English Language and Literature Commons^™

Mormon Characters In Young Adult Novels, Toni E. Pilcher

Theses and Dissertations

This study presents the analysis of Mormon characters in seven young adult novels: Emily Wing Smith's The Way He Lived and Back When You Were Easier to Love, Louise Plummer's A Dance for Three, A.E. Cannon's Charlotte's Rose, Kimberly Heuston's The Shakeress, Susan Campbell Bartoletti's The Boy Who Dared, and Angela Morrison's Taken by Storm. The characters in these novels are negatively stereotyped as typical Mormons. In four of the novels, the characters are stereotyped by other Mormon characters. In two of the novels, the characters are stereotyped by non-Mormon characters. The Mormon narrators …

Power By Possession: Cuban-American Types And Collecting In The Agüero Sisters, Ashley Noelle Walton

Theses and Dissertations

Although many other ethnic and cultural studies have moved beyond essentialist labels and categories, Cuban-American studies persists in categorizing the people belonging to the cultural group in terms of how much time they have spent in Cuba, thus creating a hierarchy of "authentic" Cuban-ness. Isabel Alvarez Borland gives a comprehensive overview of Cuban-American literary categories, and through her description we can see how these categories may lend themselves to stratification. These categories include: the first generation, the second generation, the one-and-a-halfer, and the ethnic writer. To say that one generation of Cuban exiles is more or less authentically Cuban discounts …

At Second Glance: Retroactive Continuity In Junot Díaz’S The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao, Stephen Clancy Clawson

Theses and Dissertations

This work explores Junot Díaz’s incorporation of nerd culture into his novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and that move's larger impact on the genre of trauma narratives. By using allusions to nerd texts such as The Lord of the Rings to structure his depiction of the brutal reign of Dominican dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina, Díaz effectively rewrites Dominican history, creating a retroactive continuity of fantasy. Retroactive continuity, or retcon, is a little-discussed interpretive strategy of the nerd community with striking parallels to Lacanian notions of fantasy. A reading of Díaz's retcon ultimately casts doubt on …

The Poetics Of A Dominican Holocaust And The Aesthetics Of Witnessing, Andrew Mark Merrill

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines Julia Alvarez's best-known works, García Girls and In the Time of the Butterflies, to explore the intertextuality within Dominican-American fiction through the vocabulary and methodology of trauma studies and witnessing. Alvarez's work indicates that traditional academic discourse about witnessing often translates trauma survivors into tourists by legally dispossessing them from the witnesses they could provide as they seek to assign blame and pass judgment on the source of their traumatic experience. This process of exclusion threatens to hinder the ability of Dominican-Americans to work through their shared, traumatic experience with the Trujillo regime. Furthermore, this study …

Nourishing The Self: Cookbooks As Autobiography, Rebecca Quist Barlow

Theses and Dissertations

Though casual readers may often assume cookbooks are primarily reference materials,cookbooks actually offer readers a type of autobiography; I examine cookbooks as literary autobiographical acts by analyzing three celebrity chefs' cookbooks and the recent film, Julie and Julia. Julie and Julia, starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams, illustrates several key autobiographical ideas, specifically Barthes' ideas of readerly and writerly texts and the distinction between an author and a persona. The film acts as a visual representation of the way a reader engages with a text and makes it a writerly text while successfully distinguishing between an author and …

William Gibson And Geordan Hammond, Editors Wesley And Methodist Studies, Vol. 2: Book Review, Kathryn Stasio

Religion in the Age of Enlightenment

Wesley and Methodist Studies is a joint venture of the Manchester Wesley Research Centre and the Oxford Centre for Methodism and Church History, Oxford Brookes University. The annual publishes works on John and Charles Wesley, Methodism, and the Evangelical Revival, primarily covering the eighteenth century through the present, though it also considers essays dealing with historical precedents for the Wesleys and their religious movement. Volume 2 contains five articles on the topics of Charles Wesley, the early Methodist use of verbal proclamation, the relationship between Hugh Bourne and William Clowes in Primitive Methodism, and Irish Methodist membership between 1855 and …

Jonathan Swift And The Afterlife: Heaven, Hell, Or Maybe Not, James L. Thomas

Religion in the Age of Enlightenment

Jonathan Swift (1667-17 45) was unequivocally a priest of the Church of Ireland for fifty years but also was, more famously, a great satirist. The apparent contrast between the two conflicting functions (priest and writer of satires) of the late dean of Saint Patrick's Cathedral of Dublin has stimulated a great deal of critical discussion during the centuries since his death. Perhaps most prominent among recent contributions to the critical dialogue is Todd Parker's edited volume Swift as Priest and Satirist. Brean Hammond has also devoted quite a bit of space (at least two full chapters) to this internal conflict …

