws together the world system and the individual, the collective and the singular, and the global and the placed-based within its dialectical framework, without resolving any of these oppositions. Instead, the apparent contradictions underlying ecopoetics offer productive material for a poetic praxis that aims to foreground the complex connections that string together nature, culture, politics, and society. Forrest Gander’s Twice Alive engages with these contradictions in an attempt to foreground the intimacy of ecological thinking, and its basis in personal connections that are …
Esperanza, De Marina Caba Rall, Y Blutorangen, De Verena Boos: Recuperación De La Memoria Histórica De La Migración Española A Alemania, En Dos Novelas Alemanas Del Siglo Xxi,
2025
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Esperanza, De Marina Caba Rall, Y Blutorangen, De Verena Boos: Recuperación De La Memoria Histórica De La Migración Española A Alemania, En Dos Novelas Alemanas Del Siglo Xxi, Adriana Haro-Luviano Ma, Dietrich J.G. Rall Dr.
Homage to Alexander von Humboldt: Travels to and from Spain Throughout the Centuries / Homenaje a Alexander von Humboldt: Viajes hacia y desde España de todos los siglos
Las novelas Blutorangen (2015) y Esperanza (2016) narran dos sagas familiares ficticias que integran en la complejidad de su estructura temas como la memoria y la represión del recuerdo, la post-memoria, la historia y el olvido, los conflictos culturales y la manera de enfrentarse con el pasado. Desde su formación profesional como historiadoras, ambas autoras vertebran sus novelas con la construcción de imágenes históricas que reflejan la migración española a la Alemania de mediados del siglo XX, la integración de las dos protagonistas a la sociedad y cultura alemanas, así como su regreso a España, para esclarecer tanto las causas …
Conversations Abroad: The Effect Of Interlocutor Type, Relationship Quality, And L2 Proficiency On Interaction In Naturalistic Settings,
2025
Santa Clara University
Conversations Abroad: The Effect Of Interlocutor Type, Relationship Quality, And L2 Proficiency On Interaction In Naturalistic Settings, Tripp Strawbridge
Modern Languages & Literature
Study abroad (SA) is touted for providing language learners with regular exposure to a second language (L2) in naturalistic settings. However, few studies have examined how interaction occurs in situ. This study analyzed 13 hours of naturalistic dyadic conversations self-recorded by 15 US-based undergraduate sojourners studying abroad for one semester in Spain. Conversations were analyzed for interaction metrics previously posited as relevant to L2 acquisition in SA: speaking time, negotiation of meaning, lexical assistance, and corrective feedback. The study then analyzed how these variables were conditioned by interlocutor identity (host family [HF] member, local native speaker [NS] peer, and nonnative …
“Eyes Can Be Blinded”: A Narratological Analysis Of Focalization In Sarah J. Maas’S A Court Of Thorns And Roses And A Court Of Silver Flames,
2025
University of Denver
“Eyes Can Be Blinded”: A Narratological Analysis Of Focalization In Sarah J. Maas’S A Court Of Thorns And Roses And A Court Of Silver Flames, Georga Mae Feek
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This thesis explores the complex relationship between Feyre and Nesta, two prominent characters in Sarah J. Maas’s A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR) and A Court of Silver Flames (ACOSF). My analysis uses narratological concepts from three significant scholars in narrative theory: Gérard Genette, Shlomith Rimmon-Kenan, and Mieke Bal. I begin with a theoretical synthesis of narration and focalization and outline the various categories of types of narrators and focalizers. Then, I analyze Feyre’s focalization in ACOTAR and Nesta’s focalization in ACOSF. Through this process, I have developed rich character studies of Feyre and Nesta. My investigation of the …
Bilbo's Boethian Heroism,
2025
University of Northern Iowa
Bilbo's Boethian Heroism, Wendy Marie Hoofnagle
Journal of Tolkien Research
Tolkien’s Boethian heritage has been amply explored, particularly for The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, but little scholarly attention has been paid to his development of Boethian ideals in The Hobbit, especially in regard to Bilbo’s heroic arc and the importance of luck on his journey. I argue that Tolkien develops Bilbo’s heroic identity and his famous “luck” as the actions of Fortune on behalf of Fate and divine Providence, interpreting the influential theology from Boethius’s The Consolation of Philosophy as a new kind of heroism that fulfills the teachings of Lady Philosophy.
