English Language and Literature Commons^™

Contextualizing The Writings Of J.R.R. Tolkien On Literary Criticism, Sherrylyn Branchaw

Journal of Tolkien Research

This essay offers a reinterpretation of Tolkien's writings about literary criticism, which are focused on Beowulf, fairy stories, and his own works. Whereas his writings have often been taken to mean that analytic scholarship is not valid and should not be pursued, my essay takes the intellectual climate of the time into consideration and offers an alternative interpretation, according to which he did not mean to forbid these studies outright and indeed intended that scholars should continue writing them. The essay ends with a call to academics not to be discouraged by his strong language from producing analytic studies.

Erin O'Connor, Class Of 2015, Musselman Library, Erin C. O'Connor

Next Page

In this current issue of Next Page, Erin O'Connor, Class of 2015 and winner of this year's Silent Leader Award, tells us which influential courses and works inspired her to develop her own major, Diversity and Development in Education, what conversation she would like to have with Paulo Freire if given the chance, and which books are on her "To Read" list for after graduation.

Women's Narratives Of Confinement: Domestic Chores As Threads Of Resistance And Healing, Jacqueline Marie Smith

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The term "narratives of confinement" redefines the parameters by which first-person, fictive and non-fictive, accounts of female captivity are classified, broadening the genre beyond Indian captivity narratives and slave narratives to include other works in which female narrators describe physical and/or psychological confinement due to tangible or non-tangible forces. Often these narratives exhibit the transformation of the drudgery of housewifery into powerful symbols of resistance and subversion, especially in reaction to traumatic events related to confinement. Needlework and food, including its preparation and distribution, frequently emerge as metaphors that express the ways in which disempowered women seek to regain control …

Superheroes Unmasked, Jillian M. Malone

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

In this assignment, I was asked to analyze one rhetorical strategy in the graphic novel Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. I was also asked to consider the Catholic Intellectual Tradition as a rhetorical context. As the class read the book, we had in-class writing assignments that helped us trace our strategy throughout the text and develop our analysis that would eventually become the backbone of our papers. I used these in-class assignments along with my notes on the book to create a comprehensive list of every flashback in the novel. I used this list to develop my thesis …

Rhetorical Analysis On "It's Not As Simple As It Seems", Nathan Machel

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

I wrote this essay as an assignment for my English class, themed Remix Culture. Throughout the course, we examined the originality and even legality of numerous "remix" art forms from music mash ups to a classic novel. Delving further into the legality aspect, we examined the extent to which different works were plagiarized. Did Robin Thicke steal the beat for "Blurred Lines"? Did Harriet Beecher Stowe write Uncle Tom’s Cabin? Or did God write it, as she claimed? Is anything truly original? Or is everything a derivative of some pre-existing elements? In "It's Not as Simple as It Seems," …

Texts Tell Truths, Emma R. Venetis

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

The assignment for this essay was to provide a close reading analysis of a writing or visual strategy in the novel Watchmen by Dave Gibbons and Alan Moore, while making connections to how this strategy relates (or doesn't) to the Catholic Intellectual Tradition (CIT). To get started on this essay, I looked through various in-class writings we had done regarding rhetorical strategies in this novel. I also reviewed information about the CIT and typed a two-page-long brainstorm of all the rhetorical strategies I found that interested me, and the connections I could find between those and CIT. After deciding on …

Slenderize Me: Youth's Infatuation With Images In The Media, Madeline W. Collins

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

I began to compose this research paper based on an assignment in my English 200H Writing Seminar. The assignment was to use original and unoriginal research to argue and prove an opinion about a gender-related issue. I began the process by researching online articles about the effects of the images in the media on young adults. Being a young woman in the era of technology made me very interested in how the increased media exposure of today negatively affects the confidence levels and body images of myself and other girls my age. After gathering baseline information from online academic articles, …

Legitimacy Of Fan Fiction, Daniel J. Fesenmeier

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

The process began began by exploring different possible topics related to the class theme of "remix culture". From there I met with Professor Biswas and formulated a strong thesis for my argument. Then I found sources applicable to my topic. I next constructed an outline, created a rough draft, had my draft peer edited by fellow students and Professor Biswas, and finally made appropriate revisions.

