English Language and Literature Commons^™

Devising Performance & Queer Futurity, Brendan F. Leonard

Honors Theses

This project argues that devising performance is an inherently queer and utopian form. In response to recent political movements, such as Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter, which seek to stage dissatisfaction with the systems of late capitalism, I turn to devising performance as a site. Informed by the queer and performance theories of Jose Esteban Munoz, Lee Edelman, and Jill Dolan, I argue that devised theater allows us to process disillusionment, rehearse collectivity, and stage futurity. In conversation with Munoz, I define futurity as an imaginative site that considers what will follow what some scholars suggest will be …

Finding Aid To The Collection Of Elizabeth Akers Allen Materials, Elizabeth Akers Allen, Colby College Special Collections

Finding Aids

This collection includes correspondence, manuscripts, and first publications of Maine writer, Elizabeth Akers Allen. The bulk of the collection consists of manuscripts and published writings written by Allen between 1846 and 1906. The collection also contains correspondence, an Autograph book, clippings, and a few photographic prints. Elizabeth Akers Allen grew up in Farmington, Maine, and first published a volume of poems under the pen name Florence Percy. She traveled through Europe as a journalist reporting for the Portland Transcript and Boston Evening Gazette, and was later a regular contributor to Atlantic Monthly.

Finding Aid To The Collection Of Sarah Orne Jewett Materials., Sarah Orne Jewett, Colby College Special Collections

Finding Aids

This collection includes correspondence, manuscripts, and first publications of 19th-century Maine writer, Sarah Orne Jewett. The bulk of the collection consists of letters written by Jewett to various correspondents between 1879 and 1908. The collection also contains manuscript items of varying length, an Anecdote Book, clippings, published writings, and a few photographic prints. Sarah Orne Jewett (1849-1909) of South Berwick, Maine achieved note as an author and poet. The daughter of Dr. Theodore Jewett, she was educated at Berwick Academy, though her studies were frequently interrupted by illness. She never married and lived most of her life in her home …

Finding Aid To The Bern Porter Collection Of Contemporary Letters, Bern Porter, Colby College Special Collections

Finding Aids

Bern Porter (1911–2004) was an artist, writer, philosopher, and scientist who was involved in the development of the cathode ray tube, the Saturn V rocket, and the Manhattan Project, which he renounced upon learning of the bombing of Hiroshima. Also a pioneer in the arts, he is known for his landmark work as an author and publisher. He was an early practitioner of mail art and found and performance poetry and experimented with typography, sculpture, photography, artists’ books, and collage throughout his life. Porter lived and worked in New Jersey, New York, Tennessee, California, Guam, Alabama, and Tasmania. He finally …

Finding Aid To The Collection Of Vernon Lee Materials, Violet Paget, Colby College Special Collections

Finding Aids

The Vernon Lee Collection at Colby College contains over 1000 letters, 136 manuscripts and articles, 117 photographs, and a small number of personal documents and artifacts, spanning the years 1866-1960. First and subsequent editions of Vernon Lee titles are described in the Colby Libraries web catalog. Materials arranged in seven series: Correspondence from Vernon Lee, Correspondence to Vernon Lee, Manuscripts, Published Writings, Photographs, Personal Items and Artifacts, and Clippings.

Expanding The Literary Enterprise: How We Experience The Texts Of The Advanced Placement English Literature And Composition Curriculum, Molly Ostrow

Honors Theses

How we read the texts of the Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition curriculum.

Gender, Nature, And The Fairytale Structure In Robin Mckinley's Works, Molly Rogers

Honors Theses

Robin McKinley is an American fantasy author who uses fairytale structure to explore themes of gender and nature. Her first book, Beauty, a retelling of “Beauty and the Beast” was published in 1978. She continues to write fairytales and other fantastic fiction, utilizing the fairytale form and structure. She has won a few awards, including the Newbery Award in 1985 for her novel The Hero and the Crown. Her latest book, Pegasus, was published in 2010. Jack Zipes describes McKinley’s heroines as "self-confident, courageous young women who take the initiative in a world which they help to define with men…it …

Mediums Change, Fears Stay The Same, Lucy Wilhelms

Honors Theses

Although generally dismissed by scholars as being overly sentimental or superstitious, the gothic genre has survived for over four centuries and maintained significant cultural appeal, outlasting the sentimental novel and the travelogue as popular literature. What, then, makes this genre different? What is so special about the gothic?

