English Language and Literature Commons^™

Women And Revolution In Dystopian Fiction: Nadine Gordimer's July's People And Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, Nancy Topping Bazin

English Faculty Publications

Nadine Gordimer's July's People (1981) and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale (1985) are both dystopias, nightmare visions of the future. Both of the worlds depicted come into being because of revolutionary coups. However, in both cases, the revolutions were in progress long before the actual takeovers, and there were opportunities for citizens to have prevented these dystopian situations from coming to pass. Yet, because changing the direction of political events requires energy, solidarity, bravery or at least some self-sacrifice, most citizens are reluctant to become involved. Nadine Gordimer and Margaret Atwood understand this attitude because they have felt that way …

Virginia Woolf & Postmodernism: Literature In Quest & Question Of Itself, Pamela L. Caughie

English: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Virginia Woolf and Postmodernism argues not that Virginia Woolf is a postmodernist but that postmodern assumptions about art can account for her narrative innovations and feminist politics better than conventional modernist and feminist approaches to her works. In rethinking many of the prominent aesthetic and critical positions of her day, Woolf anticipated many postmodernist tenets. This book helps us to understand how and why she came to hold such views, and how we might change our reading of Woolf and narrative literature in turn.

Pamela Caughie brings together pragmatism and postmodern theory to move critical inquiry, particularly feminist criticism and …

"Interviewing" Mr. Larkin, Robert Phillips

The Courier

This article provides some details about the life of the English poet Philip Larkin. This enigmatic man wrote some of the best poetry in the English language of the twentieth century. His work had a lasting effect upon readers. After that of Sir John Betjeman, Larkin's verse was probably the best-loved of any contemporary poetry in the United Kingdom.

Preface And Introductory Materials To Approaches To Teaching Cather’S My Ántonia, Susan J. Rosowski

Department of English: Faculty Publications

The aim of this volume is to provide background and ideas others have found most helpful in teaching My Antonia. The portion presented here describes Cather's role in preparing the text and supervising the physical design of My Antonia, and reviews other writing by Cather relevant to My Antonia, as well as biographical studies and criticism recommended most often by instructors who teach it. It includes also a selective introduction to materials recommended for instructors' libraries: reference works on Cather, general background, biographical studies, and critical commentary. Finally, it surveys aids to teaching: pedagogical articles and non-print …

My Ántonia As Plains Epic, Paul A. Olson

Department of English: Faculty Publications

When I assign My Antonia, I teach it to the sons and daughters or more distant relatives, in blood or spirit, of the people it treats. I have had relatives of Mrs. Pavelka in my classes, citizens of Red Cloud and Wilber, Czechs who still retain their Czech culture, and classicists at the University of Nebraska who study what Cather studied here. It is thus impossible entirely to make the work of art defamiliarize the experience, as Shklovsky would have it do, nor would I want it to remove the students from their pasts and knowledge of family or …

The Romanticism Of My Ántonia: Every Reader's Story, Susan J. Rosowski

Department of English: Faculty Publications

Romanticism is fundamental to My Antonia, shaping the attitudes that control its structure, style, and narration, as well as its expectations of a reader. I immediately face a dilemma in teaching this romanticism, however, for most of my students haven't even the most rudimentary understanding of what romanticism is. They have negative associations of something emotional, irrelevant, and backward-looking; asked for details, they describe surface features that vaguely concern poets brooding about nature. Almost none understands romanticism as a way of knowing, by which individuals use their imaginations to create value in an otherwise meaningless world (Rosowski, Voyage). …

Lamberton, Robert. Homer The Theologian: Neoplatonist Allegorical Readings And The Growth Of The Epic Tradition. Berkeley: University Of California Press, 1986. (Review), Paul A. Olson

Department of English: Faculty Publications

This book is excellent both for classicists and Spenserians, for the latter not only because Homer is the (direct or indirect) source for many episodes in The Faerie Queene but because the modes of understanding epic which Lamberton explores are crucial to the comprehension of Spenserian allegory. The work continues the tradition of examination of classical myth and allegory begun by Felix Buffiere, Jerome Carcopino, Franz Cumont, and Jean Pepin. Beginning with the early Neo-Pythagorian allegorists, it proceeds to cover Homeric commentary in 'apostolic' and 'post-apostolic' times: that of Philo, Numenius, Clement and Origen in Jewish-Christian tradition; and that of …

The Evolution Of Doris Lessing's Art From A Mystical Moment To Space Fiction, Nancy Topping Bazin

