English Language and Literature Commons^™

Wave By Wave: A Fantasy Author's Guide For Refining A Creative Writing Style, Michael Bose

Senior Honors Theses

Writing a novel is a great undertaking. Many would-be writers have set out to create a novel and give up halfway through, uncertain where or how they failed. This project aims to help prospective authors get past that barrier. By analyzing one’s own writing style, a writer can ascertain greater insight into the strengths and weaknesses of one’s own work and therefore help rectify mistakes one might make otherwise, or learn to see a chapter from a new angle. The author will demonstrate this method on himself first by way of focused revisions. A sample chapter of a fantasy novel, …

Yahweh’S Benevolence Vs. Anat’S Malevolence: A Comparative Analysis Of Judges 4–5 And Col Ii 1–Col Iii 2, Michaela Misantone

Senior Honors Theses

The actions of ancient Near Eastern warrior gods are often depicted as acts of vengeance, greed, and brutality, serving selfish ambition and never-ending power struggles. These gods and their warfare ethic dominated the worldview of the ancient world in which the events of the Old Testament took place. The actions of the Hebrew God are often included, even emphasized, in discussions of ancient divine warfare today. There are supposed similarities between the actions of war gods like Anat from the Ugaritic pantheon and those of Yahweh from ancient Israel. Unfortunately, this has led to the present-day belief that the God …

Focused And Autonomous Writing Through Objects, Yvonne Houy

UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo

Objects—carefully curated—help focus discussions and knowledge explorations, and become the basis of student-centered scholarly writing when Object-based learning (OBL) is combined with structured research writing assignments using the Cornell Notes questions in a Google form.

Educators cannot eliminate distractions but can encourage focus and attention (Lang, Distracted, 2020, 1-24). I propose using curated objects to focus student attention: Such object-based learning (OBL) allows students to engage holistically with otherwise abstract facts, figures and frameworks (Chatterjee and Hannan, 2016). Combining OBL with structured active note taking, such as through the Cornell note taking method, “can lead to efficient study practices, better …

George Macdonald's Phantastes As A Bildungsroman Of Spiritual Reality, Hannah O'Malley

Senior Theses

George MacDonald's 1858 novel Phantastes is one of the first fantasy novels written for adults, but it has received little attention in part because of its confusing structure. I argue that Phantastes is best understood as a Bildungsroman, a novel of formation. While the Bildungsroman is usually a realist novel of commercial society, Phantastes’ fantasy elements allow the protagonist to grow up into a spiritual reality that contrasts with many commercial values. MacDonald uses the fantasy genre to show his protagonist's inner development as he learns humility, gains feminine and childlike virtues, and leaves behind the old self

Editorial, Janet Brennan Croft

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Once again we test the limits of both our printer and the U.S. Postal service with the size of this issue of Mythlore. Our inbox overflows with essay and note submissions, and publishers WILL keep publishing books we want to review. The next limiting factors we may face, alas, are continuing paper shortages and prohibitions on shipping to certain countries, whether politically or pandemically-imposed. We’ll deal with those as we come to them; meanwhile, Mythlore’s content continues to be available free on our online platform, even as we move into a new phase with the engagement of our longtime printer, …

“One Aims At The Officers First”: Reassessing The Relationship Of C. S. Lewis And T. S. Eliot, Ben Reinhard

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

This article challenges the received account of the relationship between C. S. Lewis and T. S. Eliot, arguing that Lewis's antipathy towards Eliot was a defining feature of his career as a scholar, critic, and literary artist. By attending to the anti-Eliotic strain in Lewis's thought, we gain new insights into the development of his imagination and the creation of his own works, including The Chronicles of Narnia.

Being Psyche: The Jungian Soul In Glome, Kelly Webber

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

In C.S. Lewis’s Till We Have Faces, Orual undergoes a psychological transformation as a predecessor to her spiritual conversion. Understanding her psychic journey through the lens of a Jungian archetypal story assists the reader in understanding how she is eventually able to approach the gods bareface.

Who Is Merlin? A Closer Look At The Character In Charles Williams’ Taliessin Poetry, Joseph Thompson

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

By understanding how Merlin and Brisen manifest the influence of archaic ideas concerning time and the esoteric teachings of the Zohar in Williams’s Taliessin cycle, we are able to account for their roles in the story, and to understand more clearly Williams’s eschatological vision of unity to which all events in the cycle are either directed or opposed. This vision incorporates both Platonic (or Neoplatonic) and Kabbalistic elements in harmony with one another, adapted through the filter of Williams’s own esoteric ideas and Christian beliefs.

The Wheel Of Power In Hbo's Game Of Thrones, Inbar Shaham

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Maps the familial power struggles and patterns of inheritance of Westeros as depicted in the television adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series by using A.J. Griemas’s semiotic square. Applying this framework to the title logo of the series also supports this interpretation.

