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1930 Chicago, Irish American Life, And Its Adaptation Into Historical Fiction: The Ups And Downs Of Percival Dooley, A Novella, Katy Leigh Foster

Masters Theses

The thesis examines and explains literary techniques of historical fiction. Observations and studies of historical photographs and handwritten letters, along with qualitative research through studies, journals, historical fiction pieces, and Chicago info-maps, provided accuracy for the historical fiction and a clear reflection of humanity, which is significant in understanding the argument.

Ultimately, the historical fiction shows not just 1930 American society, but where it is today. The thesis argues and proves that whimsical tones are appropriate and effective despite the uneasy time and setting and the foreboding conflicts during 1930.

The story is set in Chicago in the year 1930. …

Do Androids Dream Of Bad Tv?: Un/Originality In Neil Burger’S Voyagers, Tom Ue, Callum M. Mcnutt

Proceedings from the Document Academy

Critics did not take kindly to Neil Burger’s Voyager (2021). On Rotten Tomatoes, the film scored a dismal 25%, and the consensus is that it’s a trip best not taken: “It has a game cast and a premise ripe with potential, but Voyagers drifts in familiar orbit rather than fully exploring its intriguing themes.” This article seeks neither to reclaim the film as an unjustly neglected cinematic masterpiece nor to assert its importance in the canon of dystopian works. Rather, it treats Voyagers as a test case for exploring our own critical investment in the genre. Our aims are …

Sappho And Shakespeare: Aristotelian Views On Relationships, Catherine Corinne Reisinger

Theses and Dissertations

In Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, he defines different relationships that people experience; youthful, incidental, and pure. Youthful relationships focus on strong emotions and intense passionate feelings between two individuals. Incidental relationships involve two individuals of drastically different ages, most notably mortals and deities. Pure relationships involve two individuals who are morally good and want nothing but the best for one another, showing their pure goodness. Though they lived several centuries apart, Sappho and Shakespeare display all three relationship types in their writings. Sappho showcases each type of relationship in her poetry, while Shakespeare most notably portrays all three relationships in …

“The Limit Does Not Exist”: Utopian And Feminist Pedagogies In 21st-Century Broadway Musicals, Stephen Reaugh

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation analyzes four Broadway musicals that are adaptations of popular films and novels: Legally Blonde, Fun Home, Waitress, and Mean Girls. These texts are performed in the 21st century and each stages either sexual assault or the fear of a sexual assault that is narrowly avoided. More narrowly, this dissertation focuses on the 2007-2018 time period in which these musicals were performed, thus leading up to and through Alyssa Milano's pivotal #metoo message on Twitter. The dissertation reads the review and marketing milieux in which these musicals existed, as well as each text in performance, to theorize how spectators …

“Giving Up Their Dead”: _The Homecoming Of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm’S Son_ And _A Sleep Of Prisoners_, Janet Brennan Croft

Journal of Tolkien Research

J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm’s Son (published in 1953, though substantially written by 1945) is perhaps studied more frequently for its critical apparatus (the introduction on the Battle of Maldon titled “Beorhtnoth’s Death” and the postscript on ofermod) and as a source for Tolkien’s thoughts on war and heroism than as an actual play to be performed. Recently Tolkien’s own recording of the play, performing both voices and including sound effects, became more widely available, encouraging us to consider it AS a play again.

Christopher Fry’s A Sleep of Prisoners (1951) shares a number of characteristics with …

“And The People Sang In All The Ways Of The City:” A Speculative Ethnomusicology Of Gondor, Kelsey A. Fuller-Shafer

Journal of Tolkien Research

The music of Gondor is one of the more elusive musical traditions in Middle-earth, described only briefly throughout the text of The Lord of the Rings, and thus often neglected in scholarship on music in the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. However, an ethnomusicological line of inquiry brings to the fore questions of performance, perception, and meaning that contribute to our interpretations of the many levels of symbolic transformation seen in Gondor at the beginning of the Fourth Age. The evidence of both musical activity and silence in Gondor mirrors conclusions that have been documented in real-world ethnomusicological studies in …

