Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Melville And The Market: Literature And The Language Of Capitalism In Nineteenth-Century America, Emma Williams

History & Classics Undergraduate Theses

No abstract provided.

Representation Of South Asians In U.S. American Children’S Picture Books, Eman A. Chaudhry

Senior Theses

One potential cause of racism against South Asian Americans in school could be the lack of authentic representation of South Asians in the media. A method to properly depict them is via children’s picture books, which can be used to explore different cultures within the classroom. I examined the current landscape of American children’s picture books that depict South Asians and found that the most authentic portrayals included characters embracing certain holidays or traditions. Additionally, I researched issues that affect the South Asian community, one of which includes the stigmatization of mental health. Drawing on my own experiences, I wrote …

Exophonic Literature: Why And How Authors Write In A Second Language, Jonathan M. Bost

Senior Honors Theses

Milan Kundera, Julio Cortázar, Joseph Conrad, Rigoberta Menchú, and James Joyce are just some of the multitudinous authors who wrote in languages that are not their mother tongue. This phenomenon is called “exophony,” and it is more common than many would expect. There are various reasons why authors write exophonic literature: James Joyce wrote to a friend that he was at the end of English (1957), and Menchú’s editor Elizabeth Burgos-Debray claims Menchú wrote in Spanish to use the language of her oppressors against them. This thesis will investigate case studies of various exophonic authors, relate advice such authors have …

Human Security And The Idiot: “Can Beauty Really Save The World”, Aaron Tyler

The Journal of Social Encounters

A key point of progress in the systematic considerations of the causality and cessation of violent conflict is found in the evolving idea of human security. In a collective effort to respond to the chaotic reality of violent engagement, human security emerged toward the end of the twentieth century as a multilateral, person-centered paradigm for thinking about and pursuing conflict transformation. As human security enters a third generation of development, scholars and policymakers continue to discern the usefulness of this holistic, multilateral paradigm for security. The efficacy of human security outcomes will depend on how the individual and collective within …

Volume 31 Issue 1

NEBO: A Literary Journal

This issue of Nebo: A Literary Journal, published in Fall 2017, presents a thought-provoking collection of poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction that examines themes of multicultural identity, artistic expression, and societal "isms"—prejudices, ideologies, and cultural perceptions that shape human interactions. The issue, archived as Volume 31, Issue 1, corresponds to the print edition labeled Volume 36, Issue 1. Due to necessary metadata adjustments in the digital archiving process, some volume and issue numbers in the online collection may not match those printed in the original journals.

Editor John ToShawn Jarrett, in his editorial preface …

Volume 29 Issue 2

NEBO: A Literary Journal

This issue of Nebo: A Literary Journal, published in Fall 2015, presents a rich tapestry of poetry and fiction, reflecting on themes of identity, human experience, and artistic expression. The issue, archived as Volume 29, Issue 2, corresponds to the print edition labeled Volume 34, Issue 1. Due to necessary metadata adjustments in the digital archiving process, some volume and issue numbers in the online collection may not match those printed in the original journals.

Editor Ryan Smith, in his editorial preface, describes his experience as a fledgling academic and writer, …

Between Fire And Water: Miyazawa Kenji's Reimagining Of Opposites In Ginga Tetsudō No Yoru, Taishi Neilsen

University Honors Theses

This thesis explores how Japanese writer Miyazawa Kenji playfully uses opposites and binaries to create thematic richness in his famous children's story Ginga tetsudō no yoru (Night on the Milky Way Railroad). Despite being a children's book, the text works with mature themes such as loneliness, grief, and purpose, themes which are elevated through Kenji's idiosyncratic stylings. Through a close reading of the original Japanese text, the author isolates moments where Kenji conveys his Nichiren Buddhist worldview as part of his proselytizing mission, as well as moments that increase thematic richness, resulting in a multifaceted text that continues …

The Metaphysics Of Frank Herbert's Dune And God Emperor Of Dune: On Time And Language, Garrett J. Busshart

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation studies the metaphysics of time and rhetoric in the science fiction novels Dune (1963) and God Emperor of Dune (1981) by Frank Herbert. The first chapter critiques the protagonist’s sense of temporality, an ideology in which the future consists of multiple possible choices while each decision of one forecloses a still larger set. Jean-Pierre Dupuy calls this a “supermarket” model of temporality, as if the future were a contingent-free menu of possibilities a subject is free to pick between. My assertion is that this sense of temporality—the Western norm—matches the protagonist’s, Paul Atreides’s, rhetoric. In disclosing Paul’s sense …