Forging Family Ties, Kristin Davis

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

The assignment for this essay was to develop an argument related to gender in the United States and to use your own original research in addition to other sources. First, I thought about prominent issues in the United States and decided to focus on prejudice against homosexual couples who were attempting to adopt children. After doing some initial research, I decided that homosexual adoption rights need to be expanded on in the United States. I did more research on databases and in Roesch Library to find sources that would both support my side of the issue, but also some sources …

Just Desserts: Recipe Copyright And The Plagiarism Of Edible Creations, Allyson M. Ayoob

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

The theme of my ENG 200H class was "Remix Culture," which caused my classmates and me to explore the meanings of concepts such as creativity, authorship, originality, and plagiarism. My newfound interest in intellectual property law joined with my business major and a passion for food to create the topic of my research paper. The writing process was both fun and challenging, as I researched recipe copyright and came up with my own solutions to address this growing problem. As my paper evolved, I wrote and edited three drafts with the help of the constructive criticism of my professor and …

The Fight To The Top Of Educational Ladder, Nneoma M. Ezenagu

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

I completed this essay as part of my literacy narrative assignment. The essay narrated the story of a very significant part of my literacy journey. I included a lot of details to enable readers relate to my story and to make my essay clear and concise. I completed one draft of the essay, but with in class peer review and a visit to the Write Place, I was able to edit and revise my essay.

The Way I Learned To Read And Write, Jing Dang

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

In order to write this narrative essay, I began by brainstorming, and I thought about my early experiences of reading and writing. After I wrote the first draft, I took my paper to the Write Place and made some corrections based on what they told me. I also met with my professor and revised my paper again in order to create stronger transitions between paragraphs.

The Scent Of Bitter Almonds, Castellar Granados

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

I was asked to write this project for my English 100 class. I was supposed to describe my own journey learning to read and write and to tell the literacy sponsors that help me to improve my reading and writing skills. The aspect that I really enjoyed about this project was the fact that we had to write a literacy narrative. As I see it, this kind of production is the most enjoyable and I had a great time while writing it. I talked to my parents and teachers at high school and I had a reunion with my inner …

Pervasive Parable: Christ And Ligeia, Todd Workman

Student Works

Common readings of "Ligeia" involve the sinister and supernatural. For many critics, Ligeia is a witch by default, shrouded in sorcery and evil powers. Alan Brown uses this kind of idea in his article, “Edgar Allan Poe’s Use of Gothic Conventions in ‘Ligeia;’” as he argues that this tale exemplifies the use of the Gothic (109). Certainly, the story contains undeniable Gothic aspects. Brown, though, fails to see certain evidence in any way other than the narrow Gothic scope. For Daryl E. Jones in “Poe’s Siren: Character and Meaning in Ligeia,” Ligeia is literally the siren from Greek myth, a …

The Happy Warrior: Wordsworthian Reception And The Georgian Tradition Of Siegfried Sassoon’S War Memoirs And Poems, Shane Peterson

Student Works

The following thesis analyzes how the poetry and aesthetic values of William Wordsworth inspired the Georgian poets who served in World War I and influenced the writings of Siegfried Sassoon.

The first section focuses on how Wordsworth became an essential part of the national literary character as a result of the war and how many Edwardian writers used his more nationalistic poems to defend England’s imperial interests and the war effort against Germany. The following section compares the Edwardians to the Georgians, who were essentially neo-romantics that adopted Wordsworth’s poetic style, particularly the Romantic lyric and the pastoral mode. Georgians …

You Grow This Way: An Analysis Of Mother And Daughter Selves In Anne Sexton’S Poem “Little Girl, My Stringbean, My Lovely Woman, Kennerley Roper

Student Works

The maternal speaker in Anne Sexton's poem “Little Girl, My Stringbean, My Lovely Woman” speaks to her maturing daughter about the wonders of the female body by revising the literary tradition that already exists about the female body. What the speaker ultimately conveys to her daughter is the power the body has through the use of parallel body and earth imagery. However, the daughter is distanced from this notion through a contrasting image: the string bean. The speaker uses that distance to show the mixed images of entanglement and separation of mother and daughter in order to expound wisdom to …

