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The Good Catastrophe: Tolkien On The Consolation Of The Happy Ending, John Stanifer

Inklings Forever: Published Colloquium Proceedings 1997-2016

When describing the nature of fairy-stories, Tolkien famously coined the term "eucatastrophe" ("eu meaning "good") to express the effect of the "sudden joyous turn" that leads to the story's happy ending regardless of the dark events preceding it. Tolkien applies that word specifically to fairy-stories, but I would like to explore its meaning in relation to other genres and mediums that Tolkien was either unable or unwilling to consider. Classic literature and modern popular culture alike are ripe with the use of the "good" catastrophe, and this device is well-known by cultures from all parts of the globe. If it …

2014 Printed Program

Colloquium Schedules

No abstract provided.

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 …

Collapsing The Secret Self: Thackeray's The History Of Pendennis As A Performative Parody, Rachel Freire

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

By collapsing the distinctions between private and public as he presents individual interiority as yet another performance, Thackeray’s The History of Pendennis undercuts disciplinary individualism, so that performances are not the product of social regulation but rather are as genuine as any presumed private thoughts or feelings. Pendennis actively performs the dissolution of interiority, as it thematically and stylistically enacts the awkwardness of genuine affectation as a routine and unavoidable reality of modern life. Reveling in the discomfort that accompanies the absence of secrecy, Thackeray parodies the privileging of secrecy and one’s interior self that pervades the Bildung genre he …

May 6, 2014: Newberry Grad Seminar, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

Communicating Shakespeare: How High School Educators Should Approach The Great Playwright, Samantha Defilippe

Honors Program Theses and Projects

This study is being done to show how relating Shakespeare’s plays, specifically the characters, themes, and events in his plays, to high school students can increase their appreciation and understanding of the famous writer. It discusses better methods for teaching Shakespeare than line-by-line interpretation so that students may see the valuable insight his works have to offer, rather than skimming the readings and using unreliable online resources, such as Sparknotes, because they are uninterested. Previous research has shown the importance of trying to relate readings to students so they are able to form a connection with the characters and main …

The Artist’S Voice And The Written Word: Language In Art From 1960 To 1975, Emily A. Francisco

Celebration

Between 1960 and 1975 there was an outpouring of artists writing critically in the United States, reflecting a mass desire to reclaim the voice of the artist in a critic-dominated art world. Texts in general rapidly spread throughout the artistic landscape during this period; as Conceptual artists challenged notions of visuality and viewership, we see a dramatic increase in artists engaging with experimental writing. This generation of artists, which included Dan Graham and Robert Smithson, had a fascination with the written word’s potential as an art medium, many using the art magazine as an alternative venue to the “elitist” art …

Exploring The Potential Of Video Games As Educational And Story-Telling Tools, Kelsen Amy Kitchen

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

For my honors thesis, I have attempted to explore the potential of video games as educational and storytelling tools. The central questions I formulated before beginning this project are twofold:

1. How can video games be used as tools to educate players?

2. How can video games be used to tell stories, and how are they unique from other storytelling methods?

In pursuit of the answer to the first question, I conducted a literature review of articles that explored the educational and cultural potential of various video games. The articles that I surveyed were diverse, ranging from studies of elementary …

Best Practice Recommendations For Publishing A Student Anthology, Ariel Peterson

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

This document describes the publication process for student anthologies and provides a list of specific, actionable recommendations for students and instructors publishing student anthologies. These recommendations are based upon a literature review of anthology concepts and my own experience publishing a student anthology, Voices in Print, for Utah State University's Intermediate Writing classes. I will introduce the topic of student anthologies with a brief description of their uses and benefits and then describe the publication process with a list of specific recommendations.

