English Language and Literature Commons^™

Three Screenplays, Geoffrey Abruzzi

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Three original screenplays set in a fictional southwestern town, dealing with subjects of hope, desire, truth and deception.

Domain Specific Identity Commitment And Alcohol Use And Problems, Alison Glanville

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Identity formation is an important developmental task of the college years. Previous research has demonstrated that identity commitment, as defined by James Marcia, is related to decreased substance use and problems. That is, individuals who are identity achieved or foreclosed use substances less frequently and experience fewer substance-related problems than do individuals who are classified in the statuses of identity diffused or moratorium. However, Marcia discussed identity as developing in two domains, the occupational and the ideological (religious beliefs and political ideology). To date, no studies have examined in which domain commitment is associated with a decrease in substance use …

"Whether Beast Or Human": The Cultural Legacies Of Dread, Locks, And Dystopia., Kevin Frank

Publications and Research

Analyzing the ongoing problem of Caribbean racial exploitation, particularly fear signified through one of the most potent Caribbean symbols, dreadlocks, Kevin Frank offers a paradigm shift in arguing that Medusa's alterity is altered by Rastafarians' snake-like hair, but the transformative power of Rasta dreadlocks is contested through certain cinematic depictions of dread.

Selected Bibliography Of Work On Canadian Ethnic Minority Writing, Steven Tötösy De Zepetnek, Asma Sayed, Domenic A. Beneventi

CLCWeb Library

No abstract provided.

Motherhood And The Political Project Of Queer Indian Cinema, Bryce J. Renninger

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Motherhood & the Political Project of Queer Indian Cinema is a thesis that works to understand the variety of ways the films of queer Indian cinema use the figure of the mother. The Indian mother has a long history at the fore of the Indian imagination. Popular narratives and public culture within India have a history of focusing on the mother as a key site of Indian tradition. Narratives and cultures of all religious traditions in India have consistently focused on the mother as a central character and agent of change. Queer Indian cinema, of the diaspora and made from …

Female Agency And Oppression In Caribbean Bacchanalian Culture: Soca, Carnival, And Dancehall, Kevin Frank

Publications and Research

In this essay Kevin Frank discerningly analyzes agency and gender in public sexual performances emanating out of what Paul Gilroy identifies as part of the compensatory politics of the subordinated within Black Atlantic culture, Jamaican dancehall (dancehall reggae/ dancehall queens).

Frankenstein: Man Or Monster?, Leigh P. Mackintosh

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

Since its first publication in 1818, Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein has left a lasting impression upon the world speaking to a multitude of audiences including artists, scientists, philosophers, and society as a whole. Considering the impact of Frankenstein through its evolution as a cultural myth in various plays and films, this thesis will provide a way to gauge the relevance of Shelley’s story as an adaptation. Only by knowing what has been done in the past and how the materials have been used by other playwrights and screenwriters can one understand how to handle them as an original work. The …

Quiero Chupar Tu Sangre: A Comparison Of The Spanish-And English-Language Versions Of Universal Studios' Dracula (1931), Robert Harland

Journal of Dracula Studies

No abstract provided.

Rethinking The New Woman In Stoker's Fiction: Looking At Lady Athlyne, Carol A. Senf

Journal of Dracula Studies

No abstract provided.

"Why Am I So Changed?": Vampiric Selves And Gothic Doubleness In Wuthering Heights, Lakshmi Krishnan

Journal of Dracula Studies

No abstract provided.

Hamilton Deane And John L. Balderston: The Men Who "Re-Vamped" Count Dracula, Michael Mcglasson

Journal of Dracula Studies

No abstract provided.

The Status Of Vlad Tepes In Communist Romania: A Reassessment, Duncan Light

Journal of Dracula Studies

No abstract provided.

