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Landscape, Gender, And The Politics Of Belonging In Thomas Hardy’S The Woodlanders And Tess Of The D’Urbervilles, Sarah Dickerson

Master’s Theses

In my thesis, I analyze Thomas Hardy’s The Woodlanders (1887) and Tess of the D’Urbervilles (1891), exploring the way that Hardy’s depictions of both landscape and gender are interwoven to illuminate the larger issue of belonging as a central concern for his characters. I argue that in these two novels, we can analyze how one’s belonging to a physical environment and performative gender role directly relate to characters’ tragedy or success in the narratives. Characters who challenge normalized gender roles and characters whose place attachment manifests in natural rather than social spaces, endure worse tragedies than their gendered insider and …

Pitfalls Of Ambiguity In Contexts Of Islamophobia: Mohsin Hamid’S The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Ambreen Hai

English Language and Literature: Faculty Publications

This article examines the implications of particular representational and narrative strategies that postcolonial writers, especially from Muslim-majority nations, can utilize to respond to 9/11 and its aftermath. Mohsin Hamid's novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist has been hailed as the paradigmatic counter-discursive, antiimperialist, non-Western Muslim response. Literary scholars of various stripes have tended to regard its sustained ambiguities and deliberately incomplete ending as a sign of its richness. However, this article intervenes to offer instead a nuanced critique of Hamid's uses of ambiguity, based on postcolonial feminist literary analysis and a reading of actual readers' readings. Drawing on Hamid's own stated goals …

A Sweet Kid, William Torphy

Bryant Literary Review

I wait anxiously in the United terminal sipping a cup of coffee and feeling ungrounded. My nephew’s flight from Baltimore is late because of a severe weather system over the Midwest. My sister Kat tells me that Justin has become very selfish, even for a teenager, and that he lies and constantly tries to manipulate.

From Libertine To Incel: How The "Manosphere" Has Fostered The Continuation Of Gender Violence In Western Culture, Lauren Ziolkowski

Honors Theses

In this thesis, I examine the similarities between the ideologies of the Restoration libertine and the present-day beta-male, the social and cultural forces that shape those ideologies, and the practices of flirtation and seduction shared by the libertine and beta-male. This thesis addresses the expansion of female agency and power in the mid-eighteenth century and twenty-first century, as well as how this expansion of power threatens the social, cultural, and economic privilege held by the Restoration libertine and beta-male respectively. In the eighteenth century, this expansion of power manifests in the emergence of the bourgeoisie class and the development of …

The Reluctant Fundamentalist's Depiction Of The Postmodern, Kathryn Nicolai

Honors Theses

In this thesis, I examine postmodern fiction in the wake of 9/11. Specifically, I investigate initial predictions of how postmodernity would end after 9/11, Jean Baudrillard’s hyperreality, 9/11 as a semiotic-saturated event, 9/11-novels’ representations of hyperreality and postcolonial intersections with postmodern texts. These focuses are analyzed in Mohsin Hamid’s novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist. The novel chronicles the protagonist, Changez’s life before, during and after 9/11 and how his perspective on America’s capitalist-centered society and his own identity shifts in the wake of the attacks. After 9/11, Changez undergoes a demystification with America’s nostalgia-based regression and returns to Pakistan. Similar …

The Theology Of John Donne's Body Politic, Carolyn P. Marino

Honors Theses

This thesis investigates John Donne’s body/soul dialectic, and discusses how this relationship extends towards both the individuated and communal body. The first chapter grounds Donne’s “Songs and Sonnets” in theology through his facilitation of the Platonic Ladder and the Great Chain of Being. It also gestures towards a shift in Donne’s poetry from subjectivity to intersubjectivity. Finally, it discusses Donne’s commissioned elegies, interrogating Renaissance ideas about the gendered soul, and expounding upon the impact of one person’s death on the communal body. The second chapter historically contextualizes ideas of martyrdom, suicide, and Donne’s term “self-homicide.” It discusses the content of …

Brexlit: The Problem Of Englishness In Pre- And Post-Brexit Referendum Literature, Dulcie Everitt

English Honors Papers

No abstract provided.

