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Constructing Depth Through Jane: Contemporary Interactions Between Austen And Interiority, Nicole Catherine Peters

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The world is saturated with Jane Austen. She is in the movies, in bookstores, and in college courses. For years “lowbrow” and “highbrow” readers have fought over the “proper” way to read her work. Ian Watt, a popular literary critic, argued that Austen’s value resides in her use of interiority. For years, interiority was held as the measure of a novel’s worth or depth. Deidre Lynch exposed this interiority Watt spoke of as a cultural taste—one which Austen and Watt emerged from and helped to create.

In this project, I look at two contemporary manifestations of Austen—one that is considered …

Public Parks And Private Ideologies: Building Nineteenth-Century British National Identity Through Landscape, Laura Swaim Witherington

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This project examines how nineteenth-century landscape theories shaped national identity and were influenced by it. Predominant is an investigation of how the desire for a more egalitarian class structure underlies the changes in British landscape design from an attachment to classical exclusivity through pastoral tropes to a limited acceptance of middle and working classes within public landscapes that represented patriotic values. Although poetic works inform the study, novel-length fiction and non-fiction prose and periodicals are also a primary source of consideration. Novels demonstrate how fictional geography generates the constructs of national ideology, and although canonical works typically referenced in studu …

Prairie Bound: How Laura's Past Forged My Future, Lori J. Houston

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This work of creative non-fiction seeks to explore my past at the same time as I explore the past of a favorite childhood author, Laura Ingalls Wilder. This exploration took the form of a road trip with my father to visit the sites written about in Laura’s books. I found that Laura’s life appealed to me because it represented an insular security that I felt I needed, and that was why I chose, as a child, to immerse myself in the 1880’s. While finding out what she meant to me then, I also discovered that Laura is an even better …

"Robert Frost Blues”, Gregory Arthur Weiss

Dissertations

Robert Frost Blues collectively argues, stylistically and thematically, that apprehending the world is difficult. If one is able to know the world to some degree, the efficacy of that knowledge will be significantly affected by whether other people agree that that apprehension of the world is correct. But beyond that, Robert Frost Blues, with its casual sestinas and villanelles, colloquial language, found language, prose poems, dialogues, and iambic narratives, implicitly argues that the most important aspect of knowing the world is not the form that knowledge fits into or the literary devices it employs. Instead apprehending the world requires both …

What’S In A Test? Constructions Of Literacy And Its Implications For English Proficiency Test Design, Josye Marie Brookter

Dissertations

Although college-level composition pedagogy is becoming more open to language diversity, some crucial current-traditional vestiges remain, particularly in proficiency exams. Too often these exams only identify students who are slipping through the cracks of literacy instruction, while the definition of English represented by this test limits alternate notions of writing and literacy. The test represents local, institutional values about written English, although those values must also be consistent with national standards. Typically, administrators, teachers, and students feel compelled to choose traditional forms of writing over postmodern ones, a choice that is seldom discussed in the literature. Conflicting perspectives of English …

Happily Ever After? Redefining Womanhood And Marriage In Nineteenth-Century Novels, Laura Elizabeth Cox

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Jane Austen, Elizabeth Gaskell, Charlotte Brontë, and Henry James challenged patriarchal conventions and assumptions by redefining womanhood and marriage in their novels, particularly by breaking from the traditional marriage ending. While Pride and Prejudice, North and South, and Jane Eyre end in marriage, these novels depict a freely chosen companionate marriage based on equality; Villette replaces the typical marriage ending with complete independence; and Washington Square and The Portrait of a Lady both portray the decisive rejection of the marriage ideal for a life of renunciation. This thesis analyzes the ways in which these novels challenge nineteenth-century society, as well …

Grammar Workshop: Systematic Language Study In Reading And Writing Contexts, Leah A. Zuidema

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

Responding to claims that grammar instruction has become too limited, Zuidema describes field notebooks, mentor text, show-and-tell essays, and other strategies for engaging students in systematic language analysis.