Competing Conceptions Of Literacy : Intersections In A Dual-Credit Writing Program., Caroline Wilkinson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation addresses how as dual-credit offerings rise, university writing programs work to respond to the pedagogical, material, and institutional concerns that inform teaching “college-level writing” in this unique space. Recent composition scholarship, such as Christine Farris and Kristine Hansen’s College Credit for Writing in High School: The “Taking Care of” Business, addresses the acceleration of these courses, questioning the extent to which the efficiency of dual credit designates writing as a “commodity easily appropriated, sold, outsourced, and knocked off” (272). My project further studies the implications of accelerated writing courses by interviewing dual-credit students, instructors, and administrators at one …

Scientism, Satire, And Sacrificial Ceremony In Dostoevsky's "Notes From Underground" And C.S. Lewis's "That Hideous Strength", Jonathan Smalt

Masters Theses

Though the nineteenth-century Victorian belief that science alone could provide utopia for man weakened in the epistemological uncertainty of the postmodern era, this belief still continues today. In order to understand our current scientific milieu--and the dangers of propagating scientism--we must first trace the rise of scientism in the nineteenth-century. Though removed, Fyodor Dostoevsky, in Notes From Underground (1864), and C.S. Lewis, in That Hideous Strength (1965), are united in their critiques of scientism as a conceptual framework for human residency. For Dostoevsky, the Crystal Palace of London's Great Exhibition (1862) embodied the nineteenth-century goal to found utopia through the …

Ideology And Subversion: Linguistic Registers In Barbara Kingsolver’S The Poisonwood Bible, Natalie Wallace

English

Effective colonial regimes have employed language to control and incapacitate their colonial subjects. However, anti-colonialist and Africanist authors have conversely used language as a significantly powerful tool in resisting colonial and neo-colonial discourses. Despite this subversive sentiment in contemporary literature about Africa, many scholars criticize Western authors, in particular, for their works about African nations, peoples, and struggles, noting their tendencies to generalize about a diverse continent, to project Western paradigms onto African contexts, and to disregard their own associations with colonial governments. Barbara Kingsolver’s 1998 novel The Poisonwood Bible has received much critical attention as a work that deplores …

The Isolated Self: A Re-Imaging Of The Individual In Mary Shelley’S Frankenstein And Mamoru Oshii’S Ghost In The Shell, Emily Wierzbowski

English

Mary Shelley’s 1818 Frankenstein and Mamoru Oshii’s Ghost in the Shell films (1995 and 2004) were both created in times of great upheaval in scientific communities, and show that the further away we get from the organic body, the harder it becomes to articulate what is specifically human through dualisms. Shelley was writing during a period of secularization. Human identity and relations were no longer strictly based on one’s relationship to God or one’s family’s standing. Oshii’s work comes in the midst of the arrival of the new digital age. Medical enhancements and the proliferation of communication technologies such as …

Middle-Earth's War On Terror: A Post-9/11 Reception Study On The Works Of J.R.R. Tolkien, James William Peebles

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates how Americans can and do interpret Tolkien's works in light of 9/11 and its proximity to Peter Jackson's film adaptations hitting theaters.

“Could Fulfillment Ever Be Felt As Deeply As Loss?”: A Postcolonial Examination Of The West’S Influence On India As Reflected By Kiran Desai’S Portrayal Of Twentieth Century Female Education In The Inheritance Of Loss, Ambreen Hooda

English Honors Theses

Drawing upon cultural, historical, and postcolonial methods, I analyze how Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss reflects twentieth century India, an India heavily influenced by the West. This analysis seeks to answer questions the effects of colonization and whether or not the formal education the main female character inherits is worth what she loses in the process. One of the two main storylines in Desai’s novel focuses on Sai, an educated teenage girl in Kalimpong, India. Buried within the flashbacks of her story is that of Bela “Nimi” Patel’s, Sai’s grandmother. Shortly after Nimi’s wedding, her husband, Jemubhai, leaves to …

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.

Some Place To Be That's Not On The Map : Chuck Palahniuk's Demarginalization Of The Gothic Monster., Morgan Blair

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

No abstract provided.