Sterner Stuff; Sansa Stark And The System Of Gothic Fantasy, Joseph R. Young

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Contests the suggestion that Sansa Stark, a character in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, is a weak and indecisive by analyzing her in relation to William Patrick Day’s system of Gothic fantasy. While Sansa is indeed physically passive, she manages to retain her own identity in a challenging literary environment. This physical passivity allows her to assert herself intellectually, analyzing and indicting the misdeeds and abuses she suffers. This combination of passive and active attributes precisely instantiates the skill set of the detective, a species of literary being developed from the Gothic fantasies Day analyses, and …

A Lost Tale, A Found Influence: Earendel And Tinúviel, Verlyn Flieger

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Examines two examples of J.R.R. Tolkien’s story-telling art: one an experiment in omission, the other in commission. The Tale of Earendel is established through poems about him, by references to the tale in other tales, by outlines, and by what seem to be consciously contrived omissions where it ought to have been. That there ought to be a Tale of Earendel to go with the other three now seems obvious, yet Christopher commented more than once that it “was never written.” Of the many attempts at the Beren and Lúthien story that Tolkien made over the years, “The Tale of …

Soup, Bones, And Shakespeare: Literary Authorship And Allusion In Middle-Earth, Owen Dugan, James Krasner

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Examines Tolkien’s theory of authorship and storytelling by exploring the literary allusions to Shakespeare’s Macbeth in the Witch-king’s fall and the theory of creation in Tolkien’s description of the Silmarils. Tolkien alludes to Macbeth to undercut both the modern view of the author as an isolated genius and to critique the approach to literary allusion that reinforces this view. Fëanor’s creation of the Silmarils serves as a symbolic representation of modern authorship, suggesting that Tolkien not only disagrees with a singular model of authorship but also believes it to be a manifestation of corrupted artistry. Ultimately, both the Witch-king and …

Tolkien And Bakhtin: Symphony Of Time In The Lord Of The Rings, Alex (Oleksiy) Ostaltsev

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

The essay reveals the nature of time and space in Tolkien’s epic The Lord of the Rings with the help of the chronotope concept proposed by Mikhail Bakhtin. Bakhtin’s classification of spatiotemporal relations in the novel identifies the type of chronotope in Tolkien’s major narrative as one close to folklore, idyll, and epic. Tolkien uses memory and its functioning to create a unique symphony of time in The Lord of the Rings. As a concept that reaches the depth of philosophical abstraction and at the same time appeals to a concrete textual context, Bakhtin’s chronotope is a surprisingly flexible …

Círdan The Shipwright: Tolkien’S Bodhisattva Who Brings Us To The Other Shore, Douglas Charles Kane

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Tolkien wrote that Círdan the Shipwright “saw further and deeper than any other in Middle-earth” despite being a minor, incidental character in both The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings. The important role that Círdan plays in Tolkien’s secondary universe can be understood by looking at him as a bodhisattva in a Buddhist tradition. Círdan’s role throughout the Three Ages of Middle-earth chronicled by Tolkien was to come to the aid of others, to reduce their suffering, and particularly to help facilitate their sailing to the “Blessed Lands” in the West (which can be seen as a metaphor for …

A Note On Ursula K. Le Guin's Daoist Interests, Robert Steed

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

This note focuses upon specifying Le Guin’s particular Daoist interests. It also serves as a beginning in mapping out various Daoist concepts that she renders creatively in her literary work, serving as a short primer in Daoist thought and Le Guin.

The Tao Masters Who Walk Away From Omelas, Sabina Schrynemakers

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Le Guin primarily intended to portray Taoist enlightenment in “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” rather than a moral contemplation or lesson. She first describes Omelas as the pinnacle of human flourishing from a Taoist perspective, then how the residents of Omelas have achieved moral maturity through coming to terms with the necessity of evil, and finally she describes the even greater transcendence of those who have achieved detachment from the goods of Omelas, the Tao Masters. This interpretation is supported by parallels with the Tao Te Ching.

A Queer Atheist Feminist Autist Responds To Donald Williams's "Keystone Or Cornerstone? A Rejoinder To Verlyn Flieger On The Alleged 'Conflicting Sides' Of Tolkien's Singular Self", Robin Anne Reid

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

This response traces what the author sees as significant areas of disagreement between Flieger’s essay “The Arch and the Keystone” and Williams’s rejoinder in Mythlore #139, and touches on the wider contemporary context of pushback against diverse scholarship about and readings of Tolkien’s works.

The repository PDF of this note includes an online-only supplement.

