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How Crows Talk And Willows Walk, Gary Esarey

Ahsahta Press

Though the preface to Gary Esarey’s volume claims “this little book [is] not art and craft but a parody of art, a grim bouffe stiffened by hard weather and cold,” it is a fitting introduction to the playful and often hilarious poems within. With titles such as “Pinch ruddy those cheeks of slumber” (“Pastel-gray on black/ the streaks of May do jog awake,/ the clouding night the day/ doth disendarkle...”) and “Trixi leaves town behind” (“Tacoma—/ it rebuffs improvement/ with time its smell diminishes/ its virtue is not overpraised...”), Esarey tips off the reader: expect parody, musical language, and humor …

Speaking Magic Realism: Selected Short Stories Of Peter Carey, Raymond Driehuis

Theses : Honours

This thesis is an analysis determined by the investigative proposition, what is a magic realist speech act? Of the schools of thought available to any philosophical undertaking in literature, this thesis makes particular use of the principles of speech act theory, genre theory, and poststructuralism. With genre theory, the emphasis is on the subgeneric construction of the narrative structure, and this thesis will incorporate three short stories from Peter Carey's The Fat Man in History as the most overt evidence for what the thesis is proposing to analyse and illuminate. But on the whole, readers will understand that, while …

An Analysis Of Personal Pronouns In Middle English Literary Texts, Melissa Jill Bennett

Masters Theses

This thesis examines the evolution of personal pronouns from the tenth to the fourteenth centuries, with a particular focus upon the southern literary dialects of that era. The baseline text for this analysis is the Anglo-Saxon poem The Dream of the Rood, although Bright's paradigm of Anglo-Saxon pronouns is also employed. The Owl and the Nightingale (circa 1200), The Fox and the Wolf (circa 1275), Piers Plowman (circa 1375), and Parliament of Fowls (circa 1375) are used to illustrate the changes in the forms of the pronouns over four centuries, Chaucer's Parliament serving to represent the emerging London standard. …

(Self)Critical Thinking: Toward A New Pedagogy Of Compostition And Literature, Brian R. Beamer

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Development Of An English For Gospel Purposes Vocabulary List: The Latter-Day Saint Lexicon As A Second Language, Jennifer H. Burrill

Theses and Dissertations

This study sought to explore the non-native English-speaking LDS adult's comprehension of the English LDS lexicon. Stahle (1981) conducted a study of the LDS lexicon which established at least 249 words as "basic" vocabulary. The current study had two foci: it first sought to determine how difficult these words were in both English and Spanish for native Spanish-speaking LDS adults living in the U.S. To assess this, a dual-language vocabulary instrument was administered to 245 subjects from Texas, California, and Utah. Item Response Theory (IRT) analysis was used to calculate difficulty levels of words and these values were plotted two-dimensionally …

A Study Of The Linguistic Semantic And Sociolinguistic Components Of The English Modal System, Jeffery Hutcheson

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

In this thesis I examine the linguistic, semantic and sociolinguistic components of the English modal system and the difficulty the system presents to both instructors and learners of English as a second language (ESL). The purpose of this study was to determine what these components are and how they affect communication. I begin by defining what modality is and how it is manifested in English. The focus is upon the one-word modals and not the phrasal modals; however, some phrasal modals are explicated when a contrast exists between the meaning of the one-word modal and its phrasal equivalent. After the …

Revising Lives: Bernard Shaw And His Biographer, Sarah Wadsworth

English Faculty Research and Publications

Shaw's galley revisions of Archibald Henderson's 1932 biography, Bernard Shaw: Playboy and Prophet, reveal a unique collaboration between biographer and subject. The result is a subversion of biographical conventions, in which the assumed voice of the biographer lends credence and authority to the disguised voice of the subject.

We Wretched Of The Earth: The Search For A Language Of Justice, John C. Hawley

English

"In the beginning was the Word," writes John-God's revealing utterance that "was made flesh and lived among us." This incarnational character of the Word, this "living among us," has demanded of Christians in each age a reinterpretation of its original and ongoing meaning. If the protean nature of God's self-expression has seen a continuing "translation" in each age, though, it is becoming increasingly evident among church members that a similar task is also required in each ethnic milieu. The "us" among whom the Word lives is made up of many communities of discourse, and a logocentric theology like Christianity must …

The Zea Mexican Dairy: 7 Sept 1926 - 7 Sept 1986. By Kamau Brathwaite (Book Review), Daryl Cumber Dance