Emptied And Filled: Catherine Livingston Garrettson's Quest For Sanctification, Rachel Cope

Religion in the Age of Enlightenment

In October 1837, Catherine Livingston Garrettson, a devout Methodist and a prolific writer, made note of a personal jubilee in her diary: "This blessed month is near its end and I have been honored to see my 85 years, and the 50 years of my spiritual birth:' Just as 14 October 1752 dated her entrance into mortal life, for Catherine, 13 October 1787 marked an even more meaningful "birthday" -the anniversary of the day she experienced justification and came to desire personal sanctification ( the point in which a believer is transformed and purified through the grace of Christ and …

''A Prodigious Execution": The Confessional Politics Of Robert Paltock's The Life And Adventures Of Peter Wilkins, Patrick Mello

Religion in the Age of Enlightenment

The only extant eighteenth-century review of Robert Paltock's The Life and Adventures of Peter Wilkins, a Cornish Man (1750) compares the novel to both Gulliver's Travels (1726) and Robinson Crusoe (1719), claiming that Paltock attempts to blend qualities of those two books but fails because there is "no very natural conjunction" between them. The reviewer's judgment, however, seems excessively harsh-in fact, positioning Peter Wilkins between these two novels makes a great deal of sense. Like Crusoe, Peter Wilkinsfeatures a reasonable, Whiggish male protagonist who, through labor and solitude, undergoes a spiritual transformation while stranded on a deserted island. What …

Phillip C. Almond Heaven And Hell In Enlightenment England: Book Review, Ryan K. France

Religion in the Age of Enlightenment

P hilip C. Almond examines the changing concepts of heaven and hell, and the nature of the human soul, as interpreted in England between the second half of the seventeenth century and the early eighteenth century. This book, originally published in 1994, was greatly influenced by two magisterial studies: Daniel P. Walker's The Decline of Hell (Chicago, 1964) and Keith Thomas's Religion and the Decline of Magic (Oxford, 1997), though unfortunately Almond's primary points of departure and contributions are not especially clear. The final product will appeal to a more narrow audience than the title would suggest, but Almond presents …

Preaching On The Brink Of Ecclesiastical Change: William Sancroft's Sermon At The Consecration Of Seven Bishops, Advent Sunday, 1660, Martha F. Bowden

Religion in the Age of Enlightenment

On Advent Sunday, 1660, seven bishops were consecrated in Westminster Abbey. The extraordinary number was made necessary by the anti-episcopal policies of the Parliamentary government of the previous fifteen years; a total of seventeen new bishops were consecrated in England and Wales in the first months of the Restoration. This particular consecration at Westminster Abbey remedied the situation in two Welsh dioceses (William Lucy of St. David's and Hugh Lloyd of Llandaff) and five English ones (John Cosin of Durham, Benjamin Laney of Peterborough, Richard Sterne of Carlisle, Brian Walton of Chester, and John Garden of Exeter). Several of these …

The New Pilgrim's Progress, Anglican Longings, And Eighteenth-Century Missionary Fantasies, Laura M. Stevens

Religion in the Age of Enlightenment

At its core, this paper is a recovery project, focused on a neglected novel, and so I will begin with a brief plot summary. The New Pilgrim's Progress, or, The Pious Indian Convert, first published in London in 1748, tells the story of its narrator, James Walcot, a young Anglican clergyman who, feeling called to convert the heathens of America, emigrates to Jamaica. There he nearly triggers an uprising by telling slaves that he believes slavery to be unjust. He then sails to Charles Town, South Carolina, where he becomes personal chaplain to a wealthy landowner and assists …

Gil Skidmore, Editor Strength In Weakness: Writings Of Eighteenth~ Century Quaker Women: Book Review, Laura Miller

Religion in the Age of Enlightenment

This anthology showcases the experience of an underrepresented group of women: eighteenth-century Quakers. This group has received comparatively little critical attention in contrast to Quaker women of the seventeenth century; Skidmore's anthology helps to fill this void. Skidmore's edition begins with an introductory chapter that helps to define Quakerisms origins, the value of testimony, and the comparative equality of women who participated in a faith that acknowledged "the 'priesthood of all believers'" (2). The eight women whose writings Skidmore anthologizes have lives full of mobility and agency and were, these accounts imply, respected members of their communities. Following is a …

Daniel Brewer: The Enlightenment Past: Reconstructing Eighteenth, Century French Thought: Book Review, Charles T. Wolfe, Veronica Ganora

