English Language and Literature Commons^™

A Research Project Contributing To African American Children's Literature Based In The 1950s Time Period In Midwestern Culture, Paula Noelle Bolander

Graduate Research Papers

African American characters have been portrayed in children's literature since the 1800s. There is a lack of information available for children to learn about African Americans from the 1950s time period in the Midwest. Therefore, a nonfiction trade book based on African American culture in Burlington, Iowa will alleviate the gap in children's literature for the United States in the Midwest. The nonfiction trade book was based on Evangeline Ray's life growing up in Burlington, Iowa, in the 1950s. The vignettes portrayed in the book were created on the basis of 15 interviews with the researcher over a period of …

Creating Units For Second Grade Learners Of English As A Foreign Language, Laura Elizabeth Messerly

Honors Program Theses

Teaching English as a Foreign Language is becoming more popular as English is in high demand in countries throughout the world because of globalization (Niklov, 2006). The chief difference between English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and English as a Second Language (ESL) is that the language is being learned in a non-English speaking community (.EFL) versus an English speaking community (ESL). These non-English speaking communities are being affected by multinational corporations. As businesses grow and globalize, flourishing across continents, factories and branches are sprouting up in places all over the world. Technology, too, has contributed to the spread of …

Promoting A Desire To Read With Graphic Novels, Alexis Woodward

Graduate Research Papers

The purpose of this research project was to create a graphic novel to encourage reluctant 4th grade boys to become interested in reading. This research questioned the graphics in graphic novels that appeal to reluctant readers, the type of content that would appeal particularly to boys who lack interest in reading, and the method of balance needed between text and graphics to capture the interest of boys who lack motivation to read. The researcher focused on graphic novels and their use in the classroom, different ways graphic novels can motivate reluctant readers to become interested in reading, the concept of …

Dear Students: Don't Let College Unplug Your Future, Gideon Burton

Faculty Publications

I'm about to say something a college professor shouldn't say to his students, but I care about you a lot so I'm prepared to break the code and say what needs to be said: Your college experience is likely to set back your education, your career, and your creative potential. Ironically, this will be done in the name of education. You deserve to know about this! You have what it takes to reclaim, reform, and remix your education. Don't let college unplug your future!

Hidden Alphabet On The Farm: Can You Find It? : A Research Project, Sandra Greufe

Graduate Research Papers

The purpose of this research project was to introduce young children to agriculture and provide a new and interesting way of looking at the alphabet. Researching the use of alphabet books to introduce children to agriculture shows that presenting the alphabet in a new and exciting way is beneficial to teaching children the alphabet (Norton, 2007). Studies show the movement of people to urban areas corresponds with decreased knowledge of agriculture ( AFBF A, 2006c). Hidden Alphabet on the Farm: Can You Find It? presents the alphabet to young children in a new and exciting way and teaches children about …

The Portrayal Of Grandparents As Caregivers In Young Adult Fiction, Susan Christine Bunch

Graduate Research Papers

The number of children and young adults being raised primarily by their grandparents continues to increase (Landry-Meyer & Newman, 2004). If either the grandchild or grandparent is suddenly thrust into a different family structure it can create challenges. Some young adults turn to the characters in literature as models for how to cope with life challenges (Hughes-Hassell & Rodge, 2007). It was the purpose of this quantitative study to explore physical health, mental and emotional health, and lifestyle and social challenges faced by grandparents and grandchildren when the grandparents are the primary caregivers, and how those challenges are portrayed in …

Inventions, Christopher Litman

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

Visions Of The Future; Notions Of American Identity In James Fenimore Cooper's The Last Of The Mohicans And Catharine Maria Sedgwck's Hope Leslie Or, Early Times In The Massachusetts, Cheryl M. Gioioso

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

Shattuc, Melissa Yearian

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

Interpretations Of Medievalism In The 19th Century: Keats, Tennyson And The Pre-Raphaelites, Shannon K. Wilsey

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis describes how different 19th century poets and artists depicted elements of the medieval in their artwork as a means to contradict the rapid progress and metropolitan build-up of the Industrial Revolution. The poets discussed are John Keats and Alfred, Lord Tennyson; the painters include William Holman Hunt and John William Waterhouse. Examples of the poems and corresponding Pre-Raphaelite depictions include The Eve of Saint Agnes, La Belle Dame Sans Merci and The Lady of Shalott.