English Faculty Publications

I may be hard put to classify the latest work of noted poet, historian, literary critic, linguist, and Africanist Kamau (Eddie) Brathwaite, but I have no problem describing it - compelling, riveting, unforgettable! Begun when Brathwaite received the devastating news that his wife Doris (his Zea Mexican) was dying of cancer, it is a paean to her, a record of his efforts to deal with her dying, death, and absence, an account of their relationship, and an autobiographical confessional. The Zea Mexican Diary includes diary entries, letters, memorates, an epigraph, expressions of sympathy, confessions, autobiographical narrative, poems - but whatever …

Mythcon 25 - The Language Of Myth, The Mythopoeic Society

Mythcon Programs

I would like to welcome you all to Mythcon 25. This is a special occasion for the Mythopoeic Society - it's the twenty-fifth Mythcon and the first to be held on the east coast of the United States.

Two Women On The Verge Of A Contextual Breakthrough: Using 'A Feminist Dictionary' In The Literature Classroom, Sheila Reiter, Barbara Dibernard

Department of English: Faculty Publications

Barbara: The following dialogue relates our experiences using A Feminist Dictionary (AFD) in literature classes. My perspective is that of a feminist teacher who has found AFD to be a useful tool in bringing feminist theory and practice into alignment in the classroom. I believe it is crucial to connect the personal and the public and to connect theory and practice. One of my primary goals as a teacher is to get students to see them selves as agents who are capable of resistance and of personal and social change. In order to facilitate that, we examine hierarchy and power …

Training Graduate Student Writing Teachers: Composition History, Theory, And Application, Gwendolyn L. Gray

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

A thesis presented to the faculty of the Caudill College of Humanities at Morehead State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts by Gwendolyn L. Gray on May 18, 1994.

Reviews, Glen Goodknight, Nancy-Lou Patterson, William H. Stoddard

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

Poems by J.R.R. Tolkien. J.R.R. Tolkien. Reviewed by Glen GoodKnight.

Tolkien's Middle-Earth: A Book of 20 Postcards. Art by John Howe, Roger Garland, Alan Lee, and Ted Nasmith. Reviewed by Glen GoodKnight.

Tolkien's Dragons & Monsters: A Book of 20 Postcards. Art by Alan Lee, John Howe, Ted Nasmith, Roger Garland, Inger Edelfeldt, and Carol Emery Phenix. Reviewed by Glen GoodKnight.

Morgoth's Ring: the Later Silmarillion, Part One, The Legends of Aman. J.R.R. Tolkien; Edited by Christopher Tolkien. Reviewed by Glen GoodKnight.

Planets in Peril: A Critical Study of C.S. Lewis's Ransom Trilogy. David C. Downing. Reviewed by Nancy-Lou Patterson. …

Tolkien’S Word-Hord Onlēac, Ricky L. Thompson

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

Explores “the stylized and conventional speeches” of Beowulf and the Green Knight as they “provide analogues for Tolkien’s heroes in The Lord of the Rings.” Contends that analysis of these speeches enhances awareness of many aspects of these heroes.

Northrop Frye's Bible, Steven Marx

English

No abstract provided.

A Rhetorical Analysis Of Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness, Shyh-Chyi Wey

Theses Digitization Project

No abstract provided.

"Enjoying The Conceit Of Suddenness": An Analysis Of Brevity, Context, And Textual "Identity" In Jean Stafford's "Caveat Emptor", Susan Rochette-Crawley

Short Story

No abstract provided.

Productive Destruction: Torture, Text, And The Body In The Old English 'Andreas', Christopher R. Fee

English Faculty Publications

Writing in the Old English Andreas is at once both a productive and a destructive activity. We first become aware of the dangerous power of the written word quite early in the poem, when we learn that the Mermedonians have subverted the normally productive activity of writing into a tool for calculating the execution dates of their prisoners (134-37). Later, the words uttered by the devil to incite the Mermedonians against Andreas illuminate the lexical relationship between the destructive nature of writing and the productive nature of torture in the semiotic context of the poem. Finally, in a sort of …

Finding The Words : Negotiating Linguistic Communities In Sherley Anne Williams' Dessa Rose, Nanci M. Roberts

Master's Theses

A study of linguistic communities in Sherley Anne Williams' Dessa Rose, this thesis focuses on the relationship between cultural behavior and the use of language. Using anthropological studies on the role of language in society, as well as major criticism of the novel, this paper seeks to prove that only through equalizing linguistic power can the characters achieve a language system which accurately reflects their experience. The paper focuses on four primary communities: the unequal interracial community of Southern slave society, the slave community, the white planter community, and finally the equal interracial community that results after slavery.