John Wain: The Inkling In The Middle, David Bratman

Mythcon

John Wain (1925-1994) - novelist, poet, and general man of letters – was caught between two literary generations. A tutorial pupil of C.S. Lewis’s at Oxford, he was invited by Lewis to join the Inklings, a private literary club consisting mostly of dons. While Wain enjoyed the company of his seniors, he felt at odds with them on basic matters of literary preference, in particular seeing no point to fantasy. Wain is more often classed with his contemporaries, post-WW2 writers known as The Movement, the University Wits, or the Angry Young Men, poets and novelists in a realist, often sarcastic …

The Middle-(Un)Man Of Desire: A Girardian Reading Of Lewis’S Perelandra, Clinton Manley

Mythcon

The French polymath René Girard presents a compelling argument that all desire is mimetic. According to Girard, we don’t actually know what we want; instead, we imitate the desires of others. This imitation is pervasive: children imitating their parents, athletes emulating their favorite sports stars, writers their favorite authors, and rivals mirroring each other. These models of desire act as mediators, indicating what objects or ways of being are worth pursuing. For Girard, desire exists in this middle place between a subject, a model, and an object. Thus, desire is interdividual. When the object of desire can be shared, mimetic …

Minnesota/Midwest Fantasy, Eleanor Arnason, Caroline Stevermer, Lois Mcmaster Bujold, Patricia C. Wrede, Michael Merriam

Mythcon

In keeping with our theme of “Fantasies of the Middle Lands,” five novelists who’ve set work in Minnesota or the Midwest talk about Midwestern influence and setting in general and their own work. Eleanor Arnason (Daughter of the Bear King), Caroline Stevermer (River Rats), Lois McMaster Bujold (The Sharing Knife books were partly inspired by Ohio), Patricia C. Wrede (MFA finalist The Dark Lord’s Daughter starts out at the Minnesota State Fair!), Michael Merriam (Last Car to Annwn Station)

Fantasist Of Middle America: L Frank Baum And His Works, L. Frank Baum

Mythcon

The panelists will talk about this centrally important midwestern Fantasy writer, who is named one of Diversicon’s “Posthumous guests of honor” this year. He would be remembered as greatly influential if he had only written The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, but come and learn about more of his legacy.

Our Flag Means Romance…Middle English Romance, That Is, Megan Abrahamson

Mythcon

Our Flag Means Death, a pirate romantic comedy released on HBO Max, has been discussed in terms of its mythopoesis by Sara Brown at OMS #3 (“Our Flag…Means Queer: Monstering the Majority Culture”), and has been studied as referencing Shakespearean motifs by Melissa Rohrer (“Sometimes the old tropes are the best tropes: Shakespeare and Our Flag Means Death”). In this talk, I showcase the Middle English and mostly Arthurian Romance elements we find in OFMD, particularly its episodic quest format, focus on homosocial bonds, and engagement with courtly love. Other minor motifs—such as a hero’s humble beginnings and …

Tolkien’S "The Homecoming Of Beorhtnoth": Manuscript Revisions And Faërian Dramas, Anna Smol

Mythcon

Although Tolkien’s biographer Humphrey Carpenter downplayed Tolkien’s interest in drama, a closer look at “On Fairy-stories” and at the manuscript drafts of the historical drama, “The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth” suggests that this verse play should be more widely recognized as a drama with the potential for stage production. The recent edition by Peter Grybauskas, which includes one of the earlier drafts of the play and Tolkien’s own recording of the drama, gives readers some new insight into the play’s development and suitability for performance. A closer examination of further manuscript drafts, particularly a recently acquired version now in the Brotherton …

“Giving Up Their Dead”: “The Homecoming Of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm’S Son” And A Sleep Of Prisoners, Janet Brennan Croft

Mythcon

J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm’s Son” (published in 1953, though substantially written by 1945) is perhaps studied more frequently for its critical apparatus (the introduction on the Battle of Maldon titled “Beorhtnoth’s Death” and the postscript on ofermod) and as a source for Tolkien’s thoughts on war and heroism than as an actual play to be performed. Recently Tolkien’s own recording of the play, performing both voices and including sound effects, became more widely available, encouraging us to consider it AS a play again. Christopher Fry’s A Sleep of Prisoners (1951) shares a number of characteristics with “Homecoming”—it …

Full Issue, Keb Editorial Board

Kentucky English Bulletin

No abstract provided.