In my thesis, I examine the evolving cultural appeal of the gothic genre that keeps it attractive and relevant for readers by tracing the gothic text, The Woman in Black by Susan Hill, through its initial inception and its subsequent adaptations. As a novel, The Woman in Black both repeats and revises …

Shakespeare And Homoeroticism: A Study Of Cross-Dressing, Society, And Film, Leigh Bullion

Honors Theses

William Shakespeare’s plays cover an array of topics focused on sexuality, from gender reversal to adultery to beastiality. But perhaps the most consistent and emphasized topic is homoeroticism.This focus on homoeroticism proceeds from the prohibition of women on the English stage and the subsequent female roles young boys would play. A Midsummer Night’s Dream, As You Like It, and Twelfth Night each present different representations of homoeroticism yet complement each other. A Midsummer Night’s Dream focuses on the erotic potential of unrestrained desire and the tense relationship between female amity and dominating patriarchal and heterosexual interests. As You Like It …

My Teaching Philosophy, Marilyn R. Pukkila

Faculty Scholarship

This is my philosophy of teaching and learning, as developed during the ACRL Immersion Intentional Teacher Track in Nashville, TN in December of 2009

Take A Deep Breath: On Not Losing The Turtle In The Technology, Marilyn R. Pukkila

Faculty Scholarship

Understanding media messages and selecting worthwhile sources of information require the ability to analyze and deconstruct messages.

The Other Side Of The Podium: Student Information Needs From Inside The Classroom, Marilyn R. Pukkila

Faculty Scholarship

A few things the author learned about students and research when she audited classes on her campus as part of her sabbatical.

The Other Side Of The Podium: Student Information Needs From Inside The Classroom, Marilyn R. Pukkila

Marilyn R. Pukkila

A few things the author learned about students and research when she audited classes on her campus as part of her sabbatical.

Literary Love Making In Nicholas Sparks Novels: Finding The Balance Between The Writer’S Life And The Writer’S Work In Bestselling Romantic Literature, Ryan Spanich

Honors Theses

For almost a decade now Nicholas Sparks has been writing love stories. Not only has he been publishing his stories, but they have received high acclaim in each of their installments. Several of his novels have been made into major motion pictures and increased his popularity quite significantly. His status as a successful romantic fiction writer is undeniable, but the question is, why? What is it about Nicholas Sparks that makes his novels so engaging, and personally, what do I need to do as an aspiring novelist to try and acquire the same literary status? Sparks’s novels reach readers at …

Let Us Now Praise Famous Women, Erin Rhoda

Undergraduate Research Symposium (UGRS)

Writing this collection of journalistic nonfiction has come at an appropriate time for me as I head out into the world on my own. I still don’t know if or where I’ll be working. I don’t know if I’ll be an intern or employee or if I want to go to graduate school in the future. The world is wide open before me, and that is a scary thing. However, these women have been assuring and guiding me. Meeting and interviewing them has taught me that life is subjective. They have shown me that everything we own can be lost …

Feminist Spiritualities: A Brief Overview, Marilyn R. Pukkila

Faculty Scholarship

A bibliographic essay on the early beginnings of feminist spirituality literature, from the 1960s to 1998.

The Literature Of Contemporary Witchcraft: Formalists, Femininsts, And Free Spirits, Marilyn R. Pukkila

Faculty Scholarship

A bibliographic essay on the writings of contemporary Witchcraft, from the late 1890s to 1998.

The Literature Of Contemporary Witchcraft: Formalists, Femininsts, And Free Spirits, Marilyn R. Pukkila

Marilyn R. Pukkila

A bibliographic essay on the writings of contemporary Witchcraft, from the late 1890s to 1998.