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From Orthodoxy To Heresy: A Theological Analysis Of Sonnets Xiv And Xviii, Timothy J. Burbery

English Faculty Research

The commentary on Milton's eighteenth sonnet ("On the Late Massacre' in Piedmont") is rich and extensive. Kester Svendsen's often cited 1945 essay, the first close reading of the poem; ushered in many other interpretations of its biblical imagery, as well as speech-act analyses, reader- response discussions, and at least one Foucaldian study. Yet even though a religious conflict inspired the sonnet, and although numerous interpreters have paid close attention to the work's biblical texture, no sustained theological account of the poem has been offered. The present essay seeks to fill that gap by examining the work in light of two …

Critical Literacy In A Global Context: Reading Harry Potter, Jill Reading

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Millions of adolescents across the globe eagerly await and read each new Harry Potter fictional novel. As a series, the novels can be assumed to participate influentially in the production of adolescent literacies and subjectivities. Situated in politically conservative times, however, the texts may support readings in simple accord with culturally pervasive conservative views which favour conventionally masculinist, martial views of the individual and of society. Such readings potentially confirm ancient prejudices built out of differences which themselves may be associated with the socio-cultural reproduction of violent conflicts. Nevertheless, contemporary conditions such as planetary climate change and globalised political fear …

50 Years Of The Lord Of The Rings - Mythcon 36, The Tolkien Society, The Mythopoeic Society

Mythcon Programs

This is the program book for Mythcon 36, held in conjunction with The Tolkien Society.

"The Mythopoeic Society have organised a stream of papers and several events at Tolkien 2005. They have produced a booklet for all attendees, which you should find in the bag you were given when you registered. The booklet doubles as both the Mythcon 36 Program Book (Tolkien 2005 incorporates Mythcon 36) and as a special double issue of Mythprint, the monthly bulletin of the Mythopoeic Society. It includes extra details of the Mythopoeic Society events. Other features include some memories of past Mythcons, including the …

Revelation And The Left Behind Novels, Craig R. Koester

Faculty Publications

The Left Behind novels appeal because they affirm God's control of history in the face of violence and moral decay. Our challenge is to be more biblical than Left Behind, not less biblical to hear Revelation's call to persevere in the face of evil and to trust in the final victory of God and the Lamb.

Fortune Personified And The Fall (And Rise) Of Women In Chaucer's Monk's Tale And The Autobiographical Writings Of Christine De Pizan, Leona C. Fisher

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis will posit that a query of the medieval trope, Fortune, can be read as a query into femininity. Fortune is depicted with many quintessentially medieval feminine traits, and women in texts that discuss Fortune often have Fortune's traits. While texts that link Fortune and femininity usually do so to censure women, some writers turned the trope to their advantage for just the opposite purpose. Both Chaucer in the "Monk's Tale" and Christine de Pizan personify Fortune to subtly point out the flaws in antifeminist medieval view of women. This thesis explores the ways in which these writers cleverly …

Buried Alive: Hard Science Fiction Since The Golden Age, Bonny Mcdonald

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

A substantial body of science fiction authors, critics and fans appreciate the literary attention the New Wave of the '60s and '70s brought to the genre of science fiction, but regret the seemingly lasting move away from the hard science classics of the '50s and before. They argue that "the hard stuff' is at the very heart of sf and that its future—still on the path set by the New Wave—is ostensibly a dead end. Many important critics along with hundreds of sf fan websites display this fatalistic concern, asking over and over "Is hard science fiction dead?" The answer …

Talking About Virtue: Paisiello’S "Nina," Paër’S "Agnese," And The Sentimental Ethos, Diane Hoeveler

English Faculty Research and Publications

This essay will examine how sentimentality and its valorization of virtue spread through one particular intersection of opera and literature; that is, the seduced maiden narrative is enacted in these operas, once as a comedy of sorts, once as a tragedy. Giovanni Paisiello's "Nina" (1789) was clearly influenced by the works of Samuel Richardson and Laurence Sterne, while Fernando Paër's "Agnese" (1809) is a direct adaptation of Amelia Opie's popular novella "The Father and Daughter" (1801). Furthermore, both of the operas spin in and out of ideological orbit with Richardson's novel Pamela; or Virtue Rewarded (1740-41), which in turn was …

Treasuring Identity : Subject-Object Relations In Beowulf, Becky Workman

Honors Theses

Beowulfs introspection leads him to seek glory and wealth to preserve his memory after death. Unlike the battles against Grendel and Grendel's mother, Beowulfs actions against the dragon clearly prioritize the winning of treasure over the safety of the people. Beowulf seems to believe that revenge upon the dragon is a justification for risking not only his life, but the stability of the leadership of his nation. The hoard that he wins illustrates how material objects are not necessarily longer lasting or more stable than mortals. Treasure's intimate connection with the human body in the social structure of the community …

Eng 3009g-002-006: Myth And Culture, Michael Loudon

Spring 2005

No abstract provided.

