Digital Commons Network^™

E Pluribus Unum: The Pursuit Of Linguistic Equality Through Adequation And Denaturalization, Natalie A. Tupta

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The oppressive ideology of standard language in the US perpetuates linguistic discrimination in all facets of life, from the classroom to the housing market to politics. Many Americans justify the degradation of non-standard language users by identifying the imagined cognitive deficiencies of those who do not use standard language. In response to previous research providing evidence of linguistic injustices, this research confounds existent ideology and exposes the gravity of the injustices perpetuated by the US government and educational system. By comparing this linguistic social justice movement to the American Civil Rights Movement and by borrowing the philosophy of Martin Luther …

Messy Archives And Materials That Matter: Making Knowledge With The Gloria E. Anzaldúa Papers, Suzanne Bost

English: Faculty Publications and Other Works

In this essay, I show how recognizing the multiple material actants at work in an archive transforms research, in general, and Anzaldúan studies, in particular. For unraveling this new way of thinking about archival work, I borrow a genre Anzaldúa developed throughout her career: “ autohistoria- teoría . . . a personal essay that theorizes” (“now” 578n). I begin with my own experiences with the particular materials of particular archives and then move outward to develop a theory of knowledge production that is built on the accidents, messes, and intrusions that disrupted my conventional research plan. Perhaps this is what …

On The Psalms As A Primary Source For The Old English Exodus, Ricky L. Nolen

English Undergraduate Honors Theses

An argument for the biblical Psalms as a primary source for the Old English poem "Exodus".

A Sociolinguistic Study On The Use Of Coke In The Rgv, Kylie Ross

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This is a sociolinguistic study, examining the relationship between the usage of the term coke and the population of the RGV, which seeks to explain why (if) this phenomenon persists and identify connections between Spanish/Mexican cultures intertwined in the network of English/Spanish usage. It pursues to go a step further, addressing what social factors have an influence on the term choice and what implications this influence can provide for SLA in specific regions. To do this, various groups have been polled, surveyed and informally interviewed in an effort to make connections between the usage of coke and social conventions. The …

Creolization Of Identity In Caribbean Texts: Towards The Healing Of The Creole, Victoria A. Marin

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Creolization became an important element to creole identity by explaining the development of cultural mixing in the Caribbean. While many scholars have focused on the marginalization of creole identity at the hands of the colonizer, this paper addresses the way creole subjects use creolization as a form of agency. Two specific post-colonial texts will be explored in the order of Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea and Michelle Cliff's No Telephone to Heaven. The essay begins with Wide Sargasso Sea to gain an early historical context of the treatment of creole women, and to establish the need of developing a voice …

Wandering, Idleness, And The Nineteenth-Century Tales Novel, 1836-1895, Molly C. O'Donnell

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In "The Late-Victorian Romance Revival" (2008) Anna Vaninskaya questions if "one [can] even speak of the mixing or hybridization of genres in a particular work if the genres themselves had not yet been conclusively defined" (60). This question serves as a warning to genre studies scholars seeking to tease out new observations from history. This dissertation, however, seeks to do just that. Employing multiple theoretical approaches, my study of what I dub the tales novel finds links between diverse Victorian works. Bearing a resemblance to a collection of stories, with seemingly disparate narratives, the tales novels also demonstrate plot interdependence. …

Reimagining The Rhetorical Canons For Professional Communication Pedagogy, Jocelin A. Gibson

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

One of the most significant challenges for professional communication educators is identifying and providing the skills students need to succeed in their careers. The rapidly evolving professional landscape complicates this identification; the skills a college student needs when she enters the program could be dramatically different from what she needs when she graduates. A crucial change in the past decade is the shift from a largely solo composing environment to one featuring distributed work, in which professional communicators “find themselves becoming "dividuals" – one part writer, one part project manager, one part programmer, one part student”; this has them involved …

Beelzebub : Satan's Consort In John Milton's Paradise Lost, Beth Tippenreiter

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This thesis contends that Beelzebub is the erotic and political consort of Satan in John Milton’s 1667 poem, Paradise Lost. Chapter one first examines Milton’s relative contemporary, Christopher Marlowe, and his play The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus. Within Doctor Faustus, we find not only an earlier representation of the erotic and political consort relationship between Beelzebub and Satan, here named Belzebub and Lucifer, but that the primary purpose of Marlowe’s Belzebub is to be Lucifer’s consort. Chapter two’s section one focuses on the erotic consort relationship between Milton’s Beelzebub and Satan. Questions and concerns of intimate language and sexual …

Ghettoizing Black Women's Literature : A Socio-Historic Study Of Black Women Writers And The White Publishing Industry, Kimberly Wiley Luna

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This paper contributes to the conversation of race/publishing by concentrating on black women’s literature, exploring how it has been produced over the course of the last one hundred years and the impact of the white/black divide which has created a power structure where white publishers are able to assert control over black women’s writing. The focus is on three commercially successful female African American writers— Nella Larsen, Gwendolyn Brooks and Rita Dove. All three women were published by mainstream New York publishing houses made up of primarily white editors and publishers.

