English Language and Literature Commons^™

Utopian Literature From The Sixteenth Century To Present Day, Lisa Sikkink

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

Sir Thomas More’s Utopia, Lois Lowry’s The Giver, Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland, Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We, and George Orwell’s 1984 are all works of utopian literature. Although they were written during different time periods, the issues they explore are remarkably similar. My research project explores such ideas as literature, sex and reproduction, society, and family life in these utopian works in order to demonstrate these affinities.

Framing Identity: Repudiating The Ideal In Chicana Literature, Michael A. Flores

All NMU Master's Theses

In the 1960s Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzalez penned his now canonical, epic poem “I Am Joaquin.” The poem chronicles the historic oppression of a transnational, Mexican people as well as revolutionary acts of their forefathers in resisting tyranny. Coinciding with a series of renewed, sociopolitical campaigns, collectively known as the Chicano Movement, Gonzales’ poem uses vivid imagery to present an idealized representation of Chicanos and encouraged his reader to engage in revolutionary action. Though the poem encourages strong leadership, upward mobility, and political engagement the representations of women in his text are misogynistic and limiting.

His presentation of the “black-shawled …

The Influence Of Literacy On The Lives Of Twentieth Century Southern Female Minority Figures, Laura Leighann Dicks

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The American South has long been a region associated with myth and fantasy; in popular culture especially, the region is consistently tied to skewed notions of the antebellum South that include images of large plantation homes, women in hoop skirts, and magnolia trees that manifest in television and film representations such as Gone With the Wind (1939). Juxtaposed with these idealized, mythic images is the hillbilly trope, reinforced by radio shows such as Lum and Abner, and films such as Scatterbrain (1940). Out of this idea comes the southern illiteracy stereotype, which suggests that southerners are collectively unconcerned with education …

Agent Red: Fashioning Agency In Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, Christopher M. Yalen

Oglethorpe Journal of Undergraduate Research

In Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, we are introduced to a dystopian patriarchal society named Gilead, where women are relegated to the roles of wife, servant, and surrogate. Although the men of Gilead have built this society with men at the top, the women of the novel show a surprising amount of agency within their own spheres of influence. So the question remains: who is really in control of Gilead? While men are certainly remain the figureheads of power in The Handmaid's Tale, we find that the women of the novel have copious influence within their own realms, …

Conjured, By Sarah Beth Durst. Reviewed By Alana Joli Abbott., Alana Joli Abbott

Mythprint Book Reviews

Mythprint is the quarterly bulletin of the Mythopoeic Society, a nonprofit educational organization devoted to the study, discussion, and enjoyment of myth and fantasy literature, especially the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams. To promote these interests, the Society publishes three magazines, maintains a World Wide Web site, and sponsors the annual Mythopoeic Conference and awards for fiction and scholarship, as well as local discussion groups.

Beowulf: A Translation And Commentary, By J.R.R. Tolkien, Edited By Christopher Tolkien. Reviewed By Janet Bennan Croft., Janet Brennan Croft

Mythprint Book Reviews

Mythprint is the quarterly bulletin of the Mythopoeic Society, a nonprofit educational organization devoted to the study, discussion, and enjoyment of myth and fantasy literature, especially the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams. To promote these interests, the Society publishes three magazines, maintains a World Wide Web site, and sponsors the annual Mythopoeic Conference and awards for fiction and scholarship, as well as local discussion groups.

A Wrinkle In Time At The 2014 Oregon Shakespeare Festival, By Madeleine L'Engle, Adapted By Tracy Young. Reviewed By Berni Phillips And David Bratman., Berni Phillips, David Bratman

Mythprint Book Reviews

Mythprint is the quarterly bulletin of the Mythopoeic Society, a nonprofit educational organization devoted to the study, discussion, and enjoyment of myth and fantasy literature, especially the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams. To promote these interests, the Society publishes three magazines, maintains a World Wide Web site, and sponsors the annual Mythopoeic Conference and awards for fiction and scholarship, as well as local discussion groups.

“The Woman” And The Women Of Sherlock Holmes, Cassandra Poole

James Madison Undergraduate Research Journal (JMURJ)

Women appear in nearly every Sherlock Holmes novel and short story. The vast majority are victims. Against the recurring oppression of women and women’s sexuality in the Holmes canon, a few exceptional female characters escape their Victorian gender roles. One rises above all others. She is “the woman,” Irene Adler, whose strength, intelligence, and independence have made her a recurring star in extra-canonical books, television shows, film adaptations, and Sherlockian fan fiction. This essay focuses on women and women’s sexuality within and beyond the Holmes canon to explore our enduring fascination with “the only woman to ever best Sherlock Holmes.”