English Faculty Publications

After publishing ten major novels, Doris Lessing has begun writing what she calls '·space fiction'· for her new series entitled Canopus in Argos: Archives. In a review of the first two novels published in this series, namely, Shikasta ( 1979) and the Marriages Between Zones Three. Four, and Five (1980)¹. Jean Pickering stresses that many of Doris Lessing's most avid readers were initially attracted to her because of her insights about the female experience and because of her allegiance to nineteenth-century realism." Pickering suggests that Lessing's growing interest in space fiction and Sufism (Islamic mysticism) has …

0405: Curtis F. Baxter Papers, 1860-1980, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

Educator and cultural leader. Papers consist of lecture notes for British literature classes at Marshall University, as well as some correspondence. Also includes scrapbook of tributes upon his retirement from the university. The bulk of the collection consists of photographic slides of his extensive travel in Europe and the Caribbean.

To view materials from this collection that are digitized and available online, search the Curtis F. Baxter Papers, 1860-1980 here.

Credentialism As Monopoly, Class War, And Socialization Scheme: Some Historical Reflections On Modern Ways Of Determining Who Can Do A Job, Paul A. Olson

Department of English: Faculty Publications

Social theorists in earlier periods have looked at credentialing from the perspective of its service to the economic or social system as opposed to its “protection of the public interest.” Adam Smith regarded the long education and the performance tests that the guilds required as monopolistic constraints on production; Karl Marx saw the same guild system as controlled by the propertied classes and uselessly exclusionary; and Emile Durkheim, unlike both Smith and Marx, regarded the occupational group with its entrance requirements as central to the stability of modern society. The application of the principles of Smith, Marx, and Durkheim, in …

The Perception Of Coincidence: Artistic Symmetry In The "Wandering Rocks" Episode Of James Joyce's Ulysses, James A. Scruton

Masters Theses

James Joyce's Ulysses, the most influential novel of the twentieth century, has often been criticized for its fragmentation and complexity. Impenetrable to some readers, misunderstood by others, Ulysses bears within its eighteen episodes a symmetry of subject and form that at once clarifies and multiplies the meanings to be found there. Richard Ellmann calls Joyce's theory of art "the perception of coincidence," a theory best exemplified by "Wandering Rocks," the central episode of Ulysses. The use of "symmetrical coincidence" in ''Wandering Rocks" can be seen in two ways: 1)the internal structure of the episode, and 2)its location among …

Black Elk Speaks As Epic And Ritual Attempt To Reverse History, Paul A. Olson

Department of English: Faculty Publications

Modern Siouan storytellers make a distinction in speaking of the difference between bedtime and sacred stories. Moreover, Lakota masters of the sacred arts are inveterate constructors of figural or allegorical systems. They interpret, apply, and reapply the iconological resources of their culture through ritual, myth, storytelling, symbolic action, and clothing. This Sioux symbolic tradition is one context in which John G. Neihardt's Black Elk Speaks (1932) must be understood. Conceptualizing it as an epic may assist both Western and non-Western readers to clarify the uses to which a culture's symbol system may be put in mediating conflicting values, especially those …

Charles Simic: Trends Toward An International Poetry, Denise Clark

Masters Theses

In his article "Wrong Turning in American Poetry," Robert Bly believes that American poetry has been lead astray by the likes of Eliot, Pound, Moore, and Williams. He feels that the main failing of American poetry is its lack of inward, spiritual life. It is the Spanish speaking poets that Bly looks to as the true path-finders of spiritual poetry. If Bly believes that poets like Eliot and Williams were responsible for steering American poetry down the wrong path, it is a foreigner, Charles Simic, who will give American poetry the right turn it needs.

What Simic has been able …

Infinite Intellectual Leap-Frog: Tracing Three Character Voices Through Four Of Tom Stoppard's Works--Lord Malquist And Mr. Moon, Albert's Bridge, Jumpers, And Dirty Linen, Judy Laurene Donaldson

Masters Theses

Tom Stoppard (1937- ), British playwright, creates in his Absurd novel Lord Malquist and Mr. Moon (1966) three character voices that begin a debate on man's reason for existence. Instead of resolving the debate at the end of his novel, Stoppard, using the same character voices in various combinations, continues the debate in three of his later works: the plays Albert's Bridge (1968), Jumpers (1972), and Dirty Linen (1976). The three character voices include the realist's, who ties to make some sense out of the disorder of the world and to find his place in it; the manipulator's, who ignores …

