American Literature Commons^™

Performing The American Dream: Passing And Identity In The Great Gatsby (1925) And Passing (1929), Olivia O'Sullivan

Master's Theses

In this thesis, I explore how Jay Gatsby, protagonist in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, and Clare Kendry, protagonist in Nella Larsen’s Passing, pass in order to achieve their American Dream. Both characters rely on carefully crafted identities to gain social mobility and access to worlds that would otherwise be out of their reach through the people they surround themselves with, their clothing, their mannerism, and even their intimate relationships. Throughout my close reading and analysis, I determine that Jay Gatsby and Clare Kendry’s attempts to pass to achieve the American Dream are futile, which demonstrates the idea that …

Where Did Her Torch Glow Go?, Josephine Smith

FUSION

This project is a short video presentation with accompanying written reflection connecting the poem "The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus, a poem about immigration to the United States, to modern events regarding immigration in the country.

The Evolution And Impact Of The Token Black Friend Trope In American Media, Sophie E. Rice, Kurt Milberger

Symposium of Student Scholars

Abstract

This research explores the history of the token Black friend trope in American media and how these misrepresentations continue to influence popular culture and negatively impact Black Americans. Historically, the token Black friend stereotype singles out Black characters to fill gaps in the plot through comedy, intelligence, or self-sacrifice, all while being excluded from the white protagonist’s larger narrative. The prevalence of this trope is apparent through several contemporary and classic examples, which are used to evaluate the effects of the token Black friend trope on American culture. To deconstruct these misrepresentations, this essay supplements these examples with scholarship …

Book Review: William Faulkner In Holly Springs, Austina Jordan

Georgia Library Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Our Relentless Objectification Of Native Americans: As Exemplified By Louise Erdrich And Cherie Dimaline, Lena Kozubek

The Kennesaw Journal of Undergraduate Research

Indigenous communities relentlessly challenge the normalized commodification of their culture and beliefs. One way they actively address these oppressions is through storytelling. Their accounts educate readers and encourage them to re-frame modern perspectives and how stereotypes affect Native communities. Their stories are not a simple myth; instead, they serve as an active participant to combat actions that treat Indigenous people as an anomaly. We should treat Native Americans as human beings who invariably struggle with present-day degradations, commodification, and continual displacement. Indigenous authors reclaim their narrative by using their historical context and storytelling skills to dissect the parallels between fact …

Ashes Of Power, Bailey Huffman

FUSION

The objective of this project was to write a creative work using a theme found in an American writer's literary text studied throughout the course and create a visual and/or auditory piece. By doing this, students can further interpret the literary texts, themes, and genres found in American Literature. For my short story, “Ashes of Power,” I chose to focus on the theme of “powerlessness” found in the 1985 play Fences written by August Wilson. The story is told through the point of view of a young and strong woman, Xena, and is set in a fantasy world that is …

How We Survive: A Poem Analyzing Life, Death And Necessity, Pierce H. Dornink

FUSION

This poem is an analysis of the short story "Living Like Weasels" by Annie Dillard. It focuses on life and death, as well as how life is fleeting, and draws on themes expressed in the source work.

This poem was created as part of a multimodal project for an American Literature class in the Fall of 2024 using the following prompt:

You are responding to literature using creative techniques in two phases. In the first phase, you will compose a 2-4 page piece of creative writing that includes a theme we’ve studied in the class that has significance to you. …

A Mirror Of Us, Amber J. Chrones

FUSION

This is a project of empowerment. "A Mirror of Us" embraces patriarchal liberation, while celebrating divine femininity. Inspired by “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, this multimodal project aims to shatter conformist ideologies that are all too common.

This poem was created as part of a multimodal project for an American Literature class using the following prompt:

You are responding to literature using creative techniques in two phases. In the first phase, you will compose a 2-4 page piece of creative writing that includes a theme we’ve studied in the class that has significance to you. That creative writing …

Just A Memory, Shakila Arab

FUSION

This poem is a response to “I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain” by Emily Dickinson. It was written for a World Literature class using the following prompt:

You will imitate at least five elements of an original text we read this semester. Following your imitation, you will write a paragraph describing the five elements you imitated and how your imitation exemplifies the literary movement of the piece you are imitating.

Georgia Ghosts: History, Folklore, And The Roots Of The Southern Gothic, Katherine M. Mcdowell

Master's Projects

There is something quintessentially human about ghost stories, yet particular regions tend to be more powerfully associated with haunted folktales than others. One of the regions is the southeastern United States. In fact, these oral traditions appear to have influenced the area's best-known literary subgenre: the Southern Gothic.

Why is the South considered haunted? Are there particular qualities in historical events that make them more likely to engender ghost stories? What makes the South's folkloric spirits so powerful that they appear even in modern literature? Most of all, what connects the region's history and folklore with the Southern Gothic? By …

‘The Female Marine’ And ‘Clotel’: An Analysis Of Female Crossdressing To Escape Coercive Labor Situations In 19th Century American Literature, Kaelyn Ireland

Symposium of Student Scholars

Although illegal in many U.S. cities, crossdressing was a point of fascination for Americans of the nineteenth century. Stories of real women passing as men to serve in the military—for example, Revolutionary War veteran Deborah Sampson—enchanted readers and inspired writers, such as that of The Female Marine. Ostensibly written by its heroine, but most likely written by Nathaniel Hill Wright, The Female Marine was a popular story about a young woman who was forced to become a sex worker and cross-dressed to escape her situation, then enlisted in the Navy where she served abroad the U.S.S. Constitution. At …

