Modern Literature Commons^™

Las Filipinas: The Persistence Of Spain In Jessica Hagedorn's Dogeaters, Blake Seana Locklin

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

This essay argues for the significance of the legacy of Spain in Jessica Hagedorn's Dogeaters. Critical analyses have explored many aspects of the novel's portrayal of relations between the Philippines and the United States, a more recent colonizer whose influence on politics and culture is prominent in Dogeaters. The effects of Spanish colonization are more subtle in the novel, but pervade its representation of characters, language, and society. While highlighting the fragmentation of individual and national identities, Dogeaters depicts a Philippines in which many social and political problems have roots in the Spanish colonial era. Building on the …

Ideology And Iconography In Gustav Machatý’S Ecstasy (1933), Karl E. Toepfer

Open Educational Resources

This essay discusses the cinematic construction of sexual ecstatic experience in Gustav Machaty's 1933 film Ecstasy. Sergei Eisenstein's theory of cinematic montage governs the shapes the way the filmmakers organize the representation of erotic desire and rapture. But the film also shows affinity with the Czech "Poetist" movement of the 1920s in constructing a guiding view of ecstatic experience. The essay analyzes many images in the film, and concludes with an application of montage theory of ecstatic cinema to the consumption of erotic videos and internet imagery.

Ztc Sls 302: Medieval/Early Modern Cultures, Nicolette Guida

Open Educational Resources

This course explores the depiction of gender, race, and social class in Shakespeare’s plays, with a focus on how his works engage with and challenge the norms of early modern society. In this course, we will study two of Shakespeare’s comedies: Much Ado About Nothing and The Taming of the Shrew; as well as two of his tragedies: Romeo and Juliet and Othello in relation to the culture of early modern England. Through an in-depth study of these texts, students will examine the complexities of these social categories as portrayed in the plays and how they continue to resonate in …

The Ache Of Modernism: Death, Affect, And Intersubjectivity In Twentieth-Century American Literature, Alex Gergely

Theses and Dissertations--English

This dissertation suggests that we can locate, describe, and experience death as an aesthetic mood called the ache of modernism. The ache is an atmosphere found in twentieth-century literature that goes beyond simply “positive” or “negative” feeling and encourages audiences to come to an affective and existential relationship with their mortality. As an intersubjective mood deriving from an attunement on death, it illuminates the historical and philosophical moment of many twentieth-century authors while clarifying their texts’ continued resonance today. This project therefore draws on the thought of major philosophers like Emmanuel Levinas, Martin Buber, Gabriel Marcel, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Heidegger, …

La Importancia De Los Personajes Femeninos En Como Agua Para Chocolate Como Medio Para Entender El Papel De Las Mujeres Mexicanas En Dos Momentos Históricos, Jessica R. Sloan-Cooper

CMC Senior Theses

En la novela, Como agua para chocolate, escrito por Laura Esquivel, el personaje central, Tita, se encuentra a sí misma entre dos mundos completamente diferentes en su hogar; uno es restringido y estricto, y tiene que ver con su madre, Mamá Elena, y el otro es libre e ilimitado, relacionado con su hermana, Gertrudis. Cuando Tita no puede casarse con el hombre que ama, Pedro, se da cuenta que está atrapada en dos realidades en conflicto. ¿Cómo puede ser? Esta novela toma lugar en dos momentos históricos centrales: El Porfiriato y la Revolución mexicana. El Porfiriato es el prolongado régimen …

Milk Tooth, 2026, Casina Alderson, Eddie Anderson, Katherine Eliason, Liz Fisher, Jon Geimer, Sadie House, Hannah Lewis, Eshetu Loer, Nazia Matt, Edwin Mayo, Hannah Pfeiffer, Adam Roloff, Kaitlyn Seibel, Sydney Skoglund, Griffin Wilson, Luke Yartz

Milk Tooth

"Writings by Bemidji State University Students". Sponsored by the Bemidji State University English Department.

Ayer Y Hoy De España En Guinea Ecuatorial. Construcción De La Colonia Africana Y Sus Consecuencias En La Actualidad A Través De Las Voces Femeninas En La Literatura En Español, Jesús Ponte Bernal

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

Equatorial Guinea was a Spanish colony until 1968. Despite this, it has never received much attention from the Iberian Peninsula, so its literature and history remain unknown to much of the Spanish-speaking population. This has been due to historical factors, such as the Franco dictatorship, which classified everything related to the African colony as confidential, but also due to the racial exclusion experienced by the Black population throughout history. Generally, only some Equatorial Guinean male authors have managed to carve out a place for themselves in the cultural canon.

