Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Keyword
-
- Analysis (3)
- Literature (3)
- American (2)
- Critique (2)
- Individualism (2)
-
- Literary Criticism (2)
- Literature, American (2)
- Poe (2)
- 1960s (1)
- African-American (1)
- African-American Literature (1)
- Bartleby (1)
- Black (1)
- Black Cat (1)
- C.S. Lewis (1)
- Calvinism (1)
- Cat (1)
- Catch-22 (1)
- Catholic Personalism (1)
- Celestial City (1)
- Celestial Railroad (1)
- Christian redemption (1)
- Community (1)
- Contrast (1)
- Counterculture (1)
- Criticism (1)
- Dark Humor (1)
- David Plung (1)
- Edgar Allan Poe (1)
- Ernest J. Gaines (1)
- Publication
- Publication Type
Articles 1 - 21 of 21
Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Ahab's Soul: An Exploration Of The Hero Of "Moby-Dick", Jaedon Wilkinson
Ahab's Soul: An Exploration Of The Hero Of "Moby-Dick", Jaedon Wilkinson
Liberty University Research Week
Undergraduate
Textual or Investigative
Sherwood Anderson And The Industrial Corruption Of Midwestern Individualism, Hudson Rice
Sherwood Anderson And The Industrial Corruption Of Midwestern Individualism, Hudson Rice
Senior Honors Theses
Sherwood Anderson’s literary Midwest reflects many of the idealistic characteristics resulting from the region’s frontier, agrarian origin. The most prominent of these characteristics is the region’s emphasis on and appreciation of human particularity. His novels Winesburg, Ohio and Poor White document the region’s unique relationship with individual particularity and how this particularity clashed with a new industrial lifestyle. The two novels reflect the Midwest’s unique understanding of individuality and offer an explanation for why the region’s response to an industrial cultural overhaul was so damaging for the Midwest’s identity, as the traditional identity was supplanted by an industrial one.
Prolepsis Through Poe's Narrators: The Prophetic Demise Of The Obsessive Protagonist, Bailey Jarnagin
Prolepsis Through Poe's Narrators: The Prophetic Demise Of The Obsessive Protagonist, Bailey Jarnagin
Masters Theses
Edgar Allan Poe was a pioneer of psychological fiction. His stories center around characters whose reliability is questionable and who are mentally troubled in some way. Poe crafted stories that invoke terror because their subject is the horror of the mind. While readers of other types of horror fiction can finish a story and step away from the monsters with little to no fear of being followed by them, readers of Poe cannot forget the tales they read so readily because the horror of the mind is ever present. Poe crafted such horrific stories because of the haunted palace of …
Lewis In The Rye: An Approach To Controversial Literature, Abigail Griffiths
Lewis In The Rye: An Approach To Controversial Literature, Abigail Griffiths
Senior Honors Theses
This thesis aims to coalesce literary criticism with Christian theology to provide a guideline for how Christians, who uphold a certain moral logic, should interact with literature that sparks controversy among readers. An analysis of J.D. Salinger’s novel Catcher in the Rye (1951) will be considered through the lens of C.S. Lewis’ commentary on good reading, good critique, and good art. Catcher in the Rye, an American novel, contains elements of derogatory language, promiscuous scenes, and insinuations of nihilism. How would C.S. Lewis, a British novelist and a prominent figure in Christian thought, read Salinger’s work: would he find …
An Uninformed Pilgrim, Lillian Fassero
An Uninformed Pilgrim, Lillian Fassero
Aidenn: The Liberty Undergraduate Journal of American Literature
Joseph C. Pattison’s article, “The Celestial City, or Dream Tale,” examines Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Celestial Railroad” and portrays the narrator as a Christian hero standing against the modernist persuasions of his time – a protagonist who enters the story with firm orthodox convictions and exits his dream journey with unaltered principles or character. However, Hawthorne’s narrator frequently adopts new modernist arguments and wavers in his pre-formed convictions. He toys with Christian faith but promptly discards any accusations of guilt that such beliefs suggest. While he repeatedly compromises his principles and doubts the ramifications of Christian faith, his dynamic nature is …
Analyzing True Self-Reliance And Individualism, Stephanie Greene
Analyzing True Self-Reliance And Individualism, Stephanie Greene
Aidenn: The Liberty Undergraduate Journal of American Literature
