English Language and Literature Commons^™

B'Ars And Catamounts: A Study Of Davy Crockett Through Genre And Medium, Jack Fieweger

Honors Theses

This project seeks to investigate and discuss the changes and variations that have occurred to the mythology of David Crockett over the course of time. Initially appearing as a literary character in 1833, the likeness of Crockett has appeared in a myriad of different texts including: biographies, almanacs, plays, dime novels, comics, television shows, and films. The project attempts to discern how these different iterations of medium and genre altered the mythology of David Crockett. In order to methodologically understand these changes, this project makes use of W.T. Lhamon’s concept known as the Lore Cycle. Lhamon identified that lore diffuses …

20 Things, Reann Parker

Honors Theses

20 Things is a short young adult novel that explores a variety of topics and themes, from mental health, recovery, and self discovery to race, love, and friendship. Beginning with a high school girl named Halle waking up in a hospital after a suicide attempt, the novel is a coming of age story about the help Halle receives and what she goes through in trying to find reasons to keep living. The novel is divided into ten chapters: “Waking Up,” “Going Home,” “Arriving,” “Being Honest,” “Keeping the Faith,” “Soul Searching,” “Willingness,” “Maintaining,” “Checking In,” and “Living.” Each chapter represents the …

Beyond Realism: Reading The Ongoing Wounds Of Enslavement In Beloved And Kindred, Stephanie Fawell

Honors Theses

In an introductory chapter, I synthesize a genealogy of African Diasporic thinkers that challenge traditionally conceptualized bounds of realism and modernism both aesthetically and intellectually. In the chapters that follow, I look closely at Morrison’s Beloved and Butler’s Kindred, as well as the scholarly discussions surrounding the elements in these novels that stretch the bounds of conventionally defined realism. In both novels the linearity of time and concreteness of space is challenged: in Beloved, the ghost of Sethe’s child continues to haunt her family after her death and then physically manifests as Beloved, crossing a mysterious bridge between …

Little Girl In The Country: A Children's Book, Holly Mcginnis

Honors Theses

A Work of Children’s Literature to Address Realities of Childhood in the Southern United States

This thesis investigated the intersection of life’s realities and children’s literature. Representation is an oft-talked-about area of children’s literature. It is coming to light that many groups are underrepresented in writings for children, and recent works are attempting to broaden the types and backgrounds of characters to represent the diversity of readers and authors. This thesis is the author’s attempt to accurately represent the types of students she encountered in student teaching experiences in the Oxford-area. Using inspiration from her own childhood and knowledge of …

Playing To Win: The Marriage Market In Jane Austen’S Northanger Abbey, Sense And Sensibility And Emma, Caroline Elizabeth Nall

Honors Theses

This thesis aims to analyze the implications of the marriage market in Jane Austen’s novels Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility and Emma. In these books, the main focus will be on Isabella Thorpe, who is actively participating in the “game” of the marriage market, Charlotte Palmer, who has won the “game” of marriage, and Miss Bates, who has lost the “game” of marriage. The historical context of these situations, taking place in eighteenth and nineteenth century England, has been taken into account. Austen has created characters to demonstrate the many aspects of a female’s life and how it relates …

Religion In George R.R. Martin's "A Song Of Ice And Fire" Franchise, Sydney A. Craven

Honors Theses

This thesis is a study of religion in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire franchise. Specifically, George R.R. Martin's use of medievalisms, his interpretation of the Middle Ages, when creating the religions in A Song of Ice and Fire.

More Than A Language: A Detailed Look At The English Major, Hannah Woods

Honors Theses

This thesis analyzes the perceptions of the English Major in order to come up with suggestions for the Univeristy of Mississippi English Department with the purpose of increasing enrollment in the English Program. The last decade has seen a large decrease in the number of English Majors throughout the country, and this decrease has been reflected in the University of Mississippi. This thesis looks at recent opinions of the English Major in society, including popular criticisms of the major and responces from the English community. It was found that the two main criticisms of the English Major are that graduates …

"Monsters In Suburbia": Women's Bodies, Monstrosity, And Motherhood In The Mere Wife, Claire M. Bonvillain

Honors Theses

This thesis explores themes of monstrosity in Maria Dahvana Headley's novel The Mere Wife in connection with issues of women's bodies and feminism. It analyzes prominent female characters in the novel and the relationships of their bodies to patriarchal authority, showing how and why bodies are deemed monstrous. It discusses the role that motherhood plays in patriarchal society, as well as explores alternatives that the novel offers to this system.

