English Language and Literature Commons^™

The Power Of Presumed Trauma And The Perpetuated Yet Unintentional Silence In Henry James' The Turn Of The Screw, Andria E. Rivero

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw (1898) has long been a work capable of numerous interpretations and readings centering around the lead character, the governess, and her intentions and interactions in the novella. However, this thesis explores the extent of the governess’s actions and power and their results towards the children for which she is responsible. In this thesis, I focus on the presence of trauma as presumed by the adult characters, perpetuating unintentional limitations on the children who are assumed to be traumatized. The thesis uses trauma studies to understand power dynamics within the novella. The power dynamics …

Dracula And Amnesia: Character Identities And Constant Subjectivism Under Ideological State Apparatuses, Anais Rosales

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores how the identities of protagonists and antagonists are constructed in Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Frictional Games’ Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Through analyzing the Gothic genre, racial constructs, and Ideological State Apparatuses, a system that uses social and cultural institutions to control populations of people, this thesis concludes that the protagonists’ identities are more pronounced than that of the antagonists’. The Gothic genre requires protagonists to overcome a supernatural force, so they are already given the limelight in the narrative, the most exposure to a reader. Additionally, both media use racial constructs to pit the protagonists against the …

Much Ado About Contemporary Women: Gender Adapted In Contemporary Settings, Jessica C. Valdes

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing has been reproduced multiple times in a contemporary context. This thesis focuses on two key productions, BBC’s ShakespeaRe-Told televised adaptation and Joss Whedon’s 2013 film and examines how these productions translate the gender themes in the play to a contemporary setting. To study translations of gender, this thesis is focused on the adaptations of Beatrice and Hero, two major female characters of the play. The comparison of these adaptations is accomplished through analyzing the pieces and reviewing existing work. While there are some important differences between the adaptations, the major problems Beatrice and Hero are …

Spiritual Activism And Political Solidarity In So Far From God And Mother Tongue: Two Views By Two Authors, Jean Paul Russo

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

SPIRITUAL ACTIVISM AND POLITICAL SOLIDARITY IN SO FAR FROM GOD AND MOTHER TONGUE: TWO VIEWS BY TWO AUTHORS

by

Jean Paul Russo

Florida International University, 2020

Miami, Florida

Professor Anne Castro, Major Professor

This thesis focuses on the intersection between spirituality and political action in the works of two Latinx authors, Demetria Martinez and Ana Castillo. Building on Gloria Anzaldua’s theories of trauma, narrative, and what she terms ‘conocimiento,’ I contend that the novels So Far From God, and Mother Tongue, present an alternative approach to political action that is derived from a common experience of suffering and trauma as …

A Sailor's Intimacy: Homosocial Labor In Nineteenth-Century Oceanic Narratives By Dana And Melville, Adrian R. Salgado

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis studies the male sailor community in Richard Henry Dana’s Two Years Before the Mast and Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick and how they are portrayed in terms of homosociality and intimacy. The presence of a homosocial community on board a sailing vessel provided a means of forming a group of men that cultivated relationships and communications through the production of labor with one another. Both Melville and Dana engaged readers in the workings of a sailor’s life and how those interactions on board a ship with fellow sailors formed a premise for the evaluation of maritime labor in nineteenth-century oceanic …

Mirror, Mirror: Disrupting Cinema In "Cléo From 5 To 7" (1962) And "A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night" (2014), Stephanie M. Janania

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

“Mirror, Mirror” deconstructs the concept of mirror-like cinema: a cinema that relies on realistic elements and seamless editing for viewers to identify with. Mirror-like cinema dominates mainstream films creating a mirror and a reflection where women can be marginalized and objectified. Through the women directed films “Cléo from 5 to 7” (1962) and “A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night” (2014) identification with the cinematic reflection is challenged. Both films seemingly show Jacque Lacan’s concept of the mirror stage, but disrupt the reflection through their editing, mise en scène, and the actions of their women protagonists. These disruptions exemplify the …

What's Past Is Prologue: Transforming Trauma, Rewriting Identity In Gloria Anzaldua's "Borderlands/La Frontera" And "Light In The Dark/Luz En Lo Oscuro", Richard Edward Riley

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Gloria Anzaldua’s Borderlands/La Frontera and Light in the Dark/Luz en lo Oscuro are widely acknowldged as groundbreaking texts across Latinx literary canons, invoking selfhood, spirituality, activism, and politics as a queer woman of color writer.

Her language around self-dispersion is still undertheorized in what it owes to traumatic experiences discoverable in the self, body, world, and culture Anzaldua hails from. The extent of colonizing and kyriarchal damage in her work has been recognized; but the exact character of how these breakages and corresponding imperatives to regenerate oneself resemble a traumatic shock remains to be written about.

This thesis sketches frameworks …

Growth Theory, Samantha Leon

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

GROWTH THEORY reckons with a natural world in distress and imagines what attributes and learnings are needed for the individual to become a more beneficial part of the natural world. What does a person’s interaction with their surroundings say about them, and say about the surroundings? Violence, art, relationships, community are all examined along with the mediums through which we record our reality: speaking, writing, singing, taking photos. Despite covering a breadth of physical places and topics, a central tension that takes place between fear and curiosity colors the manuscript throughout. Poems are ordered by subject or temporal consideration, but …