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Breaking Forms: The Shift To Performance In Late Twentieth-Century Irish Drama, Christie L. Fox

English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The In Pulse, William L. Hall

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

A collection of poems composed as an exercise with imagination and the attempt to convey the mind as medium for experience without forgetting the reader remembers something else.

Gypsy Soul, Wolf Spirit, Pamela Marie Davis-Allen

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Gypsy Soul, Wolf Spirit is a collection of thirty-six poems; the majority of the poems are written in - or evolved from drafts written in - iambic pentameter. Writing formal poetry was a challenge I decided to embrace because I believed that it would allow me to evolve as a poet.

The themes that connect these poems are represented by the collection's title: Gypsy Soul, Wolf Spirit. There is the dominant thematic presence of both the natural world and the spiritual realm within the collection. My intention was to lift the reader to a state of mind, through language, where …

The Lgbtq Short Story, Matt Brim

Publications and Research

“The LGBTQ Short Story” is a lengthy entry in the three-volume encyclopedia LGBTQ America Today, edited by queer scholar John Hawley. The entry explores the characteristics of the genre and synthesizes the work of the top 25 living queer short story writers.

Expanding Composition's Scope: Community-Based Literacy And Second-Language Writing, Carolina Pelaez-Morales

Masters Theses

There is little research from either Composition Studies or Second-Language Studies on the development of writing competence among English language learners, paiiicularly adult learners outside academia. In response to this need, I conducted a case study of a small group of Spanish-native speakers as they learned English through a volunteer-based community program in a small Midwestern town. This project establishes the role writing plays in a community of second-language learners-primarily motivated by economic factors to learn English-and it shows ways in which the development of writing competence can enhance overall language proficiency. Also, this study calls for further research in …

Lexical And Segmental Influences On Child And Adult Learners’ Production Of Second Language Vowels, Wendy Baker-Smemoe, Pavel Trofimovich

Faculty Publications

This study examined how two segmental or sound-related factors (crosslanguage perceptual similarity, syllabic context) as well as two lexical or wordrelated factors (word frequency, subjective word familiarity) influenced the production of eight English vowels by 40 Korean children and adults exposed to English in the U.S. for an average of 1 and 7 years. Results of two experiments revealed that lexical factors affected adults’ second language (L2) production more than children’s and depended (at least for adults) on amount of L2 experience. Lexical influences on L2 production were obtained when segmental influences were particularly strong (for dissimilar L2 vowels or …

Representations Of Grief In Akhmatova’S Requiem And Pushkin’S The Bronze Horseman, Hillary R. Smith

Honors Theses

Anna Akhmatova composed Requiem largely before 1940, but it was not published until the mid 1960s – after her death. It is now known to be one of her best works. Requiem is a cycle comprised of fifteen poems, the entireties of which are introduced by a personal reflection written in prose. Alexander Pushkin wrote his lyric ballad The Bronze Horseman in 1833 about the tremendous flood of 1824 in St. Petersburg and the involvement of the bronze equestrian statue of Peter the Great. Everything that the protagonist, Evgeny, cares for is destroyed, and he blames the Tsar for his …

Using Creative Writing Instruction In The Urban High School English Classroom To Promote Writing Skills In Remedial Level Students, Maureen Harrison

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The purpose of this research is to investigate the value of creative writing instruction for increasing the literacy of remedial students in urban High School English classes. Students who are placed in remedial level classes often have preconceived negative feelings concerning their ability to produce academic writing. As I later discuss through the research of Debra Holmes Matthews, John A. Daly and Michael D. Miller, these preconceived notions impact the motivation and educational experience of remedial level students. In my research I will examine the ability of creative writing to motivate struggling student writers and help to improve specific writing …

Dual-Language Education: A Longitudinal Study Of Students' Achievement In An El Paso County, Texas School District, Pauline Anne Dow

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Dissertation describes a longitudinal study of one-way and two-way bilingual education programs (also known as dual-language programs) to assess achievement of elementary-aged English learners (ELs) in a school district located in El Paso County, Texas, using both norm-referenced and criterion-referenced tests. The design features assessment for bilingual students' language skills in both English and Spanish, which allows for the examination of the interrelationships among skills in the two languages. The study also compares the achievement of ELs and non-ELs in the two-way program. The work reported in this Dissertation was conducted with a common group of children over a …

An Initial Exploration Of The Undergraduate English Major Curricula Issued By The 2000-2001 Member Schools Of The Council For Christian Colleges And Universities, Maralee Sue Crandon

Dissertations

Problem

This study made the initial exploration of English major curricula among 101 members of the 2000-2001 Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU), describing their nature and state and discerning evidence of Christian thought.

Method

Stewart’s (1989) Modified Categories of English Majors and Eisner’s (1991) education criticism provided frameworks to categorize all curricula and to describe a purposeful sampling of 20 selected by region, religious, and enrollment.

