English Language and Literature Commons^™

The Challenge Of Monoculturalism: What Books Are Educators Sharing With Children And What Messages Do They Send?, Helen Adam, Caroline Barratt-Pugh

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The importance of recognising, valuing and respecting a child’s family, culture, language and values is increasingly articulated in educational policy. Diversity and inclusion are central themes of the guiding principles of early childhood education and care in Australia. Children’s literature can be a powerful tool for extending children’s knowledge and understandings of themselves and others who may be different culturally, socially or historically. However, evidence suggests many settings provide monocultural book collections which are counterproductive to principles of diversity. This paper reports on a larger study investigating factors and relationships influencing the use of children’s literature to support principles of …

What Is Literature? An Investigation Of Definitions, Symptoms, And Routes Toward Literariness In English, Maxwell Robert Hoover

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This project asks how and why certain works have received the label of “literature” while others have not. The project begins in Chapter 1 by examining seven glossaries of literary terms to define literature by means of understanding its parts, by which I mean the classes that literature has been divided into (e.g., genres). The overall finding of this chapter is that, while the glossarists seem to converge in their definitions of some terms, they greatly diverge in defining others. This divergence creates a problem in defining literature as a whole, because glossarists do not even reach a consensus in …

Saving Pocahontas: A Conversation On Gender, Culture, And Power In The Storied Saving Moment, Claire Ehr

Undergraduate Honors Papers

Pocahontas is a figure with much cultural capital, even today, and her influence was historically important to Native and European agendas alike. Pocahontas as a person indeed had a life that seemed to influence political relations between Native and European (specifically Powhatan, specifically English). However, the storied construct of Pocahontas has had significantly more cultural sway, influencing (or at least representing changes in) everything from gendered power dynamics to the interplay between the European Colonizer and the Indigenous Other.¹ Pocahontas’ image has been re-appropriated over and over throughout time to further political agendas and to represent the female and …

Capstone Seminar In Literary And Cultural Studies Eng 410, Jim Kinnie

Library Impact Statements

No abstract provided.

Outrage! Literature Of Protest And Dissent Eng 121, Jim Kinnie

Library Impact Statements

No abstract provided.

The Young Adult Novel Eng 211, Jim Kinnie

Library Impact Statements

No abstract provided.

Poetry Out Loud Eng 120, Jim Kinnie

Library Impact Statements

No abstract provided.

The Meaning In The Music: Music And The Prose Of Chopin, Joyce, Baldwin And Egan, Colin Perry

Senior Theses

Kate Chopin, James Joyce, James Baldwin, and Jennifer Egan are collectively gifted in the art of prose, yet each author also experiments with music in their literary works. An analysis of Chopin's The Awakening, Joyce's "The Dead," Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues," and Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad reveals a trend of authors utilizing music to enrich their texts and convey major themes.

Culture Vulture: Navigating The Art Of Storytelling In Textual Studies, Blake Altman

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

The following portfolio contains four original essays that explore storytelling across multiple media, ranging from radio to literature to film & television. The first essay explores queer representation during the Golden Age of Radio in the United States. Following that, the next project explores the adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods from novel to TV miniseries, specifically in the development of one of its primary characters. The third essay is a discussion of two Palestinian films that share commonalities as part of a larger culture, and the fourth is an exploration of the Internet using Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World …

Philosophy And Actions For Authentic, Meaningful, And Lifelong Learning, Anthony Klever

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

This portfolio explores several major areas of education related to English teaching. A major research essay, “Incomplete Instructions: Building the Future of Technical Writing in Ohio Education”, explores the current situation and prospective future of technical writing in the state of Ohio’s education system. Also, a reflective essay, “Reflective Narrative: My Journey as a Student and My Map for Teaching”, explores the many elements of teaching philosophy with particular attention to English teaching. Another research essay, “Meaningful Revision: Revise for a Day, Teach Revision for a Lifetime”, explores the function of revision and offers suggestions for increasing the meaningfulness …

The Gen Z Zombie: Ya Takes On The Undead, Jason Mccormick

Theses and Dissertations

After the terror attacks of 9/11, zombie stories experienced an unprecedented boom, or for some critics, a renaissance. Fears of mass death, infiltration by the Other, and life before and after the apocalyptic moment were played out through zombie stories. The longevity of the boom also saw the zombie myth move into strange new places including Young Adult novels, resulting in what I refer to as the “Gen Z zombie.”

