English Language and Literature Commons^™

The Paradoxes Of Female Authorship In Samuel Richardson‘S Pamela, Or Virtue Rewarded, Jane Austen's Emma And Henry James' The Portrait Of A Lady, Ewa Barnes

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Colonialism In Moll Flanders And The Belle’S Stratagem, Tamara Kathwari

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

The Will To Change: The Role Of Self-Consciousness In The Literature Of Metamorphosis, Michael Giovanniello

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

Protofeminist Women In Bronte’S Jane Eyre And Braddon’S Lady Audley’S Secret, Allison Wong

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

Variations On A Theme: Contemporary Memorials To Harriet Tubman, Elise Anne Geltzer

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

Dark Journeys: Robert Frost's Dantean Inspiration, Elena Segarra

CMC Senior Theses

This paper examines the way in which Robert Frost incorporates Dantean ideas and imagery into his poetry, particularly in relation to the pursuit of reason and truth. Similarly to Dante, Frost portrays human reason as limited. Both authors nevertheless present truth as a desire that often drives people’s journey through life. Frost differs from Dante by dwelling in apparent contradictions rather than appealing to a clarifying divine light. The paper considers themes of loss, human labor, suffering, and justice, and it also analyzes Scriptural and Platonic inspirations. It focuses on the image of the journey used by both Frost and …

The Obstacles To And Solutions Of Female Characters' Speech: Beatrice In Dante's Vita Nuova And Purgatorio And Susan In J. M. Coetzee's Foe, Tamara Savage

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis analyzes the speaking and silencing of two female characters, Beatrice from Dante’s Vita Nuova and Purgatorio and Susan from J. M. Coetzee’s Foe. The texts are viewed through postcolonial and feminist lenses to show the problems with male characters speaking for female characters and the obstacles the female characters face when attempting to speak. Dante’s solution to this problem is to transform Beatrice from a silent and demure woman into a character who issues commands with a powerful voice. Coetzee’s solution is instead to refuse to provide a solution, since no one but Susan can speak for …

The Agentive Play Of Bishop Henry Yates Satterlee, Richard Benjamin Crosby

Faculty Publications

The epigraph comes from the section of the Pentateuch in which Moses descends Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments and communicates the will of God to the children of Israel. God has been speaking with Moses for forty days and nights and has conferred on him the authority to serve as revelator and prophet of the children of Israel. In this passage, Moses has become the literal conveyance for God's word, a conduit for the divine Logos. Perhaps the detail that gets the least attention in this familiar story is Moses's veil. The image suggests a deliberate self-effacement. The veil, …

Not (Just) Donne: Alchemical Transmutation As Immortality In Shakespeare’S Sonnets, Brandi L. Moody

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Shakespeare, in his sonnets, employs alchemical references in the sonnets that ultimately fail, in order to show how fruitless it is to pursue immortality. The poet urges the fair friend, who himself is like the self-consuming ouroboros, to father a child that will continue his legacy and allow the fair friend to live on via the child. Language associated with the child is alchemical, referencing distillation, vials, flasks, and the renewing power of the philosopher’s stone. The dark lady, the opposite of the fair friend in every way, can be explained as fulfilling alchemy’s union of opposites needed for a …

Sisters Before The Fall, Heather Lanae Captain

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

This thesis comprises the first fourteen chapters of a fiction entitled "Sisters Before the Fall", which brings to the forefront extreme, yet, real abuses faced by women in the Middle East and the northeastern countries of Africa. Those abuses are the result of social, political, and cultural influences, and include general repression of women and girls, female genital mutilation, marriage of prepubescent girls, and the slave trade. A female American volunteer and a female Hispanic doctor meet these women in a humanitarian compound in western Sudan. As they work together to overcome challenges brought on by war, they realize they …

The Essence Of English Identity: Gender's Role In The Stability Of The Nation In English Literature, From The Anglo-Saxons To The Victorians, Natalie Marie Whitaker

