English Language and Literature Commons^™

Conversation Made 'Easy' In The Classroom: The Problem With Women's Education In Nineteenth Century New Jersey, Rebecca Bienskie Jackson

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Born in 1877, Rose McDonough grew up in Montclair, New Jersey. She learned French in a local school inside a Congregational Church, and by 1920 was a private teacher. This thesis recovers information about Rose McDonough’s life through a single archival object: Easy Conversations In French, by Gustave Choquet and published by New York’s George R. Lockwood & Son, in 1854. Housed in the Montclair History Center, Rose’s penciled marginalia is scattered throughout. Using book history as the primary methodology, this thesis reads the material object of the schoolbook, marks left by its reader, along with Census records, historic maps, …

"I Exist In Triple": Parisian Influence, And The Three-Way Split In James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room (1956), Paloma Lupino

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

James Baldwin's novel Giovanni's Room was received as a rebellion against his cohort of ex-patriate Black writers due to its entirely white cast. This thesis investigates how the Parisian influence of the Black writers in Paris served as inspiration for the creation of Baldwin’s second publication. The use of racial frameworks progresses the discussion of a different topic: queerness. Giovanni’s Room will be explored in the following ways: Paris as the internal environment of the novel and Baldwin's backdrop in the novel's creation, the conversation of ex-patriate Black writers, feminism, intersectionality, hygiene as queerness, and a three-way split of consciousness. …

In Praise Of Antony's Folly: The Triumph Of Foolishness In Shakespeare's Antony And Cleopatra, Michael Anthony Rombola

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Antony and Cleopatra has long been regarded as a play about shame. Underlying this reading there have been several assumptions, namely that Antony's shame is justified and that Cleopatra's influence is destructive. These beliefs are rooted largely in the historical treatment of Cleopatra, particularly that of Plutarch, who advanced the view that the Queen of Egypt destroyed a formerly great man. In this paper, I argue that the opposite is true: that Shakespeare's Cleopatra, far from destroying Antony, actually helps to liberate him from the tyranny of Roman expectation. In the course of my analysis, I examine two competing sets …

An Invasion Of The Intimate Sphere: The Manipulation Of Libido Under Totalitarian Regimes, Elyssa Lucero

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This paper examines the temporal nature of libidinal control in the totalitarian systems represented in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Arguing that the most enduring forms of domination operate through the reorganization of desire, the essay explores how regimes intervene in familial, romantic, and social attachments to redirect affective energy towards the state. Orwell depicts a primitive, reactive phase of control in which attachments are violently ruptured, whereas Huxley imagines an advanced system that operates through preemption, never allowing attachments to form. Drawing on Freud’s theory of redirected libido, Berlant’s theory of Cruel Optimism, Marxist …

The Rise Of Romantasy: Female Desire, Monstrous Feminists, Fairy Tale Ideology, And Societal Panic, Rachel Stucki

English (MA) Theses

This thesis argues that the contemporary rise of Romantasy is not merely a publishing trend but a significant literary and cultural development through which female desire, agency, and subjectivity are being renegotiated. Tracing a historical continuum across Gothic horror, fairy tale discourse, and contemporary fantasy romance, I contend that patriarchal ideology has long constructed women according to a restrictive binary: either silent and compliant, or monstrous and punishable. Drawing on theorists including Jack Zipes, Barbara Creed, Cristina Santos, Maria Tatar, Louis Althusser, and Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock, this project examines how literary forms have both reflected and reinforced cultural anxieties surrounding …

The Log Cabin | Public Perception And Mediated Reality (1840 – 1980), Aspen M. Regan

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

This capstone examines the evolution of the log cabin from 1840 to 1980. At its core, the project questions the legacy of the log cabin from its origins as simply being a traditional dwelling typology to its establishment as a cultural icon or rather, an enduring vessel that established the American Dream and ideals of self-reliance, freedom, and individualism deep within the heart of American culture.