This essay analyzes the story of “Rip Van Winkle” by Washington Irving and criticizes Daniel Plung’s assessment of it in his article, “Rip Van Winkle’: Metempsychosis and the Quest for Self-Reliance.” In Plung’s article, he assesses that in the story of “Rip Van Winkle,” the main character, Rip, attains self-reliance and individualism through his escape and experience on the mountain. However, although Plung’s points support his assessments, there are also many other details in the story that contradict Plung’s analysis. This essay seeks to enlighten readers to a differing interpretation of “Rip Van Winkle” by studying other details in the …
"Ushering" In The Fulfillment Of Prophecy, Alison M. Pulliam
"Ushering" In The Fulfillment Of Prophecy, Alison M. Pulliam
Aidenn: The Liberty Undergraduate Journal of American Literature
During the 19th century, a phenomenon known as “Holy Land mania” was sweeping the United States. Americans were intrigued by the state of the Holy Land and whether or not this state matched the images described in biblical prophecy (Robey 62). Interest in Israel’s condition invaded many aspects of American life, including literature. Looking through the lens of historical criticism, it is easy to see how authors of this time period fed on the “Holy Land mania” to include references to prophecy and the Middle East in their writings. In particular, critic Molly K. Robey accurately points out in …
Suffering Sisters, Silent Majorities, And Societal Oppression: Comparing The Anti-War Themes And Strategies Of Kurt Vonnegut’S Slaughterhouse-Five And Katherine Anne Porter’S “Pale Horse, Pale Rider”, Melissa N. Miller
Senior Honors Theses
Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five and Katherine Anne Porter’s “Pale Horse, Pale Rider” are quite dissimilar in style, but these two works convey overall anti-war themes. The works were written in different eras, portray different wars, and are strongly influenced by the lives of the authors themselves; however, these unique factors work together in both works to convey similar messages regarding war’s oppressive nature and corruption of mankind. Vonnegut and Porter employ various methods to communicate these messages, some unique to the respective works and some shared by the two. The characters of Montana Wildhack and Miranda Gay—two oppressed female characters imprisoned …
Scriptural Roots Grow Strong, Jaymee L. Wagner
Scriptural Roots Grow Strong, Jaymee L. Wagner
The Kabod
This article looks at five areas where Scriptural truth shines through in Louisa May Alcott's Little Women.
Falling, Robert Weaver
“Ab-Soul’S Outro,” “Hiiipower,” And The Vernacular: Kendrick Lamar’S Rap As Literature, Tyler S. Bunzey
“Ab-Soul’S Outro,” “Hiiipower,” And The Vernacular: Kendrick Lamar’S Rap As Literature, Tyler S. Bunzey
Senior Honors Theses
Kendrick Lamar’s “Ab-Soul’s Outro” and “HiiiPower” employ complex patterns of Signifyin(g), testifyin’, and other classical African-American literary tropes in order to construct a nuanced style. Lamar creates a double-voiced text not only within his narrative, but also within the form itself. Lamar plays on rap's unique status in African-American literature as an oral text; it is an extension of the vernacular. Through this oral text, Lamar decentralizes the Eurocentric focus of classical interpretation and qualification of literature to a new Afrocentric perspective that privileges the oral text. These raps are complex, wrapped up in their current context along with a …
Tale Of The Whale, Joel Schlaudt
Tale Of The Whale, Joel Schlaudt
Aidenn: The Liberty Undergraduate Journal of American Literature
In his critique of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, A.N. Deacon accurately captures one of the main tenets if not the central theme of the book; however, he also makes several claims about the novel that do not seem to fit with the evidence seen in the actual story. For example, Deacon holds that Melville is attempting to show that the power and attributes of Moby Dick are the source, symbolically, of truth and meaning. However, this is not the impression we get when we look closely at the work itself and note Melville’s treatment of the subject. Furthermore, Deacon …
I Would Prefer Not To Help You, Christen Dunn
I Would Prefer Not To Help You, Christen Dunn
Aidenn: The Liberty Undergraduate Journal of American Literature
Bartleby, the Scrivener recounts a story of a scrivener who would prefer not to do anything, whether that be parts of his job, changing his location, or eating his dinner. The narrator’s reaction to Bartleby’s lazy desires seem to be admirable, but his selfish motivation and false compassion are evident. The way the narrator views and treats Bartleby is consistent with the standards of philanthropy of the wealthy during the mid-nineteenth century. The narrator truly believes he has helped Bartleby to the best of his ability, yet fails to connect with Bartleby outside of offering him money and future assistance …
