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A Review Of Joanna Wharton, Material Enlightenment: Women Writers And The Science Of The Mind, 1770–1830, Kandice Sharren

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

A Review of Joanna Wharton, Material Enlightenment: Women Writers and the Science of the Mind, 1770–1830, by Kandice Sharren

Review Of Women’S Periodicals And Print Culture In Britain, 1690–1820s: The Long Eighteenth Century, Lisa Maruca

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

Review of Women’s Periodicals and Print Culture in Britain

Review Of Deborah Boyle, The Well-Ordered Universe The Philosophy Of Margaret Cavendish, Dustin D. Stewart

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

A review of Deborah Boyle's book The Well-Ordered Universe (2018), by Dustin D. Stewart.

Entering The Lady’S Dressing Room: Using Feminist Game Design To Look At And Beyond The Male Gaze In Swift’S The Lady’S Dressing Room., Melanie D. Holm

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

In 2017, I developed “Entering the Lady’s Dressing Room,” an Interactive Fiction game based on Jonathan Swift’s satiric poem “The Lady’s Dressing Room” (1734) to help my students become better readers of Restoration satire, and poetry generally. I did this for two reasons: to test whether the digital mediation of game-playing could help my undergraduate students more fruitfully engage with the poem, and 2) to theorize the similarities between poetic interpretation, the multiple narrative-making experience of game-playing. This article takes seriously the idea that poetry is play. It describes the circumstances that led to the development of the game and …

Cutting Edge Courtship In Eighteenth-Century London, Margaret E. France

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

In 1759, an anonymous twenty-two year-old woman placed an advertisement for a husband in the London Daily Advertiser that inspired an unusual sequel: a pamphlet purporting to collect her responses. Exploring the context of this woman's actions and the letters themselves reveals attitudes regarding matrimony and the dangers of virtual social networks that feel surprisingly contemporary.

Decolonizing Children's Literature: Diversity & Representation In Six Scholarly Journals, Camryn Carwll, Kathleen Fricke, Shannon Montgomery, Shannon Solley, Samantha Walsh, Gabrielle Halko

English Student Work

Research on children's publishing shows that children's literature remains an overwhelmingly White, cisgender, heterosexual, and abled field. The same can be said about the scholarship of children's literature, but little research has been done to measure representation and diversity within the discipline. Our collaborative research team (five undergraduate research assistants and one faculty member) analyzes data from six children's literature journals over a 10-year period; using criteria from Lee & Low's Diversity Baseline Survey and the Cooperative Children's Book Center at UW-Madison, we measure how much of the published scholarship in recent children's literature journals can be considered "diverse." Finally, …

Cosmopolitan Imagination In Salman Rushdie And Ha Jin, Zhenling Li

Lingnan Theses (MPhil & PhD)

Indian subcontinent postcolonial diaspora and Chinese diaspora constitute two of the most remarkable types of diaspora in the modern era. In order to gain a better understanding of contemporary diasporic experience, this study chooses from each group one of the most representative diasporic writers—Salman Rushdie and Ha Jin respectively—and analyses their fictional writings within the theoretical framework of cosmopolitanism, a concept closely related to transnational experience of contemporary diaspora. In view of their wide spectrum of diasporic writing and the distinct transitions made in terms of subject matter in the latter phase of their respective careers, this study divides the …

Dissecting The Man Of Steel: The Evolution Of Superman As A Reflection Of American Society, Marie Gould

Undergraduate Theses

Since his debut during the Great Depression in 1938, Superman has become an American cultural icon. His symbol is not only known throughout the nation, but the world as well. Despite this, many consider Superman to be irrelevant and unrelatable to reality because he is written as an outrageously overpowered being with “boy scout” morals. However, he has not always been written this way. This research seeks to uncover the connections between Superman’s various narratives and the changing social and political ideas of American Society throughout history. Specifically, the objective of this study is to establish whether Superman has changed …

Digital Culture Or Gutenberg Culture: Some Reflections On The Design Principles Of Online Courses., Julie Paegle

Q2S Enhancing Pedagogy

This short essay explores online course design, especially in the crisis conditions of the coronavirus pandemic. We reflect on the question of whether the basic design orientation in online classes should be toward textual or non-textual content, and we consider the view that textual content may in fact be far better.

Reflections On Pedagogy For Large Lecture Humanities Courses, Stephen Lehigh

Q2S Enhancing Pedagogy

In this short essay, lecture technique used by Professor Michael Sandel is adapted to the task of shaping productive lectures in a large lecture course in the humanities, here literature. A brief discussion of Sandel’s method distills it into four points. A brief example follows.