Chapter One situates the log cabin historically and architecturally, defining the popular frontier dwelling as being a single-pen horizontal log constructed cabin. It then explores the cabin’s emergence as a cultural image through political …

Romantasy's Inevitable Lasting Legacy, Devon T. Gibson

Honors Theses

The “romantasy” subgenre of YA literature has become influential for its novel combination of romance and fantasy as well as its popularity on Booktok, the book-based subsection of the popular social media app, Tiktok. This connection has become somewhat infamous in popular culture and has been underresearched due to how recently both concepts became significant forces within the publishing industry. This thesis argues that romantasy is a novel and lasting YA subgenre that is not dependent on Booktok to maintain it. The analysis of Sarah J. Maas’ A Court of Thorns and Roses (2015) and Rebecca Yarros’ Fourth Wing (2023) …

The Ethical Imperative To Shift Toward A More Equitable Literary Education, Eleanor L. Bryant

Honors Theses

Choices governing canon formation have material, emotional, and intellectual consequences. Within canon formation, authors of different social identities, consistent with macrosocial power differentials, are unequally valued and shape cultural consciousness about which texts are aesthetically and intellectually valuable. It’s important to recognize canon formation as a process of unequally distributing cultural capital and knowledge production. The strategies and imperatives outlined here are basic first steps toward utilizing the classroom as a site to counter misogyny, racism, classism, colonialism, and homophobia. This project aims not only to deepen understanding of the sociological conditions of canon formation but also to impose an …

Just Roll With It: Literacy And Community Building In Hobby Board Gaming, Mackenzie C. Allen

English Undergraduate Honors Theses

With the rise in popularity of hobby board gaming in the last 25 years, their usefulness to studying adult engagement in literacy has emerged as a new avenue of exploration. Although there has been a large amount of research into how board games can be designed and played with learning in mind, the study of recreational board games in the context of literacy and community is lacking. This thesis explored the means through which board games played in recreational settings act as tools of literacy. Through direct gameplay of 36 games across 6 months, qualitative data was gathered in pursuit …

Survey Of Medieval Literature On Maternal Mortality, Postpartum Care, And Birth Trauma In Relation To The Crisis In Arkansas, Paige Q. Thompson

English Undergraduate Honors Theses

When the general public thinks of childbirth in the Middle Ages, they think of death and danger. However, Arkansas has the highest maternal mortality rate in the entire United States, and many of those deaths are preventable. There have been previous analyses on different medieval texts as well as research into modern Arkansas, but none have made a direct connection between the two subjects. By analyzing medieval literature to understand cultural norms surrounding childbirth and postpartum care, patterns can be traced to modern Arkansas, where needless deaths are still prevalent. Ultimately, medieval texts demonstrate cultural attitudes surrounding blame toward women …

Investigating The "Party Consciousness": Gender Normativity & Affect In Woolf’S Party Scenes In “To The Lighthouse” & “Mrs. Dalloway”, Chelsea Goodman

English

In 1925, Virginia Woolf wrote in her diary, “…I should like to investigate the party consciousness…where people secrete an envelope which connects them and protects them from others, like myself, who am outside the envelope” (DIII 13). Woolf’s metaphor of the “envelope” reflects how parties have the potential to be places of community and, conversely, of alienation. In literary criticism, Woolf’s parties are often simplified and read as sites of communion. I argue that instead of a suspension of normativity across all characters, which one might expect in a party scene, Woolf’s domestic party scenes solidify, reflect, and enforce …

Reigniting Identity: Rediscovering My Teaching, Lifelong Learning, And Myself, Rachel Griffith

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

A culmination of two years of work and self-discovery represented through three different types of writing, two academic and one creative. The academic works explore communication and autism in the English classroom, as well as teaching technical writing in practice ways. The creative work is a poetry portfolio that is one of the author's proudest works from their degree track, covering a variety of topics from love to nostalgia to inner turmoil. Together, they narrate three reasons why the author writes, teaches, and lives.

