Modern Literature Commons^™

Mario Levrero: Un Estudio Fenomenológico De Su Obra, Sergio Alves

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines three novels of Mario Levrero, which have an unnamed first-person narrator, and his autobiographical-essay-memoir type of works. The novels, known as the “involuntary trilogy”, have been considered by many as a kind that belongs to the subgenre of the fantastic. In both types of literature, we agreed that Husserlian phenomenology was an unavoidable and substantial frame for any discussion. The part of the fictional narrative considered here, by its plots, themes, narrator and characters, vocabulary and concepts, brought us to observe parallelisms with phenomenology as a discipline and body of knowledge, and as a process and attitude. …

Object Expression: Diligent Realism In The Works Of Roland Barthes, Elena Ferrante, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Valeria Luiselli, And W. G. Sebald, John Knight

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In the past twenty years, ambiguous yet meaningful encounters with objects have become a trope in contemporary fiction. Collections and archives, found objects and commonplace articles of modern life have especially substantiated literature that engages themes of displacement and selfhood. The method of incorporating objects into these works ranges from explicit cabinets of curiosities to more subtle appearances, but in each case material reality is the conduit for fundamental expressions of character. These authors draw the reader’s gaze toward an object as a way to indirectly articulate subjective experience, conspicuously displacing the central concerns of a text. This study examines …

"A Mind Of Metal And Wheels": Agrarian Ruralism In Joss Whedon's Firefly And J.R.R Tolkien's The Lord Of The Rings, Christopher Hines

English (MA) Theses

Both Joss Whedon's Firefly and J.R.R Tolkien's The Lord of The Rings present settings that are just as much influenced by the environments in which they occur as they are by the characters who act within those environments. For J.R.R. Tolkien, it was his lived experience of having grown up in a changing England that influenced his depiction of the world, while Joss Whedon's Firefly revisits and readapts the American mythos of the Western and the cowboy and re-appropriates it to science fiction, placing the action in the far future and in space where humanity is once again exploring and …

Transition And Obliteration: Jose Garcia Villa In The United States, Jonathan O. Chua

Interdisciplinary Studies Faculty Publications

Jose Garcia Villa (1908–1997) was a pioneering Filipino writer in the United States and a key figure in the history of Anglophone Filipino literature. His troubled relations with the literary establishment in the Philippines made him seek acceptance in the US literary world, which, as a colonial subject, he had taken as the summit of validation. As this review of his publication history in the United States shows, however, his foreignness hounded him. While Villa took steps to transition into someone other than a Filipino writer, he could only be accepted in the US literary scene on Orientalist terms – …

Tuesday, Valentina Herrera Reyes

Night Flight: Online Literary Journal

Abstract

Have you ever experienced different energy on the days of the week? Tuesdays are the day chosen by the author to explain inevitable tragedies and why he feels that this day should not exist. From the moment the protagonist wakes up, he does everything possible to demonstrate that everything that happens on Tuesdays leads him to another problem. However, the second character in the story, his mother, helps him understand that all this is just hallucinations in his head and that regardless of the day of the week, he can achieve great things. Finally, the protagonist gets a big …

The First World Championship For Kusuwa, Daniel Vaca Alarcon

Night Flight: Online Literary Journal

Kusuwa is a small Island located in the southwest of Argentina. On this Island was born the new soccer star who is a guy from a humble family. He and his friends will work out hard to be the best and take their country's soccer team to the world cup. Chicho is the main character; he trains 10 to 11 hours per day to improve his shoots and speed. On the other hand, there are like ten more characters who are going to compose the team. The coach Puky is on the best players and couch around the world who …

T.S Eliot And The Impersonal Theory Of Poetry, Brahim Houban

Dirassat

Literary theories and movements have different phases and characteristics. Modernism as a literary movement has been seen as a remarkable one that shaped the English literature as a whole. Thanks to T.S. Eliot and many others, modernism has become a unique phenomenon and abackbone in English literature especially when it comes to the poetic diction and the role of the poet in society. In the Romantic Era, the poet is attached to his poem and the productions are merely spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings. For modernism in general and T.S. Eliot I particular, the poet should be detached from any …

Re-Reading Alencar's Iracema Through Saer's Lens, Felicia Trievel

Vernacular: New Connections in Language, Literature, & Culture

Abstract:

The topic of European colonization is one that is discussed frequently throughout Latin American literature in a variety of different manners. Two books that discuss the colonization of different countries in extremely different ways are Iracema (1865) by José de Alencar and El entenado (1983) by Juan José Saer. The former examines the colonization of Brazil by Portuguese colonists, taking away much of the culture of the indigenous people previously inhabiting Brazil. El entenado examines the colonization of Argentina by the Spaniards. When one reads these two novels it is impossible not to compare the two due to the …

Everyday Trauma: Narrativizing The Self In Chris Ware’S Graphic Novels, Jacob Bibeault

Honors Program Theses and Projects

The term “graphic novel”—that is, a book-length narrative that employs the comics medium to tell its story—has entered into the vocabulary of comics enthusiasts and readers alike. But, despite the popularity of contemporary graphic novels, many graphic novelists began their careers writing underground comics that garnered little mainstream attention.

