English Language and Literature Commons^™

Frontier, Displacement, And Mobility In Joss Whedon's Firefly, Emma Leigh Boone Nelson

Theses and Dissertations

Firefly, a television series created, written, and directed by Joss Whedon, premiered on the Fox network in 2002 and aired only eleven episodes before it was cancelled halfway through its first season. While it gained some on-air popularity, it was not until fans convinced Fox via online chatrooms to release the series on DVD that it gained posthumous acclaim. Whedon credits westerns as the inspiration for Firefly because frontier characters tend to be natural, flawed, complex human beings who question universal truths through widely recognized motifs of classic westerns. In a February 17, 2011 Entertainment Weekly interview, Firefly actor …

Writing La Mestiza: Creating A New Chicana Identity In Sandra Cisneros' The House On Mango Street And Woman Hollering Creek, Amber Lea Strother

Student Theses and Dissertations

Chicana identity is shaped not only by individual development, but also by the homes, communities, and cultures in which that development takes place. This examination of Sandra Cisneros' The House on Mango Street and Woman Hollering Creek illustrates the influences of class, gender, and ethnicity on the negotiation of multicultural identity formation. These two works demonstrate the maturation process that moves the Chicana experience from the individual to the communal. By revising traditional Chicana models, Cisneros demonstrates that a new Chicana identity or la mestiza, one that provides Chicanas with a positive role model, can be created.

Fantasy Revisited: A Writer's Escape From The Bindings Of Reality, Victoria Page

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

A project thesis submitted to the faculty of Morehead State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Fine Arts in the Department of English at Morehead State University by Victoria Page in May of 2012.

May 1, 2012: Wmu Creative Writing Graduate 2012 Earns Merit Award, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

The Emergence Of Feminism During The Late Eighteenth And Nineteenth Centuries By Female Artists And Authors, Tracy S. Koubek

Master of Liberal Studies Theses

This thesis paper identifies the ways in which the painters Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun and Mary Cassatt and the writers Charlotte Brontë and Elizabeth Barrett Browning challenged the limitations of their sex by engaging in professions outside of the domestic sphere during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This essay first focuses on the negative effects that a separation between the private and public spheres had on women, how these changes came about, the expectations society imposed on women, and how many women learned to cope and step forward into the public sphere. The emphasis shifts to an examination of the lives …

Life Across Friends, Brandon Ballard

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

A project thesis submitted to the faculty of Morehead State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Fine Arts in the Department of English at Morehead State University by Brandon Ballardin May of 2012,

Secrets In A Box, Charlotte Joann Cain

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

A project thesis submitted to the faculty of Morehead State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Fine Arts in the Department of English at Morehead State University by Charlotte Joann Cain in May of 2012.

The Bicycle In Western Literature: Transformations On Two Wheels, Nanci J. Adler

Master of Liberal Studies Theses

Since the invention of the modern bicycle in the 1880s, bicycles have played an integral role in western culture. As a reflection of its cultural significance and impact on individuals, many novelists have incorporated bicycles into their works in both realistic and symbolic ways. This paper focuses on the use of bicycles in western literature from the bicycle boom decade of the 1890s to the mid-twentieth century and includes works of H. G. Wells, Émile Zola, Arthur Conan Doyle, Dorothy Richardson, D. H. Lawrence, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Simone de Beauvoir, Samuel Becket, Luigi Bartolini and L. P. Hartley. …

Dante Gabriel Rossetti And The Romance Of Loss, Jane N. Cooper

Master of Liberal Studies Theses

Through paired poems and paintings, Dante Gabriel Rossetti explored the nature of Love—both physical and spiritual—as made evident by distance or absence. Influenced early by his familiarity with Dante Alighieri and a confluence of changing social and artistic attitudes, Rossetti transformed the dialogue around him to a more personal internal conversation, revealed by pen and brush. This paper examines the dynamic of that pervasive thread in Rossetti’s work through a discussion of the influences upon the artist, the artist’s effect upon important figures of mid- to late nineteenth century England, and the important relationships that shaped his discourse. In addition, …

The Bitter Relicks Of My Flame: The Embodiment Of Venereal Disease And Prostitution In The Novels Of Jane Austen, Melanie Erin Osborn

Master of Liberal Studies Theses

Resembling the mercurial, black beauty mark used as an ornamental concealment of syphilitic sores, Jane Austen’s comedy of manners likewise acted as a superficial cosmetic device that concealed the ubiquity of venereal disease and prostitution hidden within. Through her characters, Austen used veiled narrative to highlight the reality of venereal disease and prostitution in eighteenth-century England. This thesis uncovers the hidden narrative in Jane Austen’s novels, as a means of better understanding the impact venereal disease and prostitution had on sexual issues with women and the female body during the eighteenth century. Beginning with an almost comic reference to venereal …

