English Language and Literature Commons^™

Encouraging A "Kaleidoscope Of Views": Graphic Literature As A Tool For Informative Text Comprehension In The Secondary English Classroom, Chelsea Ellen Bergmann

Graduate Theses

Over the past decade, graphic literature has fueled the conversations of theory and criticism among scholars and educators alike. With the critical need to teach informative texts and college-ready skills in secondary schools, the debate arises on how these mediums can be further used to extend the capabilities of young readers in a 21st century global community. Thus far, the scholarship on graphic literature in the secondary English classroom proves to be helpful in certain areas, while revealing a gap in others. Missing wholly are discussions about targeted reading comprehension skills particularly related to informative texts and their writer’s purpose, …

Implementing Critical Analysis In The Classroom To Negate Southern Stereotypes In Multi-Media, Julie Broyhill

MA in English Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to bring attention to the continued strong stereotypes against those who live in the southern region of the United States, especially those living in the deep south. Using literary examples from Southern authors Zora Neale Hurston (Their Eyes Were Watching God), Delores Philips (The Darkest Child), and Dorothy Allison (Bastard Out of Carolina), as well as cartoons, movies, and the news media, this thesis stresses the importance of educators teaching how to apply critical analysis to literary works and other forms of multi-media in order to negate preconceived notions of Southern people.

Unfound, Samuel C. Kessler

Sierpinski’s Square

"Look on past the horizon and there; rest your eyes then. But alas, this place you cannot see, but you feel it from your core, tis what you seek, surely there; indeed, yes, that is where it rests; but "it" is not, and "where" is never near nor far, for you forget in onlook as you seek, the thing that lies beneath Your feet A dwelling place Of peace unfound."

Review Of Stephen Mitchell, Beowulf, Carol A. Leibiger

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Becoming Your Broken Cisterns: F. Scott Fitzgerald's Short-Fiction Treatment Of Religion, Richard W. Halkyard

Graduate Theses

The intention of my thesis is to reorient the popular vantage points whereby the masses view — and pigeonhole — author F. Scott Fitzgerald. Literary critics and cursory readers alike oftentimes fail to see how the writer’s foundational Catholic upbringing, and therefore, a religious inclination informed his craft. While Fitzgerald was raised Catholic, few literary critics acknowledge the pattern of religious thematics and imagery Fitzgerald implemented throughout the course of his career. Among those select critics — including Joan Allen, Alice Hall Petry, and Edward Gillin — none argue for a positive relationship between Fitzgerald and the Christian God. I …

Echoes Of Legend: Magic As The Bridge Between A Pagan Past And A Christian Future In Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte Darthur, Josh Mangle

Graduate Theses

Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte Darthur is a text that tells the story of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. Malory wrote this tale by synthesizing various Arthurian sources, the most important of which being the Post-Vulgate cycle. Malory’s work features a division between the Christian realm of Camelot and the pagan forces trying to destroy it. Throughout the thesis, I use a variety of scholarship to examine magic and argue that magic is as essential to the plot of Le Morte Darthur as Christianity is. In chapter one, I review the existing literature that is available …

How Queer Came To Be: Deconstructing White Queerness In Melville's "Bartleby," Ginsberg's Howl, And Morrison's A Mercy, Sara Elizabeth Parnell Wilcox

Graduate Theses

In American LGBTQ+ communities, questions continually arise about what it means to live in a post-gay marriage world. Is there still a need for a division between LGBTQ+ and heteronormative spaces, such as nightclubs or parades? What purpose does the ideological signification of a queer identity serve if, ostensibly, queer communities are now equal with their heteronormative counterparts? Rather than accepting the homonormative, post-gay marriage premise that underlies frequent, current representations of “queerness” in terms of white, male, gay bodies, I plan to explore the convergence of aesthetics and politics as a method of freeing queer theory from some of …

A Kingly Trichotomy: Spirituality, Lineage, And Deeds In Beowulf And The Lord Of The Rings, Lydia Anvar

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Beowulf and The Lord of the Rings both present complex narratives of an individual using spiritual favor, heroic deeds, and a notable heritage to affirm their right to rule as king. By doing a close reading of this ancient epic alongside J.R.R Tolkien’s modern fantasy, one can understand the various ways that the kings in these texts have drawn power from these distinct realms of authority. In Beowulf, the title character’s successful acts of warfare affirm his spiritual favor, and the poem demonstrates that one can construct a heritage using their self-made reputation. Unlike Beowulf, Aragorn’s solidified, sacred …

Writing Under The Influence: The Effects Of Opium On John Keats' Poetry, Katherine Moffitt

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The poetry of John Keats, a Romantic Era poet who lived from 1795 to 1821, has been widely studied, but most critics have dismissed his use of drugs, specifically opium, to alter his writing. This thesis looks at the scientific effects of opium along with personal accounts of the drug’s use and combines such an investigation with a close reading of Keats’s later poetry to determine what effects opium may have had upon his writing style and content. Particular areas of poetic content include Keats’s sensory imagery and dream-state references.

Lol!, Taylor Eddy

Undergraduate Research Celebration 2018

No abstract provided.