Give Us A Gender Neutral Pronoun, Yo!: The Need For And Creation Of A Gender Neutral, Singular, Third Person, Personal Pronoun, Elizabeth J. Elrod

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This essay outlines the problems associated with the history and current absence of a gender-neutral third-person singular personal pronoun in the English language. The combination of the social and grammatical consequences of this language gap results in pronoun choices that are either politically incorrect or verbose. Experts’ attempts to fill this language gap have failed to take root on any widespread basis; but, interestingly, middle school children in Baltimore, Maryland created and started using “yo” as their own gender-neutral third-person singular personal pronoun. Stotko and Troyer’s (2007) study on this development sheds some light on exactly how students use “yo” …

Undoings : Reversals And Dissolutions Of Binaries In The Narrative Films Of Peter Greenaway., Kristina Sue Bohleber Groves 1978-

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, discussed and analyzed are the narrative films of British film director Peter Greenaway through lenses of queer theory, feminism, and theories of the monstrous to investigate Greenaway’s notion of the Other in his films. Nearly all his films include a “nonstandard” Othering of characters, a breaking down of societal binaries, as well as crossing the line of what is taboo in our society. This Othering forces viewers to reevaluate their own subjectivity, and to evaluate which groups they see themselves as a part of. In creating fantastic worlds in which the characters do not function within the …

Humor In Discourse: Herr Flick And Lieutenant Gruber In ‘Allo ‘Allo, Toke Van Gehuchten

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Humor in discourse is often characterized by the specific, i.e. humor arises in a particular context. Sitcoms often provide a medium for humor in that the characters act as types through the aid of linguistic tools. In the case of ‘Allo ‘Allo, for instance, the German character of Herr Flick is exemplified by his extensive usage of syntactic features, which are associated with speaker dominance, e.g. frequent use of the imperative, deontically used modal verbs and conciseness of utterance. On the other hand, the character of Lieutenant Gruber is typified by his usage of mitigation speech devices, such as the …

Creating Her Own Power: "Morte Darthur's" Morgan Le Fay, Cynthia A. Scott

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Morgan le Fay is one of the most recognizable female characters in Thomas Malory’s Morte Darthur as she persistently creates conflict for King Arthur and his knights. While many scholars have focused on the idea of a subjugated female presence in Malory’s text, this paper addresses the power that Morgan displays and how it suggests underlying masculine anxieties existing in a patriarchy. Three specific components of Morgan’s power are discussed: her ability to reject and manipulate prescribed gender codes, her power of enchantment, and her disruption of homosocial bonds. The strategic combination of these three components allows Morgan to exhibit …

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 …

Del Norte: A Collection Of Short Stories Y El Corrido De Dani, Jesus Alfredo Reyna

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Del Norte is the title name given to this first series of vignettes and short stories. The narratives are divided into four parts including a one act play that attempt to bridge the gap between the idea of a homeland as well as the Mexican American identity through the eyes of a migrant family and its major narrator. Unlike derivative associations with the term Del Norte in other academic disciplines, my interpretation of being from “Del Norte” is manifested into stories about a homeland omnipresent in the familial relationships described in my stories. The narratives exist within this paradigm. The …

Servants Of My People First : An Examination Of The Political Literacies Of The Black Liberation Front International (Blfi), 1969-1973., Joilynn Karega-Mason

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is a multifaceted project. First, it is a historical work of subversion and revision designed to do two things: (1) apply pressure to trends in rhetoric and composition historiography that have left under-challenged a politics of representation that historically and systematically marked Black college students of the late sixties and early seventies as under-prepared, lacking in linguistic and rhetorical resources and agency, and politically militant yet academically apathetic; and (2) construct a more nuanced portrait of the writer agency of the Black college students of the late sixties and early seventies by examining the political writings of members …

The Construction And Performance Of Masculinity Through The Voice Of Mexican American Male Authors: Arturo Islas' "The Rain God" And Rigoberto González's "Men Without Bliss", Edna Elizabeth Camacho

