English Language and Literature Commons^™

Health Literacy, Children's Health

Book Recommendations

Book recommendation list from the digital library collection focused on the topic of health literacy for all ages.

Espanol Young Adult, Children's Health

Book Recommendations

Book recommendation list from the digital library collection focused on young adult books in Spanish.

Manga, Children's Health

Book Recommendations

Book recommendation list from the digital library collection focused on manga.

Sharks, Children's Health

Book Recommendations

Book recommendation list from the digital library collection focused on the topic of sharks.

Superheroes, Children's Health

Book Recommendations

Book recommendation list from the digital library collection focused on the topic of super heroes.

Transportation, Children's Health

Book Recommendations

Book recommendation list from the digital library collection focused on the topic of transportation.

What Is The Point Of Reading War Literature In The Military Academy: Reflection Of Contemporary Warfare Through The Siege Motif In Serhiy Zhadan’S How Fire Descends: New And Selected Poems, Dong-Ha Seo

Journal of Peace, Conflict, and Security Studies

This study argues that war poetry, when critically read in military education, enables cadets to engage with the ethical, psychological, and human dimensions of war. Rather than serving as propaganda or glorification of battle, war poetry voices the unspoken suffering of soldiers and civilians and preserves the memory of trauma. Drawing on Nil Santiáñez’s recent work on the symbiosis between war and language, this article situates war writing as a space where questions of knowledge, ethics, and survival are inevitably confronted. In particular, the works of Serhiy Zhadan and Cho Ji-hoon demonstrate how poetry transforms urban conflict into a record …

An “Other” Tongue: Nadsat As Anti-Language In A Clockwork Orange, Ian Hugo

The Graduate Review

In this essay, I explore how “Nadsat” is used in Anthony Burgess’s 1962 novella A Clockwork Orange. “Nadsat” is a constructed language that suffuses English vernacular with words and phrases of Russian origin, and it can often prove a significant obstacle to reader comprehension of the overall narrative. However, apart from merely acting as a whim of experimentalism, I argue that Nadsat serves a functional purpose in the text, drawing on research from a variety of fields including literary studies, psychology, philosophy, and linguistics. I begin by showing how Nadsat excludes those who do not “speak” it or (in …

Investigating The Relationship Between Noun Classes And Plant Folk Taxonomy In Chasu Language Of Kilimanjaro Region In Tanzania, Peter Rabson Mziray

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

The current study investigates the relationship between noun classes and plant folk taxonomy in Chasu (G 22). The study focuses on two objectives: the first objective is to describe the plant folk taxonomy in Chasu and the second objective is to determine the relationship between noun classes and plant folk taxonomy in Chasu. Data were collected from rural villages in Same and Mwanga districts by using free listing, field interviews (jungle-walk-and-identify), and written texts containing Chasu plant names. The findings reveal that Chasu folk taxonomy reflects different ethnobotanical categories; including a unique beginner which is mmea/mimea ‘plant(s)’, and three life …

Fraggin’ The Superhero Genre: Parody And Carnival In Dc’S Lobo, Ryan L. Johnson

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

This essay examines the DC anti-hero Lobo as an ideal example of the constructive, creative power of parody and Bakhtinian carnival. Unlike Bakhtin’s assertion that carnival since the Renaissance has lost its spirit of play and become purely destructive, Lobo uses grotesque violence to create just as much as he destroys social norms. Ultimately, the mini-series under consideration provide a valuable tool for students to understand carnival, parody, and its power as criticism.

Witnessing Healing Through Fantasy: Trauma, Community, And Art In A Court Of Thorns And Roses, Alexandria A. Remm

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

Drawing on theorists such as Bruno Bettelheim, Lucy Bonds, Stef Craps, Dominick LaCapra, and Laura Loumeau-May, this paper explores the role of trauma and healing in Sarah J. Maas’ A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR) series by examining protagonist Feyre Archeron’s journey. Specifically, Feyre’s journey with trauma and how she heals throughout the series. The analysis highlights how Feyre’s recovery is deeply tied to empathy, her acts of artistic creation, and her evolving relationships with others, especially with those who have also endured their own trauma. In addition to textual analysis, the paper incorporates reader and fan responses—particularly fanart …

Zine Labs As Centers For Public Interest Communication Design, Mina Bikmohammadi, Abigail Boafo, Ryan Cheek, Rachel M. Schneider, Carleigh J. Davis, Erin Clark

English and Technical Communication Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper introduces Zine Labs (ZLabs) as centers for public-interest communication design that treat as practices that foreground making, collaboration, and community knowledge. Launched in 2024 with multi-institutional support, the project established parallel ZLabs that partner with local artists, libraries, and community groups to run pop-up, hands-on events in flexible, welcoming spaces. We show how ZLabs prioritize process over product, negotiate privacy and anonymity alongside inclusion. We also resist top-down branding so community identities can lead. We report classroom applications, courses in AI, information design, and public writing, where students used zines to connect questions of technology, access, and ethics …

Terminating Pregnancies In Boccaccio, Anne C. Leone

Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics - All Scholarship

Analyzing examples from the Decameron (1349-51), De mulieribus claris (1361), and the Corbaccio (1365), I argue that Boccaccio (1313-75) demonstrates an awareness of theological, legal and medical opinions on abortion and contraception at the time. However, he is more attuned to the practical concerns of pregnancy than are many of his contemporaries. Acknowledging the variety of situations facing pregnant people and some parts of their lived experience that were ignored by many religious and legal authorities, Boccaccio highlights a disconnection between theory and practice, and thereby raises questions about the limits of abstract knowledge in the face of practical concerns.

