English Language and Literature Commons^™

Clown School In France, Lee Kisling

Bryant Literary Review

How do these two things fit together--
the rain falls on the just and the unjust, and yet

The Social Theories Of Charles Dickens: An Analysis Of Victorian Class And Industrialism, Julia Anne Davis

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

This comprehensive analysis of Charles Dickens' social theory looks at Dickens' views on class issues in the paper "Our Great Expectations of the Upper Class" and Dickens' controversial approach to the growing issue of industrialism in the annotated bibliography "A Hard Time for Dickens: Analyzing Dickens' Portrayal of Industrialism in Hard Times." In Dickens' popular 1860 bildungsroman, Great Expectations, Dickens looks at the flawed way that society defines a gentleman, in order to caution against the dangerous societal constructions on class roles. This paper analyzes how Dickens makes these warnings and connects his teachings to issues and prejudices related …

The Considerations Of Editing Previously Published Works, Ariana Marquis

Book Publishing Final Research Papers

How, if at all, do editors adjust their methods when they are editing something that has been previously published (e.g. a short story that previously appeared in a literary journal and will now be published as part of a collection of short stories)? What is their justification for these adjustments (or lack thereof)? How does their understanding of these adjustments (or lack thereof) compare to the products of their efforts?

Setting Fires: Literary Women Blazing Trails For Contemporary Women, Laura Salinas

Senior Honors Projects

“Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim” — Nora Ephron

Literature has always provided an outlet for writers to express their commentary on society tracing from Shakespeare’s plays in the 1600’s to Jane Austen’s classic novels to the modern literary narrative. These writings are often more than just tales to entertain a crowd or a reader; they create dynamic characters that call into question the standards and expectations that society deems acceptable.

Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy has created an iconic and dynamic character that resists and challenges what it means to be a woman in terms …

Marriage And Gender: A History Through Letters, Victoria Kern

Senior Honors Projects

Research on the evolution of marriage can be found quite easily, but the opportunity to see into the lives of married couples from the past is rare. Through the analysis of letters between my parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents, I provide a glimpse of what being married has meant throughout the 20^th Century for heterosexual couples. Societal ideas about what makes a marriage ideal have changed over time, but they have always been closely linked with gender expectations (Berk, 2013), so a feminist approach to the analysis of the evolution of marriage is used with my family’s letters as a …

Robo-Teaching? : Automated Essay Scoring And K-12 Writing Pedagogy, Swati Viren Chauhan

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This paper will examine the current state, and future, of AES in secondary literacy education through a review of current research in the topic. An analysis of the history of assessment will seek to explain why AES systems have gained such popularity within high-stakes assessment, and how the use of AES in secondary education, high-stakes testing affects pedagogy. This paper will also look into reliability and validity issues that are presented when using AES as a form of scoring essays. Finally, this paper explores some ways that AES can be used effectively within the K-12 writing classroom, rather than solely …

Putting Pedagogical Compositional Theory In Action : A Case Study Of Process Based Approaches To Exploring Unfamiliar Writing Tasks, Brett Conrad

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

In this paper, I explore how employing process theory can aid eleventh grade AP English Language and Composition students in adjusting their writing to an unfamiliar composing task: the AP exam’s argument essay. I also investigate how to assist developing writers in adapting their composing to the unknown through their use of prewriting, drafting, and revising, and in their use of these reflective writing strategies that Mary Jo Reiff and Anis Bawarshi (2011) call “discursive resources”: accessing prior knowledge, possessing genre awareness, crossing boundaries, developing problem solving dispositions, and identifying as novice writers. Furthermore, I examine how to implement these …

Sorry, Not Sorry : Speech As Action For Women In The Works Of Aemilia Lanyer And John Milton, Tiffany Ann Errickson

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Using the works of Aemilia Lanyer, John Milton, and Lucy Hutchinson, I will be exploring the idea of speech as action in 17th Century England and its connection to agency and community amongst women. These authors chose to show a distinct strength and sense of power in Eve and her descendants; each female subject not only has a voice, but uses it to her benefit. This is an enormous gift from an author, to whom words and language are the fruit of awareness, knowledge and power. Each representation uses their language as both a shield and sword to defend themselves …

