English Language and Literature Commons^™

Explicating Poetry: Shakespeare's Sonnet 46, Adam Kotlarczyk

Understanding Poetry

The term “explication” comes from a Latin participle of explico, which means to “unfold” or “disentangle.” The term is often applied to philosophy and to literature; in literature, it has become a procedure very important to New Criticism. In the process of explication, a reader forges a detailed analysis of the structural and figurative components within a work, focusing on ambiguities, multiple possibilities of interpretation, and interrelationships between various elements of the text.

This lesson introduces students to explication through the reading of a complex poem, practice explicating it as a class, and reading a model explication about the poem. …

Performing Poetry: Managing Tone, Pitch, Volume And Rate, Erin Micklo

Understanding Poetry

This lesson teaches students the importance of varying the tone, pitch, rate and volume of their voices when performing a poem. Emphasizing different words and varying the delivery will alter the meaning of the poem that the students are reading. This is in preparation for the Poet Laureate presentations, when they will read aloud their poet’s poem, reflecting their group’s interpretation of the poem.

My Mark Twain: Old Man River, Amelia Tatum Grabowski

Student Publications

Flowing across his pages, the Mississippi River inextricably winds itself through Mark Twain’s canon. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that my image of Clemens, my Mark Twain, is as a personification of his beloved river. Twain draws his readers to the water’s edge, seduces readers to stare into his depths, and reflects the achievements and failings of humanity. Furthermore, like the Mississippi River, Twain embeds himself in the American psyche.

A Seat At The Table: William Lisle Bowles And The Development Of Romanticism, Jeremy B. Savage

Lawrence University Honors Projects

A study of the Romantic poet William Lisle Bowles. I challenge the modern critical perception of Bowles in order to argue that his place in the study of Romanticism has been drastically understated. It is my assertion that by reading Bowles thoroughly, paying specific attention to his influence on the beginnings of Romanticism, to his particular influence on Coleridge and to the critical advancements represented by the amalgamation of his actual poetry with his later critical reflections, affords us not only an understanding of Bowles’s active role in the development of Romanticism as it has traditionally been understood, but also …

June 7, 2012: Dan Mancilla Wins 2012 Flash Fiction Award., Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

The Virgin's Kiss: Gender, Leprosy, And Romance In The Life Of St. Frideswide, Gary Stephen Fuller

Theses and Dissertations

The longer thirteenth-century Middle English verse life of Saint Frideswide found in the collection of saints' lives known as the South English Legendary (SEL) narrates an event unique to medieval hagiography. In the poem, a leper asks the virgin saint to kiss him with her "sweet mouth," which she does in spite of her feelings of considerable shame, and the leper is healed. The erotic nature of the leper's request, Frideswide's reluctance to grant it, and her shame throughout the incident represent a significant departure from the twelfth-century Latin texts on which the SEL version of the saint's …

June 4, 2012: New Issue Of Comparative Drama, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

Urban Place-Conscious Education: Pride In The Inner City, Tamara A. Zwick

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Many educators are turning to place-conscious education as a means of making students’ education relevant and meaningful, as well as encouraging them to contribute to their local communities in positive ways. While many scholars focus their research on place-conscious education on rural areas, a growing body of scholarship examines how place-conscious principles can be applied in inner city schools. Differences in emphasis and approach exist between the rural and urban scholarship, however. This work analyzes some key differences as well as examining why they might exist. Urban students’ relationship with place is complicated by societal messages which make fostering a …

June 2, 2012: Tea & Mystery W/Beth Amidon, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

Evaluating Computer-Assisted Language Learning: An Integrated Approach To Effectiveness Research In Call (Review), Deborah J. Crusan