War As A Focal Metaphor In The Sun Also Rises And Catch-22, Lee Ogletree

The Corinthian

Ernest Hemingway and Joseph Heller are linked to one another in fascinating ways, for both authors achieved their greatest acclaim upon publication of their first major novel, works written during and about the respective postwar eras each author found himself in after directly participating in the war effort years earlier. One of the more interesting aspects of the abundant literary criticism devoted to Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises and Heller's Catch-22, concerns critical opinion regarding the authors' treatments of war in their most celebrated novels. While it is generally agreed that neither novel is "about war" per se (a …

From Darwin To Dracula: A Study Of Literary Evolution, Erin Alice Lamborn

Theses Digitization Project

Argues that, without the publication of Charles Darwin's "Origin of Species," Bram Stoker's novel "Dracula" and Oscar Wilde's novel "The Picture of Dorian Gray" would not have been written with their distinct style and themes, as evolution clashes with degeneration and female power (and the sexuality derived from that power) clashes with the new science. Stoker and Wilde combine the science of the late 19th century with the characters of their imaginations. Natural and sexual selection plays a part in these characters' core development. The mixture of sexuality, science and power in these two novels all combine to formulate what …

Echoes Of Dracula: Racial Politics And The Failure Of Segregated Spaces In Richard Matheson's I Am Legend., Kathy Davis Patterson

Journal of Dracula Studies

No abstract provided.

Dracula And The Afterlife: A Psychological Explanation, Jack D. Maser

Journal of Dracula Studies

Until relatively recently, the primary psychological approach to understanding Bram Stoker’s Dracula and the folklore of vampires has been psychoanalysis. Maurice Richardson asserted in 1956 that Dracula must be seen from a Freudian standpoint, since “from no other does the story really make any sense” (427). However, the psychoanalytic approach shares little with modern, scientifically based psychology. Fascinating though it may be, psychoanalytic theory has almost no measurable attributes and may itself be as mythical as vampires and an afterlife. Rather, psychoanalysis is a creative theory of human cognition and behavior that can be neither proven false, objectively replicated, nor …

Waller's Machiavellian Cromwell: The Imperial Argument Of A Panegyrick To My Lord Protector, Timothy Raylor

English Faculty Work

Recent work on Waller’s Panegyrick to my Lord Protector has focused on its e¡ort to dress Cromwell in Augustan garb to translate his power into authority over a quiescent populace. Drawing on recently discovered evidence about the poem’s composition, about Waller’s reading of Machiavelli, and about his association with a fellow Buckinghamshire gentleman and MP, Sir William Drake (a figure known to have been influenced by Machiavelli), this article suggests that Augustan rhetoric forms only one strand in a discursive tapestry dominated by a Machiavellian argument for England’s imperial expansion.

The Iconography Of Nationalism: Icons, Popular Culture, And American Nationalism, Dallas Hulsey

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Iconography of Nationalism: Icons, Popular Culture, and American Nationalism develops a model of cultural icons, defining icons as highly visible, culturally variable, and overdetermined auratic images. Situating icons within the context of mass reproduction technologies and American nationalism, this study seeks to demystify the simple images presented by infantile, national, and scapegoat icons in literature, film, and political rhetoric. This dissertation argues that icons participate in the American nationalist project by channeling citizens’ political and patriotic feelings through seemingly simple images. While acknowledging that icons are necessary to construct what Benedict Anderson calls “the imagined community” of the nation, …

Publications “Playwrights’ Progress: The Evolution Of The Play Cycle, From Shaw’S ‘Pentateuch’ To Angels In America, Julie A. Sparks

Faculty Publications, English and Comparative Literature

Traces the development of playwright George Bernard Shaw's play cycles. Analysis of his plays "Man and Superman", "Heartbreak House", and "Back to Methuselah"; His belief about the importance of lengthy works; Production difficulties of his plays; Comparison of Shaw's views with play cycles.

