Digital Commons Network^™

Literary Colonization And Locating Avenues Of Subversion In Bobby Flores-Villasis' Suite Bergamasque, Michael Aaron C. Gomez

Akda: The Asian Journal of Literature, Culture, Performance

This paper examines four short stories included in the collection titled Suite Bergamasque, written by multi-awarded Negrense playwright and fictionist Bobby Flores-Villasis. A materialist reading situates Villasis within the canon of Philippine literature in English and analyzes the way his stories formally render the class antagonisms of history through the interconnected narratives of Dumaguete City’s sugar elite. Finally, this paper also contends that the political imagination of Villasis’ work exhorts contemporary Dumaguete writers to critically examine inherited hagiographies in order to describe fully the conditions that have shaped the city into its contemporary formation, particularly the phenomena of gentrification …

Historic Shrouds: A New Voice For Shakespearean Women, Ashleigh E. Weinstock

Global Tides

This article presents, and seeks to remedy, the argument that Shakespeare’s female characters are deprived of equal representation as complex humans through narrative gaps, action relegated to offstage scenes, and reduced opportunities for direct-to-audience speech, mirroring the social hierarchies of early modern gender, which continue to be reflected in modern society.

While this critique is not new, this essay argues that the criticism of these theatrical inequalities is insufficient to remedy their harms. Instead, this author proposes a performance-based, generative model of restorative justice termed the Historic Shroud, which seeks to give voice to sidelined female characters by placing …

Acknowledgments And Author Biographies

Emerging Writers

An editorial note of acknowledgement along with author biographies.

Iraqi Students' Engagement With English In Indonesia: Language, Identity, And Adaptation, Nirwana Nirwana, Yanty Wirza, Mutakhirani Mustafa, Muhlis Muhlis

The Qualitative Report

English as a lingua franca in higher education enables international students to participate in the global academic community. However, for Iraqi students in Indonesia, the use of English is not just a means of communication, but also part of identity negotiation, social adaptation, and cultural integration. This study explores how Iraqi students experience acceptance, resistance, and adaptation in using English in academic and social environments in Indonesia. The three-dimensional narrative inquiry framework (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000) is used as the primary analytical lens to explore how participants' experiences unfold over time, across relational contexts, and within specific physical and institutional …

“Where All Is Playtime And Pleasure”: Feeling The Otherworldly In Late Medieval Literature, Anna K. Mcgill

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, I present intra-, inter-, and extra-textual felt responses to encounters with the otherworldly as described in Late Medieval texts as a lens through which to consider personal, social, and national imaginative potential surrounding contemporary issues across genres and disciplines. I argue that the use of otherworlds and otherworldly agents as both personally and rhetorically compelling analogues through which contemporary issues can be explored. I start my discussion of the felt impacts of encounters with the Arthurian otherworldly, with a particular focus on Glastonbury and Arthur’s alleged grave there, and how they transmit affects of sovereign authority. Next, …

Rooted In Silence: Listening To Landscapes That Remember, Jaylen A. Wyatt

FUSION

For this American Literature assignment, the author responded to the question: “How do natural landscapes preserve memory?” To do so, he wrote a non-fiction personal essay featuring several course selections read during the semester. The author argues that ultimately we must take care of these natural landscapes, and the environment at large, so that their memory can live on.

Where Did Her Torch Glow Go?, Josephine Smith

FUSION

This project is a short video presentation with accompanying written reflection connecting the poem "The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus, a poem about immigration to the United States, to modern events regarding immigration in the country.

An Adaptation Of The Yellow Wallpaper, Carla M. Sanz

FUSION

This project includes a 3-dimensional adaptation of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper," highlighting struggles with mental health and women’s empowerment amid patriarchal oppression. The use of a 3-D model of the story gives the viewer a visual representation of the narrator’s mental and physical decline. Representative elements of this decline include the use of a chest and a string stretched across the “ceiling” of the room, which visually convey the narrator’s feeling of being trapped. In addition, the room's tainted appearance and the visual of a woman in the walls allow the viewer to imagine the narrator's mental, emotional, …

The Human, Kaamilah Kabala

FUSION

“The Caterpillar” is a short story by American author Lydia Davis published in “The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis” in 2009. In the story, the narrator wakes up to find a caterpillar in her bed, and decides to take it outside instead of killing it. However, she loses it somewhere in a dark staircase along the way. At first she looks for it and spends her time thinking about it, but eventually she forgets about the caterpillar and moves on with her life.

This article a re-writing of the short story. The author took the story and wrote it from …

The Chaotic Silence Of Youth, Stephen A. Gobourne

FUSION

The inspiration for "The Chaotic Silence of Youth" comes from the song "How Does It Feel?" by the band Citizen, off of their 2013 album titled "Youth." This project is the result of the author's personal interpretation of youth itself, transitional periods, and experiencing life, with all of its ups and downs, using musical rhetoric as the core.

To Be Buoyant, Jess T. Forte

FUSION

This is a poem of resistance and transformation, contradicting forces that work together to shape development. Inspired by “Eleven” by Sandra Cisneros, "To Be Buoyant" is an exploration of human identity from a place of stuckness.

Waiting Rivers, Samuel B. Darden

FUSION

This piece was inspired by the poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” by Langston Hughes. Assigned in my African American Literature (ENGL 2300) class, Hughes’s poem stuck with me, prompting me to create my own unique version, one encompassing all marginalized groups. This poem personifies the struggle for rights for African Americans (and others within the diaspora), and the long, arduous, and selective process of becoming recognized as equal, a fight ongoing to this day. The separation of each group (not only by race, but also by gender) is explored throughout the piece, touching on important historical movements, such …

Editorial Note And Author Biographies

FUSION

A note from the Editors on the current issue, along with author biographies.