Selena Quintanilla-Pérez: Breaking Barriers In Tejano Music And Shaping Mexican-American Identity,
2025
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
Selena Quintanilla-Pérez: Breaking Barriers In Tejano Music And Shaping Mexican-American Identity, Fatima Hernandez-Barajas
World Languages and Cultures
This project will focus on how Selena Quintanilla-Perez broke barriers in Tejano music for women and became a cultural icon representing the aspirations of the American Dream for the Mexican American community. The paper begins with a summary of Selena’s life and accomplishments, followed by an examination of the history of Tejano music, the role of women within the genre, Selena’s unique relationship with it, and how she embodies the pursuit of the American Dream while representing the Mexican-American identity within the community. Through this analysis, the project highlights how Selena’s success challenged traditional gender roles and bridged bicultural identities, …
"The Way It Comes—Through Nature:" Christian Realism, Rural Landscapes, And Divine Confrontations In Flannery O'Connor's Farm Fiction,
2025
Louisiana Tech University
"The Way It Comes—Through Nature:" Christian Realism, Rural Landscapes, And Divine Confrontations In Flannery O'Connor's Farm Fiction, Ashton Bailey Thomas
Master's Theses
Flannery O’Connor, though often labeled a Southern Gothic writer, preferred to place herself in the genre of “Christian Realism.” For her, the grotesque nature of her stories’ endings reflects not grace itself but the culmination of repeated rejections of grace. In her essays and letters, O’Connor argues that grace should be depicted “the way it comes—through nature,” equating the spiritual with the natural world. In her stories’ farm landscapes, O’Connor presents an ever-present grace through nature that, though often ignored or rejected, serves as a catalyst for spiritual confrontations. When this grace is continually denied, violence becomes the only force …
Perceiving The Perceiver: “Viewing” Sauron Through The Gestalt Theory Of Perception,
2025
Independent scholar
Perceiving The Perceiver: “Viewing” Sauron Through The Gestalt Theory Of Perception, Cameron Bourquein
Journal of Tolkien Research
This paper uses Gestalt theory, the Gestalt laws of perception, and the reception theory of Wolfgang Iser to elucidate the character “Sauron” as he appears in The Lord of the Rings, The Rings of Power, and Tolkien’s wider legendarium. It argues firstly that Sauron’s high degree of indeterminacy and ambiguity suggests he can be read as a gestalt entity, one the reader creates by mentally constructing a whole from (seemingly) disparate parts. Building on the semiotics work of Nagy (2013), it argues that Sauron in The Lord of the Rings can be read as gestalt across the spatial, …
Les Blattes Orgueilleuses,
2025
The Graduate Center, CUNY
Wulver In Appalachia,
2025
University of South Carolina - Upstate
Wulver In Appalachia, Wylan Blair
Persimmon Creek
A poem about a mysterious figure who comes to the aid of a mountain community.
Dodo,
2025
University of South Carolina - Upstate
Dodo, Lyxia C. Vue
Persimmon Creek
A short poem about the extinct animal known as the Dodo Bird.