Did Ishmael Know The Raven?: Publisher Evert Duyckinck And The Connection Between Edgar Allan Poe And Herman Melville, Danny Wilson

Symposium of Student Scholars

Although Poe was a social introvert, he knew and was connected to other early American Romantic writers, including Herman Melville. Examining first editions of works by both authors in the Bentley Rare Book Museum at Kennesaw State University, I discovered a common link between them – the publisher and literary critic Evert Duyckinck. In this presentation, I will use evidence from the first editions and the Poe & Melville Archives at the New York Public Library to investigate the nature of the relationship between Poe, Duyckinck and Melville. I found that Duyckinck was Melville’s close friend, however, he was Poe’s …

The Language Surrounding Huckleberry Finn’S Jim, Tristan Quinn

Emerging Writers

This article explores how in the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the identity of the character Jim contrasts with African American stereotypes through the language used by the character himself and through the language used by other characters to describe him.

Book Review - Porch Lights, Jennifer Putnam Davis

Georgia Library Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Book Review - Jim Crow, Literature, And The Legacy Of Sutton E. Griggs, Michael K. Law

Georgia Library Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Book Review - South Of The Etowah: The View From The Wrong Side Of The River, Diana Hartle

Georgia Library Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Book Review - Slab: On That Hallelujah Day When Tiger & Preacher Meet, Rita J. Spisak

Georgia Library Quarterly

No abstract provided.

The Action Of Grace In Territory Held By The Devil: Flannery O’Connor And Cormac Mccarthy, Scott A. Singleton

The Kennesaw Journal of Undergraduate Research

This paper compares the lives and work of Flannery O’Connor and Cormac McCarthy. The two authors share similarities in their backgrounds, careers, and work. The paper begins with an examination of biographical information of both authors to contextualize their work and note commonalities in their lives and careers. The central idea is that Flannery O’Connor and Cormac McCarthy both create grotesque characters to reveal the depraved condition of humanity in order to highlight the need for redemption and the possibility of divine grace. To prove this, examples are discussed from multiple pieces of work by O’Connor and McCarthy including The …

Book Review - Kindred, Dindi Rashida Robinson

Georgia Library Quarterly

Kindred is a timeless novel authored by Ocatvia E. Butler. Kindred embodies many genres including: Science Fiction, Historical Fiction, Psychological Fiction, as well as American Literature. This story chronicles the journey of a young African American writer who has to save an ancestor, in order to assure her own existence. Many topics are covered in this novel including, but not limited to:history, xenophobia, mysticism, forgiveness, understanding, love, and most importantly, family. Butler presents a riveting tale that will keep the reader in suspense.

Review: Sisters Red

Georgia Library Quarterly

Book review of "Sisters Red," by Jackson Pearce.

Review: Also Known As Harper, Jennifer Green

Georgia Library Quarterly

Review of the middle grade novel "Also Known as Harper," by Ann Haywood Leal.

The Library, Terra Elan Mcvoy

Georgia Library Quarterly

The article presents the poem "The Library," by Terra Elan McVoy. First Line: New York loneliness in my mouth; Last Line: and disappear.

When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Write Poetry: A Biography Of American Poet Walter Griffin, Lawrence Sterne Stevens

Dissertations, Theses and Capstone Projects (Full IR Collection)

The first four chapters of a biography of the poet Jasper Walter Griffin. They cover the first thirty years of his life, including Griffin's fatherless childhood in rural South Carolina, his imperious grandmother, his time at Gordon Military School (now Gordon College) in Barnesville, Ga., his tumultuous time in the Army in the U.S. and France, his brushes with the law, and a decade of defiance and anger, of various jobs from bellhop on Nantucket Island to carnival barker in Florida to shady home-improvement contract salesman, and of vagabonding around the U.S. as he searched for what he calls 'the …

Review: Also Known As Harper, Jennifer Green

Georgia Library Quarterly

Review of the middle grade book "Also Known as Harper," by Ann Haywood Leal.

Review: Swallow Me Whole, Maureen Puffer-Rothenberg

Georgia Library Quarterly

Review of the graphic novel "Swallow Me Whole," by Nate Powell.

Macon State Showcases 'Lost' Literature

Georgia Library Quarterly

The article reviews the literature exhibit "Lost" at the Macon State College's library in Georgia.

Review: The Story Of Edgar Sawtelle, Kenneth M. Kozel

Georgia Library Quarterly

Review of the novel "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle," by David Wroblewski.

Review: Flannery: A Life Of Flannery O'Connor, William A. Richards

Georgia Library Quarterly

Review of the book "Flannery: A Life of Flannery O’Connor," by Brad Gooch.

Heaven Overland, Jim Murphy

KSU Press Legacy Project

These poems record, from our own language—spoken on the street in Atlanta or Dayton or Chicago, in the graveyard in Charleston, on the rivers of Ohio or Missouri or Illinois, on the road in Mississippi, or on the radio anywhere in America—momentary beauties, to show us that song, however rare, proceeds from the common tongue. So these poems promise that any speech, that any mouth, might be an occasion for beauty or blessing.

Everywhere in this collection, ears, eyes, minds open to discover new abundance in landscapes thought familiar. These poems discover in America and its history boundless vistas, to …

Review: Late For School, Tracy Walker

Georgia Library Quarterly

Review of the children's book "Late for School," written by Mike Reiss and illustrated by Michael Austin.