Religion in the Age of Enlightenment

Daniel Brewer's study of the French Enlightenment-its construction, its self-fashioning, and its subsequent reconstruction in a series of national memorial performancesis heavily overladen with a kind of "poetics of ruins:' Ruins and monuments are everywhere here, in an almost dialectical relation: ''Alas, more beautiful is the debris of a beautiful palace;' exclaims Victor Hugo (quoted p. 186), and Chapter 9, which is explicitly devoted to the theme of ruins, refers to some of the classical Enlightenment narratives of progress, from Condorcet to Turgot, as self-consciously focused on the problem of "building on ruins:' The reference to the past in the …

Preface, Brett C. Mcinelly

Religion in the Age of Enlightenment

Perhaps it would not be inappropriate to begin with a confession. This is, after all, an annual that focuses on religious topics. In a publication that aims for disciplinary breadth, the majority of the articles in this volume address literary topics. Nonetheless, I do not mean for this confession to be taken as an apology. On the contrary. While RAE publishes representative scholarship from a wide array of disciplinary perspectives, the overall quality and coverage of the essays included here recommend this volume to scholars and students of the Enlightenment, no matter their disciplinary background. These essays cover a range …

Index

Religion in the Age of Enlightenment

No abstract provided.

Seven Strategies For Teaching The Novel, James Young

The Utah English Journal

Most elementary and secondary teachers have independent reading programs that allow students to choose novels based on their interest and reading levels. After reading the novel on their own at home, students are either given short comprehension tests or asked to write reports to give them credit for the work they have completed. Sometimes, however, teachers want all of the students in a class to experience the same novel together. He or she might want to teach the class a reading technique associated with a novel, like how to locate the conflict in a story or how to examine the …

Today's Kids Need The Classics Too, Lorraine Wallace

The Utah English Journal

It is no secret that 21st Century adolescents are reading less than their parents and grandparents did. Because modern technology has tapped into teens’ craving for color, action, and sound, books have a hard time competing with the X-box and the Wii. The “gotta have it quick and easy” attitude of today’s teens and young adults seems to make reading anything of substance, involving depth of thought or processing time, a pastime gone the way of wringer washers and push mowers.

So how do secondary English teachers who want their students to read tap into the insatiable appetite teens have …

Experiencing The Cuwp Summer Institute, Liz Knight

The Utah English Journal

The Central Utah Writing Project is part of the network of over 200 National Writing Project sites. It was established in 2008 and serves the school districts of central Utah; every summer the CUWP sponsors a 3-4 week institute that brings together teachers from a variety of disciplines to study the art of teaching writing. This past summer I spent three weeks at the Central Utah Writing Project’s Summer Institute. I was there as the graduate assistant to the administrators, part-participant and part-observer. I was mid-way through the MFA program in Creative Writing at Brigham Young University, and had been …

Living Through Literature: The Benefits Of Small Learning Communities And Cross-Content Collaboration, Dawan Coombs, Brian Preece

The Utah English Journal

"Coombs, what are you doing here?” Matt asked as he walked into the room, geared up for history class with Mr. Preece. “I’m here for your class,” I replied with a smile. I knew where this was going; we’d had conversations similar to this before. “But this is history,” he retorted. “We don’t have your English class ‘til next period. You and Mr. Preece don’t even seem like you’d be friends.” Mr. Preece and I raised our eyebrows at Matt’s comment, but the sentiments he expressed were similar to those we had heard before. As this and other exchanges like …

Using Picture Books In The Secondary Classroom, Kaye Brockbank

The Utah English Journal

One of my favorite picture books is Stand Tall Molly Lou Mellon by Patty Lovell. It is a fantastic picture book about, among other things, following the advice of those we admire. The story also deals with topics such as being who you are despite what others think of you and standing up to bullies. Molly Lou’s story is perfect for introducing or supporting classroom discussions on these topics. The story is quick and to the point, and, despite what teen students might say, they really do enjoy having a story read to them. Picture books are a fun, quick …

"It's Such A Cool Word!" Reflections On In-Dept Vocabulary Instruction In A Middle School Language Arts Classroom, Naomi Watkins

The Utah English Journal

After several years of teaching vocabulary in a very traditional manner—list of words, copy the definitions, memorize them, take a test—I had grown weary of spending my time on instruction that I knew (even from my own personal experience as a student) did not work. I wanted instruction that resulted in my students really using the words in their own speech and writing, rather than just having superficial knowledge or merely being able to recognize words. I knew that my students were capable of a deeper processing level and of acquiring more sophisticated “everyday” words and academic language. I really …

