Comparative Literature Commons^™

The Mariner And His Astronomer Father: Victorian Masculinities In Númenor, Kristine Larsen

Journal of Tolkien Research

A number of authors have analyzed the relationship between Aldarion and Erendis in the Unfinished Tales work "The Mariner's Wife." The strained relationship between Aldarion and his father, Tar-Meneldur, fifth king of Númenor, is less frequently examined, with the exception of the elder’s exasperation concerning his son’s desire for seafaring and reticence in marrying – a necessity to carry on the line of Kings in the island nation. What most commentators do not seem to note is that Meneldur is an interesting character himself, not only as Tolkien’s only named astronomer but in how Tolkien’s depiction of this avocation may …

Introduction To Special Issue On Tolkien And Psychology, Kristine Larsen, Sara Brown, Christopher Vaccaro

Journal of Tolkien Research

This introduction to the special issue on Tolkien and Psychology describes the history of the University of Vermont Tolkien Conference, highlighting the 2024 conference from which these paper originated.

Riddles In The Dark (Of Space), Or, Further Adventures Romanticizing Astronomers’ Middle-Earth Identified Research, Kristine Larsen

Journal of Tolkien Research

In this slightly expanded version of a paper delivered at Westmoot 2025 I explore scientists' creative use of Tolkien-related acronyms in scientific papers, and argue that, despite opinions to the contrary, many of these activities are beneficial for both Tolkien studies and the scientific culture.

Voices In The Borderlands: Reimagining Identity, Cultural Belonging, And Dystopian Spaces In Anzaldúa’S Borderlands And Viramontes’S “The Cariboo Café”, Oralia G. Ramos

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores how Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/La Frontera (1987) and Helena María Viramontes’ short story “The Cariboo Café” (1985) portray marginalized individuals navigating liminal spaces of identity, oppression, and survival. Borderlands/La Frontera and “The Cariboo Café” show how systematic violence and displacement shatter the self, pushing characters to navigate trauma in a dystopian space. Sonya, Macky, the café owner, and the grieving mother represent Anzaldúa’s concepts of borderland subjectivity, betrayal, and spectral haunting.

Sonya and Macky, two undocumented children, represent Anzaldúa’s borderlands subjects and reside in a state of nepantla, an in-between space of cultural dislocation. The café owner …

Entropy And Incarnation In The Duchamp Room: An Inquiry Into Aesthetic Time, Jesse Goodman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the posthumous installation of Marcel Duchamp, Étant donnés, as a test case for how particularly historically situated artworks may or may not change over time. It begins with an overview of Duchamp’s biography, and his own theories of art’s relationship to temporality (which influenced the piece’s construction). It then moves through contrasting accounts of aesthetic time from Adorno and Robert Smithson. Section two works with Walter Benjamin’s writing on photography and aura to produce an account of estrangement between the piece and the viewing subject induced by the historical development of the artwork’s “translation” and “replication”—through …

Shakespeare’S Murderous World: Not A Doomed Reality, Afton Fay

The Criterion

No abstract provided.

Dangerous Possession, Perilous Gaze, And Violent Control In "You Belong To Me," "My Last Duchess," And "Mont Blanc", Mackenzie Hughes

The Criterion

No abstract provided.

Unmasking The Monkey Myth: The Coexistence Of Sage And Trickster, Marisa O'Malley

The Criterion

No abstract provided.

What Is Lyric Anyway?: Attempting To Define Lyric Using Elizabeth Barrett Browning’S “Sonnet 6” And Fiona Apple’S “I Want You To Love Me”, Fiona Smith

The Criterion

No abstract provided.

Hands In David Copperfield As A Marker Of Character, Niall Mckenna

The Criterion

No abstract provided.

From Object To Architect: How Molly Bloom Designs Her Own Gaze In Joyce’S Ulysses, Mackenzie Hughes

The Criterion

No abstract provided.

Home, Exile, And Displacement In The Lord Of The Rings And The Hobbit, Sarah Park

The Criterion

No abstract provided.