Results

Types 1.0 Straight Literature and 1.5 Primarily Literature majors represented 78% of the population and 75% of the sampling; Type 2.0 More Flexible majors represented 18% of the population and 25% …

Child–Adult Differences In Second-Language Phonological Learning: The Role Of Cross-Language Similarity, Wendy Baker-Smemoe, Pavel Trofimovich, James E. Flege, Molly Mack, Randall Halter

Faculty Publications

This study evaluated whether age effects on second language (L2) speech learning derive from changes in how the native language (L1) and L2 sound systems interact. According to the “interaction hypothesis” (IH), the older the L2 learner, the less likely the learner is able to establish new vowel categories needed for accurate L2 vowel production and perception because, with age, L1 vowel categories become more likely to perceptually encompass neighboring L2 vowels. These IH predictions were evaluated in two experiments involving 64 native Korean- and English-speaking children and adults. Experiment 1 determined, as predicted, that the Korean children were less …

The Perils And Empowerments Of Mountain Literacies: Reading Loss And Shifting Identities In Appalachian Memoirs And Novels, Erica Abrams Locklear

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation analyzes the literary portrayal of literacy events in memoirs and novels written by Appalachian women during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Drawing from contemporary literacy scholarship, my project engages several definitions of the term "literacy," including theories defining it as a technical skill, a social act, cultural knowledge, or a potent form of ideological power. In a region historically (and often inaccurately) stigmatized as illiterate, "literacy" is a loaded term, a concept doubly associated with cultural pride and with cultural loss. By applying literacy theories to Appalachian literature, I analyze the identity conflicts literacy attainment causes for several …

Rhyme And Reason In Language Acquisition: Incorporating Poetry Into The Esl Classroom, Kimberly Call Gleason

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Utah is seeing a rapid increase in K-12 students whose native language is not English. With this increase, teachers face the challenge of finding new and effective teaching methods to reach their ESL (English as a Second Language) students. This research explores the study of poetry as an instrument to improve ESL students' pronunciation of English. When read out loud, poetry can be an exercise in pronouncing consonant sounds (from alliteration), decoding vowel sounds (from rhyme), and acquiring the natural speech rhythm of the English language (from meter). Poetry was selected not only because of its exaggerated sound elements (alliteration, …

Archaeology And The Sense Of History In J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-Earth, Deborah Sabo

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

Looks at ruins and other archaeological sites in Middle-earth and their place in the cultural history of its various races, and by reflection, the place of archaeology in our own cultural memories. Considers Lake-town, the Barrow-Downs, Weathertop, and other locations to show differing attitudes toward and uses of the past.

Of Þam Him Aweaxeð Wynsum Gefea”: The Voyeuristic Appeal Of Christ Iii, Paul Dustin Stegner, Timothy D. Arner

English

Christ III’s representation of the rewards offered to the blessed in Heaven raises this question: Why would anyone offered the opportunity to enjoy the beatific vision turn his gaze toward the suffering of the damned in Hell? The poem’s emphasis on vision has conventionally been interpreted as indicating its didactic purpose of effecting repentance in the reader. Critics such as Frederick Biggs, Thomas D. Hill, and, most recently, Sachi Shimomura have connected the poem to standard theological interpretations of the Last Judgment and the penitential tradition.1 However, the unique, and perhaps troubling, issue of how and why the blessed choose …

Review Of Reed In Review: Essays In Celebration Of The First Twenty-Five Years, Edited By Audrey Douglas And Sally-Beth Maclean, Jamie K. Taylor

Literatures in English Faculty Research and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Legacy Of Joan Vollmer: The Short Significant Life Of A Beat Woman, Christopher Carmona

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

In this thesis, I have endeavored to flesh out the life of Joan Vollmer. Joan Vollmer was an essential figure in the Beat Generation of Writers even though she never published a word. Through researching the life of Joan Vollmer, the role that she played in the creation of the Beat Generation becomes clear. Joan Vollmer is mentioned in the major Beat texts, but there is no definitive look at her life and importance. Therefore, I set out to do what no one has done and write about Joan Vollmer' s life. I have collected as many letters that still …

Messages In A Bottle: The 2007 Lion And The Unicorn Award For Excellence In North American Poetry, Angela Sorby, Joseph T. Thomas Jr., Richard Flynn

English Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Carefully Constructed Pictures Of Nobodies: Shakespeare's And Cesaire's Ariels, Nadirah Shabazz

All Theses

Critical scholarship of William Shakespeare's The Tempest and AimŽ CŽsaire's adaptation Une Tempte frequently neglects to examine Ariel's place within colonialist discourse. Ariel's ambiguity in both texts undoubtedly contributes to this unjust marginalization. An understanding of the function of Ariel within the texts is critical in understanding the placement of both plays in colonialist discourse. This thesis proposes a reading of the Ariels that reestablishes their place within the dialogue.
Shakespeare's Ariel problematizes views of the colonized as content to live under the domination of the colonizer. Using subversive tactics--principally his invisibility--Ariel disguises himself as unimportant and attains his freedom. …

Eng 4901-001: History Of The English Language, Buck

Fall 2007

No abstract provided.

