English Language and Literature Commons^™

Postcolonial Theory, John C. Hawley

English

Rather than agreeing to any one meaning or referent, most critics these days speak of ‘post-colonialisms’ to refer principally to ‘historical, social and economic material conditions’ and at other times to ‘historically-situated imaginative products’ and ‘aesthetic practices: representations, discourses and values’ (McLeod 2000: 254). Arising from subaltern studies, its theorists embrace hybridity, indict alterity, analyze colonial discourse, and employ strategic essentialism to promote identity politics. Under its influence, a strain of self-interrogation has for decades run as an undercurrent through much of anthropology and archaeology. Topics including looting, repatriation, stewardship, and the transformation of disciplinary identity are now persistent tropes …

Writing The Nation: A Concise Introduction To American Literature 1865 To Present, Amy Berke, Robert Bleil, Jordan Cofer, Doug Davis

English Open Textbooks

Writing the Nation: A Concise Guide to American Literature 1865 to Present is a text that surveys key literary movements and the American authors associated with the movement. Topics include late romanticism, realism, naturalism, modernism, and modern literature.

Accessible files with optical character recognition (OCR) and auto-tagging provided by the Center for Inclusive Design and Innovation.

Mother's Bed: Gender Representation In Children's Literature, Karin Hanni

Senior Theses

This children's book and accompanying research paper both address gender inequity in children's literature. There is a significant imbalance of gender representation in children's literature, with the number of central male characters almost doubling that of central female characters. Additionally, the roles of males and females still tend to be stereotypical: boys are action-oriented and heroic, while girls are nurturing and passive. Further, it is believed that boys will only enjoy books about boys, while girls will enjoy books about both boys and girls. This imbalance in children's literature hurts both genders. Children not only learn to read from books, …

Sherlock Holmes And James Moriarty: Victorian Genius In A Millennial World, Allison K. Carey

Honors Theses

In 1887, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle published his first novel regarding the detective Sherlock Holmes. He would go on to publish another three novels and 56 short stories detailing the great detective’s endeavors. Today, 128 years later, Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes is as popular, as relevant, and as alive as ever. Adaptations continue to be made and achieve success, including the BBC’s mini-series, Sherlock. This modern adaptation and its interpretation of Conan Doyle’s characters, novels, stories, plots, and themes allow for a unique combination of Victorian and Modern England. It highlights the similarities and differences of a Victorian Holmes and …

The Seal Of Solomon: An Exploration Of Storytelling, Ryan M. Krisby

Honors Theses

The Seal of Solomon is a work of fantasy with steampunk, flintlock-fantasy elements exploring Joseph Campbell’s monomyth, also known as the hero’s journey. The hero’s journey is both a physical and personal journey in which the hero ventures from their common world and into a realm of supernatural wonder where they encounter challenges, until they enter the “belly of the whale,” undergo an apotheosis and achieve the ultimate boon. They return to their common world changed, enlightened from their experiences and with a freedom over their life that they did not have before. I explore the tropes and elements of …

Genre Controversy: Human Universality Or Plagiarism In The Dystopian Genre?, Taylor V. Kingston

Honors Theses

In a fusion of behavioral psychology, evolutionary psychology, and literary analysis, this thesis considers the possibility that human nature dictates the types of rhetoric utilized in any given genre. Operant conditioning emerged as the governing device in a case study of the dystopian genre since readers must be made to associate fear or hope with particular government structures. Implicitly then, literature is molded into its genres by the human desires addressed by that genre’s reigning themes. This “mold” seems to have created a strain of novels within the dystopian genre that are so similar there have been accusations of plagiarism. …

Struggling Towards Salvation: Narrative Structure In James Baldwin's Go Tell It On The Mountain, Darren Spirk

Student Publications

This paper argues that John Grimes, the protagonist of James Baldwin's Go Tell It on the Mountain, represents the struggle inherent in the path towards salvation and holds the potential ability to break down the binaries that create this struggle. Of particular interest is a similarity in the narrative framing of John’s story with Jesus Christ's, as told in the four Gospels. The significance of both their symbolic power is dependent on a multitude of narrative viewpoints, in John’s case the tragic pasts offered of his aunt, father and mother in the novel’s medial section. Their stories inform the …

2015 Literary Review (No. 28), Sigma Tau Delta

The Greenleaf Review

No abstract provided.