Tragic Pleasure In Shakespeare's King Lear And Othello, Luella Fu

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis is an examination of reader or audience response to Shakespeare’s tragedies. Primarily, it identifies key pleasures that Shakespeare’s King Lear and Othello offer. The complementary nature of these two plays is such that the analysis of their various pleasures allows for an in-depth treatment of the topic and also reflects the diversity of emotional response elicited by Shakespeare’s tragedies. The kinds of pleasure addressed in this study are catharsis as explained by Aristotle, the delight of violent passion as advocated by DuBos, pleasure from details in the work, satisfaction from the coherence of the tragedy, and pleasure in …

Laying Bare The Sins Of The Father: Exploring White Fathers In Post-Apartheid Literature, Casey M. Reck

CMC Senior Theses

This Thesis is an exploration of white fathers in three post-apartheid novels: Mark Behr's The Smell of Apples, Nadine Gordimer's The House Gun, and J. M. Coetzee's Disgrace. By examining the link between private white hegemonic masculinity and the apartheid government, the Thesis analyzes the transitional process as these men try to adopt less authoritative identities.

La Vilaine, Cordelia Solomon

CMC Senior Theses

When her sister goes missing, Kattel Macé must fly to France to find her. While the police are cooperating, they have no leads to go off of forcing Kattel to start her own investigation. In her search, Kattel stumbles across evidence that implicates her own family members in her sisters mysterious disappearance.

Area Of Enigma: V. S. Naipaul And The East Indian Revival In Trinidad, Aaron Eastley

Faculty Publications

On March 29, 1949, V.S. Naipaul was front-page news in the Trinidad Guardian. “Special ‘Schol’ Urged for QRC Student,” the headline stated, and beneath was a photo of a quietly smiling teenage Naipaul, looking studious and benign in a pair of large black-rimmed glasses (“Special”). Naipaul, the article reports, had earned marks of distinction in Spanish and French on the Cambridge Higher School Certificate Examination, but was not eligible for a Colonial Scholarship to study in England owing to a recently-introduced technicality. Through no fault of his own he had not completed all of the requisite course work to qualify …

Scouting For A Tomboy: Gender-Bending Behaviors In Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird, Laura Hakala

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

In Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout Finch challenges gender stereotypes in her determination to remain a tomboy. Scout interacts with five parental characters (Atticus, Calpurnia, Aunt Alexandra, Miss Maudie, and Boo Radley), who offer models for Scout's behaviors. Though primarily unconventional in terms of gender, these parental figures fluctuate between ideals, demonstrating that gender is an unstable standard that alters according to each individual. Lee depicts characters who resist conforming to the paradigms of masculinity and femininity and instead fill middle positions between the stereotypes, as Scout's tomboyism exemplifies. After encountering different models, Scout consistently exhibits these genderbending …

Review In Studies In Medieval And Renaissance Teaching Of "Ents, Elves And Eriador: The Environmental Vision Of J.R.R. Tolkien", Paul Siewers

Other Faculty Research and Publications

A review of a book-length ecocritical study of J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy writing.

Bathsheba's Dilemma: Defining, Discovering, And Defending Anglo-American Feminist Theories Of Rhetoric(S), Krista Ratcliffe

English Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Afterword: Echoes From The Trenches And The Feminists Who "Dig" Them, Krista Ratcliffe, Rebecca Rickly

English Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Rhetorical Grammar And You: A Study Of First-Year Composition Papers, Kristi Mcduffie

Masters Theses

Traditional grammar instruction prescribes that you should be used only to address the actual reader of the text in academic writing; even the direct address is to be used sparingly. Yet an examination of published writing in a variety of genres shows that experienced writers use you in a variety of ways-to refer to the writer, a third person, anyone, and to illustrate a hypothetical, habitual, or proverbial situation, and more. Based on previous scholarship and published examples, I create categories of the referents and functions of you that are used today in spoken and written English. Then, I apply …

Frederick Douglass: The Man, His Words And His Legacy As A Master Rhetorician, Tameka Lashean Johnson

Masters Theses

This thesis offers a synthesis of existing research regarding not only Frederick Douglass· literacy in the slave narrative genre. but also an Aristotelian analysis of his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself (1845). Dougiass' challenge is to reach an audience not only of abolitionists, but also of free blacks who are more grounded in the vernacular tradition than equal to his own considerable skills in rhetorical literary construction.

My research addresses the problem that existing research inadequately considers the degree to which Douglass uses his awareness of the audience and employs rhetoric in …

You're Not Really Black Unless You've Been Shot-- Or So Says Black Urban Fiction, Erin A. Talley

Masters Theses

This essay seeks to identify the injurious and hedonistic patterns that emerge from contemporary black urban fiction, reinforcing negative stereotypes. This essay comments on codes that establish a sense of authenticity as well as trends of isolationism and essentialist narratives published as the unsuccessful progeny of didactic novels written to highlight conditions in underrepresented minority communities. Through a critical examination of earlier literary movements, this essay proposes that contemporary black urban literature grows less culturally conscious and less aesthetically aware in its pursuit of commercial success than the African American canonical texts that grounded cultural realism and literary experimentation.