Cartoons From Dickinson Poetry, Abby B. Tarr

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

This zine interprets poems by Emily Dickinson through cartoons. The drawings do not replace the poems. They offer a different way to understand them, translating abstract language into clear, visual moments. This approach shows how meaning can shift when it moves between forms, from text to image. The zine invites readers to engage with Dickinson’s work in a different format while still preserving the original work and context.

Writing Center Alumni: How Their Work Works For Them, Summer Dingman

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Writing centers (WC) serve as an indisputably useful campus resource that serves a broad group of students and faculty. With their role of helping individuals at any and all stages of the writing process, they prove that all writing skills can be supported and grown through visit(s) Though as proved by existing scholarship – which serves as the foundation for this project – from the University of Wisconsin Madison’s Peer Writing Tutor Alumni Research Project (PWTARP) designed by Harvey Kail, Paula Gillespie, and Bradley Hughes as well as Florida International University’s version of PWTARP titled “Writing Tutor Alumni Takeaways: Pros …

“The Revolution Begins At Home”: Ambivalent Sexism In The Color Purple And The Help, Berit P. Gibson

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

Ambivalent sexism theory, proposed by Glick and Fiske in 1996, argues that sexism is comprised of both negative and “positive” images of women. The theory has become a staple in research on sexism as it theorizes the Madonna/whore dichotomy as sexist on both sides of the binary, and how attitudes switch from “positive” to negative. But, so far, literature scholars have not used the theory to read literature. As the theory is based in ideals of white womanhood, how do we do so in an intersectional way?

In order to work through this question, I bring in The Color Purple …

Great War Modernists: D.H. Lawrence, H.D., And Richard Aldington By Lee M. Jenkins, Buxi Duan

The Journal of Wyndham Lewis Studies

Book Review

Lee M. Jenkins, Great War Modernists: D. H. Lawrence, H. D., and Richard Aldington (Bloomsbury, 2024), 200pp. £85.00 (Hbk)

“Before Your Honour?”: Divine Morality And Women Reclaiming Power In Ben Jonson’S Volpone And William Shakespeare’S Measure For Measure, Delilah G. Fleming

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores how the female protagonists in Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure and Jonson’s Volpone navigate and combat corrupting patriarchal forces through moral religious speech. In both plays, the male characters have allowed false gods and hypocrisy to dictate and justify their corrupt behavior. By engaging with the historical significance of early modern female rhetoric this thesis examines Jonson’s Celia and Shakespeare’s Isabella, and how they operate in the interest of godly virtue rather than blind obedience to patriarchal figure heads.  Volpone’s Celia is a character largely neglected in the canon, and whose speech emphasizes the relationship between female agency …

The Monsters We Make: Confronting Repression And Failure In Mary Shelley’S Frankenstein, Ben Wilenski

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis builds upon psychoanalysis and Shelley’s biographical accounts to claim that, rather than creating fear through physical monstrosity, Frankenstein’s horror emerges from the return of repressed parental and social failures. While the novel never excuses its violence, it contextualizes the creature’s acts in ways that demand readers to confront complicity, neglect, and social shortcomings. The following section discusses general horror theory with a focus on notions of abjection and the synthesis of contrasting images and concepts. A baseline understanding of fear will be formed and referred to in each following segment. After establishing a basic understanding of horror vocabulary, …

“One Object Yields Both Grief And Joy”: Death In Elizabeth Cary’S The Tragedy Of Mariam (1613), Valeria Suprunova

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis argues that the dialog between early ancient Roman and early modern English traditions of death and dying helps illuminate the complex relationship between tyranny and death in Elizabeth Cary’s The Tragedy of Mariam (1613) and that death is an inextricable and dynamic element of the text.

