Digital Commons Network^™

The Oxford Handbook Of Ecocriticism Edited By Greg Garrard, Camilla Nelson Dr

The Goose

Camilla Nelson reviews The Oxford Handbook of Ecocriticism, edited by Greg Garrard

Lost, Beat, Blank: The Punk Unconscious In Subversive And Transgressive Cultural Productions, Joel R. West

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Although punk was not used as a signifying term for a subculture or its cultural production until the 1970s, the punk spirit can be identified within cultural texts that precede the term. A punk aesthetics includes rejection of societal norms, class-consciousness, and spontaneity, or a do-it-yourself (DIY) approach that is antagonistic toward the modes of production. In this thesis, I claim and develop a concept I call the punk unconscious; in the texts I examine, punk aesthetics can be found just below the surface through the employment of specific theoretical frameworks, namely Fredric Jameson’s political unconscious and Mikhail Bakhtin’s dialogic …

Who By Fire By Fred Stenson, Mary H. Scriver Rev. Or Bs, Mdiv, Ma

The Goose

Mary Scriver reviews Who by Fire by Fred Stenson.

Becoming Wild: Living The Primitive Life On A West Coast Island By Nikki Van Schyndel, Maureen Scott Harris

The Goose

Maureen Scott Harris reviews Becoming Wild: Living the Primitive Life on a West Coast Island, by Nikki Van Schyndel.

Ordinary Hours By Karen Enns And Lake Of Two Mountains By Arleen Paré, Lisa M. Giles

The Goose

A 'double' review of two new poetry publications from Brick Books: Ordinary Hours by Karen Enns and Lake of Two Mountains by Arleen Pare.

Subduction Zone By Emily Mcgiffin, Kelly Shepherd

The Goose

Kelly Shepherd's review of Subduction Zone by Emily McGiffin.

Facing The Change: Personal Encounters With Global Warming Edited By Steven Pavlos Holmes, Geoff R. Martin

The Goose

Geoff R. Martin reviews Facing the Change: Personal Encounters with Global Warming.

Global Chaucers: Reflections On Collaboration And Digital Futures, Candace Barrington, Jonathan Hsy

Accessus

Global Chaucers, our multi-national, multi-lingual, multi-year project, intends to locate, catalog, translate, archive, and analyze non-Anglophone appropriations and translations of Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. Since its founding in 2012, this project has rapidly changed in response to scholars’ diverse interests and our expanding discoveries. Almost all these changes were prompted and made possible by our online presence (including a blog and Facebook group), and digital media comprises our primary means for gathering information, disseminating our findings, advertising conferences and events, and promoting the resource to other scholars. Because digital media can help disparate people traverse geographical and linguistic barriers, …

Foreword, Georgiana Donavin, Eve Salisbury

Accessus

Co-editors Georgiana Donavin and Eve Salisbury welcome readers to Accessus 2.2.

The Literary Unconscious: Ideology And Utopia In The Nineteenth-Century Realist Novel In England And Russia, Isra Ahmed Daraiseh

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this volume, I have examined a number of works of nineteenth-century realist fiction from England and Russia, using the double interpretive method recommended by Fredric Jameson in The Political Unconscious. In particular, I have employed the dialectical double hermeneutic suggested by Jameson, who argues that the most productive approach to literary texts is to consider them from the double perspective of ideology and utopia. That is, critics should approach literary texts by seeking out the ideological roots that lie beneath the textual surface and from which the texts grow, while at the same time keeping a careful eye out …

Dialogical Interspecies Ethics: Ataraxia, Desire And Hope In The Post-Human World Of Anne Carson's Pastoral, Thomas Bristow Dr

The Goose

This review essay implicitly revisits human and non-human power relations within a critical animal studies context that understands the affective conjunction between the manipulation of our worlds (action, partly through knowledge) and degrees of involvement with these others that live in our worlds (comportment via emotions). I take Louise Westling’s new study as the platform for an analysis of two book-length poems, The Autobiography of Red (1998) and red doc> (2013), which centre on the life of a shepherd, Geryon. Rather than revisit classical pastoral, these texts extract power-relations that classical myth and pastoral spatialise. In so doing, I argue, …

Undead Empire: How Folklore Animates The Human Corpse In Nineteenth-Century British Literature, Charles Hoge

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores representations of the human corpse in nineteenth-century British literature and ephemeral culture as a dynamic, multidirectional vehicle used by writers and readers to help articulate emerging anxieties that were complicating the very idea of death. Using cultural criticism as its primary critical heuristic filter, this project analyzes how the lingering influence of folklore animates the human corpses that populate canonical and extra-canonical nineteenth-century British literature.