To Be A Man: A Re-Assessment Of Black Masculinity In Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun And Les Blancs, Julie M. Burrell

English Faculty Publications

The first Black woman to pen a Broadway play, Lorraine Hansberry scripted a majority of male protagonists. Critics tend to see Hansberry’s depiction of Black men as either an unfortunate departure from her feminist concerns, or as damaging representations of Black masculinity. In contrast to such views, this essay maps the trajectory of Hansberry’s career-long project of scripting positive visions of Black masculinity, from the politically progressive, while still patriarchal, structures of masculinity in A Raisin in the Sun, to the heterogeneous performances of revolutionary masculinity in Les Blancs. Further, in her role as public intellectual, Hansberry questioned prevailing assumptions …

The Wizarding Words Of J. K. Rowling: Literary Merit In The Harry Potter Series, Brenna Sherrill

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Since hitting bookshelves in 1997, the Harry Potter series has taken the popular culture world by storm in an unprecedented way, breaking sales records for both books and films, and dramatically increasing readership among young readers. Despite its immense and unique success, this series, like many other examples of pop culture, doesn’t often receive the credit it deserves with respect to its literary merits. However, it is undeniable that the Potter books reflect many of the traits found in all great works of literature, including complex character development and abundant literary devices that elevate the intellectual level of the series. …

The Deception Of Perception: Browning, Childe Roland, And Supersensory Belief, Catherine Blass

All Theses

Browning's fascination with the senses and the mind as determiners of reality floods his work. 'Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came,' in particular, offers a more complicated, sincere exploration of this topic that had become central to Victorian debate. As Browning acknowledges repeatedly through his poetry, the debate between sensory data (empiricism) and supersensory belief (idealism) could not be understood in clear-cut categories. In much of his poetry, however, he grounds these questions in deceptively simple discussions of mesmerism or the Victorian philosophy of the mind. Although those two topics may seem disparate to twenty-first century readers, Victorian belief …

Queer Tastes: An Exploration Of Food And Sexuality In Southern Lesbian Literature, Jacqueline Kristine Lawrence

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Southern identities are undoubtedly influenced by the region's foodways. However, the South tends to neglect and even to negate certain peoples and their identities. Women, especially lesbians, are often silenced within southern literature. Where Tennessee Williams used literature to bridge gaps between gay men and the South, southern lesbian literature severely lacks a traceable history of such connections. The principal objective of this thesis is to explore the ways in which southern lesbians manipulate food metaphors to describe their sexual desires and identities. This thesis only begins to lay out a history of southern lesbian literature as many lesbian writers …

How D.H. Lawrence Amends Dostoevsky’S Reality, Amanda R. Brown

Spring 2014, Dostoevsky

This paper explores the reception of Dostoevsky by British modernists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Particularly, it focuses on D.H. Lawrence's reaction to Dostoevsky. Outlined in the body of the paper is Lawrence's reality, which is deemed far more radical than Dostoevsky's reality, which is also described in depth. Both Dostoevsky's and Lawrence's world-visions are examined through their portrayal of religion, moral guilt, rationality, and sense of self. Lawrence creates a new religion and characters devoid of guilt. He replaces traditional rationality with a novel system of physical consciousness and portrays genuine characters. On the other hand, …

Dostoevsky, Raskolnikov, And Freedom In Crime And Punishment, Ryan P. Fink

Spring 2014, Dostoevsky

An analysis of the character of Raskolnikov in Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment and his journey towards a truer understanding of freedom. This paper comments on 'freedom' as understood by St. Thomas Aquinas and Aristotle, and applies this view of freedom to the characters of Raskolnikov, Sonya, Svidrigailov and Porfiry. The paper shows how the Thomistic-Aristotelian view of freedom is prevalent in this work by Dostoevsky.

The Evolution Of The Villain In American Cinema, Kelsey Mcclure

Honors Projects in English and Cultural Studies

The villain character has evolved greatly throughout American cinema. Post World War II, the evolution is most striking by comparing films from the 1950s, 1970s, and 2000s. With a selection of four movies from each respective decade, the villains will be contrasted to identify any similarities and differences across decades to determine if the political environment has an impact on the way in which the villain character is portrayed.