Final Master's Portfolio, Jonathan Correa

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

Jonathan G. Correa's Master's Portfolio

No Me Di Cuenta, Cathy Chávez

Chamisa: A Journal of Literary, Performance, and Visual Arts of New Mexico and the Greater Southwest

No abstract provided.

Remaking Divinity In Aldous Huxley’S Brave New World 2021, Sebastian Vignone

Master's Theses

Humanity is an experience. Shaped through both individual and collective encounters, we understand the self and the world around us as an amalgamation of interactions over the course of our lives. Arguably, one of the most common experiential archetypes is religion, and more specifically the relationship one has with a divine being as it has been framed by a religious institution. While the United States does not have an official religion, there is a host of people who refer to the U.S. as a “Christian nation,” and it is therefore irresponsible to elide the panoply of inequities that run through …

Surveillance: The Digital Dark Side, Brittyn Davis

English (MA) Theses

The aim of this thesis is to take a closer look at Jeremy Bentham’s eighteenth century prison, the Panopticon, in order to address how its structural makeup was not only intended to effectively surveil prisoners, but also how this very early model of surveillance has developed over time and has found its way into the digital sphere of our world. By closely examining Dave Eggers’ novel The Circle, specifically by tracing the character arc of the main character Mae, this dystopian novel will track how Mae’s evolving relationship with the digital sphere is much like society’s newfound relationship with …

Journeying To A Third Space Of Sovereignty: Explorations Of Land, Cultural Hybridity, And Sovereignty In Ceremony And There There, Jillian Eve Sanchez

English (MA) Theses

In Native American literature, there is a discourse that solely focuses on the relationship between Indigenous people and the land. This relationship is vital to understanding the traditions, rituals, storytelling, and practices of Native Americans. The presence of settler colonialism changes the relationship, effectively changing the nature of cultural and spiritual relationships as well. Indigenous literature provides examples of the modern relationship Native people have with their land; an example of this is Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony and Tommy Orange’s There There Despite modernity, assimilation, and ways of life introduced by settler colonialism, Native people maintain a relationship to the …

Reframing The Pedagogical Underpinnings Of To Kill A Mockingbird: Queering A High School Text, Hovsep Hovannesian

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Given the current climate for social and political change in relation to identity and being, traditional high school texts like To Kill A Mockingbird are being rejected as degrading, out of touch, and even regressive and are being taken off the pedagogical shelf. This article pushes back on this outlook by suggesting that a more critical approach to such texts can make them not only useful but enlightening for the high school population asked to read them. Specifically, by proposing that high school pedagogy apply the foundations and frameworks of critical, identity-focused theories, like queer theory, to traditional high school …

The Infinite Crisis: How The American Comic Book Has Been Shaped By War, Winston Andrus

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

This thesis project argues that war has been the greatest catalyst for the American comic book medium to become a socio-political change agent within western society. Comic books have become one of the most pervasive influences to global popular culture, with superheroes dominating nearly every popular art form. Yet, the academic world has often ignored the comic book medium as a niche market instead of integrated into the broader discussions on cultural production and conflict studies. This paper intends to bridge the gap between what has been classified as comic book studies and the greater academic world to demonstrate the …

Big Community In Little Chinatown: How Asian Americans (Re)Present Their Community Today, Meghan Morrison

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This paper looks at a series of modern Asian American pieces of media in order to analyze how women and LGBT+ depict and create their community, especially in relation to another marginalized ethnic group. By examining the relationship between these groups within popular media, we can uncover how Asian Americans choose to represent themselves and gain a deeper understanding on how marginalized groups choose to portray themselves.

Intuition Of An Outsider: From Nothing To Voice In George Scarbrough’S Poetry, William Moore

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Long acknowledged as a committed poet of place, this thesis examines tones of outsiderness and alienation that characterize George Scarbrough’s poetry. Scarbrough draws on familiarity with his childhood in southeast Tennessee, and from an outsider’s outlook, a perspective veritably prompted by the rejection he suffered as a homosexual and lover of language, Scarbrough’s poetry addresses the daunting themes of fear and nothingness. Analysis of his poetry also reveals qualities of hope and endurance, a commitment to received forms, and Modern innovation. Through his poetic voice, culminating in the alter ego of Han-shan, Scarbrough provides vital insights into the human experience.

Mineral Rites, Emma Van Dyke

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This document is a collection of original poems written between Fall 2017 and Spring 2021.

"What Camelot Means": Women And Lgbtq+ Authors Paving The Way For A More Inclusive Arthuriana Through Young Adult Literature, Jeddie Mae Bristow

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Arthurian literature has long been regarded as the domain of “dead white men,” dominated by Thomas Malory and Lord Alfred Tennyson. However, since medieval times, women have also been producing Arthurian literature that not only treats the women characters of the story more equitably, but makes social commentary on how the marginalized of their societies are treated. More recently, women and LGBTQ+ authors (basically, authors who are not cisgender white men) have answered the call for more diverse Young Adult literature with an Arthuriana that has a place for all, both creating a more diverse and equitable Camelot and giving …