April 28, 2012: Beth Amidon Retirement Party, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

April 26, 2012: Eclectic Mix Of Kalamazooans Noted By British Celebrity, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

April 25, 2012: Utz Prefaces Neomedievalism In The Media, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

April 23, 2012: Congratulations Adam Pasen !!, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

April 22, 2012: Journal Edited By Ellis, Klekar, And Salisbury Discussed In Nyrb, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

Unbreakable Glass Slippers: Hegemony In Ella Enchanted, Tori Shereen Mirsadjadi

Scripps Senior Theses

The way Gail Carson Levine’s Ella Enchanted simultaneously conforms to its late-20^th-century American standards and rebels against its Cinderella origins is analyzed in this thesis. As an analysis of a piece of literature written for children, the thesis works to defend the notion that playful literature produces a serious dialogue with its readers, and that young female readers are a particularly apropos group for the dialogue about hegemony that Ella Enchanted allows.

The Hegemony Of English In South African Education, Kelsey E. Figone

Scripps Senior Theses

The South African Constitution recognizes 11 official languages and protects an individual’s right to use their mother-tongue freely. Despite this recognition, the majority of South African schools use English as the language of learning and teaching (LOLT). Learning in English is a struggle for many students who speak indigenous African languages, rather than English, as a mother-tongue, and the educational system is failing its students. This perpetuates inequality between different South African communities in a way that has roots in the divisions of South Africa’s past. An examination of the power of language and South Africa’s experience with colonialism and …

April 19, 2012: News From Ph.D. Candidate Dustin Hoffman., Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

April 17, 2012: Ma Capstone Presentations, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

April 16, 2012: Third Coast Fall Issue Reviewed At Newpages.Com, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

April 15, 2012: Playwright Sean Clark Presents His Work: Spring 2012 Gwen Frostic Reading Series, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

Editorial, Janet Brennan Croft

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

No abstract provided.

The Fall Of Gondolin And The Fall Of Troy: Tolkien And Book Ii Of The Aeneid, Alexander M. Bruce

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

Takes us back to classical warfare and the Fall of Troy with his examination of what Tolkien did with the Aeneid when he used it as a source for “The Fall of Gondolin.” The parallels between the stories of Tuor and Aeneas are striking, but more interesting is how Tolkien put his own thematic and symbolic stamp on the material.

The Myths Of The Author: Tolkien And The Medieval Origins Of The Word Hobbit, Michael Livingston

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

Leads us on a linguistic journey into the origins of the words hobbit and Baggins and their surprising relations to one another.

Aphrodite On The Home Front: E.R. Eddison And World War Ii, Joe Young

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

The centrality of service to the goddess of love in E.R. Eddison’s conceptions of heroism and the properly lived life is the focus of this study of the Zimiamvia trilogy. Eddison considered his work an important response to World War II and a call for a more meaningful type of courage and way of living both during and after the war.

Reviews, Emily E. Auger, Sara Brown, Janet Brennan Croft, Scott Mclaren, David D. Oberhelman, Holly Ordway, Amy S. Rodgers, Harley Sims

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

The Christian Goddess: Archetype and Theology in the Fantasies of George MacDonald. Bonnie Gaarden. Reviewed by Scott McLaren.

Picturing Tolkien: Essays on Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings Film Trilogy. Janice M. Bogstad and Philip E. Kaveny, eds. Reviewed by Emily E. Auger.

Good Dragons are Rare: An Inquiry into Literary Dragons East and West. Fanfan Chen and Thomas Honegger, eds. Reviewed by David D. Oberhelman.

Critical Perspectives on Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials: Essays on the Novels, the Film and the Stage Productions. Steven Barfield and Katharine Cox, eds. Reviewed by Amy S. Rodgers.

From Elvish to …

April 12, 2012: Arnie Johnston In Concert With Guest D. N. Bremer, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

April 10, 2012: Nagle & Wennerstrom ~ Gws Talk On Poly Legacies (Thurs., 4/12), Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

April 9, 2012: Wmu Creative Writing Program's Mfa/Phd Festival Reading, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

April 6, 2012: Mckittrick Wins Research Fellowship, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

Between Catastrophe And Carnival: Creolized Identities, Cityspace, And Life Narratives, Cynthia Dobbs, Daphne Lamothe, Theresa Tensuan

Africana Studies: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

April 3, 2012: Congratulations Katherine Zlabek !, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

April 2, 2012: New Issues Poetry & Prose, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.