English Language and Literature Commons^™

Starting To Work The California Garden In Winter, Leeann Bartolini

LeeAnn Bartolini

French Kissing The Earth, Leeann Bartolini

LeeAnn Bartolini

Atlantic Practices: Minding The Gap Between Literature And History, Elizabeth Dillon

Elizabeth Maddock Dillon

No abstract provided.

The Intricacies Of Translation Memory Tools: With Particular Reference To Arabic-English Translation, Mohammad Ahmad Thawabteh Mat

Mohammad Ahmad Thawabteh MAT

Translation Memory (TM) technology has been enjoying a good deal of popularity among translation theorists and practitioners since it came onto the market in the 1990s. A theoretical framework for TM vis-à-vis Machine Translation (MT) is first discussed. The paper then examines the applicability of a TM tool, namely Translator’s Workbench (TWB), to Arabic, and the ensuing problems as illustrated by the translation output of ten postgraduate translation students at Al-Quds University for the academic year 2012/2013. The paper reveals that beyond the translation problems with which translation is usually replete, particularly between languages of little cultural and linguistic affinity, …

Toni Morrison’S Depiction Of Beauty Standards In Relation To Class, Politics Of Respectability, And Consumerism In Song Of Solomon, Karen Jensen

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

In Song of Solomon, published during a transitional moment in the history of U.S. feminism, Toni Morrison portrays the destructive forces of hegemonic female beauty standards, materialism, and consumerism in a Midwestern African-American community from the 1930s to the 1960s. She reveals a hierarchy in which men define standards of beauty and respectability that enforce white bourgeois ideals. Focusing on five female characters, this thesis examines this hierarchy; the agents who maintain it; and the ways in which it affects female characters who accept and/or reject it. While one of the characters, Hagar, perishes in her attempt to live …

John Marrant Blows The French Horn: Print, Performance, And Publics In Early African American Literature, Elizabeth Maddock Dillon

Elizabeth Maddock Dillon

No abstract provided.

Fear Of Formalism: Kant, Twain, And Cultural Studies In American Literature, Elizabeth Maddock Dillon

Elizabeth Maddock Dillon

No abstract provided.

"How Beauteous Mankind Is": Utopian (In)Humanity As Questioned By Shakespeare And Answered By Huxley, Jason Kelliher

Honors Program Theses and Projects

No abstract provided.

“A Power Beyond The Reach Of Any Magic”: Mythology In Harry Potter, Daniella Rizza Fcrh '11

The Fordham Undergraduate Research Journal

J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter novels have over the last decade become a worldwide phenomenon, but why? It is perhaps because of the mythical elements that underlie Harry’s story, particularly the myths of the child and the hero. Comparing the Potter novels to works by mythological theorists Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell, it is clear how Rowling both uses and updates traditional mythological structures and elements in the novels. The Harry Potter novels both incorporate the standard myths of the child and the hero, which accounts for the series’ immense ability to grab the reader, and update these myths, making Harry’s …

The Semiotics Of Third Language In Arabic-English Translation, Mohammad Ahmad Thawabteh Mat

Mohammad Ahmad Thawabteh MAT

The present paper explores how a third language is dealt with in the translation from Arabic into English, illustrated with al-Qamar il-Murabaʻ: Qiṣaṣ Ghrāibyia by Syrian writer Ghada as-Samman (1994), translated by Issa Boullata (1998) as ʻThe Square Moon: Supernatural Talesʼ (SMST). The paper adopts particularized a theoretical praxis approach. The paper argues that the third language does not occur in a vacuum, but within the boundaries of discourse with an eye to the ideology inscribed in the language we produce, viz. enhancing feministic, narcissistic and nihilistic tendencies by the Source Language (SL) author. The paper shows that the wheels …

Analysis Of Technical ʻFoul-Upsʼ: With Particular Reference To Arabic-English Subtitling, Mohammad Ahmad Thawabteh Mat

Mohammad Ahmad Thawabteh MAT

A cost-effective solution in intercultural communication has been subtitling from English into Arabic for the past few decades. Subtitling stands as one of the most and oldest translation practices in the Arab World. However, the practice is done with blithe disregard for the technical dimension (e.g. space, segmentation, colour, synch etc) and polysemiotic channels (e.g. dialogue, music, picture etc). Results show ʻtwo-bitʼ technical aspect of subtitling; thus the strategies employed by film subtitle translators are questionable. Therefore, the paper argues that subtitling/translation strategies should be sought within the ambit of technical dimension of subtitling.