From England's Bridewell To America's Brides: Imprisoned Women, Shakespeare's Measure For Measure, And Empire, Alicia Meyer

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This thesis examines the experience of largely single women in London’s house of correction, Bridewell Prison, and argues that Bridewell’s prisoners, and the nature of their crimes, reveal the state’s desire for dependent, sexually controlled, yet ultimately productive women. Scholars have largely neglected the place of early modern women’s imprisonment despite its pervasive presence in the everyday lives of common English women. By examining the historical and cultural implications of early modern women and prison, this thesis contends that women’s prisons were more than simply establishments of punishment and reform. A closer examination of Bridewell’s philosophy and practices shows how …

Scenes From The Gaijin Life, Ian M. Rogers

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Scenes from the Gaijin Life contains eight interconnected stories about foreigners (gaijin in Japanese) living and working as English teachers in urban Japan. It recounts their daily lives and initial struggles, their jobs and their nights out, their formal conversations and their personal ones. The first five stories use a detached, neutral narration that forces readers to interpret sensory details on their own, while the latter three use an omniscient narration that helps readers understand the characters’ interactions with Japan. Though the eight scenes are all different, they’re connected by estrangement, longing, uncertainty, and the characters’ ever-present dissatisfaction with …

Bradbury's Guy Montag: An Ontology Of Conflict And Fire, Kelcy Dolan

Senior Capstone Theses

Using the literary theory of Deconstruction, this paper explores the ontology of Guy Montag, the protagonist of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. By tracing Montag's journey towards individuality, as seen throughout his relationship to characters, but also the motif of fire itself, throughout the novel we find that in his search for it Montag simultaneously negates any individuality he may gain.

The Grimm Brothers: An Interpretation Of Capitalistic Demands And Desires, Rebecca Cicalese

Senior Capstone Theses

This paper explores how Marxism, particularly the teachings of Karl Marx, are echoed in lesser-known Grimm Brothers Fairy Tales. I will focus on “The Maiden without Hands,” “The Juniper Tree,” and “The Boy Who Went Forth to Learn Fear.” My overall argument is that within the mystical world the Grimm Brothers create in their legendary fairy tales, components of Marxism exist and are purposefully written into the stories. As seen through the eyes of both Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm, the society existing within the fairy tales are commodity based. The “monsters” are seen as the laborers who must comply with …

Aviation Cinema, Kevin L. Ferguson

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Body + Power + Justice: Movement-Based Workshops For Critical Tutor Education, Beth Godbee, Moira Ozias, Jasmine Kar Tang

English Faculty Research and Publications

In this participatory article (with suggested activities, check-ins with the body, and freewriting), we use collaborative narrative inquiry to unpack considerations that underlie the planning, facilitation, and processing of a series of movement-based workshops. Critiquing liberal multiculturalist approaches in writing centers, we argue against the all-too-common flattening of differences and think through how embodiment helps us "work the hyphens" (Fine, 1998) or find "third ways" (Soja, 1996) that break open new possibilities for working and learning together toward equity and racial justice. In contrast to role-playing scenarios that characterize many tutor education practices, we suggest that centering the body through …

The Deconstruction Of (Para)Text In Alasdair Gray’S Poor Things, Lila Ibrahim

Masters Essays

No abstract provided.

“If That Diamond Ring Don’T Shine”: Models Of Consumerism, The Cultural Dialectic, And The Imperialist Economy Of George Eliot’S England In Daniel Deronda, Renee F. Berkheimer

Masters Essays

No abstract provided.

Bringing Survivor Discourse Into The Dominant Discourse, Erin R. Kelley

Masters Essays

No abstract provided.

Opus, 2014-2015, Issue Xiii, Suny Geneseo English Club

Opus

Artwork
6 Michelle Moshon, Neverland
8 Edwin Mycek, Spring's First Step
9 Klarisa Loft, White Stripe
10 Klarisa Loft, Friends
12 Alexis Sammler, Tonal Still Life
15 Nivedita Rajan, Keyhole
16 Klarisa Loft, Open
17 Joey O'Connor, Glitz
18 Alexis Sammler, Mother Nature
20 Michelle Moshon, Wo!f
24 Klarisa Loft, Wax Warmth
30 Alexis Sammler, Sean and Anne
31 Alexis Sammler, Se!f Portrait if Alexis Sammler

Prose, Poetry
5 Sarah Simon, man muse on
6 Tyler Their, A Bard Striding in Nether Trills Hath Expired
7 Nivedita Rajan, The Stories
9 Kelsey Teglash, Gray
10 Tyler Their, Untitled
11 William …

The Depiction Of The Holocaust Within The Theme Of Escape In Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures Of Kavalier & Clay, Deirdre Toeller-Novak

Masters Theses

Escape sounds like a ram’s horn throughout Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, looming large in the lives of his mostly Jewish characters. Only one, Josef Kavalier, is intimately tied to and escapes the Holocaust which destroys his entire family. The horrors of the Holocaust, however, cast a shadow that hovers over nearly every chapter of Chabon’s 636-page novel. For most of the novel’s other characters, intent on plotting their own escapes, the events of the Holocaust remain 4,000 miles away. Americans, Jew and gentile, politically astute and clueless, laborer and capitalist, prefer to maintain a …

Volume 07, Rachel C. Lombardi, Ben Osterhout, Lindsay Graybill, Rebecca E. Dey, Skyler T. Carpenter, Emma Beckett, Jason Ware, Mollie Andrews, James Bates, Landon Cooper, Tiffani Jeffries, Maria Wheaton, Dallas Price, Laura Kahler, Sarah Charlton, Anna Bultrowicz, Emily Spittle, Erin Godwin, Eamon Brokenbrough

