Digital Commons Network^™

Love And Romance In Early Modern British Literature, Sophia Szeneitas

Senior Honors Projects

This paper seeks to describe and analyze the way in which themes of love and romance were presented in literature in early modern Britain, and how those may differ from or be similar to romantic themes in the media of today. The works being analyzed include plays by William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe, as well as some of Shakespeare’s sonnets. A few different lenses will be explored, including the interaction that love could have with the societal power structure and hierarchy present within the literature (such as the ways in which someone being the lover of a powerful person might …

The Wide-Reaching Appeal Of Fan Fiction And Its Merits In Popular Culture, Summer Nawaz

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This paper takes on the practice of fan fiction by introducing its origins, exploring the concept of it being recognized as a part of “real literature”—while also determining what makes real literature—as well as comparing literary retellings to fan fiction and questioning what makes distinguishes them from one another. The influence that fan fiction already has garnered within popular culture will also be explored, as well as the role fan fiction plays within fandoms.

By examining at primary texts such as E. L. James’s Fifty Shades of Grey, Anna Todd’s After, and the popular fanfic known as Heat Waves, this …

Attention, Reflection, And Contemplation: Approaching The Divine Through Romantic Poiesis, Katelynn Tyner

English Undergraduate Honors Theses

Often the techniques of the said and the unsaid work together. This paper will explore ways in which poets embrace iconophilic or iconoclastic postures toward divine poiesis. One objective will be to focus on the arrangement of an abundance of images into itineraries and poetic landscapes. Another objective will be to demonstrate how these patterns of cultivation can be related to a divine poiesis. Through poetry, there are ways of attending to, reflecting on, and contemplating divine images that can return us to forms of participation with the sacred. First examining poetic attention, I identify poets who demonstrate …

#Metoo: The Literary And Social Impact Of Sexual Violence Narratives, Aura Comer

English Undergraduate Honors Theses

To fully understand the severity of sexual violence and its pervasiveness in America, I will present statistics of rape and sexual assault, as well as available legal court statistics of justice and punishment for offenders (or a lack thereof). However, there must be an acknowledgment of the disparity in information and representation pertaining to indigenous, LGBT+, immigrant, and minor communities. Note that these statistics do not speak to the complete pervasiveness of rape and sexual assault in the United States, given the negligent protection and lack of belief in victims, which results in victim silencing and a lack of reporting.

The Screen And Development: Creative Writing And Liminality In Children’S Literature, Rebecca E. Glenn

All Theses

This creative thesis strives to research and implement the overlap of liminality found within Children’s Literature, especially those works that exist through the screen. The critical component of this thesis explores the ways in which childhood development and maturity, a theme commonly found within Children’s Literature, embodies its own “right of passage” associated with the liminal. The journey of the Children’s Literature protagonist is often wrought with this movement from familiar boundaries to a sense of new development. The critical analysis emphasizes the methods Children’s Literature genre uses emotion, familial connections, symbology, space, and even elements of the monstrous to …

Defending Difference: Translingualism In The Composition Classroom, R. Elle Smith

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

Translingualism includes 1. appreciating how people use language differences to produce meaning, 2. recognizing that all language is fluid, and 3. helping students and teachers question standard language ideology. Translingual pedagogy should be process-oriented rather than product-focused. Instead of focusing on the writing product matching or not matching the standard, translingual pedagogy should focus on questioning standard language ideology and being more flexible in our language beliefs. Additionally, most scholarship surrounding translingualism has focused on the multilingual community. This thesis expands on the scholarship by asking how translingual pedagogy must shift in a primarily white monolingual classroom. Also included is …

Authorial Agency: Investigating Composition Pedagogies Under A New Lens, Tyler Hurst

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

This essay considers the work of three prominent composition scholars through the lens of authorial agency, which I define as a form of agency that focuses on the individual voice and self-determination of students in the writing space. Though the concept of agency has been previously considered by composition scholars, this contribution might aid in understanding various pedagogical approaches by analyzing how authorial agency is already being engaged within composition pedagogies and investigating how authorial agency aids teachers in understanding their pedagogy so that students learn to take back control of their own authoritative voice and self-determination. By re-investigating …