Eyes In The Text: Surveying The Ocular Aesthetic In Pat Barker's War Trilogy, James Hammond

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In 1991, British novelist Patricia Barker published Regeneration, the first of three novels that portrayed the exploits of both factual and fictional characters during the darkest days of WWI. Barker's Eye in the Door (1993), followed by The Ghost Road (1995) for which she won the Booker Prize for Fiction, completed the series that explored the effects of combat on the human psyche. What emerges as a dominant feature of Barker's war novels is her depiction of the ocular sense. Reminiscent of Orwellianism, Barker's texts contain a seemingly ubiquitous ocular presence. For example, neurasthenic patients are scrutinized by army psychiatrists, …

Catholic Saints: An Exploration And Inspiration In Faith, Therese Drey

Graduate Research Papers

During the researcher's career as a religion teacher and librarian she found very few books for primary age students about the lives of the saints. The purpose of this research project was to write an age-appropriate illustrated biography about the life of St. Therese of Liseuex. The format will include events from the life of Therese Martin from her birth, through her entrance into the Carmelite Convent until her death at twenty-four. This book can serve as a prototype for similar books about other saints for the same audience. The targeted audience for this project is primary students in Catholic …

"The Young Perish And The Old Linger, Withering": J.R.R. Tolkien On World War Ii, Janet Brennan Croft

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

Discusses the impact of World War II on the themes and style of The Lord of the Rings, and particularly in Tolkien’s depiction of families affected by war.

Eng 3606-001: Modern Drama, Chris Wixson

Fall 2004

No abstract provided.

Coming Home, Staying Put, And Learning To Fiddle: Heroism And Place In Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain., Heather Rhea Gilreath

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In his novel Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier weaves an intricate web of human stories, all converging to make a memorable statement about love, war, life, and death. This study examines these stories and the mythological, literary, and folk models Frazier employs, and in some cases revises, to tell them. The first chapter explores how Frazier recreates Odysseus in Inman, his main male character, to depict the psychological trauma inflicted by war. The second chapter focuses on Ada, Inman’s pre-war sweetheart, and Ruby, a girl with whom Ada bonds, as challenges to the male pastoral tradition. Ruby’s father Stobrod as trickster, …

Constructing The Female Gothic Posture: Wollstonecraft’S Mary And Gothic Feminism, Diane Hoeveler

English Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

The Real World Of Language Instruction: Cache Valley Teachers Speak Out On The Challenges They Face While Teaching Grammar, Shauna Wight

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

"Discussing grammar in the teachers' lounge is a little like stepping in between two opposing 350-pound NFL linemen just after the ball is snapped," says Harry Noden, veteran English teacher and author of Image Grammar (Noden vii). With this statement, Noden captures the intensity and hostility that has characterized departmental meetings, university classrooms, and scholarly articles in which the issue of grammar has been disputed. Relying upon this football metaphor, Noden aptly describes the precarious situation language arts teachers face when they enter the profession and one of its greatest debates-grammar instruction-an issue in which all English teachers inevitably become …

Global Wars And Writing Warrior Culture: Disclosure Interviews Anthony Swofford, Anna Froula, Danny Mayer, Jonathan Vincent, Keith Woodward

disClosure: A Journal of Social Theory

No abstract provided.

English 354: Advanced Composition: Writing Ourselves/Communities Into Public Conversations, Amy M. Goodburn, Heather Camp

Department of English: Faculty Publications

English 354: Advanced Composition is a required course for undergraduate majors in English, broadcast journalism, criminal justice, and pre-service English education, among others, at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, a research-one, land-grant institution with a student population of about 24,000. English 354 focuses on “intensive study and practice in writing non-fi ction prose” and has a prerequisite of at least one 200-level writing course.

In Writing Ourselves/Communities into Public Conversations, our students explore public and private arguments and analyze how arguments are made within each (overlapping) sphere. We want them to consider the varying and sometimes competing strategies used to construct …

Why Is The Only Good Orc A Dead Orc, Anderson Rearick

Inklings Forever: Published Colloquium Proceedings 1997-2016

No abstract provided.

A Lesson In The Garden Of Good And Evil, Lisa Parker

The Corinthian

Flannery O'Connor's second novel, The Violent Bear It Away, revolves around a young boy named Tarwater. Throughout the novel, Tarwater struggles to choose between the old domineering ways of his backwoods, ignorant, great-uncle Mason Tarwater, and the more modern ideology of his city dwelling, well educated, uncle George Rayber.

An Introduction To Volume 19 Of The New Age, Lee Garver

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Dr. Lee Garver's introduction to The New Age, Volume 19 (May 4 to October 26, 1916)

Williams's Lyric "These": His Deepest Descent, Peter Schmidt

English Literature Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

The Once And Future Queen: Examining The Importance Of Feminist Readings Of Wace's Roman De Brut, Susan Dressel

HIM 1990-2015

Few scholars seem to think of the twelfth century as an era during which the humanitarian leaps and bounds made in regards to women are exemplary and inspiring. The strictures of the Catholic Church dominated the feudalistic society, and women were encouraged to be chaste, silent and obedient. However, it was during this century that Eleanor of Aquitaine was born. An exemplary ruler, she also was a patron of the arts, and Master Wace, a writer and translator of Arthurian legend, dedicated his Roman de Brut to her. As a queen with revolutionary ideas about female agency, Eleanor's patronage provided …