English Language and Literatures Faculty Publications

Since its inception, the field of Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) has suffered from skeptics questioning whether technology and multimedia have anything to add to language learning. These uncertainties clearly illustrate a need for a comprehensive evaluative model of CALL. In Evaluating Computer-Assisted Language Learning: An Integrated Approach to Effectiveness Research in CALL, Jonathan Leakey asks readers to consider important matters about the field of computer-assisted language learning (CALL). His purpose for the book centers on gathering evidence for the computer’s impact on language learning. He argues for an integrated approach to the evaluation of CALL and constructs a prototype for …

A Clock And A Companion Poem To Marvell's 'To His Coy Mistress', Matthew Harkins

English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Alchemical Transformation And The Grief-Threshold In H.D.'S Helen In Egypt, Eliza C. Bennett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In H.D's lyric epic, Helen in Egypt, Helen of Troy experiences a phenomenological transformation in the brazier of the heart, which burns both on the beach of her new home in Egypt and in the depths of her psychic life. I have envisioned a process by which Helen psychologically enters into the brazier's flames to begin an alchemical process, so that she might see the beauty of the earth emerge and understand the rhythmic significance of the heart's perception. I call the brazier's (or the heart's) place of alchemical transformation the grief-threshold, which balances Helen on the edge …

Reconciling Eros And Agape: The English Catholic Artistic Response To Reforms, Nicole M. Coonradt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the English Catholic artistic response to reforms--reforms being both internal and external to the Catholic Church--as part of the Catholic Reformation. "Response," for the purposes of this project, may be defined in terms of an "answer" in an ongoing dialogue about the Catholic position and may be seen as both conciliatory and apologetic in nature. Understanding this response is useful when we consider the role of rhetoric and poetry in society and the attendant contemporary theories thereof, in their historical context, especially the duty of the poet. The recent "revisionist" history is central to understanding art contextually. …

"This Was A Man!": A Memorial Tribute To Felix Emeka Okeke-Ezigbo (October 14, 1944-June 25, 2012), Chukwuma Azuonye

Africana Studies Faculty Publication Series

A memorial tribute to one of the leading members of the the Biafran war generation of Nsukka poets. Dr. Felix Emeka Okeke-Ezigbo, October 14, 1944 to June 25, 2012.

Reanimating The Nation: Patrick Mccabe, Neil Jordan, And The Bog Gothic, Ellen Scheible

Bridgewater Review

No abstract provided.

C.S. Lewis's Lost Arthurian Poem: A Conjectural Essay, Joe R. Christopher

Inklings Forever: Published Colloquium Proceedings 1997-2016

C.S. Lewis aficionados know his unfinished "Launcelot," collected in Narrative Poems; but fewer know that he wrote an Arthurian poem intended for his first book, Spirits in Bondage, which was rejected by his publisher. The manuscript has since been lost, but a few things can be known or reasonably conjectured about the poem. This paper will cover the following topics:

(1) Lewis's mention of the poem in his correspondence with Arthur Greeves,

(2) its title,

(3) its date of composition,

(4) its source (quoted),

(5) its probably application for Spirits in Bondage, and

(6) the loss of …

Ethics And Afterlife: The Moral Instruction Of Thomas Aquinas And C.S. Lewis, H. Dennis Fisher

Inklings Forever: Published Colloquium Proceedings 1997-2016

C.S. Lewis's view of moral values and life after death flowed from both Scripture and his medieval sensibilities. This paper will compare and contrast medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas' views of ethics and the afterlife with those of C.S. Lewis. Special attention will be given to the controversial doctrine of purgatory. In today's postmodern world, ethical teaching is often relative and subjective. This paper will seek to find commonalities between Aquinas and Lewis to provide a viable basis for moral decision making in the 21st century.

C.S. Lewis As Transformational Leader, Crystal Hurd

Inklings Forever: Published Colloquium Proceedings 1997-2016

The term "leadership" usually evokes images of great warriors, politicians, or social figures that saturate the pages of a history textbook. However, these are pre-conceived notions of the term. Leaders are those who exercise influence, be they soldiers, politicians, or even artists such as writers and musicians. One such leader is author and apologist C.S. Lewis. Lewis spoke to his generation (and many subsequent ones) in his texts. Through Lewis, many have achieved a greater understanding of literature, spirituality, and human nature. His words have, in essence, transformed the minds of readers.