An Introductory Paper On Dorothy Sayers, Christe Ann Whitaker

Mythopoeic Society Seminar Proceedings

Considers Sayers as the Inkling-related author who best articulates the theme of man as sub-creator. Finds this theme manifest in the Lord Peter Wimsey novels—the criminal plotting the crime and the detective re-creating it are both practicing sub-creativity—as well as more explicitly in her religious plays. Also discusses the themes of academic and intellectual honesty essential to the novel Gaudy Night.

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The Broken Sword Reforged, Joe R. Christopher

Mythopoeic Society Seminar Proceedings

Analyzes changes made in the second edition of The Broken Sword, published in 1971, from the original 1954 edition. Comparisons of a number of passages show Anderson maturing in his technical ability as a writer and his psychological understanding of his characters, though Christopher regrets the occasional loss of a certain “lyric intensity” and hints of the “dark backward and abysm of time” found in the original.

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Living With Fantasy & Illusion: Some Thoughts Inspired By Poul Anderson's The Queen Of Air And Darkness, Dale Ziegler

Mythopoeic Society Seminar Proceedings

Meditation on archetypes and fantasy rather than a scholarly paper, this piece considers messages about the human longing for the fantastic embodied in Anderson’s novel, and the dangers of allowing archetypes to be taken as more than the illusions they actually are. Reproduces several lengthy passages from the novel, in particular the ballad of the ranger Arvid.

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The Triumph Of Love: Interpretations Of The Tarot In Charles Williams' The Greater Trumps, Nancy-Lou Patterson

Mythopoeic Society Seminar Proceedings

Extended study of Tarot imagery in Williams’ The Greater Trumps, with examination of Eliot’s possible influence on Williams through his earlier use of Tarot symbolism in The Waste Land. A substantial portion traces the history of Tarot and the evolution of its symbolism through several important decks, then looks at Williams’s interpretation in his novel. Also examines the Roman triumph ceremony and the figure of the Fool for their surprisingly rich interconnections with the Tarot and The Greater Trumps.

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Panel: "The Making Of Fantasy Worlds", Poul Anderson, Robert Silverberg, Katherine Kurtz, Ruth Berman, Larry Niven

Mythopoeic Society Seminar Proceedings

A panel of science fiction and fantasy authors discusses how they develop their worlds, the differences between fantasy and science fiction, and some classic works of fantasy.

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Myth In The Modern World, Poul Anderson

Mythopoeic Society Seminar Proceedings

Fantasy author Anderson discusses definitions of myth and how literature becomes mythopoeic, particularly by catching or reflecting cultural needs. Includes an example of a modern historical novel incorporating myth, Jensen’s The Fall of the King and its use of symbolism from the Norse “Song of Grotte.”

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The Grail Quest Theme In That Hideous Strength, Karen Bailey

Mythopoeic Society Seminar Proceedings

Postulates that while Ransom is the most obvious candidate for the Fisher King in THS, Jane Studdock is cast as a Grail quester in spite of her gender and the fact that she is married, and in effect achieves the Grail at the end.

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The Decline And Fall Of The Osgiliathian Empire, James D. Allan

Mythopoeic Society Seminar Proceedings

Taking Tolkien’s statement that hobbits lingered in “the North-West of the Old World” as its basis, this paper examines the fauna, organization of human culture, development of armor and so on in Middle-earth to place it in the “heroic age” of Europe and to identify Gondor with Rome. The author further identifies the function of the Elves and their protected kingdoms with the monasteries that preserved cultural memories through the Dark Ages. Consideration is given to the nonmedieval culture of the Shire, the fact that Aragorn does not map precisely onto any particular ruler of this period, and what these …

Are These Myths True?, Mary Mcdermott Shideler

Mythopoeic Society Seminar Proceedings

Discusses the nature of myth, mythopoeic play, and the “realness” of mundane and created worlds in her Guest of Honor address. Appended are audience questions.

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Selected Materials From A Study Of The Worm Ouroboros, Ian Myles Slater

Mythopoeic Society Seminar Proceedings

After a brief précis of Eddison’s life, the author discusses the genre of The Worm Ouroboros, basing most of his arguments on Frye’s Anatomy of Criticism. Following is an examination of the tale’s sources, most notably elements from the Norse sagas, The Travels of Sir John Mandeville, and Orlando Furioso.