Mental Health In The Catcher In The Rye And Thirteen Reasons Why, Zugay Trevino

Theses and Dissertations

J.D. Salinger’s 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye shows the life of seventeen-year-old Holden Caulfield and the aftermath of his expulsion from Pencey Prep. Jay Asher’s 2007 book Thirteen Reasons Why centers on seventeen-year-old Clay Jensen’s aftermath of his friend Hannah Baker’s death. Although both novels are written, published, and set decades apart, both have more in common than originally thought. Both books were originally heavily challenged or banned upon their initial release. Although they were challenged due to different reasons, both are better understood after analyzing mental health in the books. The books deal with unawareness of mental …

Resisting Dominican Motherhood Across Julia Alvarez’S How The García Girls Lost Their Accents And Junot Díaz’S The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao, Ana Hilario

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This paper endeavors to explore the distinct ways in which the Dominican motherhood ideology promoted by Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina’s regime is resisted by women of different social classes and race through a close reading of the characters Laura and Beli in Julia Alvarez’s How the García Girls Lost Their Accents and Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, respectively. Using Adrienne Rich’s concept of motherhood ideology as a theoretical framework and engaging in discussion of how these ideologies were constructed, engendered, and enforced by the Trujillo regime, I found that these texts depict voluntary and involuntary resistance …

“The Delta Is Filled Up With Death” : Death As Avoidance And The Construction Of White Identity In Lewis Nordan’S Music Of The Swamp, Sarah Sturm

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Lewis Nordan’s Music of the Swamp has not been fully explored with an emphasis on Nordan’s personal history in relation to racism in the South. In Nordan’s autobiography, Boy With the Loaded Gun (2000), Nordan describes growing up in Itta Benna, Mississippi — just one town over from where Emmett Till was murdered in 1955 (Nordan 80). I argue Nordan’s depiction of death in the Music of the Swamp can be read as the early stages of him grappling with Till’s death through writing, along with the broader historical context of Southern racism. Nordan’s ambivalent relationship to this history informs …

A Claiming Of Kin: A Linguistic Analysis Of Southern Appalachian English In Melissa Range's Scriptorium: Poems, Jolee White

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The research studies the Southern Appalachian dialect present in five poems in Melissa Range’s Scriptorium: Poems. The linguistic phenomena characteristic of Southern Appalachian English observed and analyzed in the poems include lexicon, grammatical features, and phonological aspects. The research seeks to bring attention to this Appalachian woman writer as well as to bring understanding of her reasoning behind incorporating the dialect in her poetry. It establishes that the five poems by Range contain the lexicon, grammatical features, and phonological aspects of the SAE dialect. It holds meaning both grammatically and pragmatically within the context of the poem and Appalachia.

She Speaks Her Truth: Black Female Self-Empowerment In African-American Centric Texts, Britt N. Seese

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

A Master's Portfolio that looks into African-American Women in African-American literature and theatrical works.

Freeing The Black Final Girl In Postmillennial Zombie Horror: Race, Gender, And The Strong Black Woman Stereotype In 28 Days Later, The Walking Dead, & Z Nation, Makhalath Fahiym

English MA Theses

Freeing the Black Final Girl in Postmillennial Zombie Horror: Race, Gender, and the Strong Black Woman Stereotype in 28 Days Later, The Walking Dead, & Z Nation discusses the cultural image and issues of representation of the black femme within the horror genre. As the horror genre shifts in the 21st century to an era of increasingly diverse representation, examining the black Final Girl is particularly relevant. Race complicates the Final Girl concept and the black Final Girl must be analyzed within the context of the controlling images, like the Strong Black Woman stereotype, and racialized horror tropes …

Blurred Realities: Aids Plays As Activism, Maya Lieberman

Honors Theses

The AIDS epidemic in 1980s and 1990s America can—and must—be read not simply as an epidemic of disease, but also as an epidemic of hateful discourse that perpetuated the damaging perceptions of HIV/AIDS and those it most severely impacted. The onset of an epidemic has a way of unmooring society from the structures that it has built itself on. The indiscriminate spread of a deadly disease exposes, amplifies, and unsettles divisions of class, race, sexuality, gender, and perceived morality. In the sensory experience of living through the HIV/AIDS epidemic, a virus may seem to take on an almost magical component, …

