English Language and Literature Commons^™

Ma Portfolio, Jessica Eylem

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

This portfolio fulfills the requirements for my MA in Literary and Textual Studies.

Fire To Vellum, Jessica L. Warren

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Oswic’s simple life changed the day his mother died from poison. After finding a strange cache of trinkets and books in the loft of the barn, he begins to question everything and everyone he has known, including reality. Forced from his land and his home, Oswic takes his plough horse, the few fragments of truth from his life, and leaves Hægelfirth in search of the one person he believes can tell him of his past, the storyteller. But, it won’t be his past he needs to worry about when he starts to slip in and out of reality; seeing the …

My Poetry Writing, My Defeat Of Illusion, Binghui Jin

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Poetry writing is a valuable treasure of literacy. As an international student from China, I created this poetry collection as an illustration of my own understanding, internalization, and admiration of poetic expression in English between American and Chinese cultures. This cultural collusion mainly focuses on human relationships, especially romantic relationships and family love, as well as personal emotions, and the meaning of life. In order to do that, I returned to the work of classic Chinese poets, especially Su Shi, whose work is the basis for my sense of poetry. His poetic style of rhyming and creating images rooted in …

“We Carry These Conflicts, These Ruptures Of History:” The Hybridity Of The Self In The Conflict Between Tradition And Modernity In Laleh Khadivi’S The Age Of Orphans, Karwan Karim Abdalrahman

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

This study presents a postcolonial reading of Laleh Khadivi’s The Age of Orphans based on the theories of Edward Said and Homi Bhabha. The project offers specific answers to several questions: can this novel be read through the lens of Bhabha’s theory of hybridity, and, if so, what does such a reading reveal about culture and identity in The Age of Orphans? The hybrid self is an experience wherein the postcolonial self holds the shades of two identities and cultures, namely the colonizer and the colonized. In other words, the protagonist Reza lives in a space that represents the …

Frankenstein’S Fixations: A Psychoanalytic Evolutionary Approach To Childhood, Sexuality, And Outsiders, Kaitlin Harris

Ursidae: The Undergraduate Research Journal at the University of Northern Colorado

By using Frankenstein as a case study, my project explores readers’ and characters’ experiences with others who might appear threatening. Furthermore, I intend to apply theories from psychoanalysis and evolutionary psychology to deconstruct the ambiguity of relations with others and the self in answering: can a psychoanalytic reading of Frankenstein display how evolutionary literary criticism, sublime, and the uncanny affect and inform us about human relations. My argument has displayed how castigating a living being away from society recapitulates an evolutionary cycle of unconscious abuse which the critics, themselves, have also encountered.

In-Between Spheres: Black Women's Exploitation Of Small Spaces In Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl And Uncle Tom's Cabin, Rhayna V. Kramer

Articulāte

Winner of the 2018-2019 Robert T. Wilson Award for Scholarly Writing

The Mythological Role Of The Hymen In Virginity Testing, Savannah Delgross

Articulāte

No abstract provided.

An Emersonian Theology, Pilar Birrell

Articulāte

No abstract provided.

Listen To Language: An Analysis Of Borders, Surfaces, And The Role Of Translation, Rosa Canales

Articulāte

No abstract provided.

Rescuing Feminine Voices From The Rubbish: The Feminist Implications Of "Meneseteung" And "This Is A Photograph Of Me", Brenna Raeder

Articulāte

No abstract provided.

"Carrying The Sins Of Others": The Theology Of Redemption And Experiences Of Black Womanhood In Pauline Hopkins' Contending Forces, Sophia Menconi

Articulāte

Winner of the 2017 Robert T. Nelson Award for Scholarly Writing

Sula, Literary Scapegoats, And Contemporary Black Women, Isabella Luaces

Articulāte

No abstract provided.

Not The Final Frontier: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Ronald Reagan's Challenger Eulogy, Stephanie Gorsek

Articulāte

No abstract provided.

A Woman's Song: The Power Of Women's Voices In Victoria Era Stories, Madeline Bellmen

Articulāte

No abstract provided.