Performance, Spectacle, Text: The Court Masques Of Samuel Daniel, Donica Martin Miller

Masters Theses

This thesis is an examination of two early seventeenth century court masques commissioned by Queen Anna and composed by the court poet and playwright, Samuel Daniel. The thesis is divided into three chapters. The first chapter presents a brief history of the court masque as a genre and examines the context of each of Daniel's masques. The second and third chapters focus on The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses and Tethys' Festival in relation to the dancers, costumes, sets and politics surrounding the performances. By exploring the political events behind the composition of each masque, readers may gain a more …

Going Home, Glen Davis

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

A Teller Of Tales: Narratology And The Works Of Sherwood Anderson, Jamie Patton

Masters Theses

The publication of Winesburg, Ohio in 1919 introduced Sherwood Anderson as an American author with great potential, but when critics attempted to evaluate Anderson's legacy following his death in 1941, most concluded that his career beyond that book and a few short stories failed to deliver on that promise to permanently establish Anderson as a writer with a lasting impact. However, Anderson's direct influence on key players of the modernist period, most notably Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner, suggests the need for scholars to take a closer look at his work in order to better understand his impact and the …

Marketing Campaign For Soup Stop, Nfp, Inc., Chelsea M. Mcbride

Masters Theses

For the applied thesis in professional communication, I created marketing documents for Soup Stop, NFP, INC., a non-profit organization located in Charleston that provides free lunch Monday through Friday to anyone who asks for a meal. Soup Stop does not require its clients to provide any information in order to receive service. It is one of Charleston's longest running mission projects and has operated out of the First Presbyterian Church for ten years, serving over 30,000 meals. Because Soup Stop is funded entirely through donations and volunteer efforts, board members have found it challenging to keep documents up-to-date and to …

Sisterhood Articulates A New Definition Of Moral Female Identity: Jane Austen's Adaptation Of The Eighteenth-Century Tradition, Katherine Curtis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Writing at a moment of ideological crisis between individualism and hierarchical society, Jane Austen asserts a definition of moral behavior and female identity that mediates the two value systems. I argue that Austen most effectively articulates her belief in women's moral autonomy and social responsibility in her novels through her portrayal of sisterhood. Austen reshapes the stereotype of sisters and female friendships as dangerous found in her domestic novel predecessors. While recognizing women's social vulnerability, which endangers female friendship and turns it into a site of competition, Austen urges the morality of selflessly embracing sisterhood anyway. An Austen heroine must …

Phonological Features Of Hong Kong English : Patterns Of Variation And Effects On Local Acceptability, Andrew John Sewell

Lingnan Theses

The changing dynamics of international communication in English have led to a intense questioning of the relevance of native-speaker pronunciation models in language teaching and testing. In addition, the World Englishes approach to local varieties has increased their level of recognition. Both of these developments suggest that English pronunciation models need to be reviewed, and Hong Kong represents an interesting case study. Although it has been claimed that Hong Kong English is at the ‘nativization’ stage, the existence of exonormative attitudes towards English is also well known. Two important questions arise from this inherent tension, neither of which has been …

A Comparison Between The Verbal Interruptions By Speakers Of English As A Lingua Franca (Elf) And Speakers Of English As A Native Language (Enl), Yue Yuan Li

Lingnan Theses

Previous research focused primarily on how interruptions vary according to social factors in situations where English is the native language for all speakers (see Menz and Al-Roubaie, 2008; O‟Reilly, 2008; West and Zimmerman, 1983; Zimmerman and West, 1975). Little has been done on interruptions in situations where English is used as a lingua franca. The purpose of this research is to 1) provide conversational evidence on how experienced ELF speakers make interruptions, 2) explore functions of interruptions in ELF communication; 3) compare the types and functions of interruptions in ELF communication with those in ENL communication; 4) compare the types …

Other Tomorrows: Postcoloniality, Science Fiction And India, Suparno Banerjee

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation I argue that science fiction as a genre intervenes in the history-oriented discourse of postcolonial Anglophone Indian literature and refocuses attention on the nation’s future—its position in global politics, its shifting religious and social values, its rapid industrialization, the clash between orthodoxy and modernity, and ultimately the dream of a multicultural nation. Anglophone Indian science fiction also indicates India’s movement away from a nation trying to negotiate the stigma of colonialism to a nation emerging as a new world power. Thus, this genre reconstructs the Indian identity not only in the domestic sphere, but also in a …

In The Margins: Thresholds Of Text And Identity In U.S.-Mexico Border Literature, Allison E. Fagan

Dissertations

My project links discussions of U.S.-Mexico border literature's emphasis on marginalized identity with the growing textual studies interest in the marginal, often-invisible processes which aid the production and shape the reception of books. The dissertation not only calls attention to textual instability, or the places where the differing and even opposing intentions of authors, publishers, and editors often become strikingly clear, but also focuses on the political, racial, ethnic, and social instabilities inherent in publishing the work of borderlands writers. It advocates and advances a sustained attentiveness to the conditions under which border literature can and does get produced. Authors …