This study analyzes eight books whose plots take place in Equatorial …

Heart Of Stone: Geomorphization Through Stone-Oriented Affects, Grace F. Foster

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis draws from the work of geologist Marcia Bjornerud to bring a scientific (specifically geologic) understanding of humanity’s relationship to our home planet to bear in a literary context. I employ Bjornerud’s term “geomorphization” to expand from inter-species kinship to inter-substance kinship and to establish stone as an active, lively subject without relying on anthropomorphization. Geomorphization as I define it refers to recognizing similarity between ourselves and stone/Earth on the basis of our stoniness rather than stone’s human-ness. Geomorphizing ourselves entails what Bjornerud calls “timefulness,” a geologic perspective on temporality that sees the past as continually acting in the …

To Print A Remake: An Analysis Of Hollywood Remakes And Their Cultural Value, Connor F. Seaton

Honors Undergraduate Theses

In recent years, audiences and movie critics have expressed concern that Hollywood’s growing reliance on remakes, sequels, franchises, and similar adaptations has led to a broader worry that originality is fading from modern cinema and that the industry is instead focused on using adaptations to maximize profits. Although adaptation is often seen as a commercially driven framework for reproducing existing intellectual property in a new media format, this thesis argues that it should be recognized as an autonomous cultural category with its own artistic, historical, and social significance and merit. By analyzing adaptation scholarship and reviewing its complex historical development, …

When To Bite Back: Queerness, Resistance, And Reclamation Of The Monstrous Identity In Andrew Joseph White’S Hell Followed With Us, Aster J. Mehigan Mx.

English

Who gets the right to define morality? Who gets to define what is monstrous? Frankenstein’s Creature, the vampires of Lost Boys, The Craft’s head witch Nancy Downs; these characters follow a pattern through the decades of those alienated from society, in this case being written with queer subtext, being deemed as monstrous. These queer monsters become the villains of the story, causing chaos, death and destruction in their wake, seeking revenge against a world that ostracizes them. The 2022 dystopian YA horror of Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White challenges the villanized monstrous identity through its transgender protagonist …

"Sing It Again": Linguistic Medievalisms In Geoffrey Hill And Seamus Heaney, Christian Cotten-Dixon

Honors College Theses

This study examines the use of early medieval structure and language in the poetry of Seamus Heaney and Geoffrey Hill, focusing on their near-contemporary collections, North and Mercian Hymns. Both collections use etymological and poetic structures to fashion an imagined medieval past in order to discuss personal and cultural narratives of history. Leveraging these structures in poetry and digging them out of past strata like a material artifact, Heaney and Hill collapse linear systems of time and language and access past word forms even as they evolve. This archaeological approach to poetry gives them the means to place the …

Pathos, Winter 2026, Portland State University. Student Publications Board

Pathos

Editor: Adriana Stanzione

Roan Stallion, Tamar And Other Poems: Centennial Edition, By Robinson Jeffers, Brett Colasacco

Jeffers Studies

No abstract provided.

Wild Anthropocene Literature And Multispecies Justice In Deep Time, By Louise Economides, George Hart

Jeffers Studies

No abstract provided.

Voices Of The Headland: Robinson Jeffers And The Bird Of Prey, By Alan Malnar, Eric San George

Jeffers Studies

No abstract provided.

The Making Of Jewish-American Progress In Gertrude Stein’S, The Making Of Americans: Being A History Of A Family’S Progress, Rochel L. Gasson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation provides a comprehensive reading of Gertrude Stein’s The Making of Americans (TMOA), situating the novel at the intersection of literary modernism, Jewish American identity, and feminist thought. It argues that Stein reconceives American progress not as linear advancement but as a recursive, relational, and culturally grounded process. Through experimental form, repetitive syntax, and a sustained present tense, TMOA dramatizes the psychological and social complexities of immigrant families navigating assimilation while maintaining heritage. Characters such as the Old Man, his son, and the Dehning and Herland families reveal generational tensions, moral labor, and the ambivalences of upward …

Best Integrated Writing Fall 2025 - Complete Edition, Wright State University School Of Humanities And Cultural Studies, Tracy Smith, Kristie Mckiernan

Best Integrated Writing

Best Integrated Writing includes excellent student writing from Integrated Writing courses taught at Wright State University.

Living The Humanities: Ghosts, Literature, & Social Justice, Emily A. Phillips

Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal

How do we bridge the perceived divide between the study of humanities in our Jesuit universities and the real-world problems that surround our campuses? Jacques Derrida’s “hauntology" offers us a compelling way to move between the classroom and life, to guide our students through the Universal Apostolic Preferences of “To walk with the poor, the outcasts of the world, those whose dignity has been violated, in a mission of reconciliation and justice” and “To accompany young people in the creation of a hope-filled future.” This article offers a framework for combining literary analysis, historical inquiry, and creative writing in an …

Neurodivergent Kintsugi, Jenée Stanfield

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

Jenée Stanfield is a late-realized, neuroqueer woman living in the Pacific Northwest with her spouse and her dog. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from Pacific Lutheran University and is currently working towards a MS in Restorative Practices at the International Institute for Restorative Practices.

She has presented professional development workshops and conference sessions on topics related to neurodivergent community and neurodivergent-affirming restorative practices in higher education. She co-founded a neurodivergent staff and faculty community at the college where she works as an advisor.

Nene Leakes As A Modern Medea, Jazzlyn L. White

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This paper examines how The Real Housewives of Atlanta functions as a modern form of Greek tragedy through its portrayal of Nene Leakes, whose rise and fall within the Bravo franchise mirrors the tragic arc of Euripides’ Medea. Both Medea and Leakes represent women who defy the systems that once empowered them Medea through her rebellion against patriarchal and familial structures, and Leakes through her public confrontation with the television industry that made her a star. By analyzing these two figures through rhetorical, feminist, and media studies frameworks, this paper argues that reality television operates as a contemporary stage …