Locating The Bard: Adaptation And Authority In Michael Radford's The Merchant Of Venice

Faculty Publications

Michael Radford’s adaptation of The Merchant of Venice (2004) starring Al Pacino and Jeremy Irons returns feature film Shakespeare to period setting and costuming after roughly a decade of radicalized adaptative strategies such as those of Baz Luhrmann, Michael Almereyda, and Julie Taymor, strategies that threatened to overshadow the Kenneth Branagh approach to Shakespeare’s textual and cultural authority. Radford underscores this return to “authentic” Shakespeare with a heavy directorial hand that begins the film with superimposed text recounting the sixteenth-century Venetian context of the original play setting. The watery landscape of Venice, the brothels and courtesans that entertain the Christian …

Engaging The Eighties: Ethics, Objects, Periods, Kevin L. Ferguson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines a recent decade in American history whose unique notion of self-periodization generated important questions of ethical engagement and withdrawal. Situated during a time of an increasingly complex relationship between literature and theory, thinkers in the 80s self-consciously shifted towards making claims about their present moment which were based on the logic of rupture, and which thus created an either-or logic of pessimism or optimism in response to this rupture. These kinds of self-periodizing notions generally are collected under the rubric "postmodernism" and the first chapter deals with a transatlantic movement between theorists such as Fredric Jameson and …

Towards A Bibliography Of Critical Whiteness Studies, Tim Engles

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

As the title implies, this book offers a multi-disciplinary overview of the explosion of work in scholarly critical whiteness studies. The contributing bibliographers acknowledge that this work follows and builds upon a great deal of whiteness critique previously provided by African American writers, and by those writing from other racialized positions. Each section provides a solid introduction to key concepts and practices regarding whiteness in a particular field, including: philosophy, history, literature, cinema, the visual arts, psychology, education, media studies, qualitative inquiry, personal narratives, and international and comparative approaches.

Friendships, Romantic Relationships, And The Importance Of Self-Expansion, Mami Kashiwabara

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Self-expansion theory (Aron & Aron, 1986) posits that individuals enter and maintain relationships in order to expand their sense of self and suggests that expanding the sense of self is a basic human motivation. In this study, I examined whether the perceived opportunities for self-expansion within a relationship predicted feelings of closeness and passion for a partner, and unlike many previous studies, I explored the importance of self-expansion in friendships as well as romantic relationships. I also explored individual differences in the importance of self-expansion opportunities in predicting closeness and passion. The results suggest that opportunities for self-expansion may motivate …

Masculinity And The Postmodern In American Psycho And Fight Club, Sean Mccray

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Initially, this paper traces masculinity in America from the nineteenth century and up through the mid twentieth century in order to define traditional masculinity and identify some of its characteristics. Traditional masculinity, typically demonstrated though aggressive and violent behavior, is currently undergoing cultural and social revisions due to various contemporary ideas. In analyzing American Psycho and Fight Club, two controversial novels written in the past twenty years, the paper makes clear that the protagonists acutely feel the tension that exists between historical perceptions of masculinity and current ideas of what men should be. They react to that tension by exhibiting …

"Buffy Vs. Dracula"'S Use Of Count Famous (Not Drawing "Crazy Conclusions About The Unholy Prince"), Tara Elliott

Journal of Dracula Studies

No abstract provided.

The Children Of The Night: Stoker's Dreadful Reading And The Plot Of Dracula, Dick Collins

Journal of Dracula Studies

My intention is to suggest that the plot of Dracula was modeled on the plot of The String of Pearls, the Penny Dreadful serial that created Sweeney Todd. I am not suggesting that Stoker deliberately or consciously “stole” the plot and “rewrote it” with “differences”; nor can I prove he had read it, let alone that he had it on the desk as he wrote. Instead I am making the altogether more ordinary claim that Stoker was familiar with the earlier book, and others like it; that the memory of it provided him with a basic framework of plot; and …

Punishment With Vlad Tepes - Punishments In Europe Common And Differentiating Traits, Constantin Rezachevici

Journal of Dracula Studies

No abstract provided.