In The Hands Of The Reader, Allie J. Kapus
In The Hands Of The Reader, Allie J. Kapus
Aidenn: The Liberty Undergraduate Journal of American Literature
“In the Hands of the Reader” is an analysis of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat” integrating the views of Michael Jay Lewis in his article “Contingency, Narrative, Fiction: Vogler, Brenkman, Poe.” “The Black Cat” is a narrative penned by a man reflecting on his life as he awaits his own death. As the narrator is mentally unstable and therefore unreliable, the reader is brought into the story to interpret the truth or falsehood of the narrator’s story. Lewis is accurate in his strong acknowledgment of the unreliability of the narrator, yet he fails to address in-depth the reason for …
The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow: An Ambiguous Ghost Tale, Elisa R. Jacobs
The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow: An Ambiguous Ghost Tale, Elisa R. Jacobs
Aidenn: The Liberty Undergraduate Journal of American Literature
Abstract
Streams In The Wilderness, Miranda Beale
Streams In The Wilderness, Miranda Beale
The Kabod
Miranda Beale analyzes two award-winning novels by Marilynne Robinson, Gilead (2004) and Home (2008), identifying their major themes as the necessity of balancing parental responsibility and God's loving guidance and redemptive power in raising children.
Gaines's Preachers And Their People: Personalism, Community, And Social Action In A Lesson Before Dying, In My Father's House, And A Gathering Of Old Men, Brooke Light
Masters Theses
Personalist theology, along with Ernest J. Gaines's fiction, resists the idea of isolation and instead highlights the importance of the communal good, criticizing social and religious institutions that fail to uphold the value of human dignity and community. In "Personalism and Traditional Afrikan Thought," Burrow argues that "the church exists for the person and not the other way around" (347) and that churches should be judged and evaluated on the extent to which they meet the needs of the community. Representing their churches, the preachers in three of Gaines's novels (A Lesson Before Dying, In My Father's House, and A …
Hippie Caulfield: The Catcher In The Rye's Influence On 1960s American Counterculture, Richard Neffinger
Hippie Caulfield: The Catcher In The Rye's Influence On 1960s American Counterculture, Richard Neffinger
Masters Theses
This study covers the influence of The Catcher in the Rye on the 1960s youth counterculture in America. Drawing heavily from postmodern and new historicist theory, The Catcher in the Rye has developed a unique connection with the American public, most notably youth culture. This study examines why youth are so attracted to the character of Holden Caulfield and what implications their connection has meant and will mean for future generations of young Americans.
Operating The Silencer: Muted Group Theory In The Great Gatsby, Sarah Funderbruke
Operating The Silencer: Muted Group Theory In The Great Gatsby, Sarah Funderbruke
Masters Theses
This master's thesis examines gender and social roles seen in dialogue in the American classic novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The researcher conducted a coding and rhetorical analysis to determine if elements of muted group theory were in the novel. Muted group theory was developed by Edwin and Shirley Ardener after their research indicated that a culture's values and social structure were voiced through rhetoric. The theory states that dominance in certain groups mutes, or silences, others from communicating effectively. Five passages from The Great Gatsby were selected for this analysis. These passages highlighted dialogue between the …
Bewilderment And Illumination: Catch-22 And The Dark Humor Of The 1960s, Kirsten Staaby
Bewilderment And Illumination: Catch-22 And The Dark Humor Of The 1960s, Kirsten Staaby
Masters Theses
It is often hard to deal with certain subjects in a way that would not be offensive or painful. Dark humor is a popular and powerful way to deal with serious issues in a manner that is both edifying and enjoyable. In his novel Catch-22, Joseph Heller deals with the atrocities of war, and the subsequent effects it has on people and society as a whole. Heller's novel incorporates the dark humor that became popular in the 1960s, and that was used by this generation to deal with the tensions they faced in the political and cultural realms. There is …
Persephone In The River Phlegethon; Or, The Women At Gettysburg, Brenda A. Ayres
Persephone In The River Phlegethon; Or, The Women At Gettysburg, Brenda A. Ayres
Faculty Publications and Presentations
This paper identifies the heroic women who participated in the Battle of Gettysburg, both on the homefront and on the battlefield.