The research in this paper is informed by editorial …

"Keep Funding Or Else... It's Mustaches": Building A Community Of Literacy At Owl Creek, Ian Whitlow

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The following research report on literacy practices presents an analysis of the data collected over the course of four months at Owl Creek middle school in Northwest Arkansas. Following a qualitative research protocol, I interacted with middle school students who participated in the Razorback Writers after-school literacy outreach program sponsored by the University of Arkansas. This report details the two major literacy practices encouraged in this after school program - the collective read-aloud sessions focusing on the graphic novel I Kill Giants, and the students' creation of their own graphic novels, which were developed in group workshops. In the following …

Sorry, Not Sorry : Speech As Action For Women In The Works Of Aemilia Lanyer And John Milton, Tiffany Ann Errickson

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Using the works of Aemilia Lanyer, John Milton, and Lucy Hutchinson, I will be exploring the idea of speech as action in 17th Century England and its connection to agency and community amongst women. These authors chose to show a distinct strength and sense of power in Eve and her descendants; each female subject not only has a voice, but uses it to her benefit. This is an enormous gift from an author, to whom words and language are the fruit of awareness, knowledge and power. Each representation uses their language as both a shield and sword to defend themselves …

Functional And Stylistic Features Of Sports Announcer Talk: A Discourse Analysis Of The Register Of Major League Soccer Television Broadcasts, Marco Balzer-Siber

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study analyzes the register of television sports announcers in Major League Soccer broadcasts, based on six 20-minute transcription samples. The first part considers individual linguistic features and inquires whether they fulfill a communicative function or whether they are of stylistic nature. In an effort to attract more viewers in the United States, production companies had originally adopted the duality model of a play-by-play announcer and a color commentary from other American sports, while many other countries traditionally feature only one commentator. Consequently, the second part of this discourse analysis will focus on the cooperative interactional behavior. The conclusion will …

Re-Construction Through Fragmentation: A Cosmodern Reading Of David Mitchell’S Cloud Atlas, Beth Katherine Miller

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A cosmodern reading of David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas creates a positive vision of the future for readers through various techniques of fragmentation including fragmentation of voice, language, and time. By fragmentation, I have in mind the consistent interruption of the novel’s voice, language, and time that requires an active and aware readership. The reader’s interaction with the text makes the novel re-constructive. In fact, the global nature of Mitchell’s novel, its hopeful ending, and its exploration of the effects of globalization can be considered as a means of exploring the dynamic relationships between the characters, the reader, and Mitchell’s authorial …

The Wind Of Madness And The Search For Order Through Disorder In Partition Narratives, Sarah C. Longenderfer

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

By drawing on Partition theory such as Pandey (2001), Daiya (2008), and Butalia (2000) as well as madness theory by Foucault (1971), this paper explores the way madness is described in Partition texts through characters attempting to regain control over their lives and assert their new national identities. Coinciding with decolonization of British rule, the Partition of India (1947) divided India and Pakistan and led to genocidal violence during the migrations of both Hindus and Muslims to their respective countries. I utilize three short stories by Saadat Hassan Manto: "Colder than Ice" (1950), "The Return" (1948), and "Toba Tek Singh" …

Still, Emily Claire Humberson

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

Still is a collection of poetry written for the ENGL470 Seminar: Poetry course, taught by Professor Pineda. The word "still" itself has two definitions: not moving or making a sound, and nevertheless, all the same. The collection seeks to quietly reconcile the inevitable end of all things, while still reporting the difficulties of reaching such a conclusion. The collection blends both narrative and lyric elements. The poems straddle the range between surreal and realistic imagery, juxtaposing the visions of dreams with the hardships of reality. Still explores change over time, witnessed in interpersonal relationships and an aging landscape. It works …