Perfect The Place To Practice – Love, An Arts Student, Rylie Sudduth

Kentucky English Bulletin

No abstract provided.

My Last Concussion, Shannon Valkr

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

MY LAST CONCUSSION is a thesis consisting of a critical introduction, a number of poetic influences, and a collection of poems. The introduction touches on the themes of the collection, my personal history with my subject, my changing approach to poetry, and a brief evaluation of the work as a whole. It details my approach to Catholicism, paganism, transgender identity, and oppression. My work grapples with both my current understanding of myself and my inability to enunciate my reality in the past. I aim to view divinity and personal history through a lens of queerness.

Advisor: Kwame Dawes

Vol. 8 No. 5, Glen Goodknight

Mythprint

Mythprint is the monthly bulletin of the Mythopoeic Society, a nonprofit educational organization devoted to the study, discussion, and enjoyment of myth and fantasy literature, especially the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams. To promote these interests, the Society publishes three magazines, maintains a World Wide Web site, and sponsors the annual Mythopoeic Conference and awards for fiction and scholarship, as well as local and written discussion groups.

Vol. 8 No. 2, Glen Goodknight

Mythprint

Mythprint is the monthly bulletin of the Mythopoeic Society, a nonprofit educational organization devoted to the study, discussion, and enjoyment of myth and fantasy literature, especially the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams. To promote these interests, the Society publishes three magazines, maintains a World Wide Web site, and sponsors the annual Mythopoeic Conference and awards for fiction and scholarship, as well as local and written discussion groups.

Vol. 61 No. 2 - Whole No. 409, Megan Abrahamson

Mythprint

Mythprint is the quarterly bulletin of the Mythopoeic Society, a nonprofit educational organization devoted to the study, discussion, and enjoyment of myth and fantasy literature, especially the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams. To promote these interests, the Society publishes three magazines, maintains a World Wide Web site, and sponsors the annual Mythopoeic Conference and awards for fiction and scholarship, as well as local discussion groups.

Lizzie: A Work Of Historical Fiction, Sandra Rouse

Masters Theses

This thesis was completed as a part of the MFA program in Creative Writing at Liberty University. The critical paper covers the genre of historical fiction. The creative piece contains the opening chapters of Lizzie, a novel of historical fiction covering the life of Elizabeth Evelyn Wright.

Vol. 7 No. 4, Glen Goodknight

Mythprint

Mythprint is the monthly bulletin of the Mythopoeic Society, a nonprofit educational organization devoted to the study, discussion, and enjoyment of myth and fantasy literature, especially the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams. To promote these interests, the Society publishes three magazines, maintains a World Wide Web site, and sponsors the annual Mythopoeic Conference and awards for fiction and scholarship, as well as local and written discussion groups.

Vol. 7 No. 1, Glen Goodknight

Mythprint

Mythprint is the monthly bulletin of the Mythopoeic Society, a nonprofit educational organization devoted to the study, discussion, and enjoyment of myth and fantasy literature, especially the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams. To promote these interests, the Society publishes three magazines, maintains a World Wide Web site, and sponsors the annual Mythopoeic Conference and awards for fiction and scholarship, as well as local and written discussion groups.

Dr. Maggie Vinter: The Early Modern, Now

Discussions

Dr. Maggie Vinter has been the specialist in Early Modern (pre-1800) literature and Shakespeare at Case Western Reserve University’s English Department for the last eleven years. Prior to that, she received her doctorate degree at Johns Hopkins University in 2013. In 2019, she published Last Acts: The Art of Dying on the Early Modern Stage (Fordham University Press), where she explored not only the theatricality and farcicality of death in the theater of the 15th and 16th centuries, but in the act of death as a whole. In particular, this research is based upon the existence of “death books,” which …

A Review Of Ann Radcliffe's The Romance Of The Forest, Edited By Shelley King And John B. Pierce, Annette Hulbert

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

The Romance of the Forest has long been one of the most teachable of Ann Radcliffe’s Gothic novels, given its relatively shorter length and popularity at the time of its publication. Now, Shelley King and John B. Pierce have prepared with great thoroughness an updated version of the text for Broadview that proves a worthy successor to Chloe Chard’s Oxford World Classics edition, published in 1986. The edition builds on Chard’s notes and includes extensive historical appendices that would benefit both teachers and scholars of Radcliffe’s work.