The first chapter examines the treatment of the human corpse through burial and mourning rituals, as specific developments within these procedures provide interpretive windows into how the idea of death was quickly …

The Search For Authentic Travel In Early Twentieth-Century British Magazines, Christina Bertrand Firebaugh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Edwardian travel writing between roughly 1905 and 1914 serves as a bridge between the closing of the long Victorian period, the beginnings of modernism, and the changes to come in the twentieth century. The search for authentic experience characterizes travel writing in the Edwardian era. Significant cultural, technological, and social changes caused Edwardians to examine their perceptions about possibilities for authentic engagement with other places and people in their travels. As a result, Edwardian travel writers explore various methods by which to engage authentically with other cultures. Drawing on literary theory, anthropology, and cultural studies, this dissertation examines a number …

A Culture In Change: The Development Of Masculinity Through P.G. Wodehouse's Psmith Series, Allison Thompson

Masters Theses

P. G. Wodehouse offers a serious and sustained critique of English society using the game of cricket as he follows the lives of two memorable characters, Mike Jackson and Rupert Psmith. Yet Wodehouse has frequently been accused of existing as too innocent of a bystander to understand the underpinnings of society, let alone to offer a critique. For example, Christopher Hitchens in a review of a Wodehouse biography by Robert McCrum states, "Wodehouse was a rather beefy, hearty chap, with a lifelong interest in the sporting subculture of the English boarding school and a highly developed instinct for the main …

Beyond Bollywood: Exhibiting South Asian America, Bakirathi Mani

English Literature Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Asian Latino Conflict And Solidarity In Díaz’S The Brief And Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao, Paula C. Park

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Asian Latino Conflict and Solidarity in Díaz's The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" Paula C. Park responds to the recent interest in Asian Latino/a culture by examining the role of Chinese Dominicans in Junot Díaz's acclaimed novel. She first places her analysis within the historical context of Chinese immigration in the Dominican Republic during the first half of the twentieth century. Then, following the migration route of Díaz's characters, Park extends her discussions on interracial conflict and solidarity to the United States. Her argument is that Díaz's fiction avoids falling into a multiculturalist …

Errant Memory In African American Literature Of The Long Nineteenth Century, Tristan Alexander Striker

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this dissertation, I trace the complex black literary trope of errant memory through American and African American literature. Authors of African descent are constantly subjected to what I call Africanity, or the paratextual historicizing elements provided by white interlocutors that seek to impose specific caricatures and stereotypes on them and their works to force them into the American historical narrative that depends on their dehumanized and commodified status. These caricatures and stereotypes are rooted in an Africa imagined by these white interlocutors, one that does not match any reality. Authors of African descent transcend this paratextual Africanity through what …

The Rough South And New Southern Studies: Crossroads And Constellations, Amanda Freeman

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

“The Rough South and New Southern Studies: Crossroads and Constellations” examines fiction by writers of the Rough South and interrogates the inadequate state of criticism on these working-class authors in New Southern Studies. New Southern Studies seeks to de-marginalize the South and to combat a sense of inferiority or irrelevancy in a multicultural and increasingly globalized world; but in this process, New Southern Studies has actually marginalized the region’s most vibrant form of contemporary fiction—Rough South literature. This marginalization springs partly from class-based prejudice, and partly from a concern that the Rough South is too provincial for New Southern Studies. …

A Miniseries Of Unfortunate Events: Realizing The Full Potential Of Lemony Snicket's Book Series Through Television Adaptation, Ryan T. Pait

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, a series of 13 children’s books, seemed like it had the potential to become a massive franchise in a similar vein to the Harry Potter film series. Snicket’s books feature three plucky protagonists, a sinister villain, and constantly-shifting settings—all elements that could make a successful movie series. A film adaptation, titled Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events was made in 2004. It adapted the first three books in the series, and became a moderate financial and critical success. Despite the success, no further films were made.

As a fan of Snicket’s …

A Few Good Men And Women : The Rhetorical Constitution Of Military Personnel Identity., Ashly Bender Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, I examine the public negotiation of service member identity by multiple stakeholders as a way to better understand the available rhetorical strategies for affecting ideological constructions of identity. While current Rhetoric and Composition research attends mostly to student-veterans, I draw on cultural and rhetorical theorists, such as Louis Althusser, Kenneth Burke, Maurice Charland, to identify the rhetorical approaches used to construct military personnel identity, particularly in the post-9/11 era. Through analysis of films, recruiting materials, and the publicly-shared stories of personnel, I extend current understandings of constitutive rhetoric and rhetorical identification—which tend to focus on the work …

“The Language Of Another World” Lord Byron’S Therapeutic Journey, Jake C. Spangler

English Undergraduate Honors Theses

A chronicle of Lord Byron's literary work from his 18th year until his death in 1824. This project examines the origin of the Byronic Hero in a therapeutic light.

Propaganda Powers Social Reform: The Visual Rhetoric Of Lewis Hine, Dorothea Lange, And Norman Rockwell, Shelly Stock Halling

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The scope of this thesis is an examination of visual rhetoric and its societal impacts. The framework is an historical timeline from the end of the 19^th century to the middle of the 20^th century. The thesis is an interdisciplinary activity that embeds Art History in American Studies. It is beneficial to scholars in a variety of fields, including, but not limited to: English, American Studies, Art History, Photography, Sociology, Anthropology, and History. It braids together the theoretical perspectives of propaganda, visual rhetoric, and advocacy. The thesis is based on library research with no outside funding.