Dynamic Future : Movements Beyond Postmodernism In Three Contemporary American Novels, Christopher Aleixo Teixeira

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This thesis explores the criticism of and attempts to move beyond postmodernism in three contemporary American novels. Jonathan Safran Foer in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close offers a view in which shared experience, and specifically traumatic experience, necessitates the creation of metanarrative communities. Chuck Palahniuk in Fight Club navigates the difficulty of addressing postmodern concerns without accepting the conclusions of postmodern thinkers. Karen Tei Yamashita in Tropic o f Orange posits an ever expanding world which can only be truly understood through metanarrative.

Beelzebub : Satan's Consort In John Milton's Paradise Lost, Beth Tippenreiter

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This thesis contends that Beelzebub is the erotic and political consort of Satan in John Milton’s 1667 poem, Paradise Lost. Chapter one first examines Milton’s relative contemporary, Christopher Marlowe, and his play The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus. Within Doctor Faustus, we find not only an earlier representation of the erotic and political consort relationship between Beelzebub and Satan, here named Belzebub and Lucifer, but that the primary purpose of Marlowe’s Belzebub is to be Lucifer’s consort. Chapter two’s section one focuses on the erotic consort relationship between Milton’s Beelzebub and Satan. Questions and concerns of intimate language and sexual …

Ghettoizing Black Women's Literature : A Socio-Historic Study Of Black Women Writers And The White Publishing Industry, Kimberly Wiley Luna

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This paper contributes to the conversation of race/publishing by concentrating on black women’s literature, exploring how it has been produced over the course of the last one hundred years and the impact of the white/black divide which has created a power structure where white publishers are able to assert control over black women’s writing. The focus is on three commercially successful female African American writers— Nella Larsen, Gwendolyn Brooks and Rita Dove. All three women were published by mainstream New York publishing houses made up of primarily white editors and publishers.

The research in this paper is informed by editorial …

Unveiling Fantasy In The American Gothic, Olga Jacqueline Neroni

English

In The Plague of Fantasies, Slavoj Žižek charts the relationship between theoretical ideology, fantasy, and ideology in practice. While ideology roots itself firmly in our lives—it crafts our very reality according to Žižek—it is a paradoxically fragile and self-destructive system of interacting symbols. We consume and perpetuate fantasy in order to elucidate and internalize the laws of ideology by placing these symbols into dialogue with one another. In turn, fantasy often draws these laws to their conceptual edge, granting bodies and voices to the underlying fears and desires implied by these symbols. Edgar Allan Poe’s “Ligeia” and William Faulkner’s The …

E. M. Forster And Women, Kaila Toce

Honors Scholar Theses

E. M. Forster was a British author in the early 20th century. He was heavily influenced by the women in his life, and this influence is reflected in the women characters of his novels--especially A Room with a View, Howards End, and A Passage to India. But, he only wrote women two ways, either as the bright, young thing, or the wise, older woman. The one character to surpass this was Margaret Schlegel of Howards End.

Contesting Victorian Beliefs: The Unintended Effects Of Victorian Novels, Christina Barquin

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Victorian society reproduced polarized gender roles known as the ideology of the separate spheres in order to confine the authority of women. However, as the Victorian Era progressed social norms were gradually contested, and the consequences of the assertion of female authority led to reform. In reinterpreting the Victorian women’s movement, I will interpret the effects of the writers of the late nineteenth century who argued explicitly against proposed changes in the traditional position of middle-class women. I will most closely examine how the late Victorian novels, A Marriage Below Zero by Alan Dale and The Revolt of Man by …

Exposing Narrative Ideologies Of Victimhood In Emma Donaghue’S Room And Gillian Flynn’S Gone Girl, Meredith Jeffers