Cultivating A New Educator: Teacher And Students Sharing Growth, Megan Campbell

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

This is Megan Campell-Looney's final portfolio for her M.A. in English (with a specialization in teaching). It includes a reflective narrative and four revised pieces: "A Murderous Moral Tale: Depictions of the Ideal Victorian in Wilkie Collins' Jezebel's Daughter," "Critical Thinking and Counseling Through the Power of Literature," Developing an American Identity: Syllabus and Assignment Plan," and "Evolving and Adapting Rhetoric and Theory: Indigenous Theory Writing Back." The portfolio focuses on research and study that developed Looney's classroom pedagogy and philosophy. Students and educators both must write back to gain the agency needed for growth.

Improving Student Learning: An English Teacher’S Research, Planning, And Analysis Journey, Rachel Lantz

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

This final portfolio was submitted to the English Department of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the field of English with a specialization in English Teaching. The projects contained in the portfolio exhibit the journey of research, planning and analysis. The portfolio contains: a substantive research paper, a teaching based project, a combination of a substantial research and a teaching-based project, and a literary theory paper.

Does Money Indeed Buy Happiness? “The Forms Of Capital” In Fitzgerald’S Gatsby And Watts’ No One Is Coming To Save Us, Allie Harrison Vernon

English (MA) Theses

Looking primarily at two critically acclaimed texts that concern themselves with American citizenship—F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Stephanie Powell Watts’ No One is Coming to Save Us—I analyze the claims made about citizenship identities, rights, and consequential access to said rights. I ask, how do these narratives about citizenship sustain, create, or re-envision American myth? Similarly, how do the narratives interact with the dominant culture at large? Do any of these texts achieve oppositional value, and/or modify the complex hegemonic structure? I use Pierre Bourdieu’s “The Forms of Capital” to investigate the ways in which economic, cultural, …

Perplexed Poetics: Romanticism And The Vortex Of Ideologies, Jaime Luque Lau

Student Theses and Dissertations

In three parts, this thesis explores the tension between the critical and emotional poetics in Romantic poetry, as well as the entanglement of individual will and politics. As a point of entrance, the first part focuses on the major and current trends of scholarly discourses about Romanticism. I will examine Jerome McGann’s influential book of criticism on Romanticism, Romantic Ideology, in juxtaposition with Marc Redfield’s The Politics of Aesthetics: Nationalism, Gender, Romanticism. In particular, the discussion of the two books suggest the problems of aesthetic-political and historical discourses; specifically, I argue that McGann’s critical examination of “Romantic ideology” …

Enriching Human Capital: How To Empower Esl/Fl Learners Through P2p Design To Instruction, Christopher Carey

Master's Projects and Capstones

This field project seeks marry students’ desire for classroom collaboration with a shift to student-centered instruction. It demonstrates how such collaboration can increase student engagement and motivation while lowering their anxiety and inhibitions toward foreign language learning. Potential opportunities for cross-curricular collaboration are also highlighted to better satisfy students' academic and emotional needs. This project includes an interest-based language acquisition manual designed to elicit an authentic exchange of language and culture between ESL/FL students working in pairs.

Nearly 20% of the entire LHS student body, accounting for the struggles of ELL students – low graduation rate and high chronic absenteeism …

“Rewriting The Rules:” Postcolonial Perspectives On Contemporary Young Adult Literature, Ryan Moore

Augsburg Honors Review

Literature has long been the foundation of the English Language Arts (ELA) classroom. It is through the reading and exploration of literature that ELA teachers and their students achieve learning objectives and course standards; additionally, it should be a goal of every ELA teacher to present students with literature that they will find engaging, challenging, and enjoyable. When the importance of literature to the ELA classroom is fully considered, it is logical to assume great care should go into the selection of the texts used. There seems, however, to be a tendency for schools to lean back on the same …

Identity: A Final Ma Portfolio, Lloyd Evans

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

This is the portfolio submission for my Master's in English with a specialization in English Teaching.

The Queer Literature Club, Olivia Behm

Honors Projects

The Queer Literature Club was established August 30, 2018 with the purpose of distributing young adult literature with LGBTQ+ characters and themes as well as providing a space space for LGBTQ+ students. The QLC spent the 2018-2019 academic year establishing itself as a thriving community and has gained standing as an officially recognized campus organization. The club is open to students who want to see themselves reflected in the literature they read - literature meant for an age that is particularly difficult for LGBTQ+ youth - and allies. Through the progression of the year, it was found that the QLC …

"Are You There, Dog? It's Me, Riley": Poems, Riley Christine O'Connell

Canterbury Scholars

The end product of Riley O'Connell's Canterbury Fellowship, these poems, ranging in topic from family and loss to love and dogs, were composed over the course of Riley's four years at SCU, included but not limited to her time at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford University, where she taught creative writing therapy for her Canterbury.