Anti-Crusoes, Alternative Crusoes: Revisions Of The Island Story In The Twentieth Century, Ann Marie Fallon

Arts and Sciences Administration Publications

In lieu of an abstract, here are the chapter's first two paragraphs:

Everyone thinks they know the plot of Robinson Crusoe. The story of the man who is shipwrecked on an island alone is ubiquitous and feels deeply familiar, even for those who have not read it. Robinson Crusoe has been plagiarized, cannibalized, and serialized almost since the moment it hit the streets of London in 1719. Here is a passage from an Argentinean novel by Victoria Slavuski published in 1993 that captures the sense of familiarity and also the distance twentieth-century readers have in their relationship to Robinson …

The Rhetoric Of Academic Discourse: A Qualitative, Phenomenological Study Of Students' Self-Investigation Of The Acquisition Of Academic Discourse In First-Year Writing Courses, Barbara E. Morgan

English Dissertations - Archive

Whether at a four-year university or a two-year community college, students who choose to pursue higher education will likely be required to demonstrate their eligibility to enroll in college-level writing courses. At a vast majority of colleges and universities in the United States, such eligibility is determined through various means that include college placement tests, like AccuPlacer®, or other standardized assessments and determinants. Once students are deemed prepared or eligible to enroll in college-level writing courses, their academic journeys often include some form of the compulsory first-year English classes. These courses, also known as freshman writing or composition courses, have …

Leaning Into The Party, Stephen Roberts

Bryant Literary Review

I was having a good time at the party
until I leaned back on the door frame

Block Island Haiku, Fred Yannantuono

Bryant Literary Review

So many hatchbacks.

What Are Slaves?, Sarah Yarbrough, Sami Solberg

United States Race and Childhood Fiction

What Are Slaves? is about an eight-year-old, biracial boy named Danny who visits a historical antebellum era plantation with his mother. While observing the now present day museum, a picture of slave children working in a field catches Danny’s eye. Curious and having never learned about slaves, Danny inquires to his mother about what the children his age are doing. Danny’s mother gives him an explanation of what slaves are and how they ended up in their situation. Going from one photo exhibit to another, Danny asks his mother for reasons regarding the slaves’ appearance, workload, and education, all of …

Language: The Amicable Monster In Arrival By Denis Villeneuve, Nicolas Franco-Roldan

Emerging Writers

Second-place winner in the Academic Category of the 2018 Emerging Writers Contest. The essay analyzes the use of language and its depiction as monstrous in Denis Villeneuve's film Arrival.

Introducing Godzilla To Marianne Moore's Octopus Of Ice At The Intersection Of Global Warming, Environmental Philosophy, And Poetry, David Seter

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

This paper explores the question: how can a poet write an ecologically aware poem about global warming? Global warming impacts everything on earth, most visibly the glaciers melting away before our eyes. Adopting Aldo Leopold’s environmental philosophy of thinking like a mountain, the poet may describe the impact of global warming upon the mountain, glacier, flora and fauna, that form an interconnected web of life. A poem that thinks like a mountain already exists: Marianne Moore’s “An Octopus” (published in 1924), which takes its title from the system of glaciers (or octopus of ice) on Mt. Rainier. For a contemporary …

Who Died: Redefining The Elegy Through Affect And Trauma, Brittney La Noire

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

This project introduces the claim that death literature, specifically elegies and epitaphs, do not rely on set structure or content, but rather are poetic effects of trauma and affect. Both have been defined and redefined by critical scholars, but there is still a division about their use. The beginning of the project will pull together Paul De Man, Cathy Caruth, Theresa Brennan, and Diana Fuss to apply the theoretical principle of trauma and affect transhistorically through Theocritus, John Milton, and Percy Shelley. The final portion will be an original creative collection of elegies combined with epitaphs as ending couplets about …

The Lost Artist: Biographical Fiction And The Identity Of Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald, Alexandra Fradelizio

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald (1900-1948) is widely regarded as the first flapper of the Roaring 20s and is often recognized for her tumultuous marriage to acclaimed American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. As a female icon whose life was filled with salacious incidences and mental struggles, the image of Zelda continues to be reinterpreted in various movies, television series, and novels. However, very few center on her artistic pursuits of writing, painting, or dancing and how her desires to contribute to the art world were overshadowed and disrupted by her successful husband. Therese Anne Fowler’s Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald (2013), …

Poem No. 119, May 2018, 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.

Eating The Whale, Mitch Lescarbeau

Bryant Literary Review

He brings the sizzling strip
on a bone china plate.

Ennis, Ruth Holzer

Bryant Literary Review

The dusty road to Ennis
rose up to meet me
like a blessing,

What's Going On, Ruth Holzer

Bryant Literary Review

I'm making my way through the stormy night,
a long road back, after I've left Father

Wildfire, Charles Laird Calia

Bryant Literary Review

For months there was no rain or very little, the mountain grasses were dry, prone to lightning strikes and wildfires, and Frank could see the river far from his little cabin, just beyond Federal land, drying up before his eyes.

Perseids, Deborah Fleming

Bryant Literary Review

Mid-August and the hemisphere
Now turns its head away from light;

Peasant Woman In Gascony, Deborah Fleming

Bryant Literary Review

1972

Under the shadow of the Pyrenees
In a field at the bottom of a hillside,

Heat Wave: November In Vermont, Mitch Lescarbeau

Bryant Literary Review

The world's askew:
there should be packed pads

My Date With The Scientist, Kristy Nielsen

Bryant Literary Review

He tells me even land has tides,
pulled like water by the moon.

What Is, Stephen Malin

Bryant Literary Review

It is what it is
unless of course
it isn't in which case

With A Phone Call To Heaven, Bill Hoadley

Bryant Literary Review

I wish I had a phone
that could talk straight to heaven.