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Beyond The Pages: The Significance Of The Social Self Proposed In Jane Austen's Persuasion, Veronica Grupico

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

This paper focuses on Austen's novel Persuasion and how she rejects the Romantic notion of the self defined by individualism, which leads to the breakdown of society. Instead of the Romantic self, with its emphasis on self-examination, retrospection, and emotion, Austen advocates for an older notion of the self, a view based in eighteenth-century notions of social networks, mutual responsibility, and the moral function of emotion. Persuasion links Romanticism’s self, which was popular at the time that Austen was writing, with the breakdown of society, arguing that not just social stability but much-needed social vitality depends on the interdependence and …

The Memory Of Water By Allen Smutylo And Traveling The 38th Parallel: A Water Line Around The World By David Carle And Janet Carle, Sandy M. Bonny

The Goose

Review of The Memory of Water by Allen Smutylo and Traveling the 38th Parallel: A Water Line Around the World by David Carle and Janet Carle.

"For 'Tis Your Thoughts That Now Must Deck Our Kings": Affect In Shakespearean Performance, Elizabeth Dieterich

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Because Shakespeare’s plays have been performed consistently for four hundred years, Shakespearean performance is in an ideal position to demonstrate how performance transmits the meanings of texts. This thesis argues that performances of Shakespeare’s plays create meaning through the transmission of affect. Renaissance conventions of audience-actor engagement were based on character tropes and staging practices of medieval theater, to which audiences responded viscerally. To illustrate these responses, I draw upon 3 Henry VI and Richard III. I then examine Hamlet, Twelfth Night, and As You Like It for their treatment of representation, empathy, and the power of …

Kenneth Simpson, 1943-2013, Patrick G. Scott

Faculty Publications

Obituary recording the career of Dr. Kenneth G. Simpson (1943-2013), of the University of Strathclyde, and his contributions to eighteenth-century Scottish studies, especially the study and nuanced appreciation of Robert Burns.

The Once And Future World: Nature As It Was, As It Is, As It Could Be By J.B. Mackinnon, Pamela Banting

The Goose

Review of The Once and Future World: Nature As It Was, As It Is, As It Could Be by J.B. MacKinnon.

Living Through The End Of Nature: The Future Of American Environmentalism By Paul Wapner, Taylor Kraayenbrink

The Goose

Review of Living Through The End of Nature: The Future of American Environmentalism by Paul Wapner.

Parks, Peace And Partnership: Global Initiatives In Transboundary Conservation Edited By Michael S. Quinn, Len Broberg, And Wayne Freimund, Fenn Stewart

The Goose

Review of Parks, Peace and Partnership: Global Initiatives in Transboundary Conservation edited by Michael S. Quinn, Len Broberg, and Wayne Freimund.

Humanesis By David Cecchetto, Max Ritts

The Goose

Review of Humanesis by David Cecchetto.

Stories In A New Skin: Approaches To Inuit Literature By Keavy Martin, Allison K. Athens

The Goose

Review of Stories in a New Skin: Approaches to Inuit Literature by Keavy Martin.

"Making Ourselves Over In The Image Of The Imagery": Overcoming Alienation Through Poetic Expressions Of Experience, Jacqueline Aquino Teusch

Theses and Dissertations

My focus for this essay is on understanding the rhetorical process that occurs when people come together despite their differences—that is what rhetoric is all about. Kenneth Burke argues that this process, for alienated people especially, happens poetically, more than semantically because there are too many differences to overcome semantically between alienated people and the dominant community. This essay is about how the rhetorical process of identification as described by Burke helps us to explain how we cross barriers that divide people who are different to create moments of mutual understanding—identification. In this essay, I look at the experience of …

Paris And Havana: A Century Of Mutual Influence, Laila Pedro

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation employs an interdisciplinary approach to trace the history of exchange and influence between Cuban, French, and Francophone Caribbean artists in the twentieth century. I argue, first, that there is a unique and largely unexplored tradition of dialogue, collaboration, and mutual admiration between Cuban, French and Francophone artists; second, that a recurring and essential theme in these artworks is the representation of the human body; and third, that this relationship ought not to be understood within the confines of a single genre, but must be read as a series of dialogues that are both ekphrastic (that is, they rely …

“You Are Turning Into A Hive Mind”: Storytelling, Ecological Thought, And The Problem Of Form In Generation A, Jenny Kerber