Learning To "Teacher Think": Using English Education As A Model For Writing Teacher Preparation In The Composition Practicum, Angela Celestine Lankford

Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the impact of "teacher thinking" exercises in the Composition Practicum as a means of instilling a clearer sense of professional development in graduate instructors. Teacher thinking is a teacher training method that asks the novice instructor to see from the perspective of learners within their writing classrooms. Scholarship on writing teacher preparation programs suggests that English educators regularly employ teacher thinking exercises in the training of secondary school teachers. Teacher thinking has allowed many English education majors to conceptualize and obtain teaching identities by helping them to envision the intricate layers of teaching earlier in their careers. …

Delicate Beauty Goes Out: "Adam Bede's" Transgressive Heroines, Lori Lefkovitz

Lori Lefkovitz

No abstract provided.

After Dark: Reading Canadian Literature In A Light-Polluted Age, David S. Hickey

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

A threat to nocturnal ecosystems and human health alike, light pollution is an unnecessary problem that comes at an enormous cost. The International Dark-Sky Association has recently estimated that the energy expended on light scatter alone is responsible for no less than twelve million tons of carbon dioxide and costs municipal governments at least $1 billion annually (“Economic Issues” 2). Emerging research also suggests that excessive artificial light at night may compromise melatonin production, a hormone that has been linked to the suppression of certain cancers (Stevens 28; Haim 32). As scotobiologists seek to solidify the connection between the disruption …

Grammar In The Composition Classroom: Rewriting The Tradition, Debra Lynn Reece

Theses and Dissertations

In the last 50 years, the trend in the field of composition pedagogy has turned away from traditional grammar instruction, condemning pedagogical practices that focus on preventing and remediating error. In the early 1960s, Richard Braddock, Richard Lloyd-Jones, and Lowell Schoer invoked the death sentence on traditional grammar instruction: "The teaching of formal grammar has a negligible or, because it usually displaces some instruction and practice in actual composition, even a harmful effect on the improvement of writing" (37-38). Having been enlightened by this scholarship, the field refocused instruction to emphasize elements like writing process, collaboration, modeling, and prewriting, pushing …

Fantasy Versus Fairy Tale: How Modern Fairy Tale Variants Measure Up To One Of The Greatest Literary Traditions Of All Time., Cheryl Lee

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis will examine both the history of the fairy tale and the modern adaptations of these popular stories in order to illustrate how fairy tales have evolved into their modern counterparts. The implications and circumstances of several recent variants are questioned and compared to a concise definition of the fairy tale. It is determined that, although the modern versions resemble classic fairy tales, they are not a detriment to the tradition of the tales, and may, in fact, begin their own literary tradition.

Feminist And Non-Feminist Views On Milton's Interpretations Of Paradise Lost And Samson Agonistes: Comparing The Female Characters, Eve And Dalila, Carmen Thorley

Student Works

After the Bible, the most popular source for the story of Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden would have to be Milton's Paradise Lost. The popularity of this classic epic has brought forth countless interpretations of the story as it was freshly illustrated with the fictional freedom that Milton took. It is likely---and widely believed---that Milton's own views on marriage and women have found their way into his writing, not only with Paradise Lost but with the tragedy Samson Agonistes as well. This paper will point out the effect this lens had on Milton's interpretation of his two …

Our National Shame, Christopher R. Fee

English Faculty Publications

I spend a lot of time with my students working at soup kitchen and homeless shelters, and each winter, when it gets really cold and dark, my thoughts more often turn back to Dick. Dick died on Jan. 31, 1988. He was a veteran who served in Germany in the 1950s and was a graduate of St. John's University in New York, where his father has been an Engligh professor.

Dick had completed most of the work for his MBA during a career which included positions at Procter & Gamble, Federated Department Stores, and National Cash Register. At the time …

A Study Of Women Through 18th-Century Literature: As Reflected By The Works Of Jane Austen, Or, A Re-Visioning, Nicole Miller

Honors Program Theses and Projects

No abstract provided.

A "Time-Conscious" Christmas Carol, Jack Lundquist

Theses and Dissertations

Shortly after Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol was released in 1843, a tradition of adaptation began which has continued seemingly unabated to the present day. Consequently, the tale has become so widely known that one is arguably as likely to have first encountered the iconic miser Scrooge through any number of audio-visual adaptations as through the original work itself. Significant critical attention has been paid to the nature of Scrooge's drastic change from miser to philanthropist. Many would argue that the change, happening both literally and figuratively overnight, is not representative of a genuine psychological transformation. On Christmas day, 2010, …

The Necessity Of The Employment Non-Discrimination Act, Lucas B. Mckaig

Lucas B McKaig

Currently there is no comprehensive federal legislation in the United States protecting LGBT Employees. The Employment Non-Discrimination act would rectify this by making sexual orientation and gender identity protected classes.

