English Language and Literature Commons^™

Developing Global Communication Skills For Technical Communicators In The 21st Century: Researching The Language Of Collaboration And Cooperation In The Bologna Process, Diane L. Martinez

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Globalization presents opportunities, but also challenges for all professions, most especially for professional communicators. Likewise, professional communication programs must be aware of the complexities and nuances of contemporary global communication and adapt their instruction to reflect these realities. Thus, there is a need for research efforts in global communication that provide insight into the intricacies of this type of communication.

This dissertation is a study of the language of collaboration and cooperation in professional and global contexts. Using Burke’s theories of identification and terministic screens, cooperation theory, activity theory, and a brief historical perspective on the European Union, I conducted …

“It’S Wraylynn – With A W”: Distinctive Mormon Naming Practices, Jennifer R. Mansfield

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The primary objective of this study was to investigate ways in which names among members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are distinctive and the reasons behind those distinctive names. While many before me have noted that Mormons often possess distinctive names, there are few studies that attempt to determine the reasons why. Existing research has neglected to include perspectives from members of the LDS Church who practice distinctive naming. Through interviews with LDS Church members, I analyzed what they hoped to accomplish through naming and the larger cultural themes visible in distinctive LDS names. I also …

The Door-To-Door Mormon Pest Control Salesman: A Novel, John Charles Gilmore

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis engages readers in a story about contemporary Mormonism. It is a novel that follows a fictional Mormon man engaged in a quirky summer job: door-to-door sales. The Mormon characters in this novel encounter a collapsing Florida housing market that stalls their efforts at peddling pesticide, while the main character experiences serious doubts in his personal religious faith.

Though Mormons are a small fraction of the United States’ population, they have drawn considerable interest from the American public in recent years, in large part due to the success of the 2011 musical The Book of Mormon and the 2008 …

Magical Realism And The Space Between Spaces, Dallin J. Bundy

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Magical realism comes from Franz Roh, a german art historian and critic, who first used the term to describe the Post-Expressionism movement in visual art. His seminal writings and definitions on Post-Expressionism, then known as magical realism, were translated into Spanish and made available to Latin America in the mid twentieth century. Authors like Jorge Luis Borges and Gabriel Garcia Marquez adopted Roh's writings and re-appropriated magical realism into literary art, and from there the new genre proliferated through the Latin American Boom and magical realism in literary fiction reached global recognition, inspiring authors across the world to take it …

Dystopian Literature And The Novella Form As Illustrated Through Side Effects, An Original Novella, Bryan W. Johnson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This master’s degree thesis exists in two parts: a critical introduction and an original novella entitled Side Effects. The critical introduction introduces and explains the theories on, literature surrounding, and literary uses of dystopian fiction, the novella format, and drug-based psychotherapy. Current opinion on dystopian fiction sees it characterized by a seemingly perfect societal setting that ultimately contains hidden or suppressed moral flaws. The ultimate purpose of dystopian fiction is commentary on contemporary society through a defamiliarized setting. The novella format is shown to exist in a middle-ground state between the short story and the novel, yet the format …

Frenchifying The Frontier: Transnational Federalism In The Early West, Keri Holt

English Faculty Publications

The antebellum West was a hotbed of literary activism. Western presses published more than one hundred local newspapers and literary magazines from the late 1820s through the 1850s. Cities such as Vidalia, Lexington, Marietta, New Orleans, and Cincinnati were thriving literary centers, boasting numerous bookshops, libraries, theaters, and literary societies, including the Semi-Colon and Buckeye clubs of Cincinnati, where members exhibited their western pride by discussing the work of local authors while drinking beverages from buckeye bowls.¹ The “West” at this time was located much closer east and south than the West we know today. It encompassed, roughly, the …

Literature And Popular Culture In Early Modern England, Phebe Jensen

English Faculty Publications

"All students of popular culture," Tim Harris wrote in 1995, "would acknowledge the intellectual debt they owe to Peter Burke's seminal study Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe." (1) Now in a third edition with substantial revisions and a new preface, the book defines "popular culture" as the culture of "ordinary people," which included "folksongs and folktales; devotional images and decorated marriage chests; mystery plays and farces; broadsides and chapbooks; and, above all, festivals...." Burke's central claim was that in 1500, the elite were culturally "amphibious," participating in this popular "little tradition" but also in the "great tradition" of the …

Voices: On Stage And In Print, 2012, Utah State University Department Of English

Voices of USU

This collection of student writing represents the voices of over 2,000 students who enroll each academic year in Utah State University’s second-year composition course, Intermediate Writing: Research Writing in a Persuasive Mode. Voices of USU celebrates excellence in writing by providing undergraduate students of diverse backgrounds and disciplines the opportunity to have their work published.