Optional Freedom: The Idea Of Voluntary Slavery In Antebellum Law And Literature, Vinh T. Pham

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis elaborates “voluntary slavery” as a problem for thought for both proslavery legalists and literary writers in the antebellum period. It takes as its point of departure the passage of Southern laws throughout the 1850s that provided free Black persons the option to petition for self-enslavement to a master/mistress of their choice, and the safeguards within them that led a significant number of such petitions to be rejected. Given the political tensions of the 1850s, why would legal practitioners actively impede the option of self-enslavement? Implicit in these rejections is the possibility that self-enslavement was in some way a …

The Process Of Othering: Grief And Shame In Kanafānī’S “The Land Of Sad Oranges”, Eman M. Ahmad

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines how “othering” shapes Palestinian experience through Ghassan Kanafani’s fiction and Frantz Fanon’s theory. It argues that othering produces grief, survival, and resistance rather than assimilation, and proposes a model centered on power, dehumanization, and identity to explain how domination is sustained and challenged.

Lewis Carroll’S Curious Creatures: Examining Carroll’S Use Of Animal Characters Within The Context Of His Life And Victorian Era England, Nima M. Faunce

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) has maintained a wide readership since its publication, but many aspects of Carroll’s original intentions and inspirations are lost on modern readers. By examining his animal characters through the lens of his personal life and Victorian England, a deeper understanding of his novel is uncovered. Some of his characters directly reflect individuals from his real life, such as the Liddell family, while other characters provide a window into Victorian beliefs and practices. This paper investigates each of Carroll’s animal characters in order of appearance and determines possible points of inspiration from his personal …

The Creek And The Cave, Zoe Geltman

Student Theses

A play.

Stone Pace Dog Hill, Haley Lee

Student Theses

A collection of poetry and prose.

Another Inconsistency: A Collection, Christy Luong

Student Theses

A collection of stories.

Selfown, Richard Hollman

Student Theses

A play.

A Curriculum Development Study: Crafting And Teaching Curricula For Ell Students In China, Kayleigh Kearsley

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

When teaching English Language Learners (ELL), it is important to understand the best practices and tools available to teach these students effectively and engagingly. In this curriculum development study, I examine and utilize effective and engaging practices for teaching ELL students and offer eleven lesson plans taught to a native Chinese speaker that reflect the implementation and development of these practices. Research consisted of both practical and theoretical sources concerning critical pedagogy for teaching ELL students. An understanding of students’ background shapes an understanding of language transfer, thus providing a more tailored teaching approach (Swan & Smith, 2001). The scaffolding …

A Look Through The Bluest Eye: Intersectionality, Identity & The Role Of Fiction, Sydney Foster

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Since its coinage in 1989, the idea of intersectionality has persisted academic research in understanding how a person is treated and what experiences they are subjected to, specifically those belonging to marginalized groups. My theory is that a person’s intersectionality is the vehicle which leads to their experiences, which when totaled, comprise a person’s identity. This project focuses specifically on the treatment of Black women and girls, the academic research and first-hand accounts that support the existence of the perpetual adultification, dehumanization, and sexualization of these individuals, and how these phenomena increase Black women and girls’ risk for maltreatment, specifically …

Haunting As Heritage: Mapping The Interior And Indigenous Ghosts, Koda L. Animkii

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Within Stephen Graham Jones’ novella Mapping the Interior, the connections between history and identity are analyzed and emphasized through the exploration of identity formation and the impacts of settler colonialism on the self. These connections are heightened through the novella’s use of horror, as the rhetoric of the normative and monstrous within the genre holds the potential for both resistance and oppression. Looking at the genre of horror as a whole, and at the subgenres of ghost stories and hauntings more specifically, the shifting structures of the Self and the Other as established by Robin Wood’s “An Introduction to …

Towards The Publisher-Function Of The Independent Press: Authorship And Experimentation In The Semiotext(E) Oeuvre, Gilbert Aguirre

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This project is a contribution to debates on authorship, expanding Foucault’s theorization of the author as a function of discourse into the field of creative production by proposing my theory of the publisher-function. Here, I highlight the role of the publisher in shaping literary discourse using avant-garde publishing house Semiotext(e). I analyze two experimental publications to illustrate how this publisher’s role in editing and curating their booklist—or, as I propose we call it, their oeuvre—compounds with the fact of publication to create a new kind of authorial role. This is done through emphasizing the paratexts, elements of design, and literary …