English Language and Literature Commons^™

Escaping The Gender Box: An Empirical Study Of Anxiety Experienced By English As A Second Language Learners, Alexandra Knapp

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Studies have shown that, in general, anxiety in second-language learners debilitates their language acquisition capabilities and ultimate second language (L2) achievement. Such studies have also shown that gender has much to do with the strategies used to cope with feelings of stress and anxiety. Anxiety specifically impedes classroom achievement due to its interference with the production and retention of a new language. In other words, anxious students have been shown to learn less and have been often unable to demonstrate what they have learned, especially in front of large crowds. When anxiety impairs cognitive function, it likewise causes students to …

Body Doubles, Babel's Voices: Katie Mitchell's Iphigenia At Aulis And The Theatre Of Sacrifice, Kim Solga

Department of English Publications

What happens to a body when circumstance demands it enact its own forgetting? What reaction in turn does a body in the process of violent self-erasure prompt in its spectators? These and related questions propel my investigation of Katie Mitchell's 2004 National Theatre production of Euripedes' Iphigenia at Aulis. Mitchell's chilling representation of Iphigenia's final moments, during which the young girl speaks with apparently patriotic fervour her willingness to be murdered for her nation's sake, embeds the very loss that such a performance of sacrifice typically elides. The result: two bodies collide on stage before our eyes - the compliant, …

Naïve Narrators: The Voice Of The Child In The Poetry Of Paul Muldoon, Stephanie Jean Osburn Alexander

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon, author of eleven volumes of poetry and two books of criticism and the recipient of numerous other accolades, is often the subject of literary criticism. A complicated and multi-faceted poet known for his use of dense reference and allusion, clever wordplay, and dazzling technical prowess, Muldoon is often branded a "difficult" poet. In the face of this difficulty, this project attempts to navigate a new point of entry to Muldoon's work through the identification and study of na1ve narrators, or child speakers, and to study them alongside the larger themes of performance and play within …

Into The Void: Danielewski And The Uncanny Novel, Chad Bebee

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Mark Danielewski's novel. House

Making Strangers Indelible: Eggers, Ondaatje, And Civil War, Guy J. Reynolds

Department of English: Presentations

With no-doubt foreseen timeliness, the German social theorist Ulrich Beck argued in 2000 that a new era had begun. Describing a ‘Second Age of Modernity,’ he stated that ‘towards the end of the twentieth century the condition humana opens up anew… A new kind of capitalism, a new kind of economy, a new kind of global order, a new kind of politics and law, and a new kind of society and personal life are in the making, which both separately and in context are clearly distinct from earlier phases of social evolution.’ Beck pointed to an explosion of ‘empirical indicators …

Feeling Better Than Most People Think: Nature And The Body In Wallace Stegner's All The Little Live Things And The Spectator Bird, Angela Renae Sowa

English Theses - Archive

Much of the critical scholarship on Wallace Stegner has focused, and continues to focus, on his role in the conservationist movement, on his environmental non-fiction, or on his skill as a teacher of writing. While these elements of his artistry are undeniably important, even vital, as subjects of scholarly study, there is a surprising lack of criticism on his novels. Stegner the man, conservationist, teacher, and historian often seem to overshadow Stegner's writing itself. In an effort to further the scholarly conversation on the literary elements of Stegner's novels, this study examines two of his later works, All the Little …

Life And Death In Joyce's Dubliners, Matthew Gallman

All Theses

This thesis is an examination of James Joyce's Dubliners as a collection of stories that is unified by an ongoing intersection between life and death. In the collection, the dead often serve to expose a deficiency in the living. The thesis explores four stories that share this theme in particular: 'The Sisters,' 'A Painful Case,' 'Ivy Day in the Committee Room,' and 'The Dead.' Each story is also presented in the context of how each relates to the progression from youth to public life within Dubliners. As such, the thesis also considers how Dubliners exhibits a progression towards isolation and …

Welcoming The Saturated Earth, Adam Million

All Theses

Three short pieces of fiction and ten pieces of poetry compose this creative thesis, which has been submitted in partial fulfillment for the degree Master of Arts in English literature. The manuscript demonstrates the highest level of literary comprehension--creation. Through my writing, I move beyond the interpretation of literature and become a participant in both genres. I read therefore to write better. Let my writing be the judge of my knowledge of literature.

Poem No. 99, May 2008, Huntsville Literary Association (Huntsvile, Ala.)

POEM

The Huntsville Literary Association was founded in 1967 to provide a community for writers, readers, and artists through workshops, readings, and educational programs. One of their key contributions is the literary magazine titled POEM which showcases original writings from both established and emerging writers. This issue features poems from various writers.