December 9, 2013: Kazoo Books Author Day, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

Material Geography, Mountains, And A-Nationalism In Thurman's The Blacker The Berry, Stephanie Jean Burns

Theses and Dissertations

Scholars over the last two decades or so have become increasingly interested in methods of interpreting history, society, and literature that do not rely on nationalistic paradigms. One vein of the transnational analytic trend is interested not only in the multiplicity of cultural geographies but also in the materiality of geography. Such critical work is extremely helpful in challenging myopic nationalist readings; yet the materiality of geography used as a theoretical lens has even greater potential. Using geographical formations as a basis for literary analysis can yield a theoretical base that has nothing to do with the borders of nations …

Branches, Lucy Bowman

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

A Thesis Presented to the faculty of the Caudill College of Arts, Humanities and Social Science Morehead State University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts by Lucy Bowman December 6, 2013.

Biracial Identity In Texts Read By Secondary Education Students, Jared Madden

Honors Theses

This thesis sought to examine how biracial identity is portrayed in the literature read by students in secondary education. Unfortunately, the findings indicated that biracialism is not being adequately portrayed in this literature. Students rarely encounter biracial characters, when they do these characters are usually peripheral, and sometimes the biracialism of these characters is presented as an obstacle to be overcome. Furthermore, teachers (at least in this researcher’s local area) seem to be extremely apathetic towards even discussing this issue. The impact which all of this can have on secondary students with a biracial background is discussed. However, there are …

God Only Knows: Family In The Films Of Paul Thomas Anderson, Jordan Rossio

Honors Theses

This project looks at the theme of surrogate families in the first three films of director Paul Thomas Anderson, and shows how these films share a common theme. That theme is how these surrogate families that we create can often become more important and powerful than the families into which we are born. The research is drawn from mostly primary sources. These include magazine, newspaper, and television interviews with the director as well as the audio commentaries and behind the scenes documentaries that are featured on the DVDs of the films. The conclusion of this project found how this theme …

Identity And Gender Constructs In "Written On The Body", Paige Van De Winkle

Honors Theses

In Jeanette Winterson's novel Written on the Body, the ungendered narrator leads the reader through his/her love story with Louise. At moments, the narrator appears to reveal his/her gender, but these moments only reveal the reader's own assumptions about gender and identity which prove to be social constructions, and inconclusive evidence about the narator's gender. The novel shows that gender is not an inherent part of identity, and emphasizes themes that are universal and more important than gender differences, such as biology and the body. The body proves to be beautiful and universal, and gender is an insignificant part …

George Eliot's Counterpublics, Rebecca Thorndike-Breeze

Rebecca Thorndike-Breeze

This talk works through some of the different ways that George Eliot complicates dominant Victorian conceptions of community and belonging through her varied narrative representations of intimacy and affect. I will begin with a brief discussion of how intimacy and affect operate in relation to nineteenth-century realism; then I will explore some of the ways in which the Victorian ideal of an imagined sympathetic community works as an aspirational Victorian narrative of intimate belonging, and how in Eliot’s hands this ideal community works as a potential counter-narrative of intimacy, making space for less-conventional intimacies, like the one she shared with …

What Roles Might Linguistic Arbitrariness Play In Krazy Kat?, Frank Bramlett

English Faculty Publications

Welcome to the third post in the Pencil Panel Page roundtable on George Herriman’s Krazy Kat. We are glad to have found a new home here at Hooded Utilitarian, and as Adrielle said in her inaugural post, you should dive into our archives here.

Since there has been some concern expressed on the Hooded Utilitarian site about the state of linguistic analysis, I wish to start my post on Krazy Kat with a note about the linguistic analysis of comics in general. As a linguist, I am most interested in the way that linguistic codes function …

Teaching Self: The Ambiguity Of Lived Experience In Classroom Discourse, Scott V. Gealy

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Inspired by Paul Heilker’s notion of the essay as a form of exploration over argument, embodying an anti-scholastic and chrono-logical approach, and Candace Spigelman’s endorsement of experience as evidence in academic discourse, this thesis weaves memoir into more traditional scholarship in an effort to complicate the archetype of the effective teacher. Furthermore, the essay seeks to deconstruct conventional student, teacher, and cultural binaries with the help of the theoretical work of Deborah Britzman, Parker Palmer, Mikhail Bakhtin, Joy Ritchie and David Wilson and others, while using Scott Russell Sanders’ narrative essay “Under the Influence” as a mentor text for …