The Criterion (2025), Mackenzie Hughes, Emily Carbone, Marisa O'Malley, Gericho Louis Conge, Afton Fay, Fiona Smith, Gwyneth Morrissey, Niall Mckenna, Roan Brimacomb, Sarah Park, Madeline T. Zafon-Whalen

The Criterion

No abstract provided.

The Oppression Of Embrace, Gericho Louis Conge

The Criterion

No abstract provided.

Where Angels Fear To Tread And Heart Of Darkness: Imperialism’S Civil Dehumanization, Roan Brimacomb

The Criterion

No abstract provided.

Stories Of Chiaroscuro Control, Gwyneth Morrissey

The Criterion

No abstract provided.

A Trek Into New Territories: Sound In Rachel Hadas’ “The Red Hat”, Emily Carbone

The Criterion

No abstract provided.

Frank O'Hara: The Figure That Remains, Madeline T. Zafon-Whalen

The Criterion

No abstract provided.

A Limit That Recedes, Chloe Wilcox

Theses and Dissertations

In "A Limit that Recedes", I discuss my art practice in terms of accumulation and techniques of reproduction, such as casting, printing, and repetitive actions. I contextualize my work among artists such as H.C. Westermann, Isa Genzken, and Paul Thek. The work featured in this thesis explores ideas of aspiration, longing, and failure, and explores themes of the fraught relationship of the human and nature.

From Amazon To Malaya: Polyphonic Narratives Of Writers And Subaltern Voices In Colombian And Malaysian Rubber-Forest Literature, Menglu Chen

ELIN Graduate Theses

No abstract provided.

No Unified Ableukhov: Orientalism And Imperialism In Andrei Bely's Petersburg., Tuesday Shaw

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

This project brings into dialogue the 1913 Russian novel Petersburg by Andrei Bely and postcolonial approaches to literature, primarily those developed by Edward Said in Orientalism (1978) and Culture and Imperialism (1994). Petersburg was the product of an artistic movement, Symbolism, that idealized breaking apart boundaries between artforms. Said’s notion of Orientalism, in contrast, is based on the idea that there is an essential division between “East” and “West.” While there might appear to be a tension in applying a theory premised on division to a work that apparently wants to dissolve all boundaries, attention to Petersburg’s depiction of …

Wide Screen With Critical Essay "Translating A Poetry Of Cinema"., James L. Richie Iv

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation combines the creative task of translating Víctor Cabrera’s poetry collection WIDE SCREEN (2009) from Spanish into English with a critical study that analyzes the volume to highlight the uniqueness of his writing, the importance of translating such a work for an Anglophone audience, and the challenges that occur in translating this complex collection. Moreover, Cabrera’s writing engages with a variety of cultural works in ways that challenge preconceived notions of language, culture, and medium. The poetry in WIDE SCREEN draws inspiration from the films of American filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, while frequently putting these films into dialogue with works …

“Re-Storying” Anne Shirley And The Adhd Child: A Crip Genealogy Of Anne Of Green Gables, Darian Aleyna Wilson

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This thesis explores the contested nature of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), focusing on its cultural and historical constructions. While ADHD has been included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders since 1980, its legitimacy remains a subject of debate across medical, disability studies, and historical scholarship. Using Eli Clare’s critique of diagnosis as a tool rather than a fact, this project examines how ADHD is both pathologized and re-storied within societal and medical discourses. It highlights the tension between medical classifications and lived experiences of those diagnosed with ADHD, particularly in the context of girlhood.

