Arts and Humanities Commons^™

“There Is Power In A Woman’S Wit And Will” : Womanly, Wit, Will, And Wiles In Gothic Works Of Louisa May Alcott, Alexandra Ortea

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Central to the Female Gothic is a woman searching for her identity in the confinements of society. Utilizing Louisa May Alcott’s Gothic works, I will examine the extent to which the formation of an identity is subjected to internalized forces of normalcy. In “A Whisper in the Dark” (1863), “V.V.; Plots and Counterplots” (1865), and “Behind a Mask, or a Woman’s Power” (1866), Alcott explores themes of feminine identity, power, and sexuality. Alcott both subverts and adheres to gender roles to reveal their falsehood. Furthermore, Alcott exposes the effect of the patriarchal order on both men and women by destabilizing …

The Public And The Personal: Mapping The Nyc Subway System As An Urban Memoryscape, Soledad O. Tejada

Library Map Prize

No abstract provided.

The Cultivation Theory And Reality Television: An Old Theory With A Modern Twist, Jeffrey Weiss

Capstone Showcase

George Gerbner, a Hungarian-born professor of communication, founded the cultivation theory, one of the most popular and regarded theories in the communications world. Developed in the mid 20th century, the theory focus on the long-term effects of television on people. Longer exposure to signs, images and people on television cultivates their perception of reality in the real world. The television became a household staple during this time. Families often spent time together watching programming together, however, it played out different effects for each person. Television's constant visual and auditory stimulation on a person made it easier to cultivate certain messages, …

Naming Power?: Urban Development And Contestation In The Callowhill Neighborhood Of Philadelphia, Rachel E. Marcus

Honors Papers

Fundamentally the transformations of the American urban landscape in the years following World War II are reflections of shifting distributions of power facilitated by the emerging neoliberal regime. Eminent spatial theorist David Harvey’s writing about the “right to the city” postulates that the ability to “make and remake” the city is a human right. Universally, though, the only actors able to make and remake the city are those who have access to wealth, power, and capital. Philadelphia has seen an inordinate amount of change in the postwar years, from urban renewal in the mid-20th century to gentrification happening today––these alterations …

Dreaming Of Abolitionist Futures, Reconceptualizing Child Welfare: Keeping Kids Safe In The Age Of Abolition, Emma Peyton Williams

Honors Papers

Drawing on the wisdom of prison abolitionists past and present, as well as evidence from interviews and analysis of Illinois’ Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) procedural documents, this work argues that Illinois’ DCFS and the child protection system more broadly are an extension of the carceral state. Both the criminal punishment system and the child protection system (henceforth referred to as the family regulation system) use a diffuse network of actors to surveil, regulate, and punish the behavior of queer subjects: impoverished people and people of color. The present-day family regulation system builds on a long history of …

Galvanizing Germantown: The Politicization Of Louisville's German Community, 1848-1855, Ann Kathryn Fleming

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This project interprets the Revolutions of 1848 and their ideological legacy through a transnational and transcultural context, highlighting the role of radical forty-eighters who imparted their republican messages to “Little Germanies” within the United States. Karl Heinzen serves as the primary example of the transient group that shared their radical visions with local German communities populated with political and cultural organizations, an active press and a commitment to civic engagement demonstrated through their involvement anti-slavery groups, labor reform, and improved rights for the immigrant population.

The thesis traces the politicization of Karl Heinzen in the German Confederation and his involvement …

We Live In A Society: Violence And Radicalization In The Internet Manosphere, Emily Price

Capstone Showcase

In a world of incels, pick-up artists, and other Men’s Rights Activists, friction between the so-called Manosphere and contemporary feminist thought has led to documented violence with regards to American mass shootings. Starting with the violent outbursts of disaffected young men, I will work backwards to the point of contact between the man and the Manosphere. This piece seeks not to draw a connection between radical MRAs and violence – the mass shooters draw that connection themselves in their manifestos by outlining their dissatisfaction with society as it is, and particularly with what they perceive as a politically correct and …

Listen To Liston: Examining The Systemic Erasure Of Black Women In The Historiography Of Jazz, Victoria E. Smith