From Fort To Prison: The Production Of Iloilo City, Ram Paulo A. Anayan

Akda: The Asian Journal of Literature, Culture, Performance

The foundation of colonial cities in the Philippines rests on violence. The Spanish policies of the reducción forced the natives to settle in pueblos where colonial power is ensured. The resistance of some natives brought about the divide between tagabayan (town dweller) and tagabundok (mountain dweller)—respective connotations of civilization and savagery (Lumbera and Lumbera, 36). This paper examines how this centripetal-centrifugal force of simultaneous identity-production and displacement is echoed in the metonymy of the fort on which the origins of Iloilo City stand. I navigate how this movement manifests in the consciousness of the city across historical periods represented by …

Proletarian Nights In Archie Hind’S The Dear Green Place, Corey Gibson

Studies in Scottish Literature

This article argues for a reappraisal of Archie Hind's landmark Glasgow novel The Dear Green Place (1966), which represents the conflation and combination of long histories of class formation with the grind of everyday labours, and a provocation about the possibilities, limitations, and contradictions of working-class artistry in twentieth-century Scotland.

Writing Loss, Culture And Change: Deindustrialisation And Community Writers’ Groups In Glasgow, Kate Wilson

Studies in Scottish Literature

No abstract provided.

James Kelman And The Impossibility Of Managerial Souls, Joseph H. Jackson

Studies in Scottish Literature

Discusses James Kelman's portrayal of middle managers and their interactions with those they manage in "The Bevel' (1983), A Disaffection (1989), How Late It Was, How Late, (1994), and You Have to be Careful in the Land of the Free (2004), exploring their interactions with those they manage in terms of managerialism, management theories, and the U.K. government's New Public Management reforms.

‘Just Get It On The Table’: Gendered Food Labour In Janice Galloway’S Fiction, Gina Lyle

Studies in Scottish Literature

This article explores how food labour is used to articulate concerns around gendered power dynamics in Janice Galloway’s short stories and novels. By examining instances of food management and preparation, this article argues that food makes struggles for identity, autonomy, and power more clearly visible. Writing by Sarah Sceats and Mary McGlynn is used to discuss issues around women’s identity formation, while Carole Jones’s work on gender disorientation in late twentieth-century Scotland and Nick Fiddes’s materials on the prestige of meat both aid in arguments around men’s relationships with food labour.

Introduction: Dreaming The Daily Darg, Corey Gibson

Studies in Scottish Literature

Describes the scope of the Carnegie Trust -funded project on Working Lives in Scottish Writing since 1918, discusses the topics and theoretical perspectives explored in the research phase, noting both change and continuity from the treatment dominant in early and mid-20th century Scottish literary studies, and introduces the essays in this special issue and their contributions to the wider project theme.

Scottish Workers’ Stories Of Life And Labour During Covid-19 From The Workers’ Stories Project, Hailey Maxwell, Ruth Gilbert, Suki Sangha, Ewan Gibbs

Studies in Scottish Literature

This article explores how Scottish workers narrated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their life and work, by analysing 55 fifty-five submissions to the Workers' Stories Project. Between 2020 and 2022, the project creative reflections on the pandemic from workers across Scotland, drawing on the tradition of workers' inquiry and workers' education that encouraged critical reflection and the embrace of worker creativity. Submissions were overwhelmingly literary in form, primarily short prose supplemented by poetry, with three key themes emerging: intimacy and alienation; insecurity and status; and a slower living pace. Cumulatively, the stories underline how COVID-19 magnified workplace injustices …

Dependency In Romantic Relationships: Bloom’S Other In Ulysses, Lydia Smaciarz

Journal of the Symposium of University Research and Creative Expression

Project Mentor(s): Christopher Schedler, PhD

James Joyce’s Ulysses explores themes of love, grief, religion, culture, and identity while following the journey of Leopold Bloom, a husband and father who has a problematic sense of Self. Bloom’s difficulty to find himself is prominently shown through his relationship with his wife, Molly, with whom he no longer has a healthy romantic relationship. Bloom reminisces on several memories with Molly which expose the reason for his lack of Self – his dependence on Molly. This presentation applies Jacques Lacan’s concept of “The Mirror Stage” to Bloom’s nostalgic memories of Molly in Ulysses. …

Literary Networks Everywhere: An Analysis Of Literary Connections Across Time And Culture, Rachel Riffel