"The Coin Of Our Realm": Blood And Images In Dracula 2000, Alan S. Ambrisco, Lance Svehla

Journal of Dracula Studies

Since the publication of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the vampire has always been our long lost twin, always held our gaze because we found ourselves translated there. Whether represented as demonized monopolist, stereotyped Jew, feudal aristocrat, or iconoclastic youth,1 what remains in all manifestations of the vampire is its ability to become what the culture both desires and reviles, to seduce in the act of producing fear. Wes Craven Presents: Dracula 2000, a film directed by Patrick Lussier, portrays the notorious vampire reveling in a world not only of blood but also of images. This rewriting of Dracula’s legend engages anxieties …

Triply Filiated: Lestat And The Three Fathers, Maureen C. Laperriere

Journal of Dracula Studies

No abstract provided.

Review Of Macbeth, Michael Adams

Publications and Research

Review of Geoffrey Wright's Macbeth: http://www.media-party.com/discland/2007/12/macbeth-2006.html

Allusion As Form: The Waste Land And Moulin Rouge!, Stacy Magedanz

Library Faculty Publications & Presentations

Allusion is usually considered a literary technique, but relatively little attention has been paid to the notion of allusion as a literary form. In this essay, I attempt to describe the allusive form based on two prominent examples, T. S. Eliot’s Waste Land and Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge! Though radically different, the two works embody distinguishing characteristics of the allusive form. These are intertextuality, or a dependence upon outside sources for sense and significance; heightened and self-conscious artificiality; a confrontational attitude toward the audience; elitism, based on the exclusivity of allusions; appropriation of multiple cultures; and pervasive anachronism. Though prone …

Fighting The Good Fight: The Real And The Moral In The Contemporary Hollywood Combat Film, Philippa Gates

English and Film Studies Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

"I Thought Perhaps The Reaper Was Going To Do Something To You": The Serpent's Kiss And The Issue Of Reverse-Objectification, Jason Mcentee

English Faculty Publications

In this discussion, I examine the continual problem of female representation in the movie narrative. Movie narratives often rely on female characters situated in roles that find them objectified by males, allowing us to hypothesize--as the body of feminist film criticism has done since at least the mid- I970s--that she also becomes objectified by her viewing audience. Then calling for a sweeping change in the mindsets of both male and female filmmakers, Sharon Smith precisely points out the problems of female representation:

"The role of the woman in a film almost always revolves around her physical attraction and the mating …

The Cultural-Historical Origins Of The Literary Vampire In Germany, Heidi Crawford

Journal of Dracula Studies

Before British authors began writing vampire literature, culminating in 1897 with Bram Stoker’s Dracula, eighteenth-century German poets, most significantly Heinrich August Ossenfelder, Gottfried August Bürger, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, had begun to adapt the curious phenomenon of vampirism from Central Europe for the creative literature they were producing in the enlightened West. Possibly the most striking observation about the origins of the vampire figure in German poetry is that the German poets seem to have drawn more on Central European than German folklore. The reason for this is that the literary vampire was introduced into eighteenth-century German ballad poetry …

The People Of Bram Stoker's Transylvania, Duncan Light

Journal of Dracula Studies

One of the defining features of Bram Stoker’s Dracula is the “specific and detailed geographical context that sets this novel apart from other gothic novels” (Florescu & McNally 5). Indeed, although Stoker had not visited Transylvania, he is known to have read widely in preparing Dracula.1 While his historical research has come under particular scrutiny, little attention has been paid to his representation and understanding of the region’s geography.2 As a human geographer with research interests in Romania, I find that there is something not “quite right” about Stoker’s Transylvania. In particular, where are the Romanians? And why are there …

Echoes Of Dracula: Racial Politics And The Failure Of Segregated Spaces In Richard Matheson's I Am Legend., Kathy Davis Patterson

Journal of Dracula Studies

No abstract provided.

"Betwixt Sunset And Sunrise": Liminality In Dracula, Mark M. Hennelly Jr.

Journal of Dracula Studies

No abstract provided.