Theses and Dissertations

"First you are a jazz musician, then you are black, then you are a female. I mean it goes down the line like that. We're like the bottom of the heap." - Melba Liston (pg 2) The historiography of jazz has consciously and unconsciously excluded women. This exclusion is exacerbated when one examines the intersection of race and jazz for black women. This essay argues that due to overwhelming societal expectations, gendered language, and physical threats of sexual assault and violence, black women had to create alternatives spheres of affirmation and musical expression because jazz culture stymied their access to …

This Month, Jennifer N. Figueroa

Theses and Dissertations

This Month is a series of collages that depict police violence at civil rights and Black Lives Matter protests. By pairing events from 1964 to contemporary protests that occurred in the same month, the collection draws a connection between the past and present.

Perspectives On Lynching In William Faulkner's Fiction And Nonfiction, Tabitha Fisher

Master’s Theses

This thesis analyzes William Faulkner's "Mob Sometimes Right" (1931), Light in August (1932), Intruder in the Dust (1948), and "Letter to the Leaders in the Negro Race" (1953) alongside recent critical perspectives for their depictions of lynching and black empowerment to determine Faulkner's racial narrative regarding racial violence and civil rights.

Front Matter, Douglas Higbee

The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English

No abstract provided.

Contents, Douglas Higbee

The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English

No abstract provided.

Leading The Soul: Use Of Rhetoric In Horace’S Odes, Kelly Freestone

The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English

No abstract provided.

The Ship Of Fools: Hieronymus Bosch In Response To Sebastian Brant, Ella Parker

The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English

No abstract provided.

“If I Cannot Inspire Love, I Will Cause Fear”: Reading The Creature’S Development Through Godwin’S Educational Theory In Mary Shelley’S Frankenstein, Mikaela Huang

The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English

No abstract provided.

Roald Dahl And The Construction Of Childhood: Writing The Child As Other, Madeline Spivey

The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English

No abstract provided.

Portraiture And The Convergence Of Social Classes In Bleak House, Heather Twele

The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English

No abstract provided.

Losing The West: A Critical Analysis Of Crane’S “The Bride Comes To Yellow Sky", Kaylee Weatherspoon

The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English

No abstract provided.

Back Matter, Douglas Higbee

The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English

No abstract provided.

The Oswald Review Of Undergraduate Research And Criticism In The Discipline Of English: Volume 22, 2020, Douglas Higbee

The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English

No abstract provided.

The Politics Of Hijab In American Culture, Noha F. Beydoun

Wayne State University Dissertations

The Politics of Hijab in American Culture analyzes the relationship between hijab and US imperialism in contemporary American culture. This project examines the ways in which neoliberal notions of freedom work through discourse on hijab in the U.S. from the vantage point of narratives produced by individuals invested in Muslim American identity. What emerges is a liberated/dominated Muslim woman figure which, I argue, justifies U.S. practices overseas. By looking at how hijab is situated in narratives produced for self-representation of Muslim American identity in the U.S., this project demonstrates the ways in which American imperialism operates such that those marginalized …

Creating A Place For Monstrosity: The Forced Liminality And Limited Mobility Of Codified Monstrosity In Leigh Bardugo's King Of Scars, Kaylee Brooke Lambert

Online Theses and Dissertations

The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) outlines the purpose of young adult (YA) literature as addressing the unique needs of adolescents, which are “distinguished by unique needs that are – at minimum — physical, intellectual, emotional, and societal in nature” (Cart “Value” para. 8). This unique period in life is liminal, a time between childhood and adulthood. Adolescents search for meaning in the world around them, with literature as one avenue for self-discovery and affirmation. Mental health is one area teenagers seek answers, and YA literature has attempted to provide spaces to navigate those questions in popular contemporary works …

Hear Me Roar, Abigail R. Seethoff

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Hear Me Roar, a compilation of personal essays interspersed with short forms, grapples with the nuances of compliance versus autonomy in the context of the male gaze, beauty standards, and pop culture. The collection also explores what it means to treasure something—another person, an object—and how to express and deepen that affection.

Flowers For Abiah: Emily Dickinson's Claim To Live According To Her Own Rules, Carmen M. Santiago

Dissertations and Theses

Emily Dickinson is known for her poems, but her epistolary body of work is as rich and as compelling. Her letters to Abiah Root reveal Dickinson's mind behind the poet and more importantly show the progression and evolution of Dickinson's ideas and sentiments regarding Victorian societal norms.