Language, Literature, And Culture Newsletter, Sixth Edition (March 2025), Language, Literature, And Culture Department, Clark University

Language, Literature, and Culture

The sixth issue of the Language, Literature, and Culture department newsletter, which went out in March 2025. The Language, Literature, and Culture department newsletter aims to "share stories, news, ideas, achievements, and important information about and within our academic department that can be helpful to the campus community at large".

An Illusion Of Choice: An Analysis Of Geoffrey Chaucer's Gender Politic, Katelyn Dunn

JSU Student Symposium 2025

Please note: no video is available for this video.

Male anxieties are the culmination of reactions that men project upon women when the patriarchy is subverted by female means. In The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer illustrates how patriarchal rule determines the interactions between both men and women by developing complex figures who submit or rebel to the overwhelming societal expectations that dictate the performance of gender. Whereas characters such as Emilye of “The Knight’s Tale” are rewarded for their virtuousness and willingness to obey the demands of masculine society, characters such as the Wife of Bath in “The Wife of …

Age-Related Infertility And Reproductive Tourism In Annarita Briganti’S Novel Non Chiedermi Come Sei Nata, María Reyes Ferrer

Journal of International Women's Studies

Traditional socio-cultural constructions of womanhood have often focused on women’s reproductive capacity, which has determined their destiny and shaped their identity over centuries. Given the long-time equation of motherhood and women’s identity, infertility is an important topic that raises question about how women experience infertility and how science, through advances in assisted reproduction, has intervened in the creation of life. In the European context, Italy has one of the lowest birth rates, a phenomenon attributable to a series of adverse structural conditions. In particular, precarious work conditions, insufficient wage levels, and a high cost of living represent significant obstacles to …

Language, Literature, And Culture Newsletter, Fifth Edition (February 2025), Language, Literature, And Culture Department, Clark University

Language, Literature, and Culture

The fifth issue of the Language, Literature, and Culture department newsletter, which went out in February 2025. The Language, Literature, and Culture department newsletter aims to "share stories, news, ideas, achievements, and important information about and within our academic department that can be helpful to the campus community at large".

Woman Naturally Is Ambitious: Sarah Josepha Hale, Gender, And Success In Antebellum America, Jeanne G. Gutierrez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines the interplay of ambition and gender in the pages of Godey’s Lady’s Book under the editorship of Sarah Josepha Hale during the antebellum period bracketed by the Panic of 1837 and the start of the Civil War. In it, I argue that contrary to longstanding assumptions about the primacy of ambition during this time, the meaning and value of ambition was hotly contested, frequently by the middle-class, white, native-born women who published in, and were the primary intended readers of, Godey’s Lady’s Book. Against a background of profound political, economic, and social instability, and possessed of …

Me Between The Lines: An Intertextual Search For Self, Jamie Jo Porter

The Utah English Journal

In the winter of 2023, I noticed a general struggle among my AP Literature students to connect and identify with characters and events we were reading about in class. Upon further investigation, I realized that this wasn’t because my students weren’t reading relatable texts, but more because they were still developing a sense of self; in their search for identity, they were not seeing pieces of themselves reflected in the world around them. As a teacher, it pained me to realize that my students weren’t even anticipating that there were things out there in the world that they could relate …

The Mockingbird - 2025, Department Of Art And Design, East Tennessee State University, Department Of Literature And Language, East Tennessee State University

The Mockingbird [magazine]

• 9: Editor’s Note – Briana Presley & Erika Perez Cortazar
• 11: appalachia forever – AQ Hanna
• 12: To the Little Pink Schoolhouse – Raylee McKenzie
• 14: 423 – AQ Hanna Winner of the Mockingbird Prize for Nonfiction
• 18: Chicken Liver Surprise – Alexander Brown Winner of the Mockingbird Prize for Poetry
• 20: Amanecer de hígado de pollo (Spanish translation by Adrian Band-Villaronga and Savannah Ledford) – Alexander Brown
• 22: On Childhood – Hayden Cogdell
• 29: bourbon & branch whiskeys, a collaboration with my mother – TaKya Hughes
• 31: The Remaking of Mrs. Brown – DominiqueSnedeker
• 43: Appalachian Women – Caitlyn …