The Untold Love Story Of Aphra Behn's The History Of The Nun, Anaclara Castro-Santana

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

Aphra Behn’s The History of the Nun (1688) is a complex narrative that challenges gender norms and moral conventions, while providing multifaceted illustrations of how restrictions of freedom engender rebellion. Erstwhile a critically neglected piece, this short novel has recently attracted renovated attention on account of its sophisticated narrative perspective, ambivalent moral, and general exploration of unconventional themes, including sexual nonconformity. Taking its cue from this critical landscape, this article explores the text’s queer dimensions, focusing on a crucial yet often overlooked scene depicting sapphic eroticism. Unpacking the internal dynamics and external implications of this passage, the essay argues for …

A Review Of Debates In The Digital Humanities, Edited By Matthew K. Gold And Lauren F. Klein, Ashley Bender

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

A Review of Debates in the Digital Humanities, edited by Matthew K. Gold and Lauren F. Klein

Indigenous Language Guidelines And Resources, Shelby Johnson, Katarina O'Briain, Willow White

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

These collaboratively written guidelines offer suggestions and resources for writing about Indigenous Peoples, knowledge, and histories ethically and respectfully. With an awareness that this work is ongoing, that terms and language are subject to change, and that no set of guidelines or essays can fully account for diverse Native histories, these guidelines and resources offer suggestions for best practices for eighteenth-century scholars who are considering engaging in this work. The authors and contributors of this document understand that language is always evolving and that these guidelines may not be relevant indefinitely and in all circumstances. At some point, we imagine …

Time Ripens On The Counter: A Literary History Of The Americas, Judah Rubin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The tumultuous years of the 1970s and 1980s are generally seen as marking the ends of the New Left in the United States and the Americas at large. With shifts afoot in US policy that would see the drawdown and close of the Vietnam War, increased subversion and infiltration of Left-wing movements, these decades are often remembered as a holding pattern and, later, nadir in progressive, not to mention revolutionary, gains. The same was true, if not amplified, across the Americas where, tens of thousands were murdered, imprisoned and disappeared across the Southern Cone and into the Andes, and where …

An Exploration Of Power Relations In Select Plays Of Girish Karnad A Foucauldian Perspective, Srinivasa Yogananda Rao Netrakanti

Theses and Dissertations

The present study, ‘An Exploration of Power Relations in Select Plays of Girish Karnad: A Foucauldian Perspective‘ aims to study power relations among the different characters in the three plays of Girish Karnad viz., Tughlaq, Naga-Mandala and Tale- Danda through Foucault's three modalities of power viz., bio-power, disciplinary power and sovereign power.

Chapter 1, Introduction gives a bird-eye view of Foucauldian concepts of power followed by the three modes of objectification and dividing practices, subjects and power relations, inter-connectedness between power and knowledge, panopticism, bio-power and discourses, the application of Foucauldian theories of the three major powers. Next, a Girish …

The Lady’S Museum Project, A Digital Critical And Teaching Edition Of Charlotte Lennox’S Lady’S Museum (1760-61), Completes Phase Two Of Its Three-Phase Development Schedule, Karenza Sutton-Bennett

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

The Lady’s Museum (1760–61) was among the most important early periodicals largely written by one of the most important eighteenth-century authors, Charlotte Lennox, whose multigenre, proto-feminist writing is beginning to receive the critical and pedagogical attention it deserves. Yet no modern edition of the text has existed—until now. Launched in 2021, the Lady’s Museum Project is presenting the first critical edition of—and learning community around—Lennox’s Museum in three open-access formats to encourage the widest possible readership: a non-specialist digital, interactive edition of the text and LibriVox audiobook intended for public and undergraduate-student audiences, and a specialist digital edition intended for …