English and Film Studies Faculty Publications

This article discusses the relationship between literary form and contemporary ecological anxiety in Douglas Coupland’s novel Generation A. Coupland’s speculative fiction envisions a possible future in the wake of Colony Collapse Disorder, but the more generalized eco-anxiety the novel explores is applicable to a number of contemporary environmental issues ranging from climate change to ocean acidification. I argue that Coupland’s novel invites readers to consider the problem of representing ecological problems characterized by global scale, temporal uncertainty, and multiple origins. I then explore how Coupland responds to these challenges by stretching form in two directions. First, he juxtaposes and …

Reading In Vogue: The Function Of Fashion In Three Chopin Short Stories, Rachael Scardelli

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Since its debut in 1892, Vogue magazine has been a temple for fashion and consumerism amongst the elite. It provided instructions on mannerisms, tastes, marriages, and the latest styles. In 1900, the average family income was $769 with $108 allocated to clothing costs; the average elite consumer was spending more than $556 on clothing per year. Today, that would be a clothing budget of more than $12,000. With the ever-increasing interest in cultural studies of objects, particularly clothing and fashion, it is startling that more has not been done with the nineteen short stories Kate Chopin published in the magazine …

The Wizarding Words Of J. K. Rowling: Literary Merit In The Harry Potter Series, Brenna Sherrill

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Since hitting bookshelves in 1997, the Harry Potter series has taken the popular culture world by storm in an unprecedented way, breaking sales records for both books and films, and dramatically increasing readership among young readers. Despite its immense and unique success, this series, like many other examples of pop culture, doesn’t often receive the credit it deserves with respect to its literary merits. However, it is undeniable that the Potter books reflect many of the traits found in all great works of literature, including complex character development and abundant literary devices that elevate the intellectual level of the series. …

Teaching Willmore, James Evans

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

Teaching Aphra Behn’s The Rover for nearly four decades, I have witnessed a considerable shift in students’ attitudes toward the play, especially toward Willmore. More positive about his character in the 1970s and 1980s, they have had a much more negative assessment since then. The only available video version, the Women’s Theatre Trust production, compounds my pedagogical problem through filming techniques and choice of actor; emphasizing male violence against women, its interpretation parallels feminist criticism of the 1990s. Asking students to examine theater history may lead them to see that Behn does not completely match this ideological paradigm. The original …

Breaking Bad: On The Western Genre And Audience Reception, Marisa Mazart

English

“Breaking Bad: on the Western Genre and Audience Reception” examines the recent TV series Breaking Bad making use of cultural scholar Stuart Hall’s encoding and decoding theories in order to better understand what meaning is imbued into the series and what meaning is extracted by the audiences. By treating Breaking Bad as a cultural artifact moving across what Hall defines as the parts of the circuit of culture – production, identification, representation, consumption and regulation – I will be able to answer the question of why the show is so popular and to consider the significance of that popularity. While …

‘My Freedom Is A Privilege Which Nothing Else Can Equal’: The Life And Writings Of Venture Smith And Phillis Wheatley, American Slaves, Donald Holmes Ii

Honors Theses

Slavery in the United States was an evolving institution that lasted nearly 400 years. To understand the colonial era of slavery within the United States, I examine the life and times of Venture Smith, as documented in his autobiography, A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, A Native of Africa (1798), and that of Phillis Wheatley using The Collected Works of Phillis Wheatley (1988). Both Smith and Wheatley were African-born slaves brought to America during the eighteenth century. In Smith’s narrative, he concludes by proclaiming “my freedom is a privilege which nothing else can equal” (31). This statement …

From Hip To Hypocrisy : An Exploration Of The Hipster And The Cooptation Of Style., Melissa Rothman

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

No abstract provided.

Concealment And Construction Of Knightly Identity In Chretien's Romances And Malory's Le Morte Darthur., Taylor Lee Gathof

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

No abstract provided.

Herman Melville And Richard Wright: Camaraderie And Revolt, Linda Braune

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

In 1940, Black leftist writer Richard Wright, in his classic Native Son, sought out a great figure in the American Black canon, W. E. B. Du Bois, to understand and delineate double consciousness of Blacks. But it is surprising, perhaps, that Wright also drew from a major figure in the white canon, Herman Melville, in order to explore the overcoming of double consciousness and its effects. Although another tradition might interpret Melville’s Captain Ahab as “predicting” Wright’s story of Bigger Thomas, I suggest that it is the Pequod crew of Moby-Dick, not the driven and driving Captain, which compels Wright’s …

Something New Under The Sun: Episode 4, Marleen S. Barr

Publications and Research

This is the introduction to Marleen S. Barr's guest edited issue of DELETION: THE OPEN ACCESS ONLINE FORUM IN SCIENCE FICTION STUDIES. The issue is called "Episode 4: The New! The Now! The Fantastic!"