The Sustenance Of Sound: A Short Story Sequence, Allison Rae Eskind

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Work, Alienation, And Humor : A Marxist Reading Of Samuel Beckett's "Murphy" And "Waiting For Godot", Catherine Keeran

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

In this thesis, I look at Beckett’s Murphy and Waiting for Godot through a Marxist lens and argue that these texts can be read as a critique of modern alienation under capitalism. Through his narrator and characters, Beckett critiques and satirizes alienation and searches for alternatives to it in comedy and creative playfulness. Also, I argue that in these works writing itself emerges as non-alienated labor through which the creator, the central characters, and the readers/spectators can resist modem alienation. The first chapter examines Murphy in the light of Marx’s theory of the alienation of labor, the writings of Erich …

Evelyn Waugh's Deceptions Of The "Decline And Fall" Of "Vile Bodies" Into "A Handful Of Dust", Allison Elaine Nazimek

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

In the years in between the two World Wars, Britain witnessed many changes in the behavior and ethics of the emerging younger population. There were positive advances, especially in the education of truant students and the development of experimental schools, such as Neill’s Summerhill (Graves 209-11). There was also an emergence in public smoking, drinking, and heightened hemlines symbolizing modern times and a freer youth (Graves). These changes exhibited a shift from more rigid, Victorian ideals, yet, the real problems remained in the excess activities in which a wilder crowd indulged. Alcohol abuse became a concern, as the Practitioner stated …

Artemus Ward : The Gentle Humorist, John Raymond Pascal

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

It is generally accepted that during his lifetime, Mark Twain was considered the preeminent American master storyteller and lecturer of humor. The tsunami that is Twain’s literary achievement can easily overwhelm the earlier vast movement of the American literary scene that led to its creation. The “underwater earthquake” of this movement is Charles Farrar Browne, but his more famous pseudonym is Artemus Ward.

While there were earlier as well as contemporary humorous writers, Artemus Ward was regarded by William Dean Howells as “the humorist who first gave the world a taste of the humor that characterizes the whole American people” …

Listen Carefully : A Rhetorical Analysis Of Speeches Delivered By President George W. Bush, Jennifer R. Priore

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The current war in Iraq has been defined as both a war on terror as well as a war to free the people of Iraq. It is a fight against a member of the axis of evil and likewise an attempt to bring democracy to the Middle East. Prior to the start of the war, other countries were warned that they were either with us or against us while American citizens were told that a preemptive strike in Iraq was necessary to stop a country harboring weapons of mass destruction. These phrases were used to both frighten Americans as well …

The Ethical Implications Of Assigning Personal Narratives, Krista Ann Schlomann

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

No abstract provided.

Responding To Romanticism, Valerie Higgins '08

Honors Projects

My vision was aided by the fact that this course on the Romantics encouraged me to engage with the material in ways that were both critical and creative. In addition to critical essays and papers, one assignment required that students keep a notebook of personal responses to course readings. The seeds for the essays in this project were planted and germinated in that assignment. Thus, it was my creative and critical reactions to the work of the Romantics, combined with the creative and critical works of the Romantics themselves, which provided me with examples of a different kind of engagement …

Mountain Dolphins, Jennifer Jennings

All Theses

My creative thesis is a novella entitled Mountain Dolphins. It is mostly autobiographical and follows the life of a girl named Genevieve. The first part of the novella, 'No Kind of Legend,' is told in first-person, from the point-of-view of a small child named Genevieve. She begins by telling us that she comes from a very poor family in Woodruff, a small town in Spartanburg County. She was supposed to have a brother, but her mom had a miscarriage and lost the baby. Gen's cousin, Scott, moves in with her right before she finishes primary school. Apparently, his mother and …

A Director's Guide To The Galaxy: Navigating The Drama Of A Performance Organization, Shaina Rosenthal

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Abstract Not Included

Jane Austen Film Adaptations, Fan Fiction, And Contemporary Anglo-American Culture, Rebecka Schaber

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The rise of “Austenmania” in the form of films and heritage tours has been well marked in the past twenty years. Films based on Austen texts have attained a mass market popularity and tours based on Austen texts (and even Austen film adaptations) have likewise become popular within the heterosexual, romance-consuming female demographic. With the advent of the heritage film, Austen’s original texts became prime fodder for the heritage industry and the conservative depiction of Britain’s past Margaret Thatcher’s administration wished to portray. It is no mistake, in short, that “Austenmania” in effect began in the 1980s. The contemporary Anglo-American …

Four Short Stories About A Four Letter Word, Michelle Tan-Torres

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This thesis falls under the creative category of the Honors Capstone Project and is a compilation of four short stories all written within the past year and a half. It draws from the author’s educational background of English Textual Studies and the screenwriting track within the Television/Radio/Film major. It combines the learned technical aspects of the English language from the former and the creative, story-telling techniques from the latter.

Though the author has always been an avid writer, both academically and leisurely, it wasn’t until the summer of 2007 after sophomore year of college that she became interested in short …

2008 Forces, Scott Yarbrough

Forces

No abstract provided.