In his discussion of the sympathetic zombie, Kyle William Bishop mentions YA zombie texts including Carrie Ryan’s The Forest of Hands and Teeth and Isaac Marion’s Warm Bodies but groups …

Global And Radical Homesickness: Rewriting Identities In The Airport Narratives Of Pico Iyer And Sir Alfred Mehran, Sean Scanlan

Publications and Research

This article explores the personal narratives of two displaced travelers, Pico Iyer and Sir Alfred Mehran. Their memoirs, The Global Soul (2000) and The Terminal Man (2004), provide evidence that anxieties associated with global mobility are heightened due to a loss of community anchors and social orientation points. My reconceptualization of homesickness provides a powerful expression for these losses and uncertainties. In particular, the collision between past memories and present identity tests, especially as these tests occur in global airports, can produce global homesickness or a more destabilizing feeling: radical homesickness. Iyer’s class, national affiliation, and passport allow him to …

'Tomboy' Is Anachronistic. But The Concept Still Has Something To Teach Us, Lynne Stahl

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This article explores the tomboy trope in film and literature and the "taming" that characterizes it, framing both in relation to contemporary debates about gender and sexual identity as well as cultural anxieties around queer, trans, and nonbinary identity. Examining texts from Louisa May Alcott's Little Women to the 1980 film Little Darlings, the article argues that even while the term tomboy may be obsolete, tomboy narratives document processes of rebellion that hold continuing value.

Lost In Translation: Retelling The Tale Of Joan Of Arc, Hannah Jones

Augsburg Honors Review

Ever since Joan of Arc was burned at the stake on May 30, 1431,, historians have studied her lengthy trial interrogations for a glimpse of who Joan the person was. They've offered society both pious and saucy descriptions, portrayed her as a "religious mystic, rebellious girl..."unnatural" transvestite," an Amazon, a schizophrenic, a patriot and, depending upon who you read, a common or uncommon woman of the Middle Ages. Lacking a definitive conclusion, historians, musicians, popular literary figures, modern filmmakers, and other larger social groups have gone on to portray her in their own ways: canonizing her as a saint, promoting …

Retelling The Classics: The Harlem Renaissance, Biblical Stories, And Black Peoplehood, Mina Magalhaes

Celebration of Learning

Applying social identity theory to the process of creating peoplehood can illustrate the positive power that literature has in uplifting marginalized communities by showing their worth. James Weldon Johnson’s “The Creation” and Zora Neale Hurston’s Moses, Man of the Mountain, both composed during the Harlem Renaissance, offer one way to create Black peoplehood by creating depictions of God’s love for His Black people through the repurposing of biblical stories. Through the implementation of social identity theory to Hurston’s Moses, Man of the Mountain and Johnson’s “The Creation,” I argue that these two authors addressed the need among African Americans to …

Looking At Shadows: Four French Texts In English Translation, Kalena M. Hermes

World Languages and Cultures

This project present four French texts in English translation that share the theme of loss. This theme is perhaps one of the most poignant and relevant; loss is an experience that every human will encounter, and as people we continue across time to grapple with what it means for us and how to deal with it. These four texts will bring the perspectives of four authors to light in English. When we study how other countries and cultures deal with common human issues, we are able to gain new views on these issues. This project will make these texts accessible …

Using Literature To Make Social Change: Talking About Race In The Classroom, Zabrina L. Vogelsang

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

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.

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 …

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 Thing That Exists When We Aren’T There”: Narration And Mysticism In Virginia Woolf’S Novels, Taylor Godfrey

English Theses

No abstract provided.

Review Of Environmental Humanities And Theologies: Ecoculture, Literature And The Bible, By Rod Giblett, Sam Mickey

Landscapes: the Journal of the International Centre for Landscape and Language

This is a review of Rod Giblett's Environmental Humanities and Theologies: Ecoculture, Literature and the Bible, published by Routledge in 2018. The review notes Giblett's contributions to the field in tracing wetlands iconography through theological and literary discourses in landmark works in the Anglo-American tradition, Judeo-Christian doctrine, and Australian Aboriginal myth.

