English Language and Literature Commons^™

Implementing Lean Six Sigma Principles In The Automotive Collision Repair Industry: A Three Case Study Analysis, Matthew A. Houseworth

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research provides the automotive collision industry empirical evidence of the effects of Lean-for-Collision Training and Development Initiatives facilitated by a targeted sample of three automotive collision repair centers. Through formal interview and review of artifacts, the findings showcased in this study are in terms of automotive collision industry metrics; a balance in cost, quality, and service delivery, specifically, vehicle cycle-time, vehicle touch-time, employee turnover, and the Return-on-Investment (ROI) of their Lean training. In addition, this research provides automotive collision centers with critical knowledge and understanding of how to successfully navigate and progress through the Framework for Six Sigma Implementation …

The Effects Of Bioinspired Infill Designs And Density On The Compressive Strength Of Parts Produced By Additive Manufacturing Via Fused Deposition Modeling, Joseph D. Long

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The current state of additive manufacturing (AM) is still primarily used for prototyping and modeling. However, with the increase in available materials and more advanced machines, AM is beginning to become a production process in which ready-to-ship products are being manufactured. This makes it all the more important to effectively and efficiently use the material in AM machines. One of the ways that material usage can be improved upon is more efficiently structuring the infill material that is used. This dissertation reports on the testing and statistical analysis of the compressive modulus of elasticity, the compressive proportional limit, and the …

A Major Motion Picture Or Just A Picture? An Analysis In Movie Tie-Ins Vs. Original Cover Art, Vivian Nguyen

Book Publishing Final Research Papers

It has been believed that the needs of consumers who are primarily readers versus moviegoers greatly differ; those who are readers are more likely to purchase a book that features the original cover art, while those who are mostly moviegoers gravitate toward movie tie-in covers. This paper examines the accuracy behind that belief by calculating the number of book sales from NPD BookScan, as well as collecting survey data from participants across all reading activity levels.

Analysis revealed that though there is a slight difference in amount of preference based on reading group, overall participants overwhelmingly preferred the original cover …

The Deconstruction Of Patriarchal Narratives In Ntozake Shange's For Colored Girls, Caleigh Pope

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

The concept and criteria of what constitutes the American long poem has been debated by critics for years. Ntozake Shange redefines what is traditionally considered the long poem by experimenting with form and voice in her poem, for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf. The inclusion of stage directions, dancing, and chanting contributes to reimagining the long poem. Shange distinguishes her work from traditional western poetry using these features, all part of her newly christened genre the choreopoem, an art form that does not contain traditional epic features but instead draws inspiration from theatre. …

The Meaning Of Peace: William Faulkner, Modernism, And Perpetual Civil War, Jason Luke Folk

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Much of scholarship regarding the presence of war in literary modernism has foregrounded psychic trauma endured by veterans of World War I. The returning soldier is often figured as representative of the war’s infiltration of the homefront. The common argument claims that the erosion of the distinction between war and peace (as well as private and public) is a mirror image of the veteran’s wounded psyche. This thesis, however, argues that peace and war in the West have always been indistinct. The body politic is, in actuality, constituted by a perpetual civil war. Furthermore, the novels of William Faulkner, because …

The Prodigy Of Existence: An Essay On Identity And Its Constraints With Original Poems, Azariah Butler Ruthford

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This research essay and collection of poems will highlight key moments in coming to terms with identity. For myself, these identities include race, sexuality, and gender. I have found an expressive outlet through poetry in which I can deduce experiences and make them more approachable for the audience from the perspective of a black, homosexual man. Similarly, Toni Morrison tasks the readers to understand the ways in which identities propose limitations on individuals in her novel, Beloved .The pieces included in this selection will illustrate how life experiences often dictate ones’ identity, and how exploring these differences can inspire both …

Queering The Curriculum: Establishing Equity For Lgbtqia Students And Educators In Michigan, Miranda Findlay

All NMU Master's Theses

This project examines the state of Michigan’s efforts in creating an equitable learning and working environment for LGBTQIA K-12 students and educators, explicitly focusing on 11^th and 12^th grade English Language Arts (ELA) standards. In the first chapter, I evaluate the relationship between queer theory and pedagogy and illuminate the need to implement queer pedagogy in teaching K-12 ELA classes. The following chapter reviews the progressive state of California for its promotion of culturally responsive pedagogy and its inclusion of LGBTQIA topics in its K-12 curriculum. The third chapter analyzes Michigan legislature and policies to highlight gaps that …

The Catastrophic Open Wound: The Application Of Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder In Linda Hogan’S Solar Storms And Eden Robinson’S Monkey Beach, Kawther I. Abbas

All NMU Master's Theses

This thesis argues that Judith Herman's theory of Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder can provide a lot of insight in analyzing the trauma of several characters in Linda Hogan’s Solar Storms and Eden Robinson’s Monkey Beach. The analysis first employs the two authors’ Native American ideas of trauma and then adds Herman’s theory of CPTSD to help bridge the gap between the Native American and Western cultures and to create more understanding without undermining cultural differences.