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Introducing C.S. Lewis: Sincerity Personified, Kathryn Lindskoog

Mythopoeic Society Seminar Proceedings

An overview of C.S. Lewis’s life, primarily based on Surprised by Joy and Letters, covering the entire period from his birth to death with special emphasis on his education and conversion. Includes personal reminiscences of the author’s own meeting with him in 1956. This is the first chapter of Lindskoog’s biography of Lewis.

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Closing Session, Jim Carleton

Mythopoeic Society Seminar Proceedings

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The Return To The Past In Williams & Eliade, Gracia Fay Ellwood

Mythopoeic Society Seminar Proceedings

Compares the use of displacement in time in the plots of Charles Williams’s Descent Into Hell and Mircea Eliade’s novella Nights at Serampore. Both stories involve protagonists interacting with violent events taking place in the past of their presentday location. Williams’s principle of exchange makes Pauline’s experience a joyful and numinous one; Eliade’s story ends more ambiguously, with the participants deriving no spiritual meaning from their experience other than a sense of the illusory nature of what is experienced through the senses. Ellwood goes on to examine real -world stories of similar retrocognitive events and finds recorded examples of …

The Heroic In Middle-Earth, Robert Foster

Mythopoeic Society Seminar Proceedings

Gives examples of several types of heroism: the survival-hero, whose heroism is a reaction to a hostile environment; the destiny-hero, who has been chosen to fulfill a task beyond his normal capabilities; the honor-hero, motivated by a desire for reputation and fame; and the ethic-hero, whose self-respect demands he act when circumstances arise that require it. Describes the moral framework of Middle-earth as one that constantly presents opportunities for heroic action, which in turn influences and supports later heroic actions through providing examples to emulate, clues to effective action, or heirloom objects that assist later heroes. In this framework, all …

Considering The Great Divorce (Parts Iii, Iv, & V), J. R. Christopher

Mythopoeic Society Seminar Proceedings

THIS IS A TWO-PART ARTICLE. IN ORDER TO READ OR DOWNLOAD THE OTHER PART, FOLLOW THE LINK AT THE END OF THIS ABSTRACT.

Part III is a close textual comparison of the English and American editions and the newspaper serialization. Part IV examines the underlying structure, comparing the encounters in Divorce with the organization of The Divine Comedy and concluding that Lewis’s book is not as tightly and hierarchically organized, either artistically or theologically. This section also attempts to categorize Divorce using Northrop Frye’s classification scheme laid out in The Anatomy of Criticism, and concludes with a debate about …

Anti-Babels: Images Of The Divine Center In That Hideous Strength, Nancy-Lou Patterson

Mythopoeic Society Seminar Proceedings

Examines the role, sources, and symbolism of the two walled gardens in That Hideous Strength: Bracton Wood and the garden at St. Anne’s. Discusses the psychological, mythical, and religious symbolism of the walled garden across a variety of sources, from Babylonian epic through Freudian psychology, and lists the source material Lewis references in his descriptions of these gardens. Also covers other gardens in Lewis’s works, including the biscuit-tin garden described in his autobiography as his first glimpse of beauty and the garden where Digory plucks the silver apple in The Magician’s Nephew.

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Transcending The Images: Archaisms And Alternatives, Glen Goodknight

Mythopoeic Society Seminar Proceedings

Discusses the medieval theological concepts of affirmation of images (romantic, seeking truth reflected in imagery) and rejection of images (mystical, seeking direct access to truth), building on Mary Schildeler’s book on Williams, The Theology of Romantic Love, and liberally quoting from Jung and Lewis. Concludes that Lewis advocated a hybrid concept of transparent images; that ideally one should simultaneously contemplate both the image and the truth behind it, transcending dualism.

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Mythcon Report, Bernie Zuber

Mythopoeic Society Seminar Proceedings

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The White Tree, Glen Goodknight

Mythopoeic Society Seminar Proceedings

Revision of conference introductory address. Sees many of the problems of the modern world stemming from a deep distrust of the unconscious mind, and with it a distrust of mystical experience and fantasy. Draws primarily on Jung and on Tolkien’s “On Fairy-stories” to make his point that fantasy is necessary to the integration of the conscious and unconscious minds.

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Sindarin And Quenya Phonology, Robert Foster

Mythopoeic Society Seminar Proceedings

Attempts to classify the distinguishing phonemes of Quenya and Sindarin and use them to develop a framework for determining where on the scale of historical change a vocabulary word might fall.

This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0