The Kaleidoscopic Turn: Henry James And Edith Wharton On The Problem Of Modernity, Madeline A. Krumel

All College Thesis Program, 2016-2019

Henry James and Edith Wharton comprise two of the most successful turn-of-the-century American writers. The two follow the progression of young men and women who attempt to navigate marital, social, and monetary concerns of high-society. This paper traces James and Wharton’s use of art, convention, and the kaleidoscope to highlight their respective attitudes toward modernity. Their language especially concerns females and their socially-assumed decorative qualities. By means of a cultural and theoretical analysis, followed by close readings of The Portrait of a Lady (James), The Age of Innocence (Wharton), The House of Mirth (Wharton), and The Custom of the Country …

Lesson Plan For Teaching Mohsin Hamid's "Exit West", Keyan Shayegan , '22, Peter Schmidt

English Literature Faculty Works

A lesson plan for teaching this novel to college and university students. After completing the lesson plan, students should have an enhanced understanding of the following learning goals: the similarities between different types of internal and external migration, and the effects migration has on individuals and their senses of identity; why nativism is so prevalent, the negative impact it has on humanity, and how it can be overcome by shared experiences between people; how authorities such as governments and mass media corporations use technology to deter immigration, via both force and influencing the public, in ways that dehumanize immigrants; how …

Lesson Plan For Teaching Mohsin Hamid's "Exit West", Ruby Guerrero , '22, Peter Schmidt

English Literature Faculty Works

A lesson plan for teaching this novel to high school grades 11-12, community college, and/or college and university students. This lesson is planned for three weeks and three times a week, but I recommend that teachers revise these plans as needed in order for the lesson to fit their class schedules. Learning Goals: students will be able to identify stereotypes of migrants and refuse to accept these as proper understandings of people; students will be able to reclaim their identities using the novel as a basis for this outcome; students will learn to identify the different types of narration, how …

Sand, Water, Salt: Managing The Elements In Literature Of The American West, 1880-1925, Jada Ach

Theses and Dissertations

Sand, Water, Salt focuses on Progressive Era American literature that explores the theme of land management set in the so-called wasteland spaces of the arid deserts, semi- arid high plains, and Pacific Ocean. The rhetoric of turn-of-the-century land managers, engineers, and developers insisted that humans and their environments remained separate, thus affording humans the ability to control land from a safe distance. However, the works I examine in my project demonstrate that even thoroughly regulated environments remain lively and beyond total control. My project archive, which includes Progressive Era fiction, memoirs, irrigation maps, aerial photographs, dry farming manifestos, and other …

Women’S Writing And The Poetics Of Scientific Knowledge, 1620-1740, Rachel Mann

Theses and Dissertations

Women’s Writing and the Poetics of Scientific Knowledge, 1620-1740 probes the porous boundary between science and literature, revealing that the methodologies undergirding scientific experimentation were developed communally and through a confluence of interdisciplinary and cultural concerns. Ultimately, it shows that our contemporary understanding of the natural world and the scientific method have a history that is largely one of fragments. Secondly, and more importantly, it demonstrates the value of reading imaginative writing alongside scientific developments of the day.

Focusing on women’s imaginative writing in particular reveals the power and limits that ostensibly liminal voices have. As such, Women’s Writing and …

The Child Ethnographer In The Field: Examples From English, Spanish, And French Caribbean Literature, Emily Ann O'Dell

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation I consider the child to be an ethnographer in works of fiction and autofiction from the Caribbean islands. Through their liminality as culturally and developmentally betwixt or between, their cultural malleability, their linguistic fluidity, and their curiosity, the child becomes a "native" ethnographer who is capable of translating the culture (both linguistically and culturally) for the reader in order to establish understandings of Caribbean cultures. This is accomplished through the creation of hybridized or creolized texts that have many of the same characteristics as postmodern ethnographies.

In the English Caribbean Xuela provides an ethnographic perspective of Dominican …

‘Some Foods Are Considered Aphrodisiac Because They Resemble Sexual Organs’: On Isabel Allende’S Aphrodite, Anke Klitzing

Articles

At the age of 56, well into her second marriage and a grandmother herself, novelist Isabel Allende decided to find out whether aphrodisiacs are all they are made out to be. She wrote Aphrodite: The Love of Food and Food of Love after extensive research into erotic literature across some centuries and continents, and this foundation of age-old wisdom also means that the book, while published in 1998, remains a timeless source of inspiration and enjoyment.