I chose Herman’s theory for my analysis because it has many commonalities with the Native American trauma theories such as belief in the fact …

Book Review: The Book Of Joshua: A Novel By Jennifer Anne Moses, University Of Wisconsin Press, 2018, Kia Jane Richmond

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

Jennifer Anne Moses’s (2018) young adult novel, The Book of Joshua: A Novel, begins with a letter from eighteen-year-old protagonist Joshua Cushing; he is writing in response to a college admissions essay prompt about overcoming a challenge or experience that shaped his life. For Josh, that experience began with his awakening in a New Jersey psychiatric hospital; he was missing his left eye and his girlfriend, Sophie, and could not remember losing either one. Moses’s book unravels the mystery for the reader, explaining how Josh lost his left eye, what happened to Sophie, and how mental illness fits into …

A Poetic Ethnodrama: Discussing The Impact Of The Pressure To Publish On Creative Writers' Production, Abby N. Lewis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the presence of the pressure to publish while in college as an undergraduate or graduate student, and the impact that pressure has on students’ ability to produce creative work. After interviewing participants, the researcher created an ethnodrama to best represent participants’ emotions and unique experiences with publishing while in school. An examination of the literature reveals that master’s-level students are often overlooked in scholarly research on the subject of publishing. This study uses a qualitative research method to identify key emotional experiences from students at the master’s and undergraduate level in the hopes of providing a platform …

A Study Of /Sk/-Metathesis In Old English, Catharina Clara Ybarra

Theses and Dissertations

Language change is the primary focus of historical linguistics. Some changes, phonological, morphological, or semantic, alter forms and lead to new regularities in a language’s lexicon. Linguistic analyses and terminology to describe them have been established to aid in linguistic investigations, though, there remain changes that defy typical explanations.

Metathesis is one change that still intrigues scholars intensely because, since the advent of modern linguistic study with Saussure, we have presumed that languages operate systematically; yet, metathetic change is often seemingly random. Even when it does operate over a period of a generation or two, it may do so erratically, …

Govoreeting With Lewdies: A Critical Discourse Analysis Of A Clockwork Orange And Its Translations Across Media And Language, Willie Wallace

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Much linguistic research has been done on the fictional argot of A Clockwork Orange, known as Nadsat, but few efforts have been made to expand beyond the classification and analysis of Nadsat. Using Critical Discourse Analysis, this paper looks at the overarching discourse of A Clockwork Orange and aims to answer three questions: What exigencies and discourses inform the creation of these works? What techniques and power structures are employed in the construction of these works? How do these works shape or attempt to shape the discourse? To answer these questions, I look at three instances of the discourse: …

Blend It Like Beckett: Samuel Beckett And Experimental Contemporary Creative Writing, Sam Nicole Campbell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Samuel Beckett penned novels, short stories, poetry, stage plays, radio plays, and scripts—and he did each in a way that blended genre, challenged the norms of creative writing, and surprised audiences around the globe. His experimental approach to creative writing included the use of absurdism, genre-hybridization, and ergodicism, which led to Beckett fundamentally changing the approach to creative writing. His aesthetics have trickled down through the years and can be seen in contemporary works, including Aimee Bender’s short story collection The Girl in the Flammable Skirt and Mark Z. Danielewski’s novel House of Leaves[1]. By examining these works …

The Gothic Other: A Critique Of Race, Gender, Slavery, And Systemic Oppression Found In Nathaniel Hawthorne, Toni Morrison, And Hannah Crafts, Kelly Franklin

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines three novels all communicating ideas about race, gender, and slavery under the conventions of Gothic literature. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The House of the Seven Gables (1851) show how patriarchy oppressed and haunted women while keeping slavery at the margins. Beloved (1987), by Toni Morrison, fictionalizes the account of a female slave who murdered her child to assert her power and reject slavery. However, Morrison rewrites and defies aspects of the Gothic mode by bringing the ghost of the murdered child back to life, and later showing steps the community can take to heal from their collective trauma. The …

Beyond Maidens And Mothers: A Study Of Till We Have Faces, Tamar Peterson

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study examines how C.S. Lewis’ final novel, Till We Have Faces, demonstrates a significant diversion from the author's typical writing habits, especially regarding his depictions of women. Progressing through the novel chronologically, this thesis studies sixteen notable scenes that demonstrate this diversion. It tracks the development and depiction of women characters who exemplify a more realistic, complex, egalitarian writing style—one that allows women to wield legitimate power, excel in military combat, operate as conduits to the Divine, and enjoy their sexuality in affirming ways.