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

This thesis, using Jungian analysis, investigates how the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf, William Shakespeare's Macbeth, and Charles Dickens's David Copperfield reflect the interdependent spheres of gender relationships that affected societal perceptions of English national identity and stability for over a thousand years. Historian Geoffrey Hindley writes, "the historical reality of an English identity grew out of the traditions of loyalty and lordship from the epic heritage of a pagan past embodied in the poem of Beowulf in a common vernacular tongue.” In the three periods examined here, men and women had responsibilities in marriage that were defined by the societal ideals …

Margaret Atwood And The Implications Of The Word Love, Manuela Bowles

Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards

This paper discusses ideal romantic love as it appears in Western literature and how women are portrayed in works containing idealistic romantic plots. It also explores how Canadian author Margaret Atwood rejects the traditional love plot in her novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, as well as in her book of poetry Power Politics and the poem “A Woman’s Issue.” The first section of this paper gives a brief history of the ideal romantic love plot in Western literature, beginning with courtly love in Medieval literature, and its influences on later works such as Madame Bovary and The Awakening. The section …

Mcnair Research Journal - Summer 2015, Kelly Abuali, Starr Bailey, Krystal Courtney D. Belmonte, Brittaney Benson-Townsend, Jennifer Bolick, Mihaela A. Ciulei, Ashley Crisp, Daniel N. Erosa, Richard V. Foster, Gisele Braga Goertz, Michael A. Langhardt, Kara Osborne, Julienne Jochel Paraiso, Shawn M. Rosen, Bella V. Smith, Jeevake Attapattu, Ernesto H. Bedoy, Michael G. Curtis, Wanda Inthavong, Marielle Leo, Primrose Martin, Tamieka Meadows, Rosa Perez, Jessica Recarey, Shea Silver, Linda Tompkins

McNair Journal

Journal articles based on research conducted by undergraduate students in the McNair Scholars Program

Table of Contents

Biography of Dr. Ronald E. McNair

Statements:

Dr. Neal J. Smatresk, UNLV President

Dr. Juanita P. Fain, Vice President of Student Affairs

Dr. William W. Sullivan, Associate Vice President for Retention and Outreach

Mr. Keith Rogers, Deputy Executive Director of the Center for Academic Enrichment and Outreach

McNair Scholars Institute Staff

Metadiscourse In The Academic Writing Of Efl And Esl Arabic-Speaking Iraqi Graduate Students, Mohammed Hamdi Kareem Al-Rubaye

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Metadiscourse is a universal rhetorical aspect of languages embodying the notion that the purpose of writing is not only informative; rather, it is a social act enhancing a writer-reader interaction and building effective communicative relationships, thereby creating a reader-friendly text. This thesis examines metadiscourse in L2 academic writing of Arabic-speaking advanced English learners. It investigates the effect of different environments, English as a foreign language (EFL) versus English as a second language (ESL), as well as the effect of time in the development of writers’ metadiscourse. Results were mixed. Quantitatively, the EFL group was closer to the Control group of …

Translinguality, Transmodality, And Difference : Exploring Dispositions And Change In Language And Learning., Bruce Horner, Cynthia Selfe, Tim Lockridge

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

This collaborative piece explores the potential synergy arising from the confluence of two growing areas of research, teaching, and practice in composition (broadly defined): multi- (or trans-)modality, and trans- (or multi-) linguality.

Mental Illness In Early American Fiction: Charles Brockden Brown And The Sentimental Novelists, Katie E. Walk

Masters Theses

The late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries witnessed the development of the United States of America as a new nation. This development brought with it new ideologies and social and political change; included in these changes was the way that sexual conduct outside of marriage was dealt with. Because the emerging legal system became less concerned with matters of morality, some people became frightened that sexual promiscuity would become rampant. The sentimental novel or seduction tale became a means of attempting to control sexual behavior when the law was not able to step in.