“A Short History Of An Overlooked Genre: How And Why Horror Can Be An Effective Tool In A Classroom And For Creating Social Change”, Hunter King

Honors Theses

Horror as a genre tends to be overlooked by the public eye, especially when it comes to critical analysis and its value as literature or educational film. As a future English teacher, I have made it a mission to promote literacy, and horror has been a tool that has encouraged me to read, so I figured there must be some connection between the genre and the promotion of literacy. The thesis in whole is able to address why the horror genre tends to spark more interest in readers than other genres, highlighting that the genre is built to unite readers …

Dawn Of A Silver Millennium: Millenarianism, Futurity, And Utopia In Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Matthew Dentice

Far West Popular Culture Association Annual Conference

The story of Sailor Moon, told and retold in countless forms in the thirty years since the original manga’s publication, is imbued with a cosmic sense of time. The modern-day protagonists’ personal journeys are tightly interwoven with the distant past of the Silver Millennium and the far future of thirtieth-century Crystal Tokyo. But only the manga is fully willing to grapple with what the future means for its own present moment. Written in the early 1990s during Japan's "Lost Decade," Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon dramatizes the angst that accompanies the imminent arrival of a new millennium. As the Sailor Guardians …

Queering The Ear: Podcast Aesthetics And The Embodied Archive In S-Town, Kira Schukar

English Honors Projects

Despite podcasts’ rising popularity over the last twenty years, literary scholars are only beginning to focus on their affective potential as multimedia texts. In this thesis, I argue that even mainstream podcasts are productively intertwined with queer theories and aesthetics of belonging. Using the 2017 podcast S-Town as my case study, I examine the aural aesthetics of queer failure, temporality, archives, embodiment, and desire as key elements in this complex medium. Putting these theories and aesthetics into practice, I describe my process of research-creation and present a podcast I made about my road trip to Woodstock, Alabama, S-Town’s place …

Perceptions Of Expertise In Disability: Intersectional Considerations For Disclosure, Rachel Jocson

English: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

In this article, I will consider how perceptions of disabled tutees' expertise relate to disclosure through an intersectional lens. Specifically, drawing from reading writing center literature and my own experience to understand how the stigma around disability affects disclosure opportunities for tutees with marginalities considered atypical of disability.

What The World Needs Now: Love, Humor And The Shakespeare Connection, Kelly Capers

English MA Theses

What the World Needs Now: Love, Humor and the Shakespeare Connection discusses how the modern romantic comedy (rom com) genre depicts gender roles in adaptations of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Taming of the Shrew. This paper looks at Shakespeare’s contributions to the themes of romantic comedy and how 21^st Century filmmakers interpret his concepts. Because rom com typically lacks value among scholars, much of this genre’s impact on audiences is overlooked, yet its popularity makes it an undeniable presence deserving a closer examination. The 2020 pandemic brought into specific relief, not only the popularity …

Disability In Disney, Chloe Bartz

21st Annual Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (2022)

René Girard’s mimetic theory emphasizes the importance of imitation in shaping all human behavior, including desire. The questions driving this project were founded with human imitative behaviors in mind: Is Disney creating characters with disabilities that are inherently desirable to imitate (attractive, popular etc.)? Is Disney creating complex, dynamic characters with disabilities? Unfortunately, the answer is no. Within the Disney canon of animated films there are 13 characters identified as having physical disabilities. By tracking the language used to refer to these characters and their foils an alarming pattern was revealed. When formal titles, the character’s name, and nicknames were …

Teaching Language Variation In K-12 Schools, Samantha Phillips

Honors Theses

The language used in most classrooms throughout the United States is standard American English (SAE). Although this language is difficult to define, it is often perceived as the correct or proper usage of the English language. Students grow up learning that there is one correct way to speak and write, and consequently, they learn that any variation from this standard must be incorrect or improper. Student speakers of stigmatized variations of English face academic, social, and personal consequences such as poor academic performance, isolation from peers, and assimilation. The ideology that promotes SAE as correct also ignores the connection between …

Annual Faculty Research Symposium 2022, Oakwood University

Proceedings

No abstract provided.