This thesis begins with an introduction to Lewis' position as a lay theologian and popular …

Readers’ Perceptions Towards Two English Translations Of The Quran, Nour Alanbari

Theses and Dissertations

This study aimed to examine readers’ perceptions towards two notable English translations of the Quran, investigating if the readers’ language groups affected their perception of translation quality in terms of fluency, accuracy, clarity, formality, and likability. A total of 136 participants completed a survey where they rated the researched attributes of two different English translations of the Quran. Independent t-tests, paired t-tests, and ANOVA tests were conducted to compare the overall ratings of the two translations to each other, as well as between and within language groups. Ratings of the four attributes were also compared amongst themselves. Significant …

The Unlimited Absorbs The Limits: Analyzing The Religious And Mystical Aspects Of Virginia Woolf's Work Through The Lens Of William James, Zachary J. Beck

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Commentators on the work of modernist author Virginia Woolf have frequently remarked upon the “religious” and “mystical” aspects that appear throughout Woolf’s oeuvre, but have found it difficult to reconcile these aspects of Woolf’s work with her self-expressed atheistic beliefs. For those who have sought to resolve the tension between the “religious” and “mystical” features of Woolf’s work and Woolf’s (lack of) personal religious beliefs, the work of American psychologist and philosopher William James has proven to be a starting point for investigations into selections of Woolf’s oeuvre that seem to exhibit “religious” and “mystical” characteristics. There continues to exist, …

Get Out And The Remediation Of Othello's Sunken Place: Beholding White Supremacy's Coagula, Vanessa I. Corredera

Faculty Publications

As a result of director and writer Jordan Peele's remediation of the horror genre to create a racially polemic film, breakout horror-thriller Get Out (2017) has achieved critical and commercial success while substantially affecting how Americans think about and approach race. As stories about a black man amidst an all-white community who ultimately strangles his white female lover, Get Out and Shakespeare's Othello share obvious narrative overlaps. Othello, however, maintains a more tenuous status regarding race and its function within the storyline than does Get Out. Othello remains a play mired in questions about how or even whether …

Curating Digital Pedagogy In The Humanities, Katherine Harris, Matthew Gold, Rebecca Frost Davis

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

This is the published introduction to the born-digital, open-access, peer-reviewed *Digital Pedagogy in the Humanities*. More a rationale and scholarly study of both Digital Pedagogy and DPiH in general, this introduces articulates the uses, theory, rationale about digital pedagogy as it has been shaped in U.S. institutions since the explosion of Digital Humanities in 2009. As a separate field now, Digital Pedagogy is built on the generosity of its practitioners, but saving the *stuff* of teaching and pedagogy is difficult. The introduction historicizes this now-published project, its open peer review process, and its development in the early years (starting in …

Literary Labyrinths: Reading Like A Detective, Emma A. Hallock

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Studying literature is like walking through a labyrinth of interpretative possibilities. So, it is no mystery why an English major would be fascinated with detectives; they seem to show the way out of the literary labyrinth. Like detectives, literary critics look for clues in the texts they study and interpret them to find meaning. However, many critics argue that detectives make bad models, and that reading like a detective leads to interpretations that are at best boring and at worst dangerous. It is not clear whether detectives are the best literary critics or the worst. To make sense of this …

The Ubume Challenge: A Digital Environmental Humanities Project, Sam Risak

English (MA) Theses

In 2019, the “The Momo Challenge” frightened parents in the United States into believing “Momo” would appear online where she’d lure their children into harming themselves. While this challenge is one of many recent viral hoaxes, “Momo” is not simply a product of our digital age. Known as the ubume (“birthing-woman”), the figure who provides the face for “Momo” has lived for centuries in Japanese folklore where yokai (supernatural creatures) often caution listeners against entering unchartered parts of the land. And once Japan industrialized, so too did their “unchartered lands,” the ubume reborn to fit the cities and technologies that …

Jefferson's Sensitivities: How Thomas Jefferson's Discussions Of Race And Slavery Are Influenced By Audience, Andrea B. Carlquist-Sagers

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Thomas Jefferson is often presented as an enigma. He who wrote that “all men are created equal” also owned over six hundred slaves during the course of his life. Jefferson was a man of immense complexity and intelligence and, as such, his beliefs cannot be presented in simplified terms. Although his contradictory positions on race and slavery were common during his time, his hypocrisy received critique from contemporaries. Jefferson was a famously sensitive man, and in order to avoid judgement from his peers, he often either censored himself or used eloquent but empty words to satisfy his disparagers. Some historians …