Seeking Asylum: Communities Of Madwomen In Post-1945 American Novels, Rose Miyatsu

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

After the end of World War II, the number of mental hospitals in America rose dramatically, as did national attention to mental illness and its treatment. Caught up in these institutions were not just men returning from war with shell shock and other psychological disorders, but also a growing number of women who were finding it difficult to navigate their changing roles in a persistently patriarchal society. This dissertation examines novels that have been written about women in mental asylums in the last half of the twentieth century to argue that this subgenre of American literature, which I will call …

Eng 150 U. S. Literature And Thought (19th C. American Literatue), Susan Amper

Open Educational Resources

Why do so many women in 19^th c. American fiction end up dead? Why are so many men in 19^th c. American fiction single or why do they murder their wives to gain that status? Why does no superhero have a wife? The answers to all these questions and more can be found in this class. America, in the 19^th c. had a literary Renaissance—a kind of rebirth. Most of the works we are going to study were produced in the short span of 35 years from 1835 to 1850. And not only was there a lot …

Network Poetics: Studies In Early Modern Literary Collaboration, John Ladd

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Literature scholars often consider the seventeenth century to be the period in which the role of the individual author as we know it today was consolidated, strengthened, or even invented. Scholars of collaboration, most notably Jeffrey Masten in his book Textual Intercourse, tend to treat the phenomenon of joint literary work as limited to coauthorship and either to specific genres (usually drama) or specific periods in time (usually 1590 to 1620). In this model, collaborative environments give way to authorial ones, particularly in Restoration England as the position of the professional author was strengthened by changes in publishing practices. However …

The Function Of Role Models In The Identity Development Of African American Male Adolescents And Young Adults, Gensis Galan

Honors Program Theses and Projects

The function of role models in the lives of adolescents has been linked to many positive outcomes, including academic success and enhanced physical activity (Assibey-Mensah, 1997; Babey, Wolstein, & Diamant, 2016); however, it remains unclear who adolescents and young adults are seeking and identifying as role models. This two-part interdisciplinary project started with literary analyses of a memoir and semi-autobiographical novel that depicted the experience of two African American male adolescents and their exploration of identity; during this time, each male developed the desire for a role model whose behavior he could imitate. The second part of this project included …

Renaissance Drama And ‘Magic Realism’: Mythology And Religion Across Time And Genres, Kellie Delaney

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Renaissance and ‘magic realism’ literature share many characteristics; among these are the prevalence of mythology and religion. It is no new observation to say that contemporary literature has strong and discernible connections to the earlier literature of the Renaissance; scholarship has long seen the parallels between eras that share the collapse of established values and beliefs. The use and treatment of mythology and religion in these respective categories of literature, however, invites a discussion yet to be made in scholarship. An examination of the form and function of mythology and religion in authors of both Renaissance and ‘magic realism’ literature …

Physicality And Spirituality In Riddle 26, Corinne Mccumber

Honors Capstone Projects

Riddle 26, an otherwise-unnamed poem in the 10th-century Old English collection known as The Exeter Book, suggests tension and interplay between its physical form and its meaning. Scholars accept that the riddle’s speaker describes the creation of a religious manuscript, but while physical processes drive the poem’s narrative structure, the speaker ends by focusing on the knowledge that the described religious text contains. As John Hines summarizes, the Old English riddles “demonstrate a keen eye for and dramatically imaginative appreciation of the real world in which the authors and readers lived: both its natural and its manufactured components” (974). …

When Inexpressible Becomes Expressible: The Duality Of Narrative In Graphic Memoirs Of Growing Up And Trauma, Nina Hanee Jang

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines two graphic memoirs: Lynda Barry’s One Hundred Demons (2002), and David Small’s Stitches (2009) to elucidate the connections between the duality of narrative in graphic memoirs and the subject of childhood trauma. I begin by observing how the inexpressible memories of childhood trauma become expressible through the platform of graphic narrative that allows the authors to illustrate rather than verbalize the memories. Following this analysis, I examine the aspects of embodiment and materiality in the two memoirs demonstrating how the form of graphic narrative enables the authors to effectively bring back their memories and become the witnesses …