Bending Gender: Perversions In Children's Literature, D. Claire Winkler

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

This paper examines the role literary perversions play in children's literature. Specifically, it examines the role they play within the books Charlotte's Web and Bridge to Terabithia. Moreover, it is particularly interested in examining how literary perversions of gender--that is, representations of gender that fall outside of the normative standard of society--effect the narratives and characters of the books in question. The presence of this form of literary perversion in children's books is fascinating because childhood is one of the only times gender fluidity is acceptable. Yet, children are also being prepped for the roles they will be expected …

Take What You Can Carry: A Novella, Maggie Stough

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

They say when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade, but what do you do when there's too many dogs to walk, two postmenopausal muggers on the loose, and one unexpected pregnancy? That's for MJ McCormick to find out. Upon taking a pregnancy test in a coffee shop bathroom one afternoon, she soon finds herself grappling with the reality of a strange genetic condition, its religious connotations, and her family's secrets. Take What You Can Carry is a novella written by Maggie Stough for her Creative Writing Fiction Seminar during the Fall 2014 semester.

老人与海: The Cultural Classroom Handbook, Jessica Ann Brumley

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and The Sea has gained global recognition as a literary masterpiece. This novel, although written by an American, is set in Cuba and features cultural elements from Latin America as well as North America. Classrooms around the world use this novel as a means of teaching English to second-language learners because of the comparatively simple grammatical structure and concise word choice.

One specific instance of this is the Chinese classroom, where some students have used The Old Man and the Sea as an introduction to American literature. Hemingway’s work, which has since been translated …

A Redemption Of Meaning In Three Novels By Italo Calvino, Dominick J. Knowles

English and Creative Writing Honors Papers

In this thesis I present three readings of Italo Calvino’s later novels: Invisible Cities (1972), If on a winter’s night a traveler (1979), and Mr. Palomar (1983). My primary aim is to defend Calvino against dominant scholarly interpretations that position him as a Postmodern nihilist, a literary trickster interested solely in toying with the mechanics of language. My analysis of Calvino’s work re-envisions him as a special breed of Postmodernist concerned with humanity’s ability to create spaces for meaning in spite of an indifferent cosmos. Drawing from psychoanalytic theory, cognitive science, analytic philosophy, and phenomenology, I synthesize my own critical …

"That Flesh-Locked Sea Of Silence”: Language, Gender, And Sexuality In Beckett’S Short Fiction, Emily F. Oliver

Honors College Theses

This paper asserts the interconnectedness of language, gender, and sexuality in the short prose of Samuel Beckett. “Assumption,” “First Love,” and “Enough,” are used as specific examples of Beckett’s fiction, selected because they assist in understanding Beckett’s participation in, and inversion of, the hegemonic privileging of the masculine. This interpretation focuses on the use of gendered language, verbalization as a sexual expression, and the manipulation of the “male” and “female” voice. The analysis is both informed by, and seeks to nuance, the linguistic criticism established by second-wave French feminists Kristeva, Irigaray, and Cixous.

The Nerd Hour Is At Hand: Portrayals Of Geeks And Nerds In Young Adult Literature Ad Popular Media, Jessica M. Stanley

Theses & Honors Papers

Turn on the television, open a book, or even walk down the street and you will no doubt notice at least one geek or nerd. Most Americans today have heard these terms, and each individual probably has his own working definition of what they mean. Unpacking those definitions, however, is tricky. What is a nerd? What is a geek? How does one identify a person as belonging to these groups? To analyze how modern culture understands geeks and nerds, one must first understand the history behind these terms. While most Americans today recognize and use the words "geek" and "nerd," …

Reviews, Emily E. Auger, Janet Brennan Croft, Mike Foster, Melody Green, Crystal Hurd, Eric Rauscher, Andrew Stout, Robert T. Tally, Jr.

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Christianity and the Detective Story. Ed. Anya Morlan and Walter Raubicheck. Reviewed by Melody Green.

The Shamanic Odyssey: Homer, Tolkien, and the Visionary Experience Robert Tindall with Susana Bustos. Foreword by John Perkins. Reviewed by Emily E. Auger.

Gaining a Face: The Romanticism of C.S. Lewis. James Prothero and Donald T. Williams. Reviewed by Crystal Hurd.

The A-Z of C.S. Lewis: An Encyclopedia of His Life, Thought and Writings. Colin Duriez. Reviewed by Andrew Stout.

Under The Mercy: Charles Williams & The Holy Grail. Robert Peirano. Reviewed by Eric Rauscher.