Reconsidering Essentialism For Feminist Composition Pedagogy: Adrienne Rich’S ‘Politics Of Location’ As A Theory Of Writerly Agency, Krista Ratcliffe

English Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Decapitating Romance: Class, Fetish, And Ideology In Keats’S Isabella, Diane Hoeveler

English Faculty Research and Publications

Critics of Keats's Isabella; or, The Pot of Basil (1818) traditionally focus on the poem's "transitional" status between the early Endymion and the later and much greater odes. This article reads the poem as a shocking and angry poem by interrogating the meanings of the decapitated head that lies at the core of the text. By interrogating the head I read the work as an expression of Keats's attempt to bury his grief for his parents' deaths, to repudiate his middle-class origins, and to deny his attraction to "Romance," the popular Gothic ballad tradition of his day. The text explores …

Literature And The Evolution Of Religious Discourse: A Concluding Essay, John C. Hawley

English

Religion and literature do not play identical roles in society, but they both rely heavily on imagination. This book has provided an examination of representative writings from both fields to demonstrate this fact, and to suggest points at which the differences between the two disciplines become less important. Viewed together, these examples. raise interesting questions regarding the viability of discussing enduring truths outside the realms of imagination. This paradox, in turn, points to the limitations of rationality · in the pursuit of such truths, and the inevitability of subjectivity in the quest for the objectively true.

These are important philosophical …

X-Bar Syntax In A Pedagogical Setting, Hector A. Torres

English Language and Literature Faculty Publications

In this brief essay I explore how X-bar syntax, the module in the theory of grammar that defines the head-complement relation in particular languages, may be used as an effective pedagogical tool when teaching college students encountering the theory of grammar for the first time. In particular, I pursue two distinct but interrelated objectives: (i) to show that X-bar theory, within its limits, can be used to teach such students the empirical nature of the study of constituent structure in an optimally simple way, and (ii) to propose a variant of X-bar theory that could supplement any English pedagogical grammar …

Demythifying Melville: Charles Johnson's Middle Passage And The Nightmare Of Slavery, Rachel Palencia '94

Honors Projects

When I first picked up Middle Passage, I was struck by an odd sense of familiarity, for having read "Benito Cereno" that same year, I immediately noted a connection to Melville. I became curious to determine not only the nature of that connection but also how an analysis of it might enhance an understanding of Johnson's text. I asked myself: "Why does Johnson deliberately choose to retell Melville?" A few reasons immediately suggested themselves: because Melville represents the canon of classic American literature and because he is an American writer who has adopted the 'European perspective of the empire. Moreover, …

Dostoevsky Speaks For Ford: A Dialogic Interpretation Of The Good Soldier, Michael Bonner

Theses : Honours

This thesis offers an original interpretation of Ford Madox Ford's novel, The Good Soldier, which focuses on the dialogic and intertextual qualities of Ford's writing. A representative body of previous critical analyses of the novel are reviewed to demonstrate that earlier interpretations, which have assessed the novel according to limited theories of epistemology or language, are inadequate to examine the social criteria for meaning that the novel invites. One of the tasks of this research is to show that the probable origins of Ford's dialogistic narrative modality lie in the writing of Fyodor Dostoevsky. Biographical materials are used to show …

Disseminating Heterotopia, Robert F. Reid-Pharr

Publications and Research

Focuses on the motion picture The Passion of Remembrance by Isaac Julien and Maureen Blackwood, and the book Tales of Neveryon by Samuel Delany. Highlights of the motion picture and the book; Author's argument that the tendency to ossify myths only leads to further confusion; Understanding of the mythic process.

The Verse Of J.R.R. Tolkien, Melanie A. Rawls

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

Largely negative criticism of Tolkien as a poet, particularly his early work in Book of Lost Tales and Lays of Beleriand. Notes, however, that “much of the verse embedded in his prose does indeed fit the purpose for which he intended it.”

In This Issue, Glen Goodknight

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

No abstract provided.

Letters, Patrick Wynne, Alexei Kondratiev, Joan Marie Verba

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

No abstract provided.

Stone Towers, Carl F. Hostetter, Patrick Wynne

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

Proposes “Celtic and pre-Celtic origins for certain linguistic and legendary elements in a corpus whose sources” have been sought in Germanic myth and legend.