The Powerful Presence Of Dams In Appalachian Poetry, Zoe Hester

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Contemporary Appalachian poetry offers a lens through which we can see the immense impact that the Tennessee Valley Authority has had in Appalachia. In this thesis, I explore the powerful presence of dams in Appalachian poetry by analyzing three poems. Jesse Graves’s “The Road into the Lake” centers on personal and familial loss, Jackson Wheeler’s “The TVA Built a Dam” mourns the loss of communities, and Rose McLarney’s “Imminent Domain” focuses on the ecological destruction that has occurred in Appalachia and around the globe as the result of the construction of TVA dams. Ultimately, all three poems serve as eulogies …

"Wand'ring This Woody Maze": Deciphering The Obscure Wilderness Of Paradise Regained, Brooke Johnson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The setting of Milton’s great sequel is puzzling, being called a desert and a “waste wild” (IV. 523) repeatedly and at the same time including descriptions of protective oaks and woody mazes. These conflicting descriptions conjure up several questions: In which environment does the epic take place? Because Milton is so detailed in his adaptations of biblical narrative the inclusion of trees is quite perplexing. While he does tend to expand biblical narrative quite frequently – e.g. Paradise Lost – he rarely initiates a change without just cause. The crux of this particular change centers on what this just cause …

Thatcherism In The Contemporary British Novel, 1978-2012, David Mowatt

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Thatcherism in the Contemporary British Novel, 1978-2012

This dissertation reveals a nuance to contemporary British texts that have thus far been almost homogenously categorized as contributing to a negative portrayal of the political, cultural, and social policies of the 1980s. A study of texts and criticism of the contemporary British novel highlights the disproportionate number of depictions that could be considered anti-1980s and, as a representation of that decade, in turn anti-Thatcherite. There is an apparent consensus in the damaging effects on almost all aspects of British society during the decade because of the many policies enacted by the Thatcher …

How Parents Interact With Their Children In Literature And How It Affects The Child’S Development, Trinity Byerly

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

Characters in literature have several different relationships, but one kind of relationship that stands out is that between a parent and a child. This kind of relationship can be loving, abusive, or in some cases, both. Just as in reality, this kind of relationship heavily affects how the characters grow and develop. The goal of this project is to examine how different parent/child relationships are depicted in different styles of writing and how it affects character development for the child. The difference between mother and father characters will also be examined to show how they interact with their children in …

Pioneering Feminism: How Early American Female Authors' Heroines Defy Gender Norms, Julie Short

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

As I began to make decisions about what I wanted to write on, I started to consider the novels that have impacted me. After realizing that many of my favorite novels featured female protagonists from the early twentieth century, I came to the conclusion that I could use these novels to discuss feminism, a topic I am passionate about. I selected O, Pioneers! by Willa Cather, The Awakening by Kate Chopin, The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton, and the short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Each of these authors use their protagonists to represent women who …

Portrayal Of Immigration In Fiction For Grades 4-6, Melissa N. Marwedel

Graduate Research Papers

With an increasing awareness of immigrant students in American schools, this study sought to examine current upper elementary fiction portraying immigrant characters. The purpose of this research was to discover how immigrants are currently portrayed in upper elementary literature. Through engaging with high-quality literature, native-born students could gain a perspective on the experiences of their immigrant classmates and develop empathy for them. Nine upper elementary fiction books were examined and coded for initial and emerging themes. Four major themes emerged: Importance of Family, Language Conflict, Life After Immigration, and Identity Development. This research supports classroom teachers and teacher librarians in …

Characterizing Protagonists In Graphic Novels For Teens, Danielle Lahr

Graduate Research Papers

The purpose of this study is to utilize qualitative content analysis to examine the main characters in teen graphic novels from 2018. This study is designed to analyze the main protagonist in graphic novels to find patterns to help secondary librarians and teachers choose graphic novels that will appeal to students in grades 9-12. Three questions this study asks are: 1)What traits make a compelling protagonist for high schoolers? 2)Are there any traits shared between protagonists in graphic novels? And 3)What roles do protagonists of graphic novels play in the storyline?

Diversity And Inclusion In Technical And Professional Communication Academic Programs, Chris Dayley

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

With the recent social justice turn in technical and professional communication (TPC) scholarship, researchers have begun to focus their attention on issues of diversity and inclusion. Increasing diversity and inclusion in the field of technical and professional communication starts with TPC academic programs. This dissertation reports the results of qualitative interviews conducted with five undergraduate students, six graduate students, and five pre-tenure faculty who study TPC and identify as persons of color as well as six influencers identified by research participants. Interview participants discuss reasons why they chose TPC as a major, obstacles to discovering TPC academic programs, the importance …