Care Of The Self, Foucauldian Ethics, And Contemporary Subjectivity, Christopher J. Menihan

Senior Honors Projects

Through studying literature, literary theory, and poststructural philosophy within the English Department and Honors Program, I have learned to critically analyze texts and other media. Narratives, objects, and situations are so often other than what they appear to be, greater than what they offer through the first read, and are thus always in need of further analysis. Our lives, societies, and even our own subjectivities are no exception. Not only is what we observe and believe not as simple as it seems, but often what we regard as “true” may actually be far less stable than what that label denotes. …

Let‟S Be Adventurers: An Original Collection Of Poems, Short Stories, And Drama, Omega Genevieve Leslie

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Poem No. 107, May 2012, 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.

Grammar Workshop: Systematic Language Study In Reading And Writing Contexts, Leah A. Zuidema

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

Responding to claims that grammar instruction has become too limited, Zuidema describes field notebooks, mentor text, show-and-tell essays, and other strategies for engaging students in systematic language analysis.

"Reader" In Jane Eyre, Siruo Li

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This thesis is designed to show the development of feminist power of Jane Eyre, the heroine of Charlotte Brontë’s novel Jane Eyre, by examining how her reader is addressed in the totality of this novel. The main body of this thesis will follow the four parts of Jane Eyre’s different period of her life: in childhood, in Thornfield, in Moor House and in Ferndean Manor. The rhetorical instrument of addressing her reader is influenced by her speech and silence, and appears in a gradually increasing frequency in the four parts. In this sense, Jane Eyre’s female voice is also empowered …

The "Stamp" Of Black Science Fiction In The Works Of Octavia Butler, And The White Sf Of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Liamog Seamus Drislane

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Among other things, science fiction is a tool for imagining futures. SF authors take what they currently understand about science, couple it with their understanding of human nature, and spin stories that inform, encourage, or warn us about what might be possible. In this sense SF functions in a role adjacent to scientific inquiry, acting as a mouthpiece for the potential revealed or made accessible by developing technology. What can sometimes go unsaid in conversations about SF is that science fiction, like science itself, does not exist in a vacuum removed from cultural scripts and problems. When written by white …

The Illusion Of Influence : Gender And Class Conflict In Three Gothic Works By Louisa May Alcott, Katie Elizabeth Dowson

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

In “The Illusion of Influence: Gender and Class Conflict in Three Gothic Works by Louisa May Alcott,” the works A Modern Mephistopheles, A Long, Fatal Love Chase, and Behind a Mask are analyzed as representative works of Alcott’s gothic fiction in terms of how they reflect the changes that were taking place in mid-nineteenth century America, as society developed from a sentimental culture to one that was theatrical. In Chapter One, I focus on the ways in which Alcott’s gothic heroines embody a blend of sentimentality and theatricality and how each looses or gains influence over others as a result …

Connections And Disconnections Between Academic Writing Theory And Writing In The Business World, Shannon N. Fanning

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Although not all college students will become professional writers, many, if not all, will need to learn to write professionally. The ability to write well is an essential skill in any profession, and while few would dispute the importance of being able to write well, the ways in which one’s academic writing experiences inform her ability to write successfully in professional settings remain a mystery to many.

My thesis begins with a discussion of attempts made to bridge academic and business writing and a review of the history of efforts made by advocates of professional and workplace writing instruction and …

Captain Cook's Writing Assignment, Leonard F. Grant Iii

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Captain James Cook is one of the greatest mariners and explorers the world has ever known. The writing he did on his first voyage around the world both preserved the histories of the Pacific Ocean cultures he encountered and commenced their colonization by the British Empire. Despite his limited educational background, Cook was able to achieve such fame by learning maritime skills and writing skills through literacy sponsorship and cognitive apprenticeship. When he was selected by London’s Royal Society to lead an expedition to the Pacific Ocean and around the world, it gave him a complex set of instructions that …

The Bean Field Quandary : Environmental Ethics In Emerson And Thoreau, Nicole Elaine Wittenburg

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This thesis discusses Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau and their oppositional environmental perspectives. Specifically, the analysis focuses on Emerson’s Nature, “Self-Reliance,” “The Transcendentalism” “Circles”, and “Hamatreya,” and Thoreau’s Walden and The Maine Woods. In these texts, Emerson conveys a predominantly anthropocentric viewpoint throughout his writings, while Thoreau’s view is ecocentric. In addition, both of their works contain contradictions regarding the environment. At times, Emerson speaks of nature as subservient to mankind but then shifts his tone to that of reverential awe for nature. Thoreau is conflicted by humanity’s impact on the environment, promoting vegetarianism but then renouncing farming. …

Aeschylus’ Tragedy Of Law: Kinship, The Oresteia, And The Violence Of Democracy, Grace Hobbs

English

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Magic In Fantasy Literature: Exposing Reality Through Fantasy, Martin Cahill

English

No abstract provided.