Lack Of Proportion In Antic Hay : Understanding Aldous Huxley’S Early Aesthetic And Social Views, Sandy Reyes

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The polyphony of ideas expressed in Aldous Huxley’s Antic Hay (1923), and the often fast pace in which these ideas are presented at times veils what is being said, what views are being satirized, as well as which, if any, position Huxley sides with. The novel is filled with many references and allusions to art. Understanding Huxley’s aesthetic and social views in the twenties helps to make sense of the comments about art and society that are both explicitly and inexplicitly expressed in the novel. Societal changes occurring in England, such as the decline in religious belief, industrial and technological …

Catch A Fire Catch Afire: An Understanding Of Distance And Its Meaning, Luciana Amodeo

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This project is a collection of my poetry written and edited during three years of study and living while at Syracuse University. It is the attempt of a young woman to widen a specific avenue of self-discovery while working on my talents and skills as a writer and poet. Catch a Fire Catch Afire: An Understanding of Distance and Its Meaning is my pursuit of deconstructing how I become aware of: distance from myself, distance from my loved ones, distance from God, distance from places and distances from where I am at any given point in my life. The process …

The Ownership Of Cultural Objects : Means, Mechanics And Masteries, Anne Marie Salloum

Honors Theses

The issues surrounding cultural objects and their ownership have risen to greater prominence in the recent past. Consider the Elgin Marbles, to take a well-known and hotly debated example. They were taken from the Parthenon by Lord Elgin when Greece was part of the Ottoman Empire, and as soon as Greece gained its independence, it demanded their return. Even this relatively simple case raises questions about cultural objects and ownership. To whom do cultural objects belong? Why? What effect do the changing circumstances brought about by the passage of time have on ownership? And the Elgin Marbles are only one …

Personality Assessments And Their Uses In Washington State Registered Health And Human Service Organizations, Marianne Ille-Mckeague

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The problem of this study was to identify the uses of personality assessments and their resulting consequences on employment at organizations registered with the Northwest Region of the U.S. Department ofHealth and Human Services. This investigation reported on the application of psychometric testing within the organizational context. Specific to this study was personality or behavioral assessments administered when recruiting, evaluating, or retaining workers, the potential implications ofbehaviorallpersonality assessments on workers within the organization, and the organizational value perceived by testers utilizing these forms of personality assessments. This investigation examined the current personality measuring practices of organizations by analyzing their responses …

Learning Styles Of Myers-Briggs Type Indicators, Juanita Jane Cohen

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research study illustrated that personality type influences learning style. The study compared the personalities expressed in Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) to Felder and Silverman's (1988) Index ofLearning Styles (ILS). Phase one was a combined MBTI and ILS assessment that was administered to 105 participants. To further define learning style, phase two was a follow-up questionnaire administered to 3 7 participants and was based on Goley's (1982) Learning Pattern (LP) assessment. The research did indicate a correlation between specific dichotomies ofMBTI, ILS, and LP. The Extravert and Introvert dichotomy in MBTI appeared to correlate with the Active and Reflective dichotomy …

Theme For English A, B And E: An Anthology Of Identity In Cape Town, South Africa, Noelle Elizabeth Rose

Honors Scholar Theses

This collection of poetry from grade 11 students in Cape Town, South Africa seeks to explore self-identity in South African high school students. In reading through their personal work, one can identify four ways in which these students define themselves: using self-promotion, or a display of personal strength; self-doubt, or moments of vulnerability; self-exploration, or the literary journey students take to define and explore their lives; and self-definition through social issues, or the examining of important social issues in South Africa and how they play into the lives of students. This anthology and literary analysis explores life-defining issues that are …

What Happens In The Links? Framing Judgment In Context, Emily A. Fournier

Honors Scholar Theses

Scholars of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales have focused much of their research on the interpretation of individual tales in the collection. The meaning behind these tales is clearly important to the work as a whole, as the Tales discuss grand themes that run throughout human life. The choice of themes and arguments in each pilgrim’s tale can also reflect back on the pilgrim’s own motivations and ideas. However, in searching for some greater meaning for Chaucer’s collection, it is important not to leave out the framework within which the tales exist. The links that join the tales to one another, arguably …

Metoikos: Modernism's Resident Aliens, Justin Glen Williamson

Dissertations

This dissertation examines why D.H. Lawrence, Joseph Conrad, T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, and James Joyce all conceived of themselves as cultural outsiders and how they used this ostensibly marginal social status to conceal a set of conservative core values they sensed were eroding. This otherwise disparate group shared a sense of cultural alienation, recognized the potentially powerful position of the exile, and demonstrated a keen willingness to exploit its possibilities. Although these writers have long been acknowledged and heralded for their experimentation, their technical and formal innovation, much of their work springs from essentially conservative impulses, beliefs, and values, aimed …

Open, Clear Decisions: Virginian Woolf's Orlando And Clarissa Dalloway As Bisexuals, Sarah Brey

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

In Orlando Virginia Woolf, shows Orlando as a person with a clear conscience who knows what he/she wants. Like Clarissa Dalloway in Mrs. Dalloway, who is also often regarded as a lesbian because she loves Sally fondly her whole life but chooses to marry Richard, Orlando loves Sasha regardless of what changes her body undergoes, but chooses to marry Shel. Neither Clarissa nor Orlando is forced into marriage. Both choose to marry and abandon their active lesbian tendencies because they know what is most comfortable for them. As bisexuals they show the confusion of desiring both sexes, and instead of …