The way that madness, a term …

Stand-Up Comedy And Self-Deprecating Humor, Amelia M. Bell

Undergraduate Research Posters

Stand-up comedy has been around for centuries, making people laugh for generations. Through the years the forms and techniques stand-up comedians use have shifted back and forth. Self-deprecation humor is one of these forms of humor, where the comedian pokes fun at his or herself, and it has recently become more incredibly popular in today’s society. Stand-up comedians like Louis C.K. have risen to newfound popularity by using self-deprecating humor almost completely in their sets. This paper attempts to answer the question of why audiences respond so positively to stand-up comedians who use self-deprecating humor. It does so by arguing …

Bluegrass, Bildung, And Blueprints: The Little Shepherd Of Kingdom Come As An Appalachian Bildungsroman, Leona Shoemaker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come takes as its backdrop the American Civil War, as the author, John Fox, Jr., champions Kentucky's social development during the Progressive Era. Although often criticized for capitalizing on his propagation of regional stereotypes, I argue that the structure of The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come is much more problematic than that. Recognizing the Bildungsroman as a vehicle for cultural and social critique in late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century writing, this project offers an in-depth literary analysis of John Fox, Jr.'s novel, The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come, in which I contend the story itself is, …

The Ethics Of Mourning: The Role Of Material Culture And Public Politics In The 'Book Of The Duchess' And The 'Pearl' Poem, Tarren Andrews

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This project is a socio-historic analysis of two late 14^th century dream visions: Chaucer’s Book of the Duchess and the Pearl poem. Utilizing Robert Pogue Harrison’s concept of objectifying grief through ritualized communal mourning, this thesis examines the ways in which mourning literature functioned as consolatory device, and a form of public performance for the powerful patrons who commissioned the pieces. By engaging with pre-existing communities of grief, material culture, and courtly discourse these poems perform the work of mourning while simultaneously enacting modes of public performativity that stress the ethics of grieving, and suggest that, for royal patrons, …

Vergilian Allusions In The Novels Of Willa Cather, Nathaniel Wagner

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This work aims to explore the nature of Vergilian allusion in the novels of Willa Cather - how the author implicated classical language in her own texts as well as the purpose and efficacy of such allusions. By surveying traces of Vergilian passages and rhetorical techniques such as ecphrasis and anacolouthon across three of the writer's major novels, My Antonia, The Professor's House and Shadows on the Rock, this study reveals an important and persistent aspect of Cather's artistic program. The author intentionally and regularly uses Vergilian language and figures to lend a sense of grandeur to the small, individual …

Hunter S. Thompson And Gonzo Journalism As Literature, Michael P. Kiernan

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

No abstract provided.

From This Dark Place To The Other: Violence And Connection In The Poetry Of Brian Turner, Alan R. Swirsky

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Brian Turner is a poet and American soldier who served in Iraq at the start of the 21^st century. His poetry is about his experiences as a soldier interacting with the Iraqi people, his time in America following the war, PTSD, and the endless violence in the war zone. As a comparatively recent entry into the genre of War Poetry, his work pays homage to the writers who preceded him, like Wilfred Owen and Bruce Weigl, while also referencing Middle Eastern poets typically outside the scope of American literature. Through Turner’s recurring themes and motifs, connections are established between …

Functional Violence In Martin Mcdonagh's The Lieutenant Of Inishmore And The Pillowman, Lindsay Shalom

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

While Martin McDonagh’s plays have engendered laughter, disgust, and fear, he might be best known as part of a long line of Irish playwrights who faced controversy due to their art. Much like Synge, Shaw, and O’Casey, McDonagh has faced criticism and even outrage due to the violence and misunderstood portrayals of the Irish in his plays. Though the violence in plays like The Pillowman and The Lieutenant of Inishmore has been labeled gratuitous, we might better understand the purpose of that violence by examining them in light of Michel Foucault’s concepts of knowledge and power. Foucault’s approaches best highlight …