The 'Thing Itself': Virginia Woolf's Materialism, Kathryn Andronowitz

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

No abstract provided.

Cover And Front Matter

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

No abstract provided.

The Faith Crisis As Death: Grief In Gerard Manley Hopkins's "Terrible Sonnets", Kaden Nelson

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

No abstract provided.

The "Family Of Things": Mary Oliver, Anthropomorphism, And Conflicting Approaches To Spirituality In Nature, Sophie West

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

No abstract provided.

The Bower Of Bliss As An Allegory For Ireland, Katherine Ries

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

No abstract provided.

Full Issue

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

No abstract provided.

The Metamodern Aesthetic As Reconciliatory Theology In Gilead, Henry Purser

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

No abstract provided.

Tolkien's Joyful Sorrow, The "Gift Of Tears" Of Medieval Mysticism, And John Donne's Sermon "Jesus Wept", Giovanni Carmine Costabile

Journal of Tolkien Research

At the field of Cormallen, the emotion of joy felt by the victorious Hobbits is so great that Sam wonders whether everything sad will come untrue. At the same time, their joy is so great that it is described as "poignant as grief". Dimitra Fimi in 2017 pointed out Tolkien's probable indebtedness to Christian Orthodox tradition of "charmolype", or joyful sorrow. Another relevant parallel of the intermingling of joy and sorrow is the eleventh century Norman monk and abbot John of Fécamp's notion of the "Gift of Tears" (Gratia lacrymarum) from God, which brings true happiness. …

An Appalachian Expression Of Rootedness: Exploring Rootedness In The Writings Of Simone Weil And Wendell Berry, Luke Bratton

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

No abstract provided.

Hot Ears, Anna Thomas

Landshark Literary Review

A short creative non-fiction piece about the daily battle of living with depression. This work explores the diagnosis of depression through a singular moment in time, taking a scene and expanding it into it's higher meaning. This piece also develops part of the support system an individual with depression relies on, as well as an intimate relationship between college students.

Landshark Literary Review, Hanny Zermeno

Landshark Literary Review

The poems of this selection delve into the complexities of familial relationships as well as the internal battles of insecurities brought on by the complications of a lack of harmony and love primarily displayed in families. Other poems in this selection describe the love between two people and the physical and emotional effects of yearning and their human connections.

Through Peaks And Troughs: Visualising The Rhythmic Sentiment Of The Lord Of The Rings, Dimitra Vogatza

Journal of Tolkien Research

This study offers a fresh look at the widely discussed binaries in The Lord of the Rings and examines whether their structure can be visualised. Building on previous research that identifies Tolkien’s prose as structured by emotional and moral shifts, this study makes visible how these changes happen throughout the trilogy, through quantitative means. A transformer-based language model was employed and fine-tuned on a Tolkien-specific corpus to align with Tolkien's semantics and symbolism. The primary methodology for highlighting these binaries is a Tolkien-specific sentiment analysis. A semi-guided approach, selecting positive and negative sentences from the work as contextual reference points, …

Best Integrated Writing Spring 2026 - 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.

An Eternity Of Time: The Overlook And The Search For A Queer Haven, Christian Hunt

Best Integrated Writing

Hunt argues that The Shining critiques traditional patriarchal and heteronormative structures by portraying the Overlook Hotel as a space that exposes and resists the violence and repression tied to masculinity and queer identity. Through Jack Torrance’s psychological unraveling, the novel reveals how societal expectations of heterosexuality contribute to personal and familial destruction while suggesting the possibility of alternative, queer forms of existence beyond those constraints.

“Neither Living Nor Dead”: From Nazgûl To The Sídhe In Tolkien's The Fellowship Of The Ring (1954), Noelia Ramos

Journal of Tolkien Research

This study explores the influence of Celtic supernatural folklore, particularly the banshee tradition, on Tolkien’s depiction of the Nazgûl in The Fellowship of the Ring. Using W.B. Yeats’ Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry (1888) and the Celtic Twilight movement as a comparative framework, it analyses “A Short Cut to Mushrooms” and “A Knife in the Dark”, focusing on liminality, spectral presence, and supernatural dread. These parallels are further contextualised through reference to early Irish texts The Táin Bó Cúailnge and The Boyhood Deeds of Fionn, central works within the Celtic literary compilation known to Tolkien …

Session Iiia: Education And English Presentation 2 - Fantasy Audiobooks And Medieval Aural Tradition, Morgan C. Lilly

Life of the Scholar Multidisciplinary Conference

Examines how medieval aural traditions shape fantasy audiobooks.

Voice And Pain: Representations Of Disability In Adaptations Of “The Little Mermaid”, Ace Molloy

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

Hans Christian Andersen’s 1837 story, “The Little Mermaid,” is a popular fairy tale that has been adapted several times by writers, filmmakers, and game developers. It is one of the few fairy tales with explicit portrayals of disability; the mermaid in the tale is nonspeaking and experiences chronic pain, as well as being a mermaid—a nonnormative figure who is aligned with disability. This paper looks at the ways that the mermaid is portrayed in literary, film, and new media adaptations from a disability-justice perspective. Examining multiple representations of the character, I argue that while feminist adaptations erase her disability and …