Abolishing Man In Other Worlds: Breaking And Recovering The Chain Of Being In C.S. Lewis's Ransom Trilogy By Courtney Petrucci, Deeper Heaven: A Reader's Guide To C.S. Lewis's Ransom Trilogy By Christiana Hale, And A Compass For Deep Heaven: Navigating The C.S. Lewis Ransom Trilogy, Edited By Diana Pavlac Glyer And Julianne Johnson, Josiah Peterson

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

No abstract provided.

No Ordinary People: 21 Friendships Of C.S. Lewis By Joel D. Heck, James Stockton

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

No Ordinary People: 21 Friendships of C.S. Lewis. Joel D. Heck. Hamden, CT: Winged Lion Press, 2022, 395 p. 9781935688228. $19.50.

The Undiscovered C.S. Lewis: Essays In Memory Of Christopher W. Mitchell, Edited By Bruce R. Johnson, Melody Green

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

This is a review of The Undiscovered C. S. Lewis edited by Bruce Johnson.

Correspondence: 1927-1987 By Joseph Campbell, Phillip Fitzsimmons

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Correspondence: 1927–1987 by Joseph Campbell, edited by Dennis Patrick Slattery and Evans Lansing Smith is a fine addition to The Collected Works of Joseph Campbell series. It is a solid work and a pleasure to read for fans of Joseph Campbell and his works. The book provides a balance of letters written by Joseph Campbell to friends and colleagues with letters written to him by the same people over the span of his adult life starting at age twenty-four. The letters provide a picture of the remarkable life of a man who was both a friend to many and a …

Dorothy L. Sayers, A Biography: Death, Dante, And Lord Peter Wimsey By Colin Duriez And Dorothy And Jack: The Transforming Friendship Of Dorothy L. Sayers And C.S. Lewis By Gina Dalfonzo, Gabriel Salter

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

No abstract provided.

Tolkien And The Sea: Proceedings Of The Tolkien Society Seminar 1996, Edited By Richard Cranshaw And Shaun Gunner, Kris Swank

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Review of the book Tolkien and the Sea: Proceedings of the Tolkien Society Seminar 1996.

Pagan Saints In Middle-Earth By Claudio A. Testi, Toni Thibodeaux

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

No abstract provided.

Middle-Earth, Or There And Back Again By Łukasz Neubauer, Giovanni Carmine Costabile

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

No abstract provided.

A Sense Of Tales Untold: Exploring The Edges Of Tolkien's Literary Canvas By Peter Grybauskas, Robert T. Tally

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

A Sense of Tales Untold: Exploring the Edges of Tolkien’s Literary Canvas. Peter Grybauskas. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 2021. 176 pp. ISBN 978-1-60635-430-8. $55.00 (hardcover)

Tolkien And The Classical World, Edited By Hamish Williams, Larry J. Swain

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

No abstract provided.

Race And Technology In Southern Literature, Civil War To Civil Rights, Kaitlyn Elizabeth Smith

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation considers the intersection of technology and race in the literature of the American South from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Though narratives about technology in American literature often promise democracy, equality, improvement, and progress, the role of technology in southern literature is more complex and ambivalent. Literature from and about the South from the Civil War to the civil rights era, by Black and white southern authors like Charles Chesnutt, Zora Neale Hurston, William Faulkner, and Eudora Welty reveals technology’s ability to uphold and naturalize southern white supremacy, but also to subvert it. Southern literature traces a pattern …

‘Conspiring Together’: Woolf’S Investigations On ‘Party Consciousness’ And Interwar Instability In Mrs. Dalloway And To The Lighthouse, Madeline Smith

Theses and Dissertations

Woolf has been generalized popularly as enthusiastic about parties, relishing their effervescence and conversation, and she had a particular bent for imagining a party’s vivacity while often remaining distanced from it. This imagination and duality would mark Woolf’s thoughts as is recorded in her diary entries, and they became especially apparent in her fiction. In an entry on April 27^th, 1925, less than one month from Mrs. Dalloway’s May 14^th publication, she declares that “people have any number of states of consciousness” and reports that she “should like to investigate the party consciousness” (A Writer’s …

Restoring Paradise Through Providence: The Emergence Of The Serendipitous Hero In The Hunger Games, Alexandra Elizabeth Oberempt

Theses and Dissertations

Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games enhanced the popularity of post-apocalyptic, young adult literature written between 2004 and 2014 (a genre I call millennial dystopia). A government that sends its people to war, spies on them, and sacrifices the sanctity of the community for personal profit while the powerful and wealthy watch from a secure distance is an anxiety addressed in this fiction. The hero of millennial dystopias satiates the suffering that emerges from this angst.

Through her story, Katniss is pushed to her destiny on a path that leads her to become the hero of The Hunger Games trilogy. In …