Paradoxical Agency: The Ethics Of Women's Rhetoric In Shakespeare's Rome, Catherine Riley Godbold

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this project, I address the problems of ethics and agency for women’s speech in Shakepseare’s Roman plays—Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, Titus Andronicus, and Coriolanus—and the narrative poem The Rape of Lucrece. Regardless of their rhetorical skill, virtue, or agency, it seems that the Roman women in these works are doomed to fail: either their lives become unlivable or they lose the people most important to them. This prompts the project’s initiating question: why do Shakespeare’s Roman women speak if their words have no long-term effect? For these characters, rhetorical success in Shakespeare’s Rome is dependent upon a particular …

"Superbly Sterile:" Queer Reproduction In Victorian Literature And Culture, Mary Timothy Wilson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Examining a broad range of texts,“‘Superbly Sterile:’ Queer Reproduction in Victorian Literature and Culture,” argues that Thomas Hardy’s final naturalist novels, popular nineteenth-century vampire narratives, and the fiction of Oscar Wilde queered the bildungsroman (or novel of development) through characters who failed or refused to progress along sexual and maturational timelines. Where these texts’ critics have tended to read them as cautionary tales about homosexuality or predatory female sexuality, this dissertation contends that they also presented alternate forms of kinship and reproduction. They do so through the use of recursive, inverted, or otherwise backward relationships to time. Where Victorian sexology …

The Corpse In The Cellar: A 1930s Murder Mystery, And The Country House Murders: A 1930s Murder Mystery, By Kel Richards. Reviewed By David Bratman., David Bratman

Mythprint Book Reviews

Mythprint is the quarterly bulletin of the Mythopoeic Society, a nonprofit educational organization devoted to the study, discussion, and enjoyment of myth and fantasy literature, especially the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams. To promote these interests, the Society publishes three magazines, maintains a World Wide Web site, and sponsors the annual Mythopoeic Conference and awards for fiction and scholarship, as well as local discussion groups.

The Great Bazaar And Brayan's Gold: Stories From The Demon Cycle Series, By Peter V. Brett. Reviewed By Kazia Estrada., Kazia Estrada

Mythprint Book Reviews

Mythprint is the quarterly bulletin of the Mythopoeic Society, a nonprofit educational organization devoted to the study, discussion, and enjoyment of myth and fantasy literature, especially the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams. To promote these interests, the Society publishes three magazines, maintains a World Wide Web site, and sponsors the annual Mythopoeic Conference and awards for fiction and scholarship, as well as local discussion groups.

Prudence (The Custard Protocol: Book One), By Gail Carriger. Reviewed By Robin Jones., Robin Jones

Mythprint Book Reviews

Mythprint is the quarterly bulletin of the Mythopoeic Society, a nonprofit educational organization devoted to the study, discussion, and enjoyment of myth and fantasy literature, especially the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams. To promote these interests, the Society publishes three magazines, maintains a World Wide Web site, and sponsors the annual Mythopoeic Conference and awards for fiction and scholarship, as well as local discussion groups.

Five Points Akropolis, By S. Dorman. Reviewed By Jennifer Grace., Jennifer Grace

Mythprint Book Reviews

Mythprint is the quarterly bulletin of the Mythopoeic Society, a nonprofit educational organization devoted to the study, discussion, and enjoyment of myth and fantasy literature, especially the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams. To promote these interests, the Society publishes three magazines, maintains a World Wide Web site, and sponsors the annual Mythopoeic Conference and awards for fiction and scholarship, as well as local discussion groups.

Using Text Sets To Foster Critical Inquiry, Dawan Coombs, Devery Bellingham

Faculty Publications

This article explores three ways a teacher incorporated text sets into her seventh-grade classroom to foster authentic inquiry. Student reflections suggest this approach helped them cultivate questioning, researching, and cooperative learning skills that became lasting habits of inquiry and helped them succeed on core tests.