Engl 130 Writing About Literature, Erika Figel

Open Educational Resources

This syllabus was designed to create a ZTC/OER course for introductory literature course for college freshman.

House Of Seven, Alexa Lidskin

Whittier Scholars Program

This project consists of a document, of considerable size, which contains both creative works set in an overreaching fictional universe-- such as sketches, stories, and the like-- but also plan, outlines, and explanations for said universe. To be specific, I created a narrative bible similar in style to what one might find for a large franchise or television show. This work was intended to illustrate my plans of communicating a branching, evolving story across various mediums by both providing insights into how that might be possible and detailing the intricacies of the stories. The formation and ultimate completion of this …

Wholeness And Belonging In Nikky Finney's Head Off & Split: An Eco-Politics Of Resilience And Resistance, Mary Rudolph

Theses and Dissertations--English

Nikky Finney’s Head Off & Split illuminates an urgent and radical eco-political project: the creation of whole, resilient, co-species communities capable of surviving interlocking political, social, and ecological crises. Finney foregrounds the strategic practice of belonging as a method of survival within contexts of systemic oppression and climate chaos. “Belonging,” in these terms, is not a “natural” ontological state, but a mode of co-being that is continually (re)created and (re)enacted through daily world-making practices: foodways, spatial habitation, migration and movement. Belonging is a collection of reciprocal, adaptive, situated praxes that make and sustain beings and worlds. They rely on and …

Life Narratives As Technologies Of Self: Explorations Of Agency In A Son Of The Forest And The Autobiography Of Malcolm X, Tiffanie Kelley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

In A Son of the Forest (1829) and The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965), the narrators describe their most formative experiences in relation to addiction and their respective religions. Though these narratives emerged at different periods (almost a century apart) in North American history, there are considerable similarities between them. As William Apess describes his struggle with alcoholism, he also appropriates both the language of popular literature and print culture in the Methodist movement, and in turn criticizes the white supremacist ideals ingrained in early American culture. Similarly, Malcolm X details his experience with substance abuse while criticizing white supremacist …

The Rhetorical Effects Of The Phrase "According To Science", Rebecca Campbell

Summer Community of Scholars Posters (RCEU and HCR Combined Programs)

No abstract provided.

Interpreting Minorness And Minor Characters In The Victorian Novel, Grace Pregent

Dissertations

An unprecedented and staggering wealth of characters floods the Victorian novel with its rich social representation of the nineteenth century. in reading these capacious narratives that seemingly accumulate objects, plots, and people, critics continuously privilege plot and minimize or dismiss the intricate participation of minor characters in the construction of meaning. Studies of literary characterization have classically struggled to articulate a theory of character that moves beyond reductive dichotomies€”flat or round, major or minor€”but that does not become inflated and cumbersome. Despite a lack of comprehensive critical attention, minor characters are no minor matter, and the brevity of their textual …

A Socioeconomic Analysis Of Francophone And Anglophone West Africa, Jackson Gagne

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project seeks to examine and analyze the socioeconomic performances of four West-African countries; two from Francophone (French-speaking) West Africa and two from Anglophone (English-speaking) West Africa. It will tackle questions such as:

• What is the current socioeconomic condition of countries in this region?
• Which country is most suitable for investment?
• Is there a marked difference between the Francophone and Anglophone countries of West Africa?

And many more.

Early Black Poetry, Social Justice, And Black Children: Receptions Of Child Activism In African American Literary History, Tabitha Lashay Joy Lowery

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

In spite of the substantial amount of critical work that has been produced on the recovery of early African American literature in the last few decades, our representations of black authors are still limited. Current studies of early African American poets privilege the identification of African American literature with resistance to slavery. This identification has persisted and has made the field one-dimensional. My dissertation provides reception histories of four early black poets—Phillis Wheatley, George Moses Horton, Frances Harper, and Paul Laurence Dunbar—to argue for and present an expansive understanding of African American literature. A thorough examination of these authors’ circulation …

Engl 110 College Writing (Higher Education), Erika Figel

Open Educational Resources

This syllabus is an adapted version of Professor Figel's 110 course at Queens College. The College Writing course is centered around the ideas of higher education and the philosophies behind it. All links to material required are included.