Honoré De Balzac’S Portrayal Of The Feminine Condition In The Wild Ass’S Skin, Père Goriot, And The Lily Of The Valley, Brooke V. Musmeci

Honors Theses

In 19th century France, women appeared to be second class citizens. They were often limited in their abilities to have independence and secure their own wealth. This perception of women perhaps justifies why, as Honoré de Balzac’s novels illustrated the realities of French society, he attempted to characterize women’s struggles to obtain control and power in their lives. In his novels The Wild Ass’s Skin (1831), The Lily of the Valley (1835), and Le Père Goriot (1835), Balzac sought to prove how women could improve their lot.

Firstly, in studying how women had been relegated to second-class citizens under their …

The Hair You Wished To Comb, Sarah Barch

Honors Theses

This thesis is a collection of poems exploring gender and trauma in Greek mythology by retelling classical stories in a female voice.

Byron And Don Juan: A Case Study And Queer Reading Of The Closeted Libertine, Caitlin Stanfield

Honors Theses

This thesis explores the major theme of homosexuality throughout the poetry of Lord George Gordon Byron, ultimately focusing on his 1819 iteration of Don Juan. It presents historically relevant information regarding the sodomy laws, religious sermons, anti-sodomite publications, and other obstacles that, I argue, prevented Byron from expressing his sexuality openly. The queer Byron, of course, exists elsewhere. Through close readings of Byron’s correspondence and of his verse, my thesis argues that we can read Byron’s highly coded, homoerotic jargon for what it is, shedding new light on the active but concealed homosexual community of nineteenth-century England.

“Part Of That (Man’S) World”: Analyzing “Cinderella” And “The Little Mermaid” Fairy Tale Variants Through A Feminist Lens, K. Morgan Mitchell

Honors Theses

Fairy tales are often reduced to nothing more than the moral lesson that can be taught to children. However, when we move past the impulse to search for the simplified moral of the story, we can begin to ascertain the impact of fairy tales on different audiences. This thesis uses both impact theory, which yields a close reading of the textual and cinematic evidence, and reception research, which provides an opportunity to discuss the significance of the material by speculating about the message that readers receive. Under consideration are four variants each of the “Cinderella” and “The Little Mermaid” fairy …

The Typewriter And The Literary Sphere: An Analysis Of Turn-Of-The-Century Literature, Emma K. Holdbrooks

Honors Theses

My thesis explores the typewriter’s impact on early 20^th century American literature. By providing authors with the means to produce work accurately and effectively, the typewriter changed the process of writing. Typewriters also created job opportunities for women, who often served as typists. The typist became the foothold position that changed America’s perception of women in the work force and helped usher in a new social concept, “the New Woman.” To illustrate my claim, I show how the typewriter allowed poets like E. E. Cummings to experiment with spacing. Cummings made the typewriter’s standardization of text and spacing into …

Gender, Intertextuality & Market Demands: Publishing Children's Picture Books, Mackenzie Scott

Honors Theses

Children’s literature in the U.S. has long since reflected, and also influenced, the nation’s societal and cultural identity. The genre’s representation of gender has historically aligned with traditionally distinct and separate sex-typed roles of domestic or non-domestic behavior. Through textual analysis of 80 New York Times bestselling picture books between 2009 and 2019, this research seeks to determine if publishers and consumers are selecting titles that support or subvert stereotypical gender roles. Prior studies on gender representation in children’s literature have concluded that the prevalence of static, passive female characters and active male characters negatively impacts the identity development of …

"They Called Me Kimchi Breath" And Other Short Narrative Essays: A Study In Composing Asian-American Identity In Short Nonfictional Essays, Teddy Kim

Honors Theses

The heterogenous lifestyle of Asian-Americans is one of duality. For this ethnic group, personal identity is a mix between American standard practices and inherited Asian traditions. However, even if their cultural practices are primarily American, Asian-Americans are often “Otherized” and outcast when claiming an American identity, forcing them to be regarded as “just Asian.” As such, they are Americans being rejected by America, and as a result have no other place to call home . In this project, I seek to heal the strife this rejection creates, attempting to confront these tensions and resolve them. As a hyphenated American, I …

A Comparative Analysis Of National Identity Construction And Rhetorization In William Shakespeare's King Henry V And Aphra Behn' Oroonoko; Or, The Royal Slave, David Forner