Teaching The Writing Methods Course: A Multiple Case Study Of Teachers’ Professional Journeys, Teaching Contexts, Theoretical Frames, And Courses, Kristin A. K. Sovis

Dissertations

This study, situated within the fields of English education and writing teacher education, illustrates not only what is happening in writing methods courses but why in its examination of writing methods courses and instructor influences. The writing methods course is identified by English educators and writing teacher educators as “pivotal” in K-12 English teacher preparation, and the purpose of this study is to better understand multiple versions of this course and how teacher influences affect the design and implementation of the course (Grossman, 1990; Smagorinsky and Whiting, 1995; McCann, 2005).

This study builds upon scholarship that explores individual versions of …

“(Who Discovered) America”: Ozomatli And The Mestiz@ Rhetoric Of Hip Hop, Cruz Medina

English

This article examines the rhetoric of Mexican-American hip hop through the analysis of the music by the multicultural hip hop fusion band, Ozomatli, from Los Angeles. The objective is to examine how Ozomatli performs linguistic, epistemic, and musical-rhetorical border crossing that provokes cultural and social consciousness. As a cross-cultural site of analysis, Ozomatli embodies cultural mestizaje, mestiza consciousness, and mestiz@ rhetoric that illuminates social justice issues beneath surface-level beats and rhythms. Appointed cultural ambassadors by the U.S. government, Ozomatli navigates dominant systems of power while performing music that contests hegemony. Their mestiz@ hip hop draws from diverse musical traditions like …

Thinking Otherwise About God, Marx, And Eagleton: A Response To Terry Eagleton, Marilyn Edelstein

English

I first read some of Eagleton’s work when I was in graduate school, and I began to use his best-selling Literary Theory: An Introduction2 in the new “Contemporary Literary Theory and Criticism” course I created shortly after I began teaching at Santa Clara University in 1987. My students, often initially baffled by the complexities of the primary texts we read, have appreciated Eagleton’s lucid and engaging primer on theories ranging from New Criticism and structuralism to psychoanalysis, as well as his openness about his own Marxist perspective. Since I have read other work by Eagleton over the years, I was …

Program Review: English Department, Samuel J. Umland

Academic Program Reviews

No abstract provided.

The Transnational Latin American Regionalism Of Mario Vargas Llosa And Milton Hatoum, Michele C. Kettner

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The present dissertation analyzes the novels The Green House (1966) and The Storyteller (1987), by Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa, and Two Brothers (2000), by Brazilian novelist Milton Hatoum and reinterpret literary regionalism in the Amazon region. I claim that the new variety of regionalist literature represented by both authors challenges hegemonic national representations of Peru and Brazil and conceptualizes Amazonian ecology in the context of global capitalism. In the first chapter, I evaluate the critical apparatus of the older tradition of Latin American regionalism proposing the concept of the "region" as an "invention" (Albuquerque Jr.). My reading reveals how …

Don't Underestimate The Power Of Pleasure Reading, Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Michael W. Smith

English Literature Faculty Publications and Presentations

A recent study by David Comer Kidd and Emanuele Castano of The New School for Social Research in New York City argues that reading literary fiction (as compared with reading popular fiction, or nothing at all) temporarily enhances one's ability to understand others' mental states and deepens empathy. The study—published in the journal Science in October—grabbed a lot of attention, including a front-page article in The New York Times.

Eng 4801-001: Integrating The English Language Arts, Melissa Ames

Spring 2014

No abstract provided.

"Call Her Calamity Electrifies Man": Alp And The Movement Of Archive In Finnegan’S Wake, Ellen Scheible

English Faculty Publications

The existence of characters in Joyce’s dream world of Finnegans Wake rarely proves their singular presence in the text. As readers we are led to incorporate different characters into our interpretation of any one character; the temporal and historical circularity of the Wake is then personified in a whirlpool of characterization. Comprising both the motion and consistency of this whirlpool, Anna Livia is most certainly the nexus of activity for the otherwise sleepy Earwicker narrative. Yet, recognizing the textual motion of both the character and concept of ALP, (or even simply the potential for signifying motion within the text) as …

Women In Leadership: How A Woman’S Background Affects Her Leadership Style, Serena Bahe, Richard Ruiz, Armando Tejeda, Steven Sill

Verbum Incarnatum: An Academic Journal of Social Justice

Stereotypes and beliefs about women have often kept them from equality with men. What is more striking is that women perpetuate the stereotypes and beliefs as much as men and society as a whole. This literature review focuses on three areas in a woman’s background that influence her ability to lead: a) triggers that propel her into a leadership position, b) the “intersectionalities” or multiple identities and personalities a woman must have to be an effective leader, and c) how the context of where she leads affects her leadership behavior. It also addresses the need for more research to identify …