Eng 2901-002-004: The Structures Of English, Buck

Fall 2007

No abstract provided.

Mythcon 38 - Becoming Adept: The Journey To Mastery, The Mythopoeic Society

Mythcon Programs

Program book for Mythcon 38, held at Clark Kerr Campus in Berkeley, California in 2007.

An Artificial Immune System Based Approach For English Grammar Correction, Akshat Kumar, Shivashankar B. Nair

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Grammar checking and correction comprise of the primary problems in the area of Natural Language Processing (NLP). Traditional approaches fall into two major categories: Rule based and Corpus based. While the former relies heavily on grammar rules the latter approach is statistical in nature. We provide a novel corpus based approach for grammar checking that uses the principles of an Artificial Immune System (AIS).We treat grammatical error as pathogens (in immunological terms) and build antibody detectors capable of detecting grammatical errors while allowing correct constructs to filter through. Our results show that it is possible to detect a range of …

Mending The Moor On The Early Modern English Stage : The Rise Of Shakespeare's Black Tragic Hero, Marcos S. Vargas

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Shakespeare’s two inverse representations dealing with the black male Moor— Aaron (Titus Andronicus) and Othello (Othello)—can figure prominently in a reading of his stage treatment of those notions of racial differences in the early modem era. By retracing early modem histories which affected the early formation of race and by emphasizing the popular representations of race on the early modem English stage, this study seeks to answer whether Shakespeare’s own treatment of race was typical or, in fact, anomalous for his time. Using re-conceptualized vocabularies of race laid out by recent early modem race scholars, this study applies that groundwork …

Nude With Anything, James D'Agostino

Dissertations

Nude With Anything is a book-length manuscript of poetry that sources itself in a painterly world, one in which a visual vocabulary privileges the materiality of language in all its attempts to rival experience. Its teleos leans often toward velocity, a fevered stacking up of phrases, and so its range of poetic forms documents attempts at building calm into the rapids, intersecting verbal excess with contrasting silences, a kind of late-phase Henry James short through by haiku. With each syntactical tactic and shift in diction, Nude With Anything employs an abiding collage aesthetic, braiding different strands of discourse and seeking …

Taking Mormons Seriously: Ethics Of Representing Latter-Day Saints In American Fiction, Terrol Roark Williams

Theses and Dissertations

My paper examines the ethics of representing Mormons in serious American fiction, viewed through two primary texts, Bayard Taylor's nineteenth-century dramatic poem The Prophet and Maureen Whipple's epic novel The Giant Joshua. I also briefly examine Walter Kirn's short stories “Planetarium” and “Whole Other Bodies.” Using Werner Sollors' and Matthew Frye Jacobson's writings on ethnicity as foundational, I argue in that Mormonism constitutes an ethnicity, which designation accentuates the ethical demands of those who represent the group. I also use W.J.T. Mitchell's theories of representation as the basis of my arguments of the ethics of representing ethnicity. As ethical theorists, …

"Whether Beast Or Human": The Cultural Legacies Of Dread, Locks, And Dystopia., Kevin Frank

Publications and Research

Analyzing the ongoing problem of Caribbean racial exploitation, particularly fear signified through one of the most potent Caribbean symbols, dreadlocks, Kevin Frank offers a paradigm shift in arguing that Medusa's alterity is altered by Rastafarians' snake-like hair, but the transformative power of Rasta dreadlocks is contested through certain cinematic depictions of dread.

Trophies Or Treasures: The Burden Of Choice For Mothers, Wives, And Daughters In Washington Square, The Portrait Of A Lady, And The Bostonians., Melissa C. Huisman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the world of Henry James's novels, characters are often placed in difficult situations where their happiness depends on their ability to make a free choice. Female characters are manipulated and diminished by a patriarchal system that not only seeks to subordinate their will, but also to objectify them, to place them on the shelf as a trophy. Fathers and husbands are typically the controlling agents, but James also presents women who appropriate the dominating role.

With varying degrees of success, each female character rejects the status of trophy. Instead, each attempts to make choices and determine her own future. …

Trauma, Myth, And History In William Faulkner’S Absalom, Absalom! And E.L. Doctorow’S The Book Of Daniel, Alex Hargroder

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Class Indifference - A Divided Nation : Finding Common Ground Through American Pragmatism And Democratic Principles In The Composition Classroom, Stacey L. Morrison

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Social class plays a significant but often silent part in American politics, lives, and education. As the events of Hurricane Katrina clearly illustrate, the poor and working class often suffer discrimination that leaves them completely powerless. Their position in life shapes not only how they are seen and treated, but also how they see their world. Their cultures differ markedly from middle and upper class cultures, further alienating them from possible greater personal achievement in a system that champions middle-class values. Education, being a microcosm of our society, mirrors our class conflicts, often failing to teach working-class students in an …