Incite: The Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship

Introduction from Interim Dean Dr. Jennifer Apperson

Spatial Analysis of Potential Risk Factors Associated with Addition of Atlantic Coast Pipeline Through Virginia by Rachel C. Lombardi

"Delicate Matters with No Speaking," "Hope and Nothing," "Mono Duality" by Ben Osterhout

"Connect" Graphic Design Senior Project by Lindsay Graybill

Phenolic Acids in Brassicaceae Plants: Ovipositional Stimulants or Deterrents for Cabbage White Butterfly, Pieris Rapae? by Rebecca E. Dey And Skyler T. Carpenter

"Abecedarian Cards" by Emma Beckett, Jason Ware, And Mollie Andrews

Helvetica: A Type Specimen Book by James Bates, Landon Cooper, Tiffani Jeffries, And Maria Wheaton

“Things Left Behind” by Dallas …

Mostly True: An Exploration Of My Family History, Jessica Urban

Honors Theses

Family histories are tricky things, especially when the people in the stories don't necessarily want to talk about their pasts. My family immigrated to the US in the early 1800's, many to escape the anti-Semitism that was rampant in their countries. Through a series of personal interviews, family stories passed down from generation to generation, and my own imagination to fill in the gaps, I have compiled a series of short stories about my family and their lives in America from their arrival here in the 1800's to the present day. Although each family has a different story to tell, …

A Single Man Of Good Fortune: Postmodern Identities And Consumerism In The New Novel Of Manners, Bonnie Mclean

Dissertations (1934 -)

In my dissertation, I argue that the novel of manners, while sometimes considered a moribund genre, presents itself as a genre relevant to contemporary criticism of social change from consensus politics to privatization both at governmental and domestic levels. I establish both key terms, cultural and theoretical trends, and define the novel of manners in context as a historical genre and a contemporary one. I further explore the novel of manners as a commentary on social and moral problems, particularly in tensions between social morality and individual morality that emerge when manners break down, a concept originally highlighted by Henry …

Julian Of Norwich: Voicing The Vernacular, Therese Elaine Novotny

Dissertations (1934 -)

Julian of Norwich (1342-1416), the subject of my dissertation, was a Christian mystic whose writings, Revelation of Love and A Book of Showings, are the earliest surviving texts in the English language written by a woman. The question that has puzzled scholars is how could a woman of her time express her vision in such innovative and literary language? The reason scholars have puzzled over this for centuries is that women had been denied access to traditional education. Some scholars have answered this problem through close textual comparisons linking her text to those in the patristic tradition or through modern …

Stopping At Stoppard: Decompositional Linguistic Models And Deconstructionism In Stoppard’S The Real Inspector Hound And Arcadia, Erin Gough

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

This thesis will develop connections between the decomposition of binaries in the cognitive linguistic model of prototype theory and the deconstructionism of binaries in the literary critical theory of deconstructionism, focusing on Tom Stoppard’s The Real Inspector Hound to show the operation of the theory in literature and using on Stoppard’s Arcadia as an example of an application of prototype theory as a critical lens. Prototype theory is a linguistically and psychologically-based theory of categorization which rejects the definition of categorization found in classical theory. Deconstructionism is a reaction to and a partial rejection of structuralism, and teaches that language …

Young Adult Dystopian Literature As Social Change Evolution, Rachel L. Scherzer

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Projects

In recent years, the mass popularity of young adult dystopian novels has led literary scholars to question the rise in popularity and the impact of such novels. This project explores the social justice potential of dystopian fiction, especially young adult dystopias, to act as a model for the way that rebellion can be an important and useful tool in standing up against injustice in society.

Using Suzanne Collin’s The Hunger Games, this project argues that young adult dystopian fiction can model for young people a personal evolution in understanding social change and the revolutionary possibility of actively standing up …

Asunder, By Jodi Meadows. Reviewed By Shiloh Carroll., Shiloh Carroll

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.

Station Eleven, By Emily St. John Mandel. Reviewed By Jason Fisher., Jason Fisher

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.

Graphic Novels In The English Language Arts: Teacher Use Of Multiple Texts And Literacies In The Classroom, Emmy Talian , '15

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

This thesis examines the how and why of use of graphic texts in the teaching practice of six secondary English teachers. Through a semi-structured interview study, I investigated how they discussed their use of graphic texts, focusing on how they taught the visual portions, why they chose the texts they did, as well as how these texts fit into their larger curriculum. I found that teachers' attention to visual and multimodal potential in graphic texts exists on a spectrum, ranging from a lack of focus to primary focus in the course. Their reasons behind using these texts included the importance …

Review Of Barbara K. Seeber, Jane Austen And Animals, Lucinda Cole

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

In this review of Barbara K. Seeber's Jane Austen and Animals (Ashgate, 2013) Lucinda Cole summarizes this foundational book and emphasizes the role of animal studies scholars in linking feminism and environmental issues.

Review Of Helen E.M. Brooks, Actresses, Gender, And The Eighteenth-Century Stage: Playing Women, Leslie Ritchie

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

No abstract provided.