Journal of the Symposium of University Research and Creative Expression

Project Mentor(s): Katharine Whitcomb

This paper explores the concept of literary discourse as a networked form, using Caroline Levine’s theory of “networks” as expansive systems of meaning. Through the poetry of several postmodern poets and their texts such as Terrance Hayes’ American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin, Anne Carson’s The Beauty of the Husband, and Maggie Nelson’s Bluets, this essay analyzes how contemporary poets use intertextuality, historical references, and classical forms not as rigid structures but as connective nodes in a broader literary web. These texts illustrate how poetry continues to participate in an evolving cultural and literary …

From Canterbury To The Conference: Chaucer’S First 18 Lines Reborn, Charles X. Li, Tony Liang, Anika Saphiloff

Journal of the Symposium of University Research and Creative Expression

Project Mentor(s): Charles X. Li, PhD

This presentation examines the phonological shift from Chaucerian Middle English to Modern English, focusing on the Great English Vowel Shift. Using the first eighteen lines of Chaucer’s “General Prologue” to The Canterbury Tales as a case study, we demonstrate how vowel sounds in Middle English transitioned to those in Early Modern and Modern English. By analyzing specific words from these opening lines, we illustrate the vowel changes that marked the shift and their impact on pronunciation. Our presentation will conclude with a recitation of Chaucer’s first eighteenth lines, intertwined couplet by couplet by their …

From Old English Genitives To Modern English Possessives: Tracing Grammar Evolution Through Biogrammar And Grammatical Biology, Charles X. Li

Journal of the Symposium of University Research and Creative Expression

Project Mentor(s): Charles X. Li, PhD

This paper presents a biologically grounded and historically informed framework, Biogrammar, as a means to explain grammatical evolution and cognitive processing. It compares Biogrammar with two foundational theories in the study of language: the Nature-Nurture Hypothesis and Chomsky’s Universal Grammar. As a case study, the paper examines the historical evolution of English plural and genitive constructions, focusing on morphological developments such as the -as/-es mergers, his-genitives, group genitives, and the rise of the of + noun phrase pattern. These diachronic changes are interpreted as evidence of grammar functioning as a biologically adaptive system shaped …

Structured Discussions About Linguistic Diversity: Student Voices And Campus-Based Cultural Mapping, Adrienne Jankens, Nicole Guinot Varty, Anna Elise Lindner, Linda Jimenez, Marni Lorenz, K. M. Begian-Lewis, Colleen Hart, Anita Mixon, Ma'idah Shiekh, Lena Hakim

English Faculty Research Publications

The study presented in this chapter foregrounds student voice research and students as participants in identifying locations on our urban research campus where linguistic diversity can be acknowledged and developed as a tool for knowledge-making. Beyond acknowledging the presence of diverse languages and linguistic practices on our urban campus, this study takes steps toward ensuring that linguistic diversity is recognized by faculty and administrators as a rich and active feature of campus life that crosses academic boundaries.

The study asks the following questions:

● How do Wayne State University (WSU) students experience diversity on campus?

● How do they experience …

From Homeland To Hostland: Language Ownership Of Heritage Dialect And Narratives Of Third Culture Kids Of The Gulf, Maryam Aref

Theses and Dissertations

The main purpose of this study is to examine Arab Adult Third Culture Kids’ sense of heritage language ownership and their identity constructions in relation to their transnational Arab Gulf context. The present study has three main aims: to ascertain their sense of ownership towards their heritage dialects, to understand the basis for their claimed or denied ownership, and to investigate the positions they ascribed to themselves and others in relation to their belonging and transnational and linguistic experiences. The study aims to fill the gap where there is a scarcity of sociolinguistic research around Arab Third Culture Kids in …

A Decolonial Reading Of The Dystopian Narratives About Feticide And Infanticide In Hindi Films, Argha Basu, Priyanka Tripathi

Kritika Kultura

The guiding principle concerning the question of bodily agency and the feminist discourse of

Assessing The Accessibility Of Queer Romance Book Covers As Digital Thumbnails: An Analysis Of Color Contrast, Colorblind Safety, And Typography Legibility, Madelynn Sare

Book Publishing Final Research Papers

This research investigates the digital accessibility of queer romance book covers displayed as thumbnails online, focusing on the balance between creative freedom, genre appeal, and inclusive cover design. Using a dataset of 100 highest-rated queer romance titles from Goodreads (2020–2024), the study evaluates accessibility by examining color contrast ratios against Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) standards, assessing colorblind safe design with Adobe Color, and measuring typography legibility through a custom-developed scale. Findings reveal that many covers fall short of WCAG color contrast requirements, yet a majority are colorblind safe, indicating that relatively minor design adjustments can significantly improve digital accessibility …

A Verdant Reading: On The Agency Of The Nonhuman Landscape In Apocalypse Now (1979), Christian Jil Benitez

Kritika Kultura

lack of sensitization, and fanatic adherence to tradition allow the illegal practice of prenatal sex

Neoliberal Society, Alienation, And Affective Crisis In The Answers (2017), Xiaoxiao Huang

Kritika Kultura

West finds a nemesis in sex-selective abortion in India. Unfortunately, the sociocultural baggage,