"You Know The Rules": A Dramatic Experiment In Aromantic Literary Theory,
2025
Clark University
"You Know The Rules": A Dramatic Experiment In Aromantic Literary Theory, April Chronowski
English
This paper proposes a new literary theory framework based on the zine "an aromantic manifesto" by yingchen and yingtong, as well as the work of Erving Goffman, using theater as a device to examine romantic relationships. Blending English and sociology, I focus each chapter on a different literary period and examine two plays each: early modern (Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus and William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing), modern (Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Djuna Barnes' "To The Dogs"), and contemporary (Caryl Churchill's Cloud 9 and Margaret Edson's W;t). In tandem with analysis of formal elements---like …
Transgressive Fiction And The Problem Of Negative Affect: A Case Study Of Samuel Delany’S Hogg,
2025
SUNY Cortland
Transgressive Fiction And The Problem Of Negative Affect: A Case Study Of Samuel Delany’S Hogg, Brian Thornton
Master's Theses
Samuel Delany began drafting Hogg in March of 1969 and worked on it intermittently before completing the novel in October of 1973.1 Yet Hogg remained unpublished until 1995 before finally seeing the light of day “during the ‘transgressive turn’ in American literature” (Mitchell 1). As such, the novel is historically situated along what Jonathan Mitchell calls a “dual temporality,” which “allows the novel to be located as an intervention in two key moments in America’s LGBT+ history: first, the developments in identity politics coming out of the socio-political cultural shifts of the 1960s; and, second, the post-AIDS awareness 1990s”.
Feral And Free: The Queering Of Motherhood In Rachel Yoder’S Nightbitch,
2025
SUNY Cortland
Feral And Free: The Queering Of Motherhood In Rachel Yoder’S Nightbitch, Cassandra Haskell
Master's Theses
This thesis explores motherhood from a perspective that seeks to inform and challenge the patriarchal definitions of motherhood in order to simultaneously confront its restrictions and create new meanings from its institutionalized definition. The main text that this thesis analyzes is the 2021 novel Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder, as well as the 2024 film of the same name, critiquing how it successfully queers motherhood by questioning, challenging, and defying the impractical expectations placed upon mothers by society. Some secondary scholars whose works that I utilize to support my argument are authors such as Audre Lorde, Jessica Calarco, Adrienne Rich and …
Weird Weather Against The Pathetic Fallacy,
2025
East Tennessee State University
Weird Weather Against The Pathetic Fallacy, Avery L. Leonard
Undergraduate Honors Theses
This project claims the weather and nature in Algernon Blackwood’s “The Willows” and Shirley Jackson’s “The Summer People” is weird fiction and displays an eerie subversion of John Ruskin’s literary philosophy, “The Pathetic Fallacy.” By analyzing these texts through the lens of the weird fiction genre, the signifiers of the genre make the weather in these stories extend past common literary tropes. Ruskin’s work calls attention to the literary trope of assigning weather in literature emotion, yet Algernon Blackwood and Shirley Jackson intentionally deviate from the pathetic fallacy and make the weather in their stories weird and eerie by both …
In The Shadow Of Justice: How The Mythos Of The Batman Balances Major Ethical Theories And Demonstrates The Pursuit Of Ideal Justice,
2025
Harding University
In The Shadow Of Justice: How The Mythos Of The Batman Balances Major Ethical Theories And Demonstrates The Pursuit Of Ideal Justice, Camille Bewley
Honors Theses
For more than eighty years, the Batman character has exhibited a unique synthesis of major theories of Justice, and through his experiences as a vigilante, exemplified the pursuit of the ideal virtue of Justice. Because virtue requires a lived example to be understood, Batman is one of the foundational stories fulfilling this need for one of America’s prominent pillars. Within the horror of Gotham City–a corrupt, fictional society–Batman’s actions as a vigilante, walking a tightrope to maintain morality even above the law might not only be justified, but necessary. The Batman’s nature, balancing ethical theories and maintaining hope in the …
“More Than What [They] Made Us To Be”: From Passing To Perception In Victorian And Modern Vampire Media,
2025
Chapman University
“More Than What [They] Made Us To Be”: From Passing To Perception In Victorian And Modern Vampire Media, Lauren Sieberg
English (MA) Theses
Throughout Victorian Gothic horror fiction, vampires function as deviant figures, maneuvering within social confines of passing until their status quo-threatening identity is exposed. Of the popular vampires from this period, most gradually fail to maintain status as social insiders—as demonstrated with Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula or Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla, who possess the temporary capacity to pass until their hidden monstrosity is revealed over time. Even if Gothic monsters are confined to a limited space and time far from society, this is still not enough; in accordance with the Victorian culture of morality policing by dominant groups, the vampiric Other …