Plant Wise, Sophia Llamas

Honors Projects

Conceptually, Plant Wise is the key to bridging the gap between preconceived ideas about vegan and vegetarianism and successfully integrating plant-based foods into your everyday life. Physically, Plant Wise is a self-educational, interactive booklet chock-full of activities intended for users to complete at their own pace. Inside this 56-page booklet, there are recipes, doodling spaces, weekly check sheets, activities to do with friends and family, challenges, and so much more. Plant Wise utilizes these activities and journaling opportunities throughout as a self-reflective vehicle to give users an experience to reflect on, which aids in the retention of what’s been learned …

Female Rage, Revenge, And Catharsis: The "Good For Her" Genre Defined In Promising Young Woman (2020), Tara Heimberger

English MA Theses

By analyzing relevant cultural contexts to the popularity of the “Good for Her” genre, such as the “#MeToo” movement, the Trump presidency, and the resurgence of conservatism in the United States, the development of the “Good for Her” genre and its impact can be made clear. Given the genre’s development through social discourse on social media, it has become a universal and collaborative representation of liberation from oppressive experiences under a patriarchal society. The lead women in these films give those who experience patriarchal oppression a reprieve and an opportunity for catharsis they would not typically get in a male-led, …

Integrating Social And Emotional Learning Into Language Arts Classrooms Through Diverse Young Adult Literature, Rachael Schmidt

Honors Projects

This paper discusses the growing integration of social and emotional learning (SEL) in high schools. The project provides an explanation of why SEL should be integrated into classroom instruction, specifically focusing on the language arts classroom. The included teaching guide provides six lessons for integrating SEL in the language arts classroom using diverse young adult literature.

Final Master's Portfolio, Heather Eubank

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

The following is my final portfolio for the Master of Arts in English with specialization in English Teaching program. An analytical reflective narrative introduces four projects exemplifying the range of theories and methods that have informed my work, the skills I have gained, and the growth I have demonstrated throughout my time at BGSU: a research proposal titled “The Effect of Decreasing Literary Texts in the High School English Language Arts Curriculum: Proposed Perceptions and Analysis of Student Engagement and Performance”; my statement of teaching philosophy and first-year composition course syllabus; an annotated bibliography of pedagogical research and literary criticism …

Twine 2: A Western, Matthew Bandy

KUCC -- Kutztown University Composition Conference

My game has changed a lot since I originally came up with the concept. Obviously, I took inspiration from western media such as deadwood, Clint Eastwood films, and Red Dead Redemption. The game ended up much more in-depth than I originally planned, but I don’t believe that to be a bad thing in of itself. I believe the biggest flaw of this game was my inexperience with coding. I had so many ideas to add – inventory lists, a map, special text effects – but I didn’t have the knowledge or time to implement these. I think, though, I still …

Twine 1: Shepherding, Alexander Rainer

KUCC -- Kutztown University Composition Conference

Shepherding will technically be the second creation in a greater project of mine I’ve been calling Project Bleak. The first creation is unfinished and still a WIP, but is meant to be an anomalous NES-style game called Bleak. The story behind it is that evidence of an obscure game development team from the late era of NES games has resurfaced, and a community of lost media gurus, classic game experts, and similar people (plus anyone else who wants to help) has formed to hopefully unravel the mystery of who they were.

Bleak is really just meant to be an odd …

Conference Program 2022, Sandra M. Leonard

KUCC -- Kutztown University Composition Conference

No abstract provided.

The Pedagogical Pitfalls Of Literature In College Composition And Teacher Education: A Foundational Analysis, Rinn Norman

Symposium of Student Scholars

Many of today’s college students struggle with college-level writing in Standard English, and during the last few decades, educators, parents, and experts in countless professional fields have begun to express a collective frustration over the quality of college graduates’ written English. However, this lack of quality in students’ and graduates’ writing is not due to laziness or generational differences, but rather a foundational shortcoming in the use of literary texts as the basis for instructional material in lower-level composition classes. This paper examines the traditional use of literature-based instruction in first-year composition (FYC) classes as well as undergraduate and graduate …