Effects Of E-Learning Based On Microlearning Approach On Undergraduate Students’ English Pronunciation, Natcha Boonyabenjarit

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

This study aimed 1) to develop an e-learning based on the microlearning approach and 2) to examine quality of the developed e-learning. To examine the quality, three research instruments including pretest and posttest, a perception survey questionnaire and a quality evaluation form were used. The sample group consisted of 21 Thai undergraduate students in Faculty of Education at Chulalongkorn University. Descriptive statistics which were mean and standard deviation (SD) and one sample t-test were employed for the data analysis. The findings from one sample t-test, at a significance level of .05, illustrated the students’ noteworthy improvement of the pronunciation skills …

The Process Of Cultural Appropriation In Literature And How It Can Be Changed, Wendy Meza

Dissertations and Theses

This paper explores the ways cultural appropriation has existed in literature from the time of Sylvia Plath's poem "Daddy" to the present, with the publication of Jeanine Cummins's novel American Dirt. After dissecting the motives behind the exploitation of traumatic events and acknowledging the consequences appropriation has on the individuals it is portraying, the inclusion of NoViolet Bulawayo's novel We Need New Names proposes a way for contemporary literature to revolve around cultures without silencing voices and allowing individual identities to shine in the texts.

From Small Beginnings To Large-Scale Harm: On Demagoguery And Misogyny In The Classroom And Writing Center, Shannon Roberson

Theses and Dissertations

My project is grounded in the rhetorical concept of aretê—excellence or virtue—as it relates to education and educational spaces within demagogic and misogynist cultural forces. The problems of demagoguery and misogyny stem from small-scale perpetuation of agonistic norms that go unaddressed in U.S. culture, a culture that is deeply identity-driven. These forces persist on social media platforms and within patriarchal systems of education.

For my project, I suggest rhetorical media literacy education of small-scale demagoguery moments on social media as a way to bring awareness to larger-scale events. On a micro-scale, social media influencers cultivate behaviors that mimic demagogic …

Representations Of The Body In British Science-Fiction Novels From The Late Nineteenth To The Early Twentieth Century: A Study Of Edward Bulwer-Lytton's The Coming Race, H.G. Wells' The Time Machine And Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, Kornnop Jaroenvong

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Many critics have suggested that most of the non-human characters in late-Victorian British science-fiction novels reflect social alienation and the cultural fear of physical, mental and moral degeneration. However, by relying on the concept of critical posthumanism in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries that attempts to debunk anthropocentrism and emphasise the significance of non-human otherness, this thesis studies representations of the body in three British science-fiction novels: Edward Bulwer-Lytton's The Coming Race (1871), H.G. Wells' The Time Machine (1895) and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (1932), which provide speculative visions of what humans will be in the future. It demonstrates …

Semiotic Landscape Of Bangkok Sex Tourism Spaces, Joey Andrew Lucido Santos

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Sex tourism, though a potentially significant site of investigation, has received limited scholarly attention in the semiotic landscape research in the past two decades. Addressing this gap, I interrogate the discursive construction of Bangkok sex tourism spaces focusing on Silom areas, Cowboy alley, Nana Plaza. The study aims to identify the patterns of linguistic and semiotic choices in sexed signs, analyze the role of linguistic and semiotic resources in indexing gender and sexuality, and investigate the discursive construction of Bangkok sex tourism spaces. The data comprised 122 photographed sexed signs. I also did the non-participant observation in the areas investigated …

The Effects Of Project-Based Drama Approach Via Blended Learning Environment On Thai Efl Undergraduated Student's Speaking Skills, Tunyaphoom Phu-Ngamthong