Press Start & Small Things, Brian Mark Brown

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This thesis project comprises two essay-length memoir pieces exploring the dimensions of fatherhood accompanied by a critical introduction. The essay “Press Start” explores the influence of video games on a young father, tapping his own childhood experiences to illuminate his relationship to the games as well as to his spouse and children. “Small Things” shows his efforts in preparing for the arrival of twins, an event which threatens to disrupt the family dynamic. Touching on issues of protection, separation, and control, the essays work together to comment on the complexities of the father-child relationship from a father’s point of view. …

Innocence Lost: The Tension Of Contrary States In Blake And Milton, Andrew M. Spratt

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Though writing more than one-hundred years apart, the poetic works of John Milton and William Blake interacted with one another to such an extent that they have become increasingly entwined within the critical imagination of scholars over the past two centuries. Despite the recognition of the influence of Milton upon Blake, and subsequent examinations of Blake’s opinions of Milton as an artist, a thorough examination of Blake’s opinion of Milton as the narrator of Paradise Lost has heretofore remained unattempted. This essay examines Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience as a lens through which to interpret the narrator of …

Crossing Borders: Cultural And Linguistic Passages In The Poetry Of Pat Mora And Gary Soto, Amber Christine Bowden

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Poets Pat Mora and Gary Soto have long been a presence in anthologies citing their multicultural content, yet their work has not been placed as part of the classroom canon. By leaving their work out of the classroom, we have lost the benefit of their diverse poetry. As the demographics of Utah shift, including works such as Mora and Soto’s becomes more essential for student success. In a close textual analysis of seventeen poems by Mora and Soto we can see that each poet uses a variety of themes to frame their verse. Not only does an overall analysis show …

Developing Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (Calp) In Diverse Classrooms, Kristen M. Lillywhite

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

The process of second language acquisition was studied by examining the distinction between basic interpersonal conversation skills (BICS) and cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP). This distinction, originally proposed by linguist Jim Cummins, relates to current trends in the U.S public education system. A review of the literature was conducted and integrated with information obtained by interviewing local language arts teachers. The primary goal of the study was to learn how public school teachers conceptualize second language acquisition and literacy instruction. The thesis also addresses how the BICS/CALP distinction can be applied in real classroom settings. Teachers reported that low student …

Rising Metaphors: Bread And Christianity In Contemporary Short Fiction, Marleah Callie Jacobson

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Although my thesis centers on the use of bread metaphors to represent Christian themes in fiction, it became important that my thesis explored and examined a variety of food writing. Broadly defined, food writing has existed since the beginnings of literature. Because food encompasses all five senses, writing about food is a rich metaphorical tool. Bread is an excellent example of a prevalent food metaphor that largely involves all five senses. Early examples using this metaphor are found frequently in the Bible. My thesis also examines how this metaphor is present and used in contemporary fiction. Consideration is given to …

"Struggling" Adolescent Writers Describe Their Writing Experience: A Descriptive Case Study, F. Jean Mcpherron

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Four adolescents identified as struggling writers in an English language arts classroom were interviewed about their perceptions of a writing task--how they judged their capability to succeed, how they ranked their passion, persistence, and confidence about writing, and how they responded to classroom activity. Student perceptions of self-efficacy and the related self-beliefs of motivation and interest as well as self-regulation were stated and implied as students described a planning worksheet, instructional scaffolding, peer interactions, and ownership of their writing. Wersch's view of mediated action and Engestrom's model of activity systems were the lens through which the students' descriptions were analyzed. …

The Shape Of Grief: A Generational Legacy Of The Vietnam War, Benjamin A. Quick

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A well-known memoirist once said that a true war story never seems to end, that it just keeps going and going. The question begs: If the war story never ends, then how does it manifest in future generations? In my case, as the first-born son of a Vietnam veteran, the war story has played out physically, within my body, in the form of an Agent Orange-related disability and a resulting set of limitations and adaptations. Fortunately, for me the limitations have been few and the adaptations many. But despite this, I’ve known, since a relatively young age, that I am …

Voices: On Stage And In Print, 2011, Utah State University Department Of English

Voices of USU

This collection of student writing represents the voices of over 2,000 students who enroll each academic year in Utah State University’s second-year composition course, Intermediate Writing: Research Writing in a Persuasive Mode. Voices of USU celebrates excellence in writing by providing undergraduate students of diverse backgrounds and disciplines the opportunity to have their work published.

Dickinson, Blake, And The Hymnbooks Of Hell, Alan Blackstock

English Faculty Publications

Many early critics found affinities between William Blake and Emily Dickinson in their radical disruption of poetic language, their penchant for gnomic utterance, and their cryptic imagery that hinted at a complex private mythology, all of which contributed to a view of Blake and Dickinson as mystics or poet-prophets with a message accessible only to initiates. Later twentieth-century scholarship, however, turned toward a closer investigation of the cultural milieu in which Dickinson and Blake produced their poetry—in particular, their relationship to the Protestant hymn tradition exemplified by Isaac Watts. Scholars have examined the ways in which Dickinson and Blake individually …

Supporting Paraprofessionals, Virginia Exton, L. Foley

English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Implicit And Explicit: Sexual Awakening In Summer And Forever, Katie Fredrickson