Honors Theses

Positioned at the climax of both William Shakespeare’s King Henry V (1600) and Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko; or, The Royal Slave (1688) are dynamic calls for battle. While King Henry rallies his forces against the French, Oroonoko—an enslaved African prince—ignites a slave revolt against English colonial masters. This comparative analysis of the speeches’ rhetoric identifies three sets of similar appeals: to martial masculinity, honor as a moral code, and collective political identities. From Behn’s application of Shakespeare’s canonical rhetoric derives commentary on each rhetor’s ability to construct and rhetorize his national identity. Importantly, analysis reveals the impact of racialized difference on …

The Blame Game : Complicity And Rape Culture In Margaret Atwood's Novel And Hulu's Adapted Series The Handmaid's Tale, Hannah Gallant

Honors Theses

Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) and the Hulu award-winning televisual adaptation (2017-Present) portray a dystopic, theocratic regime known as Gilead. The regime’s focus on female bodies and reproduction exemplifies what feminist theorists call rape culture, a culture Gilead perpetuates through sexual violence, rape, and surveillance. Using critical race theory, media and close-textual analysis this project examines both works, arguing that complicity within the novel must be discussed in relation to rape culture and that while the series accounts for rape culture, it problematically manifests a type of feminism that privileges white women over women of color.

Where Virtue Goes: Stories, Radhika Vu Thanh Vy

Honors Theses

This story is a parallel narrative featuring the life in a fictional remote village in Vietnam some time during the 1800s, as well as the present-day life of a Vietnamese immigrant family in the US. The first narrative explores the efforts of a feminist duo, a matchmaker and a midwife, to help a young pregnant woman get out of an unhappy marriage. In doing so, the duo attempt to unravel traditional gender roles and oppressive social customs, and reweave the village social fabric. The other narrative explores a present-day marriage, one that is as much a disintegrating relationship as one …

"They Shall Be A Kosmos:" Alexander Von Humboldt And The Ecopoetics Of Walt Whitman, Benjamin Theyerl

Honors Theses

Places the naturalist Alexander Von Humboldt's proto-ecological ideas in conversation with Walt Whitman's poetry to show how the poet developed an ecopoetics in conversation with the natural sciences of his time, with specific attention to Von Humboldt's theory of the "kosmos" - by which Whitman's poetic persona self-identified. These recognitions are combined with how Whitman's idealized version of the American poet as a “kosmos” creates a political ecology in Whitman’s work, placing his ecopoetics into environmental discourses that resonate from their origin in the nineteenth century to our present ecological moment today.

A Twisted Skein Of Desire: Confession, Gaze, And Time In Andre Aciman’S Call Me By Your Name, Anthony Isenhour

Honors Theses

In interacting with others, and particularly in intimate relationships with others, desire becomes a complex emotion entangled with the specific identifications of each person. These complications are also often shaped by social conventions, internal thoughts, and the ability to communicate. In all its narrative structures, themes, and plot points, Andre Aciman’s Call Me by Your Name is framed by one question on this topic, stated in a time of deep conflict by the narrator: “Are ‘being’ and ‘having’ thoroughly accurate verbs in the twisted skein of desire, where having someone’s body to touch and being that someone we’re longing to …

From Libertine To Incel: How The "Manosphere" Has Fostered The Continuation Of Gender Violence In Western Culture, Lauren Ziolkowski

Honors Theses

In this thesis, I examine the similarities between the ideologies of the Restoration libertine and the present-day beta-male, the social and cultural forces that shape those ideologies, and the practices of flirtation and seduction shared by the libertine and beta-male. This thesis addresses the expansion of female agency and power in the mid-eighteenth century and twenty-first century, as well as how this expansion of power threatens the social, cultural, and economic privilege held by the Restoration libertine and beta-male respectively. In the eighteenth century, this expansion of power manifests in the emergence of the bourgeoisie class and the development of …

The Reluctant Fundamentalist's Depiction Of The Postmodern, Kathryn Nicolai

Honors Theses

In this thesis, I examine postmodern fiction in the wake of 9/11. Specifically, I investigate initial predictions of how postmodernity would end after 9/11, Jean Baudrillard’s hyperreality, 9/11 as a semiotic-saturated event, 9/11-novels’ representations of hyperreality and postcolonial intersections with postmodern texts. These focuses are analyzed in Mohsin Hamid’s novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist. The novel chronicles the protagonist, Changez’s life before, during and after 9/11 and how his perspective on America’s capitalist-centered society and his own identity shifts in the wake of the attacks. After 9/11, Changez undergoes a demystification with America’s nostalgia-based regression and returns to Pakistan. Similar …