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

The objectives of this study were 1) to examine the effectiveness of project-based drama approach via blended learning environment on English speaking skills, and 2) to investigate the students’ opinions towards project-based drama approach via blended learning environment on English speaking skills.The framework was derived from the combination of three models; Teaching English through Drama for Oral Skills Model, the Project-Based Learning framework, and the Blended Learning Model. The study was conducted face-to-face and online for 14 consecutive weeks in the second semester of Academic Year of 2020 at Ubon Ratchathani Rajabhat University. The participants were 51 third-year students who …

"Don't Look At Her, She's Mad": Mama And Frankenstein Reveal Modern-Day Preoccupations, Caitlin Gamble

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Viewing the film Mama (2013) through the lens of a certain Gothic text, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, reveals similar fears of the feminine alongside the focus of the nature of the in-between. These commonalities between the texts reveal an emerging trend in modern monster-horror films—the narrative-driven analysis of the role of the other and multiculturalism in the social consciousness. In this paper, I examine how Mama as an Imperial Gothic film builds on the tradition of indigenous stories, like La Llorona, and the Gothic. By referencing and combining these histories in the genre markers, it uses motherhood and the other to …

"There Is Nothing Else Like It": The Innovative Personality Of Lowney Turner Handy, Nathan Crews

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Get Out (2017), Us (2019), And Jordan Peele's New Black Body Horror, Brady Simenson

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This thesis provides an analysis of Jordan Peele’s films, Get Out (2017) and Us (2019). The thesis contextualizes Get Out and Us as part of a protracted cultural conversation regarding monstrous images of the cinematic black body that began with Hollywood’s early monster films and continued into the culturally subversive era of blaxploitation horror films. While blaxploitation cinema reclaimed images of the racial Other that had been represented in the early creature feature subgenre, no such notable movement has subverted the more recent body horror subgenre. Jordan Peele’s Get Out and Us shift this subgenre toward racially inverted body horror. …

Soy Una Muñeca De Porcelana, Nicolas Rodriguez Sanabria

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Tesis de maestrí­a de Creación Literaria

(In)Equities In The Publishing Industry: The Politics Of Representation, Hallie R. Lepphaille

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

This project contains an overview and key introductory sections of an intersectional, equity-based literary publishing course textbook. The full-length edited collection, currently under external review for publication, seeks to rectify long-held disparities of the publishing industry in regard to hiring, acquisitions, developmental editing, and considerations in audience, readerships, and marketing. Each chapter examines the ways that racism, ableism, heterosexism, and cisnormativity, operate in the industry, limiting who is represented at an editor’s desk and in the pages of published books. The collection is intended to be utilized in upper-division and graduate-level literary publishing courses. This project is a response to …

Imagined Communities: The Individual And The Nation In Aw's Map Of The Invisible World And Rushdie's Midnight's Children, Yu Chia Chang

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This thesis focuses on the relationship between the individual and the nation in Tash Aw’s Map of the Invisible Worldand Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children. Incorporated Benedict Anderson’s theory of “imagined communities” into the reading of both of the novels, this thesis discusses the limitation of nationalism and the imagination of individuals, aiming to show that it is the diversity of a nation that turns the stagnant imagined communities into fluid imagining communities.

Apocalypse Now: Covid-19 And The Sf Imaginary, Gerry Canavan, Jennifer Cooke, Caroline Edwards

English Faculty Research and Publications

The following conversation was conducted via Google Docs between 1st May and 23rd June 2020. The participants were Gerry Canavan (Marquette University), Jennifer Cooke (Loughborough University) and Caroline Edwards (Birkbeck College, London). Gerry is President of the SFRA; his books include Green Planets: Ecology and Science Fiction (2014), co-edited with Kim Stanley Robinson, Octavia E. Butler (2016), and most recently The Cambridge History of Science Fiction (2019), co-edited with Eric Carl Link. Jennifer is a poet and academic; her first book was on Legacies of Plague in Literature, Theory, and Film (2009) while her most recent is Contemporary Feminist Life-Writing: …

Aliens: District 9 (Blomkamp, 2009) -- Monsters Of Hybridity, Gerry Canavan

English Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.