"Pain, Death, And Nazis: The Surprisingly Beautiful Function Death Plays As Narrator In Markus Zusak's The Book Thief,", Sarah K. Johnson

Student Works

Death, pain, illness, and war often feature heavily into the plots of Young Adult fiction, and Markus Zusak's The Book Thief is no exception. However, by presenting Death as the narrator of the novel, Zusak allows an outside, impartial view of humanity's pain, its causes, its effects, and its meanings. Through a close reading of The Book Thief this paper discovers that Death as a narrator reveals that pain is both unavoidable and necessary to life. Furthermore, though most everyone fears death, life, not death, causes the true pain. Through Death's haunting narration, pain confers eventual strength, endurance, and power. …

Black Intellectuals: The Transient Space Of Cultural Translation, Marissa Compton

Student Works

Among the many similarities between Wole Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman and Lorraine Hansberry’s Les Blancs, the similar storylines surrounding the black intellectual figures is among the most important, because the shared narrative allows each text to engage in a larger conversation concerning the role of intellectuals in the black community. Soyinka and Hansberry initially highlight the in-betweenness of black intellectuals as a seemingly positive mediatory role that allow for cultural translation and negotiation. Despite this initially positive perspective, Soyinka and Hansberry’s exploration of the mediatory role’s advantages is ultimately used to add weight the authors’ dramatization of …

The Folks Of The Postapocalypse: The Road, Religion, And Folklore Studies, Megan M. Toone

Student Works

Please use abstract submitted to enter conference if possible.

Presence In Absence In Shakespeare's King Lear, Kimberly Austin

Student Works

King Lear is imbedded with hidden Christian themes, expressed through characters like Cordelia and the Fool, to show that salvation and redemption can only be obtained in a world with Christ. The audience recognizes the absence of Christian principles in the play and through our desire for Christianity it becomes a present theme.The theory of presence in absence becomes clearer when analyzing Cordelia and the Fool. Their characteristics mimic those of Christ which reminds the audience of his absence in the play. Throughout the play King Lear repeats the theory of “nothing from nothing” and by analyzing this theme through …

Navigating Collective Activity Systems: An Approach Towards Rhetorical Inquiry, Katherine Jesse Royce

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this formative intervention was to design a professional and technical communications course around rhetorical inquiry. The participants, undergraduate health sciences majors (N=22 for section A, N=20 section B), were observed throughout the fall semester of the 2014-2015 academic year. A rhetorical inquiry framework was applied via activity systems, and data were collected using several methodologies including participant observations, research questionnaires, as well as participant deliverables, and were transcribed using Daisy Mwanza's Eight-Step Model. Results demonstrated students successfully used activity systems as a means of approaching rhetorical inquiry. Furthermore, students indicated a high level of engagement in the …

The Best Children's Books Of The Year [2016 Edition], Bank Street College Of Education. Children's Book Committee

The Center for Children's Literature

Includes more than 600 titles chosen by the Children’s Book Committee as the best of the best published in 2015. In choosing books for the annual list, committee members consider literary quality and excellence of presentation as well as the potential emotional impact of the books on young readers. Other criteria include credibility of characterization and plot, authenticity of time and place, age suitability, positive treatment of ethnic and religious differences, and the absence of stereotypes.

Is Literature Above Politics? James Joyce As An Author Of “Political Enthusiasm”, Lesli A. Mortensen

Student Works

James Joyce's stories "The Dead" and "Eveline" can be considered as "literatures of enthusiasm," a term previously used only to classify political literature in the American Revolution. By showing that Joyce joins in the tradition of writing "literatures of enthusiasm," or works that inspire revolution against colonial power and influence, readers can see how this strategy served to promote a postcolonial literary tradition in Ireland. Joyce sought to inspire the creation of a national identity in the wake of generations of British imperialism, as American authors did during the Revolutionary War. Joyce works towards this goal of inspiring social change …

The Power Of Speech: Speech-Recognition Software In The Writing Process, Lauren Fine

Student Works

Individual writing conferences—whether in writing centers or as extensions of composition classroom instruction—presume that talk about writing improves students’ writing. Composition scholars have discussed the benefits of prewriting or revising using speech. For instance, Leander and Prior (2004) have show how such conversations between students and teachers make their way into students’ writing. Woerkum (2007) has likewise demonstrated how considering readers’ oral responses can help technical writers integrate natural speech rhythms into their revisions. Elbow (2012) suggests these natural speech rhythms can mitigate several difficulties of writing, from prewriting to revision.