Objective:

The purpose of this project was for me to determine if villains were constructed based on views of the American people at the times in which the films were created. …

Dionysus Torn To Pieces: An Examination Of The Sound And The Fury In Light Of The Philosophy Of Friedrich Nietzsche, Scott R. Dubree

Student Publications

Over the course of this thesis the author considers the problem of truth in life as manifested in William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury by means of the Nietzschean conception of the Dionysian. The examination unfolds in a sequential analysis of the novel’s four sections, an analysis framed by Nietzsche’s four theses on “‘Reason’ in Philosophy:” the author considers the first section (Ben) symbolic of man’s subversion to what is directly before his eyes, and yet discovers in Ben’s idiocy a refutation of that same apparent reality in a presently-realized past, personified in Ben’s sister, Caddy; the bounds and …

Of Love, Of Money, Of Unquestionable Practicality: The Choices Of F. Scott Fitzgerald’S Early Heroines, Katelyn M. Quirin

Student Publications

Between 1920-1925, F. Scott Fitzgerald explored the choices of young, affluent women, particularly in regards to marriage. His fascination with this topic began with Rosalind in This Side of Paradise, and her practical yet immature decision. Through his early short stories, Fitzgerald explores different motives behind his heroines’ decisions, varying points-of-view, and the consequences of his heroines’ actions. Fitzgerald’s fascination with these characters culminates in The Great Gatsby with his most complex characters and situations.

Course Syllabus (Sp14) Coli 211 Literature & Psychology: "The Sublime, The Uncanny, And The Imagination", Christopher Southward

Comparative Literature Faculty and Student Scholarship

Course Description:

In a world in which what counts as knowledge is predominantly restricted to the measurable and the calculable, those elements of human experience which elude and exceed these parameters are often ignored and discounted. In this course, we will examine questions of the sublime, the uncanny, and the speculative as treated in literature, psychoanalysis, and philosophy in order to think and write critically about them. Here, we will consider the possible extent to which an openness to such experiences can enrich our lives.

Theological Creative Nonfiction: Christian Literature For Christian Life, Elizabeth R. Hurt

Senior Honors Theses

Since the Christian worldview is composed of more than theoretical truth, Christian literature should reflect these other aspects, such as how that truth is applied in the lives of the saints. Furthermore, the praxis element of worldview is reflected in literature more naturally in narrative genres than in more expository writings like systematic theology. Narrative genres mirror the complex, temporal way a person lives his life, and because of this are able to show how objective truth is applied in subjective situations. For this reason, Christians need contemporary writing that reflects the process of everyday Christian living to offer a …

Text And Context: Creating And Developing Resources For Students’ Stud Of Literature And Culture, Jarom L. Mcdonald, Dr. Ed Cutler

Journal of Undergraduate Research

One of the most beneficial tools for the study of literature is a working knowledge of the culture that influenced the authors of that literature and helped give rise to the social attitudes, feelings, and movements which that literature is trying to reflect. Having first-hand recognized the difficulty of trying to study literature in a “vacuum,” so to speak, my goal was to collect research and develop resources to help future students understand certain aspects of specific cultures and their relation to the literature that they are studying.

The Religious Novel, Claudia Stokes

English Faculty Research

No abstract provided.

This White Rose: Virginity In The Bloody Chamber, Kate Laurens

The Corinthian

Angela Carter’s book, The Bloody Chamber is one of the most interesting takes on fairy tales that there is. Upon first hearing about this book, some people may think that she has re-written some fairy tales or that she has made more “adult” versions of them. However, Carter insists that this is not the case. “My intention was not to do ‘versions’ or, as the American edition of the book said, horribly, ‘adult’ fairy tales, but to extract the latent content from the traditional stories and to use it as the beginnings of new stories.”

The Irrevocable, Bruce Bond

Birmingham Poetry Review

p. 62

This Thing We Do, Kimberly Bruss

Birmingham Poetry Review

p. 65

Midnight, Quinn Lewis

Birmingham Poetry Review

p. 101

Fortunes Of Men, Melissa Range

Birmingham Poetry Review

pp. 121-123

In Two Hundred Years, Cody Walker

Birmingham Poetry Review

p. 146

Self-Portrait As The Allegory Of Painting, Chelsea Woodard

Birmingham Poetry Review

pp. 154-155

The Lost Boys, Jason Walker

Birmingham Poetry Review

pp. 189-192

War Reporter, John Saad

Birmingham Poetry Review

pp. 193-198