English Language and Literature Commons^™

“Plough Up Some Literary”: Signifying On “Ole Massa” And White Authority Through Oral Space In Zora Neale Hurston’S Mules And Men And Eudora Welty’S “Powerhouse”, James Vaughan

Student Research Submissions

This essay compares representative methods of black storytelling and signifying that overcome white authority in Hurston’s Mules and Men and Welty’s “Powerhouse.” Though many critics disagree with Mules and Men’s ambivalent structural frame, this essay defends Hurston’s subversive use of anthropological features and humanization of the storytellers as an act of authority over the white-dominated genre of anthropology she portrays. Likewise, the “Ole Massa” tales the workmen tell in Mules and Men signify on or subvert the legacy of slavery by depicting the slave-owner as a man easily and consistently fooled by John the slave. In using oral space, the …

Generosity Of Spirit: Faith, Democracy, And Grace In Marilynne Robinson’S Gilead, Elisabeth Dellarova

Student Research Submissions

As my honors capstone and a culminating course for the English major, I have completed an individual study on the theme of grace and how it relates to the American experience in Marilynne Robinson’s work, specifically her three books Gilead (2004), Home (2008), and Lila (2014). The books are about the families of John Ames and Robert Boughton, who are preachers and lifelong friends living in the fictional small town of Gilead, Iowa in the 1950s. Through the books, Robinson presents her view on modern American Christianity, placing it in the context of American religious movements such as Transcendentalism, Puritanism, …

Misogyny, Rape Culture, And The Reinforcement Of Gender Roles In Hbo’S Game Of Thrones, Emma Baumgardner

Student Research Submissions

In 2011, HBO’s hit series Game of Thrones premiered for the first time, and fans have followed ever since. While the television series is based on author George R.R. Martin’s book series, A Song of Ice and Fire, there are many artistic decisions that have been made while filming the show, many of which have been critiqued as misogynistic, perpetuating rape culture or reinforcing of stereotypical gender roles. This paper aims to bring light to these claims through the usage of the cultivation theory as well as drawing on information gathered from a survey that was distributed online which included …

Power, Performativity, And Gender In Shakespeare's The Taming Of The Shrew, Clara Sigmon

Student Research Submissions

Literary critic Theresa Kemp proposes a conservative interpretation of William Shakespeare’s play The Taming of the Shrew; Kemp believes that Shakespeare reinforces gender constructs and celebrates the historic oppression of women. Amy Smith analyzes The Taming of the Shrew through the theoretical framework of performativity, focusing on identity and theatricality in the play. In this essay, I will contrast Smith’s analysis of The Taming of the Shrew with Kemp’s. I will provide evidence in favor of Smith’s reading of The Taming of the Shew, and address elements of the play which are disruptive of the hierarchal vision. Katherine (Kate) Minola …

Subverting Gendered Language Expectations: A Look At My Mother, Mary Skinner

Student Research Submissions

Features of women’s speech are typically characterized by excessive politeness and submission in the forms of hedges, fillers, indirect requests, or tag questions. Additionally, women are statistically far less likely to commit interruptions, more likely to commit retrievals, and more likely to use intensifiers, excessive adjectives, and HRT. These features combine to depict women in a negative light. Traditionally, sociolinguistics has examined the ways in which women are stigmatized and how our patriarchal society has conditioned us to view women as vapid, uncertain, unintelligent, and annoying for using these features. For this thesis, I wanted to examine the ways in …

“Poor Creature:” Class Subjugation In Samuel Richardson’S Pamela, Rhonda Fowler

Student Research Submissions

Rhonda Fowler

ENGL 447K 01

Dr. Marie McAllister

12 April 2019

“Poor Creature:” Class Subjugation in Samuel Richardson’s Pamela

In Samuel Richardson’s Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded, published in 1740, the

struggles of the novel’s heroine, Pamela, reveal significant marginalization due to her

class status as a servant. A linguistic and literary analysis reveals a peculiarity, the

excessive use of the word “creature,” which I believe Richardson intentionally employs

to reveal the source of Pamela’s feelings of marginalization. In Richardson’s text, the

word “creature” is used one hundred fifty-nine times. Of those one hundred fifty-nine

times, one hundred twenty- six are …