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The thesis closely analyzes Arturo Islas’ novel The Rain God (1984) and Rigoberto Gonzalez’s collection of short stories Men Without Bliss (2008) as representations of Mexican American literature that attempt to construct and define masculinity through the actions of male characters. The Rain God, explores the performance of masculinity through the image of the body, similarly to the performance of an actor on a stage. Islas introduces four men who hide, and deny a space for expunging their emotions. Men Without Bliss, showcases the emotions that men suppress and exemplifies their vulnerability as their strength rather than a debilitating characteristic …

Through The Eyes Of The Present: Screening The Male Homoerotics Of Shakespearean Drama In Anglophone Cinema, 1936-2011, Anthony Guy Patricia

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This is an analysis of representations of male homoeroticism in Anglophone Shakespeare film. Using the strategies made available by close reading, gay and lesbian studies, queer theory, and presentism, critical attention is directed to a corpus of fourteen movies, ranging from Max Reinhardt and William Dieterle's 1936 production ofA Midsummer Night's DreamPrivate Romeo, Alan Brown's 2011 homoerotic appropriation ofRomeo and Juliet. The overall purpose of the project is both to map and to interpret how Anglophone filmmakers have dealt with - or not dealt with, as the case may be - the male homoerotic elements Shakespeare wove into the textual …

The Ethos Of Conspiracy Argument : "Character" As Persuader In Conspiracy Rhetoric., Michael James Sobiech

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Conspiracy theory has, as Timothy Melley states in Empire of Conspiracy (2000), “animated our political culture from the early Republican period to the present, at times powerfully swaying popular opinion” (vii). Though it has attracted attention from a wide range of disciplines, conspiracy theory has not received significant notice within rhetoric and composition. My dissertation adds to the interdisciplinary body of scholarship concerning conspiracy theory by examining it as rhetoric, focusing on how the construction of a conspiracy proponent’s ethos/character affects the persuasiveness of a conspiracy theory. I argue that ethos construction plays a much more significant role in conspiracy …

The Language Politics Of Doctoral Studies In Rhetoric And Composition : Toward A Translingual Revision Of Graduate Education In The Field., Carrie Byars Kilfoil

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation critiques graduate education in rhetoric and composition in relationship to recent calls for a “translingual” approach to the teaching of writing and a transnational, cross-cultural approach to writing research (Horner, Lu, Royster, Trimbur; Canagarajah; Donahue). Building on this scholarship, I attend to the (re)production of disciplinary dispositions toward language difference in rhetoric and composition doctoral studies. Through textual analysis of the Rhetoric Review surveys of doctoral programs in the field (1987, 1995, 2000, 2007, and the current wiki), archival materials from various programs (including three focal schools), and a survey of doctoral students currently enrolled in the University …

'Tis Murder's Best Face When A Vizard's On, Lauren Vezina

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Theater as an art form demands disguise for many reasons. It allows a character to act in uncharacteristic ways against society’s customs and expectations. It frees the user from society’s rules as well as his own sense of morality; nonetheless, it also restricts the wearer to certain behaviors and actions. This dichotomy is reflected in how the masked character is free to act outside of the law but is still its subject in the end. Disguise allows a character freedom from social obligations but he is still responsible and punished for his actions by the end of the play. Although …

Visions Of Terror : Reconstructing Literature Through 9/11 Texts, Jennifer Michelle Agens

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The shift in communication since the turn of the century necessitates an understanding of visual rhetoric. Critics claim that verbal communication is more effective than using images to communicate ideas. However, visual rhetoricians argue that images appeal to the reader’s emotions, thus making an immediate, truthful, and powerful impact. The purpose of my research is to examine the functionality of visual rhetoric and to determine how this field enhances 21 st century communication. In consideration of how visual rhetoric has shaped literature since the turn of the century, I have concluded that the September 11th terrorist attacks have made an …