The central …

Earth As Archive: An Interdisciplinary Approach To Possibility And Understanding, Alissa Petrizzo

Honors College Theses

This thesis takes the reader on a journey through the process of literary analysis to uncover new considerations of our past, present, and future. Living in the climate crisis, we are in dire need of the humanistic presence within solution-making conversations. I introduce scholarly voices from anthropologists, environmental scientists, and novelists before diving into Pitchaya Sudbanthad's novel Bangkok Wakes to Rain. While you hear my voice throughout the journey, I exist more so as a tour guide, helping you along the way to new possibilities of understanding. We dig up and analyze evidence of the Earth as an archive …

The Rhetorical Use Of The Lower Classes In Three Primary Accounts Of The First Crusade, John Hannon

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study analyzes the rhetorical use of the lower classes in three primary accounts of the First Crusade: Albert of Aachen, the Gesta Francorum, and Raymond of Aguilers — specifically with an eye towards the proper maintenance of the order of society through everyone performing their assigned role. Through a close reading of these three texts this study demonstrates how the three authors engage with and uphold versions of the idealized three orders model of medieval society. Though there is nuance between each source, broadly, each of the authors presents the lower classes as a force that needs to …

Fergus Of Galloway: A New Translation For A New Audience, Emily J. Aguayo

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

My dissertation focuses on one text – Li romanz de Fergus – an Arthurian romance composed in Old French in the early thirteenth century by a mysterious author named Guillaume le Clerc. I have learned as much as I can about this romance and have looked at it from every angle possible. The scope of my research is narrow and deep because it focuses on one text, its author, and its subject matter. I have created a new theory about the identity of the author, Guillaume le Clerc, based on historical documents such as the Acts of Lordship from Scotland, …

Queer Hope And Asexual Desire In Nella Larsen's Passing And Virginia Woolf's To The Lighthouse, Jeremy Buckner

Graduate Theses and Dissertations (2019 - present)

This project examines Nella Larsen’s Passing and Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse together as queer artifacts in hopes of shedding new light on how race and sexuality can be reexamined across national modes of thinking. Although these writers’ backgrounds provide them with different bodies of knowledge, Larsen’s Irene and Woolf’s Lily have much more in common than might first appear. For one, even if racialization is more explicit—and presents more of an obstacle—for Irene, race is an important factor for both characters. Additionally, Irene and Lily both express profound discontent with marriage, Irene in her marriage to Brian and Lily …

True Crime Adaptations And How The Public Surveils, Laura Nothstine

Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal

True crime adaptations have become increasingly popular in the past few decades, but their existence reaches back several centuries. They have taken many forms, including stage dramas, graphic novels, and true crime podcasts. Examples of these adaptations— particularly the play Arden of Faversham, the graphic novel From Hell, and modern true crime podcasts—illustrate the selective process used to create true crime adaptations. That process chooses to foreground certain aspects of crimes while others are left behind, which changes audience understandings of the crime. By understanding the nuances of these adaptations, the potential effects they create in audience perceptions become clear. …

Translation And Migration, Utopia And Dystopia: Representations Of The Labor Of Cultural Mediation In Fictional Eastern Europe And The Real Us-Mexico Border, James L. Richie Iv

Vernacular: New Connections in Language, Literature, & Culture

With the publication of Moira Inghilleri’s book, Translation and Migration (2017), the linguistic act of translation and the social phenomenon of migration have been linked in the world of interdisciplinary studies, yet this linkage may obscure the relevance of works in which only one phenomenon (translation or migration) is presented. A case study in which a work exploring migration can be contrasted with a work exploring the function of translation may reveal in one another the social forces that condition both practices. In Lucas Pope’s independently created video game Papers Please (2014), the player embodies a border patrol agent in …

"Quiero Ser Hombre": Grito De Libertad Y Afirmación Feminista En La Obra De Carmen De Burgos Y Julia De Burgos, Lizely M. Lopez Cordero

Vernacular: New Connections in Language, Literature, & Culture

A las escritoras Carmen de Burgos (España) y Julia de Burgos (Puerto Rico) las separa un mar, las clases sociales y el tiempo. Aunque ambas escritoras comparten un apellido que está lejos de parentesco alguno, el denominador común que las une es la transgresión. Una transgresión definida por su desafío a las normas sociales impuestas a la mujer y por penetrar esos espacios que les eran vedados, mediante su producción literaria y el activismo social y político. Las muestras claras de estos actos de transgresión y subversión quedan reflejadas en la última obra de Carmen de Burgos, Quiero vivir mi …