Review Of When Novels Were Books. By Jordan Alexander Stein., Mark A. Mattes

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

But novels ARE books, you might be thinking. Jordan Stein points out that this is true, but not in the way that many of us have thought to be the case. Twentieth- and twenty-first century literary history, Stein argues, has too often failed to deliver a programmatic discussion of the media history of genre. Attention to changes and continuities in the early Anglophone novel’s artifactual status within an evolving, transatlantic media ecology, supplements, and in some cases rethinks, critical understandings of the development of novelistic form. Stein’s method is axiomatic for those working at the intersection of form and format: …

Vulnerability, Trauma, And Testimony In American Women’S Literature: A Long History, Jennifer L. Fife

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This study examines the effects of vulnerability and trauma in American women’s literature across the intersections of genre, race, and time. In this dissertation I have applied a feminist long history approach to examine women’s literature from the seventeenth through twenty-first centuries together inspired by Mary Beard’s theory that compartmentalizing women’s history ignores long-range patterns and contributions. I have assembled the beginnings of a canon of women’s trauma literature that allows women writers to form a multi-century discourse community wherein trauma and recovery may occur. This analysis applies twentieth century medical research about trauma and recovery, particularly that of Judith …

Social Change Leadership Development Associated With Black Greek Letter Organizations (Bglo): Determining How The Divine Nine Bglos Develop Social Change Leaders, Jason Reco Goode

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This study sought to add literature to the topic of Black Greek Letter Organizations (BGLOs) that were part of the National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC) by exploring the benefits of BGLO membership related to social change leadership development. There were no studies that explained how BGLOs developed social change leaders. This qualitative study of BGLOs used two 90-minute interviews to gather data about BGLO member’s perceptions regarding their social change leadership development. The literature review provided history on the inception of Greek organizations, founding of BGLOs, the NPHC, non-NPHC Black Greek organizations, Masonic influence, student development, student leadership theories, activism, social …

Issues Of Modernity In Russian And U.S. Southern Discourse: Literary And Cinematic Crosscurrents, Zachary John Killebrew

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation traces formulations of modernity, national and regional identity, and economy in the literature and film of Russia and the U.S. South from serfdom to the Second World War. Studying serf and slave narratives, Russian Realist and Southern Renaissance novels such as The Brothers Karamazov (1879), Demons (1872), The Sound and the Fury (1929), Tobacco Road (1932), and Wise Blood (1952), and American and Soviet films such as Volga, Volga (1938) and Cabin in the Sky (1943), this examination locates within Russo-Southern discourses a shared interest in striking out against Western or Northern epistemologies to assert a “peripheral” modernity …

Telling Stories, Healing Cultures: Feminist Healing Narratives By Contemporary American Women Of Color, Lindsay Marie Vreeland

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Due to their experiences of oppression as a result of intersecting identities, women of Color are the most disenfranchised by Eurocentric patriarchal accounts and typically most in need of healing. As I explore in my research, works by women writers of Color—such as Louise Erdrich’s Four Souls, Sandra Cisneros’s Have You Seen Marie?, jia qing wilson-yang’s Small Beauty, and Toni Morrison’s Home and Paradise—gathered in this dissertation intentionally question and revise white settler versions of history that devalue people of Color; however, they also revise familiar stories and cultural traditions in their own communities. Doing so both empowers and enables …

“That New Africa Is Ready To Fight Its Own Battles": Kwame Nkrumah, The United States, And The Quest For A Modern Ghana, 1957-1966, Godwin Gyimah

Masters Theses

This project examines the United States-Ghana relationship and how the relationship transformed Ghana, 1957-1966. African leaders such as Dr. Kwame Nkrumah had declared: "That new Africa is ready to fight its own battles and show that after all, the black man is capable of managing his affairs." Despite the non-alignment philosophy, Ghana was not neutral regarding the West and East blocs rivalry. The thesis argues that it was through the United States' government and private firms' contributions that Ghana was able to achieve the mark of a modern nation through industrialization, universal education, and the expansion of international trade economy. …