A Room Of One's Own: The Women's Room, Lou Ellen Crawford

Masters Theses

The recent resurgence of feminism has been accompanied by the development of feminist fiction. Identifying those characteristics by which feminist fiction adds to the American novel a new and valid perspective, feminist criticism has also flourished. Feminist critics agree that fiction with a new perspective demands critical evaluation from that same perspective; and Cheri Register provides a concise, thorough list of five elements which comprise effective feminist fiction. Of Register's five criteria, Carol Heilbrun stresses the equalizing, conciliatory influence of androgyny. Recent feminist authors have written many novels which perform one or more of the functions prescribed by Register. Three …

The Family In Modern Northern Irish Drama, Ray Wallace

Masters Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to show the plight of the family in Northern Ireland. The four plays which are the subject of this study--Within Two Shadows by Wilson John Haire, The Flats By John Boyd, Nightfall to Belfast by Patrick Galvin, and The Death of Humpty Dumpty by J. Graham Reid--deal with this innocent faction and highlight three principal effects of the troubles on their family lives. First, the families suffer internal division. They are alienated by religious/political differences which are as inseparable in these dramas as they are in Northern Irish life. Socialist doctrine opposes Christian …

Character Motivation And Definition Through Dialog In The Memory Plays Of Harold Pinter, Douglas E. Grohne

Masters Theses

Several critics have suggested that the plays of Harold Pinter are incomprehensible because the characters do not explicitly explain their actions and motivations. These comments come because the critics and audiences are conditioned to expect a playwright to in some way explain the motivations and personalities of his characters with a standard explanation given through explicit dialog, copious stage directions, or other means. But Pinter believes that it is dangerous for a playwright to design a play with one overall purpose in mind because the chances are that the purpose will be mistaken.

Pinter prefers to write in a realistic …

From Ritual To Resurrection: The Exploratory Poetic Of Seamus Heaney, Susan L. Morris

Masters Theses

Heaney's poetry has grown and changed since the publication of his first collection of poetry, Death of a Naturalist. This paper is an attempt to present the development of Heaney's exploratory poetic which was created through his use of language and image, allowing him metaphorical vehicles for the examination of oppositions.

Heaney began his poetic exploration, or "dig," with the collections Death of a Naturalist and Door Into the Dark. The poetry presents nature images which represent Heaney's search into the unknown, the dark places. These images symbolize a searching for the imagination and for the purpose of …

Doubtful And Visionary: Review Of Leonard Nathan, Dear Blood, University Of Pittsburgh Press, Robert S. Haller

Department of English: Faculty Publications

Review of Leonard Nathan, Dear Blood, University of Pittsburgh Press.

Review Of Mona E. Mcalpine, The Genre Of 'Troilus And Criseyde,' Ithaca And London: Cornell University Press, 1978, Robert S. Haller

Department of English: Faculty Publications

Review of Mona E. McAlpine, The Genre of 'Troilus and Criseyde.' Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1978.

The Book Of The Pawnee: Pawnee Stories For Study And Enjoyment, Marge Critcher, Carolyn Boyum, Patti Huff, Paul A. Olson, Rosemary Bergstrom

Department of English: Faculty Publications

I. Meeting the Pawnee ............................... 1

II. Pawnee Beliefs .................................. . 3

The Pawnee Creation Story ...................... 3

The Boy Who Was Sacrificed ..................... 8

III. Pawnee Hero Stories ............................. 14

Lone Chief ................................. 14

Little Warrior's Counsel. ................ . . . .... 27

IV. Pawnee Folk Tales ............................... 30

The Snake Brother ........................... 30

Mosquitoes ................................. 37

V. Boy Stories .................................... 39

The Boy Who Talked with Lightning .............. 39

The Boy and the Wonderful Robe ............... .42

The Boys, the Thunderbird, and the Water Monster .. 50

VI. Coyote Stories .................................. 54

Coyote and the Blind Buffalo ................... …

A Few Great Stories Of The Santee People, Edna Peniska, Paul Robertson, Robert Frerichs, Paul A. Olson

Department of English: Faculty Publications

Told by Many Nineteenth Century Santee and by Edna Peniska and Paul Robertson of the Modern Santee.

Gathered and Edited by Robert Frerichs and Paul A. Olson.