The Theology Of John Donne's Body Politic, Carolyn P. Marino

Honors Theses

This thesis investigates John Donne’s body/soul dialectic, and discusses how this relationship extends towards both the individuated and communal body. The first chapter grounds Donne’s “Songs and Sonnets” in theology through his facilitation of the Platonic Ladder and the Great Chain of Being. It also gestures towards a shift in Donne’s poetry from subjectivity to intersubjectivity. Finally, it discusses Donne’s commissioned elegies, interrogating Renaissance ideas about the gendered soul, and expounding upon the impact of one person’s death on the communal body. The second chapter historically contextualizes ideas of martyrdom, suicide, and Donne’s term “self-homicide.” It discusses the content of …

Where Was I Going? What Was The Point? Archetypes, Frame, And Social Transgressions In Ovid And Twain, Jessica Bates

Honors Theses

The sound of a narrator telling a story can be difficult to depict in written prose, and yet both Ovid and Twain capture the effect of an old man telling a story; Ovid through Nestor's Story in The Metamorphoses and Twain in "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County." They both use this framework to discuss the theme of social transgressions. I maintain that both Twain and Ovid use a variation on the wise-mentor archetype as a frame to discuss, through the use of satire, social transgressions which neither of their narrators condemn. I aim to explore Ovid and Twain's …

Reshaping The United States' Anti-Trafficking Legislation: The Need For Uniform Reporting And Victim Rehabilitation, Bryant Cross

Honors Theses

Trafficking in persons—or “human trafficking”—is a prevalent issue in the United States in the twenty-first century. Since the turn of the century, awareness surrounding the national and international problem of human trafficking has gradually risen. This rise in awareness came hand-in-hand with Congressional efforts to combat the trafficking of human beings through federal law—namely, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000 and its subsequent reauthorizations. Unfortunately, federal legislators’ initial framing of the trafficking in persons problem as an international issue—rather than a national issue—led to the creation of a weak legislative foundation for anti-trafficking efforts in the United States. …

A Psychoanalysis Of Rebecca West’S Unfinished Novel The Sentinel, Taylor Vesely

Honors Theses

This thesis applies a psychoanalytic lens to a little-known and unfinished manuscript by Rebecca West. There is little scholarship on The Sentinel but a wealth of knowledge to be gained from it about the complicated psychological dilemmas the suffragists suffered. West was writing at a critical period in feminist history that is still relevant today, and this novel, which would have been her first, lays the groundwork for many of her future works. Her depictions of sexuality, violence, religion, and motherhood provide an excellent framework for both her protagonist’s self-suppression and a compelling psychoanalysis. This thesis argues that the many …

Creating Characterization Through The Use Of Setting And Counterpoint Characterization, Caroline Taylor Hood

Honors Theses

The researcher looked at contemporary short story collections to analyze how the authors used setting and counterpoint characterization to develop fuller characters. The researcher then discussed how she would apply their methods to her work.

Madwomen And Resistance: Gender And Self-Harm In Romantic And Victorian Literature, Emily V. Rasch

Honors Theses

Literature of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries was concerned with madness. However, relatively little research has been done to indicate how supposed “madwomen” escaped patriarchal control. This thesis will analyze madwomen from the late eighteenth to mid-nineteenth centuries and will argue that suicide appears in literature as the sole way that “mad” characters can resist patriarchal control. I examine the impact of self-harm and suicide in Mary Wollstonecraft’s Maria or the Wrongs of Woman; John Keats’s “Isabella and the Pot of Basil”; and Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. I connect self-harm to the desire to escape patriarchal …

More Than Remembering: How Memoirists Recall And Write The Past, Faith Garner

Honors Theses

Memory is integral to writing memoir, but sometimes, memory fails. How do successful memoirists mine their past for meaning, while staying true to their recollections? In my craft essay, I examine how writers harness the energy of their own explorations of the past. Then, I show how I have used these techniques in my own work. Six personal essays comprise the remainder of my thesis project.

The Craft Of Felt Sense: Writing Sentences To Create Singular Effects, Jacquelyn Leigh Muncy Scott

Honors Theses

Poe defines a successful author of the short story as one who writes to create a singular effect, or felt sense, where a particular emotion is created in the reader. Every event, sentence, and word aids in achieving this specific effect, and if it does not, the author fails. In this craft paper, three craft books are used to examine three collections of short stories, analyzing the use of sentences to create a singular effect. Then, this craft is applied to three original short fiction pieces.