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Edith Wharton’s Summer and Judy Blume’s Forever, although written more than fifty years apart, are strikingly similar in that both feature young, female characters who come of age during the novel. Both girls have important experiences as they mature, including their initiation into sex. As the two characters come of age, their experiences with sexuality and the consequences that follow shape them and the rest of their lives. It is also significant to look at how the authors portray the different awakenings, Wharton only implicitly hinting at what Blume quite clearly spells out. Ultimately, each girl’s sexual awakening and the …

“Weavings Of War, Fabric Of Memory,” An Exhibit Review, Lisa Gabbert

English Faculty Publications

Weavings of War, Fabrics of Memory is an exhibition of international textiles spanning a number of countries and ethnic/linguistic groups. Bound together by the themes of war, armed conflict, displacement, and rupture, works in the exhibit include post-apartheid South African memory cloths, Hmong story cloths, arpilleras from Chile and Peru, and war rugs from Central Asia. I brought the exhibit to Logan, Utah, in the fall of 2007 and organized lectures and films around it. It was displayed at the Thatcher-Young Mansion, the final stop on its three-year tour. An exhibit catalogue of the same title was edited by Ariel …

A Happy Employee Is A Productive Employee, Erin Dini Davis

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Perilous Pilgrimage: A Lady’S Flight Into The Rocky Mountain Wilderness, Jane Koerner

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

“Perilous Pilgrimage: A Lady’s Flight into the Rocky Mountain Wilderness” is comprised of four thematically linked essays set in the Colorado Rockies. In these essays I probe my fascination with masculinity at an early age, the impact of my rape at age twenty-two, the dependency and resentment that undermined my marriage after the rape, and my quest after my divorce fifteen years later to define myself on my own terms. The link joining these strands is the tension between my drive for independence and my disassociation from my mind and body as a result of the rape.

“Perilous Pilgrimage” revisits …

Hold, Hold, My Heart, Andrew Berthrong

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis consists of a traditional introduction followed by a first-person, fictional story told in seven chapters. The story begins with the protagonist in his apartment preparing to write, a brief account of his stalling, and then his beginning to write. Those chapters taking place in the vicinity of the apartment are in the present tense and those relating past adventures are written in third person, one chapter for each adventure: Africa, sailing, and Navajo Mountain. After each adventure, the narration returns to the apartment.

This piece is the embodiment of both the vigorous internal work in search of understanding …

Review Of Quotidiana By Patrick Madden, Jennifer Sinor

English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Going Public: What Writing Programs Learn From Engagement, Shirley K. Rose, Irwin Weiser

All USU Press Publications

An important new resource for WPA preparation courses. In Going Public, Rose and Weiser moderate a discussion of the role of the writing program vis-a-vis the engagement movement, the service learning movement, and the current interest in public discourse/civic rhetoric among scholars of rhetoric and composition. While there have been a number of publications describing service-learning and community leadership programs, most of these focus on curricular elements and address administrative issues primarily from a curricular perspective. The emphasis of Going Public is on the ways that engagement-focused programs change conceptions of WPA identity. Writing programs are typically situated at points …

Review Of ‘Competitive Irish Dance: Art, Sport, Duty’, Christie L. Fox

English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Voices: On Stage And In Print, 2010, Utah State University Department Of English

Voices of USU

This collection of student writing represents the voices of over 2,000 students who enroll each academic year in Utah State University’s second-year composition course, Intermediate Writing: Research Writing in a Persuasive Mode. Voices of USU celebrates excellence in writing by providing undergraduate students of diverse backgrounds and disciplines the opportunity to have their work published.

Cascade Lake: A Novel, Camille Marian Pack

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Twenty-two-year-old Macy Oman narrates the book in retrospect from Cascade, Oregon, where she is visiting her mother. Macy's father moved with her to Portland shortly after the accidental death of her brother, Nick, seven years before the narration begins. Macy's mother stayed behind in Cascade. Thematically the work centers on the emotional repercussions of these losses. Macy's, and her older lover Jason's, involvement with Nick's death is unknown to everyone. Her guilt and her mother's perceived betrayal are disabling. Taking her longing for closeness to nature and to her reclusive friend Celia, Macy discovers folklore that inspires a vision quest …

The Last Honest Man, Daniel Arpad Nyikos

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Born to a Hungarian mother and a father of Hungarian descent, I have spent my life trapped between two worlds, never quite able to be entirely part of either. As such, it seems fitting that for thesis I chose to do a novella, an art form that is neither short story nor novel. The novella is, I argue, a form that is uniquely suited to the task of examining a single theme at length, which I do in my thesis. It is through this little-studied form of fiction that I create a story through which I examine my own identity …

The Cult Of True Motherhood: A Narrative, Jacoba Lynne Mendelkow

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis consists of five chapters including a traditional introduction and four chapters, which investigate cultural interpretations of motherhood within the genre of memoir and personal essay. In the introduction, I discuss my research as it relates to the larger collection and detail how this work is different from other works within the "mother memoir" genre. Chapters II thru V, then, are all essays which begin to explore the major themes of cultural motherhood: ambivalence, loss, legitimacy, morality, and sin. These chapters, especially chapter II, identify and detail the traits of true motherhood as patience, compassion, sacrifice, and strength.

Chapter …