Transformational leadership is desired because it performs what …

"A Wild Hope": Resurrection Bodies And Lewis's The Last Battle, Michael P. Muth

Inklings Forever: Published Colloquium Proceedings 1997-2016

In the last chapters of The Last Battle, Lewis gives his readers a vision of the heavenly Narnia, or really of ever more real Narnias embedded within one another, people by the characters that readers have come to know through all seven books of the Chronicles, described as existing in physical bodies, though possessing abilities beyond those known in the Narnia outside the stable door (or even our own world). In this paper I will explore Lewis' representation of these "resurrection bodies" and what his representation of them means for his views on the body and the integrity …

The Development Of J.R.R. Tolkien's Ideas On Fairy-Stories, Paul E. Michelson

Inklings Forever: Published Colloquium Proceedings 1997-2016

The paper is an analysis of how Tolkien's thought on "fairy-stories" evolved between his 1939 St. Andrews Andrew Lang Lecture "Fairy Stories," through his contribution "On Fairy-Stories" to the 1947 Essays Presented to Charles Williams, and concluding with his 1967 essay on the nature of "Faërie." Time permitting, the paper will also include a discussion on how Tolkien's "Smith of Wooton Major" illustrates his concepts.

The Wise Woman As An Agent Of Identity In George Macdonald's Story The Wise Woman, Rachel Johnson

Inklings Forever: Published Colloquium Proceedings 1997-2016

In this paper I investigate the Wise Woman as an agent of identity in terms of Aristotelian and modern philosophies of identity primarily drawing upon the work of Alistair McIntyre. I address the question 'how much choice does Rosamond have in the transformation process' and examine the part played by increasing self-knoweldge and personal will, given the strength of influence employed by the Wise Woman in shaping Rosamond's perception of herself.

The parallel journey of Agnes, a shepherd's daughter, is briefly mapped against Rosamond's progress in order to demonstrate choice. I conclude that Rosamond's choice is made within chosen limitations.

The Logic Of Purgatory In C.S. Lewis: Why Spiritual Formation Makes Less Sense Without It, Robert Moore-Jumonville

Inklings Forever: Published Colloquium Proceedings 1997-2016

Purgatory figures significantly as a theme in the writing of C.S. Lewis. The Great Divorce represents the major fictional piece treating the subject, but theological allusions and references surface in Till We Have Faces, Narnia, and other fictional works, as well as in many of the essays.

This paper presents two main points: first, Lewis's logic of purgatory. Such an argument, though not stated explicitly anywhere by Lewis, might run like this: God is holy and human beings cannot remain in God's presence (comfortably or for long) without becoming holy themselves. Lewis consistently maintained a robust theology of sanctification. Next, …

Father Knows Best: The Narrator's Oral Performance As Paternal Protector In The Hobbit, Anderson Rearick Iii

Inklings Forever: Published Colloquium Proceedings 1997-2016

In Tolkien lore, the narrator of The Hobbit is the only human connection to the world of Middle Earth. He is not, as some have suggested, a hobbit himself. In spite of his humanness, however, he apparently has a great amount of information about the time in the world "when there was less noise and more green." He is also a narrator with opinions. In fact it is clear that for the narrator the whole telling of The Hobbit is a teaching tool; however much adults may enjoy Bilbo's adventure, the teller is talking to children. Being a creation of …

Through The Lens Of The Four Loves: The Idea Of Love In Till We Have Faces, Paulette Sauders

Inklings Forever: Published Colloquium Proceedings 1997-2016

It is my contention that when C.S. Lewis wrote his non-fiction book The Four Loves and published it in 1960, he had not been thinking about love in all of its manifestations for just a short time before it was written. All of the fictional works he wrote over the years, beginning in at least 1938, reflect his definitions and descriptions of the various kinds of love and their perversions that he systematically describes so well in The Four Loves. He does this in his fiction through his various characters and their actions.