P-05 A Study In Red: The Codification And Practical Application Of A Copyediting Procedure, Nathan Berglund

Honors Scholars & Undergraduate Research Poster Symposium Programs

Editing is an integral part of publishing professional-level writing, but editing—specifically copyediting—can be very subjective, relying on the copyeditor’s best judgment. For novice editors such as myself, this responsibility can be intimidating. For this research project, I formulated and tested a step-by-step copyediting procedure aimed at alleviating these jitters. By reading copyediting guides and interviewing four active copyeditors, I developed a procedure. I then tested that procedure on Timothy Huck’s 115-page manuscript, The Lights of the Arno: A Novel. I conclude that even with a standardized editing methodology, editors will always need to rely on their subjective judgment.

P-14 Discourse And Narrative: Creating Gender Control In Junot Diaz’S The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao, Charles Lee

Honors Scholars & Undergraduate Research Poster Symposium Programs

Junot Diaz’s Pulitzer-Prize-Winning 2007 novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao explores Dominican masculinity through narrator Yunior de Las Casas’s portrayal of protagonist Oscar de León’s family history. Yunior’s perceived virility shapes his understanding of masculinity, which he stresses through the novel’s plot and structure. This analysis considers how Yunior constructs Dominican masculinity through his narrative by marginalizing and emasculating passive characters such as Oscar. I argue that Yunior’s narrative closely links definitions of masculinity and power as he strives to dominate passive characters in order to assert his virility as the “best” method for being a Dominican man.

P-20 “The Story Which He Never Stops Telling Himself”: Autobiography, Narrative Community, And The Deconstruction Of Selfhood In Virginia Woolf’S The Waves, Melodie Roschman

Honors Scholars & Undergraduate Research Poster Symposium Programs

This paper examines narrative, biography, and selfhood in Virginia Woolf’s The Waves (1931). The novel, a “play-poem,” follows six friends’ monologues from childhood to death. I analyze aspiring writer Bernard from his childhood of telling stories about companions to his inability to narrate his autobiography, arguing that he fails because he has no self to narrate. Referencing Jacques Derrida’s Of Grammatology’s (1974) theory of the deconstructed self identifiable only in conversation, I argue that Bernard destroys his identity by silencing his friends and becoming the sole speaker; Woolf’s biographical theory thereby establishes the communal self, prefiguring tenets of postmodern …

Discordant Desire: Morley’S Polyphony In Shakespeare’S Twelfth Night, Helen Plevka

2015 Awards for Excellence in Student Research and Creative Activity - Documents

From Orsino’s opening line, “If music be the food of love, play on,” to Feste’s concluding song of solitude, William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, or What You Will is relentlessly full of music, whether explicitly calling for sound or indirectly invoking references to musical ideas (1.1.1). Shakespeare utilizes music not only to entertain the listeners of his plays but also to employ its inane ability to enhance and empower human speech. The musicality of this play, first performed at a feast on February 2, 1602, would have been understood and appreciated by its original audience as Elizabethan England experienced a golden …

Fullness Of Life For Virginia Woolf And Mrs. Dalloway, Jared Hedges

Library Research Prize Student Works

The great eighteenth century pragmatist William James worried once that a particular philosophy was “too economical to be all-sufficient” (James 83). He goes on to say: “Profusion, not economy, may after all be reality’s key-note.” Virginia Woolf knew this instinctively and profoundly; indeed practically her entire body of work can be read as a comment on the fullness of life. Although she is better known for her writing’s detailed delicacy and her tragic suicide, it is her assertion of life’s profusion that contrasts her most starkly with other Modernist writers, for whom negation and “its correlative states—absence, void, emptiness, and …

Remediating The Past: Doing “Periodical Studies” In The Digital Era, Maria Dicenzo

English and Film Studies Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.