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Stories about abducted women and murdered wives are sadly common on cable and network news programs, from Nancy Grace to Dateline. These at the center of Emma Donaghue’s Room (2010) and Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl (2012). These contemporary novels manipulate the narrative conventions of popular true-crime stories to expose the

In the each chapter, I examine the interesting narrative perspectives of Room and Gone Girl to understand the ways that these novels deconstruct mass media narratives of violence to reveal ideas about gender. In Room, Donaghue dislocates the narration by narrating the novel not from the perspective of …

Intersectionality In Jane Eyre And Its Adaptations, Laurel Loh

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

During the almost 170 years since Jane Eyre was published, there have been numerous adaptations in many different mediums and genres, such as plays, films, musicals, graphic novels, spin-off novels, and parodies. The novel has been read in many different critical traditions: liberal humanist, historicist, feminist, and postcolonial approaches dealing with topics such as the problem of female authorship and consciousness. In addition, it has been read in terms of an ideological struggle based on race, class, and gender; xenophobia and imperialism; female labor politics; and genre issues, to just name a few. As literary critics have explored numerous themes …

A Qualitative Historiographical Case Study Of The Educative Properties Of Eugene V. Debs And John Dewey: 21st Century Implications For Education, Bradley Countermine

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study aimed to shed light on the current state of educational reform rhetoric through an analysis of previous attempts to shape public education for the benefit of all. Analyzing Eugene V. Debs’s and John Dewey’s views on democracy and education during the Progressive Era promotes a version and vision of education that inspires people to think critically, to navigate contemporary society, and to acknowledge current issues within public education and United States society at large. Because education both reflects society and has the power to transform it, the struggle for fair, equitable, and enlightening education is paramount to the …

Teacher Involvement In Implementing State Personal Finance Mandates, Deanna Franklin

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined strategies teachers are implementing for personal finance instruction in answer to the state financial-literacy mandates in Central Texas. One-on-one interviews, focus groups, and document analysis found that teachers are relying on personal experience, community resources, and Internet resources to instruct in personal finance in absence of personal finance curricula. No data emerged that school districts were providing resources; however, administrators are willing to provide resources if they were available. Teachers are using a variety of creative methods to enhance personal financial literacy in the classroom. Sporadic in-service/professional-development opportunities were available to train teachers in personal financial-literacy instruction; …

Out Of The Attic: Agency And Narratives Of Mental Illness By David Foster Wallace And Lauren Slater, Erin L. Mcleod

Honors Theses

Studies of Prozac Diary and Lying: A Metaphorical Memoir illustrate how Slater adapts conventions of fiction to the memoir form to create agency for the mentally ill subject. This study will apply this approach of narrative therapy to David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest to determine if the autobiographical conventions of mental illness may be adapted to fiction. An analysis of these primary texts seeks to address issues related to the therapeutic dimensions of autobiography as these are complicated by the narrative conventions that distinguish memoir and fiction.

The Pandemonium Of Change: Endurance Of The Carnivalesque Mode, Jeremy K. Horton

Honors Theses

The carnivalesque is a literary mode that takes the characteristics of medieval carnivals and brings them to literature. Academic study of the carnivalesque has thus far been relatively limited, leaving the researcher to explore a largely untapped field of literary analysis. The carnivalesque is most easily observable in the more celebrated mode of literature known as magical realism, which is a mode generally associated with Latin American authors, including several Nobel laureates. Magical realism deals with the insertion of traditional supernatural elements into otherwise natural worlds, which is the point where this mode intersects with the carnivalesque (though the two …

Long-Term Impact Of Teacher Training For Mexican English-Language Teachers, Rochelle Keogh

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the long-term impact of the Summer Workshop for English Teachers. Moving beyond participant satisfaction surveys and even measures of participant learning outcomes, this project sought to describe the ways that teachers implemented their program training after returning to Mexico and what affect that had in their classrooms, their schools, and the wider English-teaching community. I surveyed 203 former Summer Workshop participants and conducted focus group interviews with 18 more who attended the professional development training at a U.S. host institution between 2002 and 2013. The data showed that the participants were using …