Indiana Par George Sand : Une Perspective Écoféministe, Lily Gauntt

World Languages and Cultures Senior Capstones

George Sand’s 1832 novel Indiana explores themes of love, individuality and social class as the titular character, Indiana, battles with the temptations and consequences of an affair with the handsome and elusive Raymon de Ramière. Sand’s novel centrally explores place as it jumps back and forth from high society France and Paris to the Ile Bourbon where Indiana is from. Sand’s depiction of the Ile Bourbon presents the agency of the more-than-human world as Indiana struggles against the society that she has been forced into and the male characters that control her life. The novel’s interplay between the more-than-human world …

Reading Through The Eyes Of Faith: Introducing A Catholic Literary Lens To The English Language Arts Classroom, Julia French, Michael Macaluso

Journal of Catholic Education

Despite the proliferation and use of literary lenses in English Language Arts classrooms, one lens still seems to be missing from theorization, formulation, and thus practical implementation: religion. This absence is well-noted in the field, as positive depictions of Christian themes in books are rare and religion is rarely discussed as an identity marker that fosters growth and development. This article attempts to address that absence in two ways: first by conceptualizing and developing a Catholic literary lens that could be used in middle and secondary classrooms and second by offering practical suggestions for using this Catholic lens in ELA …

Language, Literature, And Culture Newsletter, Fourth Edition (January 2025), Language, Literature, And Culture Department, Clark University

Language, Literature, and Culture

The fourth issue of the Language, Literature, and Culture department newsletter, which went out in January 2025. The Language, Literature, and Culture department newsletter aims to "share stories, news, ideas, achievements, and important information about and within our academic department that can be helpful to the campus community at large".

The Negative Impact Of Book Banning On American Students, Andrew Carruthers

Emerging Writers

The purpose of this research article is to analyze the impact of book banning on American K-12 students in the United States of America and to convey the negative effects of that impact. Book banning is a form of censorship that involves the restriction and/or prohibition of a book, typically by removing it from a library, bookstore, or school reading list. American book banning in the modern era is typically carried out with the intent of shielding the American youth from content considered to be inflammatory, controversial, and/or inflammatory. This article argues that this method is counterintuitive and also serves …

Cosmopolitanism Now: Fragmented Belonging, Adriana Fischetti

Dissertations and Theses

Abstract

This thesis reconceptualizes cosmopolitanism for the contemporary moment as fragmented belonging, critiquing and moving beyond traditional cosmopolitan frameworks grounded in universal reason, seamless integration, or coherent identity. Through close readings of Teju Cole’s Open City and Tremor, and Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Exit West, this study argues that cosmopolitanism today emerges explicitly from rupture, contradiction, and ethical struggle, shaped fundamentally by conditions of displacement, empire, surveillance, and global capitalism. Engaging critical theorists such as Kwame Anthony Appiah, Homi Bhabha, Pheng Cheah, and Roland Barthes, the thesis identifies fragmented belonging as an ethically charged response to …

Author-Centered Approaches In Ela Instruction: A Multiple Case Study Of Secondary English Teachers, Jennifer M. Lockhart Mchugh

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Literary authors are often neglected in secondary ELA (English Language Arts) literary instruction. Teachers are unsure how to teach about the author and how much time to spend on establishing the context for the text when the goal is to “cover” a variety of literary texts as part of a planned curriculum during the school year. Acknowledging the role of authors’ intentions as well as their experiences and aesthetic decisions in the production of literature may provide new entry points into literary texts for students. This multiple-case study of secondary English teachers and their high school students in a “bounded …

Prophets Instead Of Priests: Diagonal Orientations & Coming-Of-Age Queerness In Jane Eyre And Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit, Emily G. Flanders

Honors Theses

This project asserts that the moment in which a girl leaves the trajectory of the expected in favor of the unknown in order to pursue her discovery of self is when her coming-of-age narrative becomes queer. This is demonstrated through Jane in Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë and Jeanette in Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson. Jane and Jeannette’s respective coming-of-age narratives–that is, them creating their fully embodied selves, the girl they believe and know themselves to be–happen off the expected life path in the liminal, in-between, undefined space of the queer oblique. There are moments …