Bullies, Bystanders, And A Birthday, Janae Shepherd

The Utah English Journal

Kelly Jo… Kelly Jo Fransden, the bully of Forbes Elementary School. She was in my classroom and my neighborhood, and I had to see her at church. She wasn’t particularly pretty, although for some reason she seemed to think she was. She strutted around the classroom and anywhere else with an air about her that she was somehow better than everyone else. As some kids today would say, she thought she was “all that and a bag of chips.” I’m still not sure why she acted that way. Perhaps it was her own lack of self-confidence, her projection of what …

Word Ways: Revisiting Ancient Greco-Latin Myths To Build Vocabulary, Jacqueline S. Thursby

The Utah English Journal

I recently assigned an old children’s tale to my senior undergraduate students called “!e Story of the Cruel Giant Barbarico, the Good Giant Benefico, and the Little Pretty Dwarf, Mignon,” written by Sarah Fielding, who lived from 1710 to1768. It was an unfamiliar story to them and written in the archaic style of 18th century English. The primary characters in the story were the giants, Barbarico and Benefico, and the sweethearts, Fidus and Amata. The names clearly reflect characteristics of the players in the story. By using root Latinate forms, Sarah Fielding foreshadowed the characters’ primary personality attributes: Barbarico (barbarous: …

The Pitfalls Of Publishing: Unforseen Challenges When Students Write To Publish, Jill Muir

The Utah English Journal

Sitting at my desk, I read an email regarding grants for teachers. As I pondered the needs of my students that might be met with a grant, I thought about my English Language Learners. Over the course of the school year, I gradually learned their stories of why and how they came to the United States. Some students had stories I had predicted: Their families wanted them to come to school in the United States, so the students were living with relatives and planned to return to their native countries. Other students, however, had dramatic stories: stories of kidnapping, escape, …

All Work And No Play Makes Jack (Or Jill) A Dull Writer, Joseph Anson

The Utah English Journal

Yes, I am one of those geeky idealistic English teachers, who occasionally fantasize about being Robin Williams’ character Mr. Keating from the classic film Dead Poets Society. After twelve years of unsuccessfully convincing my students to call me “O Captain, My Captain,” I still hold to the belief that I can get my students to “savor words and language” (Haft, Henderson, Witt, Thomas, & Weir, 1989). Regardless of an individual’s ability or inherent wordsmithiness, I encourage all students to play with words on many different levels. On Fridays, we set aside time to play with words. Just play. But why? …

Book Review: Writing Across The Curriculum: A Critical Sourcebook, Thomas Henry

The Utah English Journal

The Writing-Across-the-Curriculum (WAC) movement provides some of the most substantial strategies for keeping our discipline relevant for students and for ourselves. More-over, the WAC movement allows us to put focus into our work by informing us of outside writing practices. In a sense, WAC reminds us that our work as teachers does not exist in isolation, but exists to support a much larger economic and pedagogical structure (at all levels). This edited collection, complied by Zawacki and Rogers, provides a wonderful insight into the WAC movement and its literature.

Teaching Textual Recycling, Thomas Henry, Jim Pettersson

The Utah English Journal

Linguist, Michael Lewis suggests that a “recycling” strategy should be at the heart of an approach to teaching English (especially to speakers of second languages). He calls this specific approach the “Lexical Approach.” This approach focuses on ways in which students can use pre-fabricated linguistic units and/or formulaic expressions to form new language. In addition to the Lexical Approach, a “Template Approach” endorsed by Gerald Graff & Cathy Birkenstein, also advocates the “recycling” of chunks of language to form new discourse. Their text, They Say, I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing, contains formulaic language used to promote …

Critical Pop Culture Consumers: Using Tupac And Music In The Classroom To Teach Critical Literary Analysis Of Pop Culture, Marilyn Miller

The Utah English Journal

Teaching critical analysis is a unit that I designed to get students to understand the elements in an increasingly complex world where language provides the vehicle to refine thought. Because students are imbued in the element, they are often persuaded, cajoled, and tricked into embracing messages and images that may negatively influence their lives. Teaching them to look at the music and the videos that influence them and critically analyze the persuasive techniques and the impact of these messages on their developing values empowers them to choose more carefully the music they embrace or at least understand the influence of …

Book Review: Out Of My Mind, Jenna Fitch

The Utah English Journal

Melody is one of the brightest students in her class, but no one knows. All of the words she wishes she could express are stuck inside—Melody has cerebral palsy and can’t talk. Only through the help of a new, special computer does Melody find her voice and correct many of her classmates’ misconceptions about people with disabilities. Unfortunately, neither Melody nor her family anticipates the additional stigmas and judgment that will arrive along with Melody’s new voice.

This 300+ page quick read says what many of the physically and mentally disabled students in our schools can’t: include me. Through Out …