Back To The Future: The Mechanics Of Temporality In H.G. Wells' The Time Machine, Rebecca Matt

English

No abstract provided.

Counter-Reformation: The Search For A Unified John Donne, Bailey Susan Fitzgerald

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The agenda of this paper is a re-examination of the de-facto formation of a literary character. John Donne is one of history’s most celebrated metaphysical poets. A quasi-contemporary of William Shakespeare, his biography has been similarly (if obviously to a lesser degree) plumbed. The turn of the 17^th century offers, in terms of hard facts, only tantalizing details left by fortuitous accident, and it has been the realm of biographers and early modern scholars to piece together the fragments. In the case of John Donne, this has manifested as a genealogy of literary biography that frequently melds scant fact, …

The Sacred Role Of Animal Beings In Iroquois Lore, Melissa J. Martinelli

English Theses

The act of storytelling provides a connection between the spiritual and physical spheres, and the Haudenosaunee people (more commonly recognized as Iroquois) utilize the oral narrative to convey the most sacred truths of their culture. In focusing primarily upon animals and animal beings, one can recognize the deep reverence traditional tribal members feel toward animals as certain legends seek to unite individuals with the spirits, personalities, and bodies of such creatures in narrative form. Too often animals are overlooked as “lesser” beings, yet in legends of the Iroquois they possess potent orenda (great power) that can help one achieve success …

House Of Leaves: The End Of Postmodernism, Joseph B. Noah

English Theses

Mark Z. Danielewski’s debut 2000 novel House of Leaves is written in part as an essay titled The Navidson Record by Zampanò. Within this essay, Zampanò includes footnotes and citations to many works both real and fictional. Through investigating some of his footnotes and allusions in The Navidson Record, certain connections to the postmodern movement may be drawn. By interpreting Zampanò’s allusions to Freud, Derrida, and Einstein, elements from Fredric Jameson’s Postmodernism: Or, the Cultural Logic of Late-Capitalism change the reception of Danielewski’s novel. Thorough investigation of a few allusions within the novel House of Leaves reveal many foundations …

Master Of Your Domain: Descriptions Of Interior Space In The Works Of Charles Dickens And Elizabeth Gaskell As Social Justice Commentary, Ryan P. Bowers

English Theses

Abstract

One of the results of the industrialization of Victorian England was a further straining of the relationship between the rich and poor. This was evidenced by events such as the Preston Strike, a prolonged labor battle between the workers and the masters of the cotton mills. Charles Dickens’s periodical Household Words covered the strike on two occasions, with Dickens himself writing the second article on the event. An attempt to bridge this cultural divide between the classes was undertaken by Elizabeth Gaskell in North and South, a novel that first appeared in Household Words and by Dickens himself …

Flawed And Beloved: The Spiritual Teachers Of Romola And George Eliot, Kathryn Mogk

Global Tides

Victorian novelist George Eliot presents a paradox: her writings seem highly religious and even specifically Christian, but she was an atheist who firmly rejected her Christian upbringing. In this paper, I examine Eliot’s attitude toward religion in the light of her novel Romola. Romola’s conflicted relationship with her mentor, Savonarola, presents a mirror image of Eliot’s own relationship with Christianity. In both cases, a profound message of duty, altruism, and self-sacrifice is presented by a messenger who is flawed by false and contradictory teachings and failure to live up to his own ideals. Romola and Eliot must learn to distinguish …

2012 Forces, Scott Yarbrough

Forces

No abstract provided.

Mothers, Sons, And The Gothic Family In Brown, Poe, And Wharton, Elizabeth Lain Lyon

Scripps Senior Theses

Within Gothic literature, the mother is frequently missing. In Charles Brockden Brown’s Edgar Huntly, Edgar Allan Poe’s “Morella,” “Ligeia,” and “Eleonora,” and Edith Wharton’s “Bewitched,” men are left without parents, and they attempt to recuperate a mother-figure. To do so, the men in these texts psychologically project the role of their mother onto other women. Wives, sisters, and daughters all have the potential to become mothers to these men. This is a catastrophe for the women involved, for male perception fails to distinguish females as autonomous, unique beings. By conflating roles in the family structure, men destroy women and …