Southerner As Other: Exploring Regional Identity Through The Southern Vampire, Lauren N. Fowler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Since its conception in folklore and superstition, the vampire has had an innate ability to reflect the environment of the culture that creates it. Each manifestation of this being is entirely unique to the culture in which it is born. The vampire of the American South is no exception to this idea. As a region with a particularly tumultuous history, the South has been molded by many cultural influences. Religion, sexuality, and race are some of the most notable factors to have impacted the area. Many Southern authors writing vampire fiction explore the fears, stereotypes, and prejudices of the culture …

Defoe’S The Complete English Tradesman And The Prostitute Narrative: Minding The Shop In Mrs. Elizabeth Wisebourn, Sally Salisbury, And Roxana, Sharon Smith

English Faculty Publications

Written in the aftermath of the South Sea Bubble collapse of 1720, Daniel Defoe’s The Complete English Tradesman (1726) associates economic survival with the concept of mastery, or “minding the shop.” This concept had been explored in prostitute narratives published earlier in the decade, including Anodyne Tanner’s The Life of the Late Celebrated Mrs. Elizabeth Wisebourn (1721), Charles Walker’s Authentick Memoirs of the Life, Intrigues, and Adventures of the Celebrated Sally Salisbury (1723), and Defoe’s Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress (1724). When one reads The Complete English Tradesman in relation to these narratives, the figure of the female sex worker emerges …

Postcolonial Theory, John C. Hawley

English

Rather than agreeing to any one meaning or referent, most critics these days speak of ‘post-colonialisms’ to refer principally to ‘historical, social and economic material conditions’ and at other times to ‘historically-situated imaginative products’ and ‘aesthetic practices: representations, discourses and values’ (McLeod 2000: 254). Arising from subaltern studies, its theorists embrace hybridity, indict alterity, analyze colonial discourse, and employ strategic essentialism to promote identity politics. Under its influence, a strain of self-interrogation has for decades run as an undercurrent through much of anthropology and archaeology. Topics including looting, repatriation, stewardship, and the transformation of disciplinary identity are now persistent tropes …

Mother's Bed: Gender Representation In Children's Literature, Karin Hanni

Senior Theses

This children's book and accompanying research paper both address gender inequity in children's literature. There is a significant imbalance of gender representation in children's literature, with the number of central male characters almost doubling that of central female characters. Additionally, the roles of males and females still tend to be stereotypical: boys are action-oriented and heroic, while girls are nurturing and passive. Further, it is believed that boys will only enjoy books about boys, while girls will enjoy books about both boys and girls. This imbalance in children's literature hurts both genders. Children not only learn to read from books, …

A Savage Journey To The Heart Of Literary Freedom: Gonzo Journalism As A Vehicle For Social Criticism In The Literary Nonfiction Of Hunter S. Thompson, Jeffrey J. Horvath

Student Publications

As a professional journalist Hunter S. Thompson made it his mission to expose and defy structures of American society which he believed inhibited the exercise of personal freedom and, consequently, made realizing the “American Dream” impossible. Through his unique voice and style of literary nonfiction known as “Gonzo Journalism” Thompson is able to debunk the myth of the American Dream by attacking false conceptions of it, thereby highlighting the failures of both these conceptions and the structures of society, politics, class, and authority which give rise to them. This thesis traces the genesis of Gonzo Journalism’s formal features and themes …

Body + Power + Justice: Movement-Based Workshops For Critical Tutor Education, Beth Godbee, Moira Ozias, Jasmine Kar Tang

English Faculty Research and Publications

In this participatory article (with suggested activities, check-ins with the body, and freewriting), we use collaborative narrative inquiry to unpack considerations that underlie the planning, facilitation, and processing of a series of movement-based workshops. Critiquing liberal multiculturalist approaches in writing centers, we argue against the all-too-common flattening of differences and think through how embodiment helps us "work the hyphens" (Fine, 1998) or find "third ways" (Soja, 1996) that break open new possibilities for working and learning together toward equity and racial justice. In contrast to role-playing scenarios that characterize many tutor education practices, we suggest that centering the body through …

Remediating The Past: Doing “Periodical Studies” In The Digital Era, Maria Dicenzo

English and Film Studies Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Variation Theory And The Reception Of Chinese Literature In The English-Speaking World, Shunqing Cao

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Variation Theory and Reception of Chinese Literature in the English-Speaking World" Shunqing Cao introduces "variation theory" he developed and suggests that the framework can be applied in studying the dissemination and reception of Chinese literature in the English-speaking world. Cao argues that cultural and literary differences produce variations in literary exchanges among different cultures and variation theory concentrates on these variations. With unique perspectives on variation in translation, cultural misreading, and domestication, variation theory is a useful theoretical framework and methodology for the study of the reception of Chinese literature in the English-speaking world.