Prescribed Fire, Moira J. Mcavoy

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

As the culmination of my nonfiction seminar (ENGL 470C) with Professor Colin Rafferty, I chose to explore three disparate, but interwoven, narratives: the death of and delayed grief over my high school mentor; my struggle with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder; and, the 2011 wildfire that destroyed much of the Great Dismal Swamp. Through a use of segmentation, lyric language, and a manipulation of tense, I explore the tensions underlying these narratives, namely the idea of futility of preparation and the insistence on destructive cycles which sustain themselves. Ultimately, the essay serves on a rumination not on mortality, but on our cultural …

Overcoming The Symbolic Annihilation Of Females In Classroom Literature, Lisa B. Johnson

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

Although there are more than enough children's books with female protagonists available for children to read, girls are often underrepresented in classroom literature. This symbolically annihilates girls, leading them to believe that they are unimportant members of society. In order for boys and girls to feel that they are equally vital members of society, it is important that they are evenly represented in the classroom. While past studies have indicated that the cause for this is boys' distaste for literature with female protagonists, this study investigates why boys dislike literature with female protagonists and how teachers can approach such literature …

The Nature Of Love, Loss, And The Plague: The Reign Of Filostrato In Boccacio's The Decameron, Jessica Lynn Perez

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

Many scholars have discussed the symbolism of love and loss as well as the imagery of the plague in Giovanni Boccacio's the Decameron. In this paper, I discuss Boccaccio's plague narrative in the introduction to the text. Then, I examines the introduction to Day Four to show the inability of language to hinder nature. I also show how the meaning of Filostrato's name, its correlation to the somber theme that he has chosen, and Pampinea's reaction to Filostrato's theme demonstrate that these are emblematic of loss as part of the human condition. Lastly, I closely analyzes the story of …

Exploring Colonial Identity And A Growing Ecoconsciousness On The Great Plains, Charles Hiebner

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This thesis is an exploration of my journey from an unapologetic industrial agriculturalist to a more environmentally sensitive citizen. I now recognize the inescapable relationship between colonialism and environmental issues surrounding water resources on the Great Plains and how these intertwined issues affect both the planet and its inhabitants. Specifically, I look at literature as both the catalyst and sustainer of my still-growing environmental and social consciousness. From important literary works encountered as a youth to the ecocriticism and explorations of social justice of the readings I engage in today, I examine how these literary choices have led me to …

Holocaust Etiquette, Myth, And Metanarrative : Representations Of Nazism In Contemporary Comics., Tessa Withorn

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

No abstract provided.

The Domestic Interior, The Female Body, And The Metaphorical Irish Nation In The Works Of James Joyce, Ellen Scheible

Bridgewater Review

No abstract provided.

2015 Forces, Scott Yarbrough

Forces

No abstract provided.

Writing Is Learning, Aubrey M. Kennedy

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

This paper examines composition in the secondary English classroom; specifically, the paper addresses common problems associated with composition curricula, and attempts to determine the best methods for teaching composition that strive to foster learning and authorial agency. The paper underscores the importance of incorporating personal experiences and insights into the composition process, and stresses that writing cannot only be taught, but that writing is learning. Moreover, writing is a way to make sense of experiences and insights. The paper includes the scaffolding for a secondary composition curriculum, and outlines the most effective pedagogical practices to teach writing that is meaningful …

Multiplicity, Marianne Leslie Chan

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This manuscript, Multiplicity, is a collection of poems that addresses the varying dimensions within human interactions and the multiple nature of the self. The speakers in these poems confront the “arbitrary constraints” and the categories that define our identities, as well as how these categories are almost always blurred by the complexities of the self and the differences between people. These categories include gender, sexuality, ethnicity, siblinghood, daughterhood, and religion. Two of these poems— “Really, It is All Arbitrary Constraint” and “Other Stories,” which appear in the second section—attempt to dismantle these constraints and/or categories by breaking from traditional poetic …