Tolkien and the Modernists: Literary Responses to the Dark New …

Constructing Lothiriel: Rewriting And Rescuing The Women Of Middle-Earth From The Margins, Karen Viars, Cait Coker

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Examines the presence and absence of female characters in Tolkien, in the Peter Jackson films, and in fanfiction, paying particular attention to a “footnote character,” Lothíriel, and what the body of fanfiction built around her brief mention as the daughter of Imrahil and wife of Éomer reveals about reader engagement with Tolkien’s texts.

Uses Of Someone: Beyond Simple Person Reference, Yu-Han Lin

Purdue Linguistic Association Symposium

This study looks at how the non-recognitional reference form “someone” is used to refer to a known referent when a recognitional, such as a first name or a descriptive recognitional (Stiver, 2007), is available (Sacks & Schegloff, 1979). In a conversation, when participants have shared knowledge about who a referent is, the occurrence of “someone” connotes more than a simple reference to the referent. While there is little previous research concerning the use of a non-recognitional to complete particular social actions, in this study, I show how “someone” can be employed to accomplish disaffiliative actions such as complaints, accusations and …

Politics Of Identity And Oppression In Rhys’S Voyage In The Dark, Ellen Michelle Stringer

MAD-RUSH Undergraduate Research Conference

In this essay, “Politics of Identity and Oppression in Rhys’s Voyage in the Dark” I aim to explore the ways in which identity and the idea of the constructed ‘self’ are both created and continuously transformed by one’s experiences and memories. I argue that the protagonist of Rhys’s novel’s identity is ultimately shaped by her racialized experiences of growing up in the West Indies. In my discussion I analyze the color metaphors Rhys utilizes and the impact they have upon readers’ unconscious perceptions about race, ultimately aiming to deconstruct the commonly assumed/utilized dichotomy between white/black. I use these notions of …

Lost In Translation? Found In Translation? Neither? Both?, Esther Allen, Mary Ann Caws, Peter Constantine, Edith Grossman, Nancy Kline, Burton Pike, Damion Searls, Karen Van Dyck, Alyson Waters, Roger Celestin, Charles Lebel

The Quiet Corner Interdisciplinary Journal

Translation specialists Esther Allen, Mary Ann Caws, Peter Constantine, Edith Grossman, Nancy Kline, Burton Pike, Damion Searls, Karen Van Dyck and Alyson Waters respond to the TQC question:

“Lost in translation”; “Found in translation”: Are these just useless commonplaces or are they indicative of something relevant to your own practice?

Writing The Nation: A Concise Introduction To American Literature 1865 To Present, Amy Berke, Robert Bleil, Jordan Cofer, Doug Davis

Textbooks

Writing the Nation: A Concise Guide to American Literature 1865 to Present is a text that surveys key literary movements and the American authors associated with the movement. Topics include late romanticism, realism, naturalism, modernism, and modern literature.

ENGL 202

Comics And Composition, Comics As Composition: Navigating Production And Consumption, Tammie M. Kennedy, Jessi Thomsen, Erica Trabold

English Faculty Publications

Composition has a vested interest in exploring how comics studies can inform our teaching of writing, multimodal literacies, and visual rhetoric. Composition and rhetoric has already demonstrated a growing interest in comics (including graphic literatures, graphic novels, graphic narratives, digital storytelling) as complex sites of literacy and as spaces to theorize and practice multimodal composing. Comics also provide opportunities to explore the rhetorical choices and transactions that must be negotiated between composers and readers. However, despite composition scholars’ interest in multiliteracies, multimodal composing, and visual rhetoric, the interdependent and fluid connections between images and words remain largely disengaged. For example, …

Teaching Tolkien: Language, Scholarship, And Creativity, Adam Kotlarczyk

Faculty Publications & Research

Why Tolkien?

Let us start with the obvious—if cynical—question, almost certain to come from a skeptical administrator or colleague: why would any serious, self-respecting English teacher want to teach an author whose work is about dragons, fairies, and the fantastic? With all the increased attention to standardized testing and with the demand for rigor in read- ings in the average English curriculum, choosing a popular text might raise eyebrows among critics. The question that an English teacher may be asked (or indeed, may ask him- or herself) is: doesn't teaching Tolkien as "serious" literature just fan those flames?

Subversion In Sand And Ink: A Study Of The Old English Life Of St. Mary Of Egypt, Darcy Egan

Masters Essays

No abstract provided.