Specifically, in Out of the Silent …

Chaplain Stella Aldwinckle: A Biographical Sketch Of The Spiritual Foundation Of The Oxford University Socratic Club, Jim Stockton

Inklings Forever: Published Colloquium Proceedings 1997-2016

Although the Oxford University Socratic Club is most often identified with its first faculty advisor and president, C.S. Lewis, the club's inception began when several young women of Somerville College asked their newly arrived chaplain, Stella Aldwinckle, to assist them in establishing a speaker's club that would extend an open invitation to all parties who were "interested in a philosophical approach to religion . . ." The Socratic Club was an instantaneous and long-lived success, and would not have been possible without Chaplain Aldwinckle's passion, dedication, and evangelical conviction.

A Tryst With The Transcendentals: C.S. Lewis On Beauty, Truth, And Goodness Part Ii: Truth, Donald T. Williams

Inklings Forever: Published Colloquium Proceedings 1997-2016

In an age of Post-Modernism and Post-Foundationalism, the very concept of truth finds itself subject to deconstruction. C.S. Lewis held to the old "correspondence theory" of truth, but did so in a way that withstands contemporary assaults better than many traditional formulations because he sought to integrate Reason and Imagination in ways not typical of earlier philosophy. Essays like "Bluspels and Flalansferes" provide a framework for understanding Lewis's statements on the nature of truth. They make possible a view of truth that is neither relativist nor reductive, but rather profoundly humane.

A Prisoner's Duty: The Sacred Role Of Reading In The Christian Life, John Stanifer

Inklings Forever: Published Colloquium Proceedings 1997-2016

Just how important is reading to the Christian life? Most of us are willing to assert that the Scriptures are an important part of our reading diet, but what about classic literature or popular fiction? Reading anything and everything we can get our hands on is not so far from the formula followed by some of the most influential figures in Judeo-Christian history, from C.S> Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien to Daniel and Paul the Apostle. By the end of this presentation, our goal will be to gain a closer understanding of the sacred role of all reading in the Christian …

A Speculative Meditation On Tolkien's Sources For The Character Gollum, Susan Wendling, Woody Wendling

Inklings Forever: Published Colloquium Proceedings 1997-2016

In speaking of his sources for ents, Tolkien said they "are composed of philology, literature, and life." Was Gollum composed in the same way? Gollum got his start in Tolkien's writings as a creature in his poem "Glip." Gollum got his name from his "gurgling sound," the "horrible swallowing noise in his throat." From which literary sources did Tolkien arrive at the name Gollum? From the Old Norse word for gold, gollum? From the Jewish Golem (Psalm 139:16)? From the giant Goliath in the Old Testament? From Gorbo or Golithos, two characters in E.A. Wyke-Smith's book, "The Marvellous Land of …

'Few Return To The Sunlit Lands': Lewis's Classical Underworld In The Silver Chair, Benita Huffman Muth

Inklings Forever: Published Colloquium Proceedings 1997-2016

As his early interest in Greek mythology and his Aeneid translation testify, classical motifs resonated with Lewis. In The Silver Chair, his characters, like Orpheus and Herakles, travel to a Greco-Roman inspired Underworld on a mission to retrieve an inhabitant. Besides lending mythic dimension to the journey, these classical echoes and Lewis' original additions create an Underworld markedly different from a popular idea of Hell. Through doing so, he underscores that this fictional place, though frightening and dangerous, is not Hell and therefore makes a theological point about the fallen condition.

By emphasizing classical references and reforming Miltonic ones (fiery …

Full Issue 2012 (Volume Viii)

Inklings Forever: Published Colloquium Proceedings 1997-2016

No abstract provided.