The fact that every known culture and civilization has acquired some sort of set of sacred stories is important. The eleven sacred stories in this work have multiple purposes. They possess a value as sheer entertainment; they also tell truths and lessons which explain the meaning of existence. Thus the Santee listener could fmd his place in the world and achieve an inner harmony through hearing stories. The characters in these stories are …

The Book Of The Omaha: Literature Of The Omaha People, Paul A. Olson, Wallace Wade Miller (Thio-Um-Baska)

Department of English: Faculty Publications

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface ..................................... ix

I. The Creation .................................. 1

II. When Man Came to the Earth .................... .4

III. The Bringing to the Creation of a New Life ........... 5

IV. The Osage Creation Story ........................ 7

V. The Child is Placed in the Cosmos, in the Tribe, and in the Tribe's Fight .............. 9

VI. The Sacred Pole ............................... 15

VII. The Divisions of the Tribe and Colors .............. 19

VIII. Corn ....................................... 22

IX. The Buffalo Hunt ............................. 27

X. Ponca Buffalo Ritual (related) ................... .46

XI. The Corn Song

XII. Another Osage Creation Story .................... …

Chaucer's Epic Statement And The Political Milieu Of The Late Fourteenth Century, Paul A. Olson

Department of English: Faculty Publications

Sets Knight's Tale in the tradition of political verse, and argues that the tale encourages peace in the domestic and foreign affairs of Chaucer's England. The hortatory, heroic style of the tale presents Theseus as a peace-making ideal, pertinent to the French wars of the time. The juxtaposition of the Miller's Tale with the Knight's Tale encourages placid relations with the peasant class.

Several critics, both neoclassic and modern, have observed that) as to kind, the Knight's Tale is an epic fiction. Characteristically, the poems we call medieval epics are what Ezra Pound also says an epic must be in …

Fitzgerald's Use Of The Four Elements In The Great Gatsby, John Philip Hawkins

Masters Theses

A great deal has been written about the conscientious effort that went into the design of F. Scott Fitzgerald's popular novel, The Great Gatsby, with its various allusions and numerous symbols. A careful reading of this novel will unveil the author's preoccupation with numerous metaphysical images, particularly the four elements--air, earth, water, and fire--which are considered to be the essential components of all matter.

Fitzgerald uses the four elements in The Great Gatsby to coordinate mood and physical settings, to give dimension to the settings, and to bring characters into sharper focus. The novel employs four settings, each one …

Saul Bellow's Henderson The Rain King: A Fusion Of The Comic And The Serious, George William Russo

Masters Theses

Bellow's comic vision points to a compromise between the romantic notion that self-perfection is attainable and the pessimistic notion that man is ultimately impotent and thus destined to fail. Through Henderson, Bellow shows that although man does not--and ultimately cannot--completely free himself of somatic demands and limitations, he is nevertheless not defeated by them and thus not left a victim of emotionless observations.

Bellow draws upon four sources in Henderson's nature to create the humor in the novel and highlights Eugene Henderson as a comic hero by dramatizing that Henderson proves to be his own ironist. These sources can be …

Functions Of Menace: A Comparison Of The Room And The Birthday Party, Lee R. Martin

Masters Theses

An atmosphere of menace surrounds the action of Harold Pinter's plays, The Room and The Birthday Party. Several critics seem to agree that the menace originates in the outer world and threatens to intrude upon the security of a room, where people attempt to hide. But the menace may also originate within the room--from the inner world and not the outer. The Room illustrates how a character deals with a menace that is within, while The Birthday Party deals with agents of menace from the outer world.

Rose Hudd, in The Room, is dissociated from the outer world …

Polishing The Sherds [Review]: Martin Booth, The Knotting Sequence, The Elizabeth Press, Robert S. Haller

Department of English: Faculty Publications

Review of Martin Booth's The Knotting Sequence, published by the Elizabeth Press.

The Hollow Of Echoes, Kathleen Danker, Felix White Sr.

Department of English: Faculty Publications

The Hollow of Echoes is the result of collaboration between Mr. Felix White, Sr. and myself. Mr. White, who resides in Winnebago, Nebraska, is knowledgeable in many areas of traditional Winnebago culture including language, history, legends and law. During the spring of 1973, he recounted to me a number of Winnebago legends of which I made recordings. I have incorporated these legends into a fictional account of a present-day Winnebago grandfather using the stories to instruct his grandchildren in traditional ways of viewing situations they encounter in their daily lives. Almost all of the views of the grandfather in the …

John Cowper Powys: The Autobiography And The Man, Walter Eden

The Courier

John Cowper Powys has become an important subject of critical and scholarly attention. Many of his works have been reissued, and dissertations, essays, and books are devoted to him. Still, one suspects that outside the ranks of specialists in twentieth-century British literature, Powys remains little known. This is particularly unfortunate because he hoped that his work would speak, not to academic specialists, but to a broad general audience.

As Powys's reputation continues to grow, literary scholars will become increasingly aware of the collection of Powysiana in the George Arents Research Library for Special Collections at Syracuse University. It is one …