The Benefit Of New Perspective: An Analysis Of Postcolonial Adaptation, Sara L. Tilbe

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

In our modern world, the concept of literary adaptation is not unheard of. Each release of a new, popular text comes with an underlying chance that it will likely be snatched up by Hollywood executives to be told through a cinematic setting. However, there is less fanfare when it comes to the topic of literary adaptation, particularly of famous texts that are deemed “classic” of the literary canon. Usually, any news of a literary adaptation of a classic book is meant with polarizing views from the general public. Some welcome the change, excited for what a new author can bring …

Intersectionality And The Canon Of Romanticism, Serenah Minasian

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation discusses the origins of the canon and the place it has in British Romanticism studies both past and present. This research begins unpacking what has already been done in this sector of study and takes it steps further by the use of Crenshaw’s “intersectionality” theory. The “Introduction” unpacks past scholarly work and its role in the present studies and how we must move beyond the past. “Chapter I” serves as a historical breakdown of the canon’s role and impact in both literary studies and Romanticism studies in specific. “Chapter II” provides an in depth analysis of two major …

Book Review: From Pushkin To Popular Culture: Essays By Catharine Theimer Nepomnyashchy, Elizaveta Volkovskaia

Russian Language Journal

The collection of Catharine T. Nepomnyashchy’s essays edited by Emily D. Johnson, Irina Reyfman, and Carol R. Ueland represents a fascinating array of her published and unpublished works. As Masha Udensiva- Brenner notes in her academic profile on the scholar, Nepomnyashchy went beyond her research niche and was an incredibly versatile thinker, finding connections between a variety of cultural artifacts. Indeed, Nepomnyashchy always encouraged other academics to explore fields beyond the limits of their areas of focus (Udensiva-Brenner, 24).

“The Dead Cold Light Of Tomorrow”: Historical Grief In Literature In The Aftermath Of Influenza, Caitlin Liana Robertson

Theses and Dissertations

During the Influenza Pandemic of 1918, commonly referred to as The Spanish Flu, somewhere between 20 and 100 million lives were lost globally, but this tragedy has faded from history in many Western cultures. World War I, while far less deadly, has been memorialized far more frequently and has been overshadowing the devastation of the pandemic since its inception. The grief that survivors experienced–for loved ones and for themselves–was not given an external outlet and as a result there are few contemporary historical sources to turn to when looking for evidence of that grief. In the absence of more traditional …

Literary Structure Of Proverbs And The Stages Of A Righteous Life, Craig W. Babcock

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The structure of Proverbs and the applied wisdom of the father and mother which begin with the son in the first chapter are present throughout the entire book of Proverbs creating an ongoing narrative literary structure connecting the individual proverbs. The narrative literary structure demonstrates the shifting nature of the moment of life for the son in life and beyond death. To demonstrate the more prominent literary structure, the son follows a hero’s journey, with the son ending as a sage. The theological understanding of the son and the fear of Yahweh guide him through the complex nature of life …

William Gibson, Neuromancer And The Making Of A Reluctant Cyberpunk, Billy J. Stratton

English and Literary Arts: Faculty Scholarship

While Neuromancer cemented Gibson’s place as a commanding presence in SF, he has consistently sought to position his work beyond the parameters of limiting genre categories.

The Vision Of The Inklings: Mythopoeia And Modern Christian Literature, Emmalene Sotomayor

Senior Honors Theses

The Inklings wrote with the intention to convey truth through myth. C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien and their friends developed stories to point readers to something greater—very often God. Christian creators now can look to their example while writing their own works of art. Currently, Christian fiction is in a sad state, known for mediocre romance novels that hardly portray faith in a moving or truthful manner. Believers can use the wisdom of Tolkien and Lewis to develop their own excellent works. Lewis and Tolkien’s beliefs in myth pointing to God, hope against adversity, and good resisting …

Language, Literature, And Culture Newsletter, Third Edition (December 2024), Language, Literature, And Culture Department, Clark University

Language, Literature, and Culture

The third issue of the Language, Literature, and Culture department newsletter, which went out in December 2024. The Language, Literature, and Culture department newsletter aims to "share stories, news, ideas, achievements, and important information about and within our academic department that can be helpful to the campus community at large".