English Language and Literature Commons^™

The Satisfaction Clause In Publishing Agreements: A Case Study Of Its Purpose, Controversy, And Future, Maliea Ruby

Book Publishing Final Research Papers

This research paper examines the satisfaction clause included in publishing contracts, the reason for controversy surrounding it, and what the future may look like for it. This is accomplished by looking at the history of the clause, how it functions in publishing contracts, and three major court cases centered around it. The satisfaction clause allows a client seeking a job done to determine whether the work is satisfactory to them. Much of the time these contracts are written to favor the client, part of the reason for its controversial status. In the context of publishing, the satisfaction clause is important …

Examining The Discovery Behaviors Of Comics Consumers, Tara Mccarron

Book Publishing Final Research Papers

The comics consumer base is big and it’s only getting bigger. And yet, very little research has been done on the consumer behavior of comics reads. In order to broaden the accessibility to comics consumer research, this paper examined the discovery behavior of 56 survey participants. The survey included questions pertaining to demographics, frequency of comics consumed, genres of comics consumed, formats used to consume comics, and methods used to discover comics. Due to limited scope, this paper focused solely on format preferences, discovery preferences, and the most-popular genre preferences. Based on this research, graphic novels remained the preferred format …

Metadata Decentralized: An Examination Of Folksonomy In Book Publishing, Dani Tellvik

Book Publishing Final Research Papers

Classification of materials as multifaceted and complex as books is fraught with competing needs and idiosyncratic forms of expression and organization. A publisher’s primary goal is to position their books in a way that will attract readers who find value in the books. Book Industry Standards and Communication (BISAC) codes, the list of industry-approved subject headings, are essential to a book’s metadata for North American publishers. They are used to strike the balance so that a book blends in to an established category while also standing out as a particularly compelling of unique expression or the chosen classification.

Neither Meek Nor Docile: An Analysis Of Margaret Hale And Jane Eyre In Elizabeth Gaskell’S North And South And Charlotte Brontë’S Jane Eyre, Mckell Ferguson

English Department Theses

The Victorian period was an era of societal change in Great Britain. Viewing gender in hetero- and CIS- normative terms, the “woman question” – what to do with unmarried women – became a topic that was widely debated. Activists such as Barbara Leigh Smith, Francis Power Cobbe and Josephine Butler advocated for better education and employment opportunities for women emphasizing the need for women to find dignity and fulfilment outside of the private sphere to which they were relegated. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë and North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell reflect the issues facing middle-class women during this period, …

Capacitating Community: The Writing Innovation Symposium, Jenn Fishman, Abigayle Farrier, Aleisha R. Balestri, Barbara Clauer, Bump Halbritter, Darci Thoune, Derek G. Handley, Gitte Frandsen, Holly Burgess, Lillian Campbell, Elizabeth L. Angeli, Louise Zamparutti, Jenna Green, Jennifer Kontny, Jessica R. Edwards, Jessie Wirkus Haynes, Julie Lindquist, Kaia L. Simon, Kayla Urban Fettig, Kelsey Otero, Margaret Perrow, Maria Novotny, Marie Cleary-Fishman, Maxwell Gray, Melissa Kaplan, Patrick W. Thomas, Paul Feigenbaum, Sara Heaser, Seán Mccarthy

English Faculty Research and Publications

The topic of this symposium, capacitating community, invites CLJ readers to consider what makes community possible. This piece showcases one means, small conferences, via a retrospective on the Writing Innovation Symposium (WIS), a regional event with national scope that has hosted writers and writing educators annually in Milwaukee, WI, since 2018. Through a quilted conversation pieced from hours of small-group discussion, twenty-nine participants across academic and nonacademic ranks, roles, and ranges of experience offer insight into the WIS as well as the nature and value of professional community.

Sherwood Anderson And The Industrial Corruption Of Midwestern Individualism, Hudson Rice

Senior Honors Theses

Sherwood Anderson’s literary Midwest reflects many of the idealistic characteristics resulting from the region’s frontier, agrarian origin. The most prominent of these characteristics is the region’s emphasis on and appreciation of human particularity. His novels Winesburg, Ohio and Poor White document the region’s unique relationship with individual particularity and how this particularity clashed with a new industrial lifestyle. The two novels reflect the Midwest’s unique understanding of individuality and offer an explanation for why the region’s response to an industrial cultural overhaul was so damaging for the Midwest’s identity, as the traditional identity was supplanted by an industrial one.

Communicative Kissing With Alien Poetry: New Muses In Neil Gaiman’S “How To Talk To Girls At Parties”, Leanna Ashley Herbert

Theses and Dissertations

The representation of women in the fiction of Neil Gaiman is a topic that seems to obsess scholars, critics, fans, and (likely) the author himself. It is imperative that closer scholarly attention be paid to the figure of the muse, a figure defined in contemporary culture by her representability, as she appears across Gaiman’s works. This thesis traces the evolution of m/Muses or muse-like figures in the fiction of Neil Gaiman, arguing that the short story “How to Talk to Girls at Parties” imagines an empowering evolution for those who are objectified or silenced by the assumption that they are …

Animal Representation Of Race In The Princess And The Frog, Tiffany Tyantyan Enoch

Theses and Dissertations

Disney’s 2009 film The Princess and the Frog was created in response to racial criticism. It features the first Black princess as a means of promoting racial equality. This film attempts to positively portray Black characters, who were depicted as violent and lazy in previous animations.

While the film showcases positive themes (e.g., internal beauty and virtuous work) and portrays Black characters in a more positive light than previous films, it still perpetuates the typical racism against people of color. The lack of accurate and equal representation of racial groups in recognizable and famous stories is a persistent issue, and …

Engl 351: Nineteenth-Century U.S. Literature, Duncan Faherty

Open Educational Resources

This is a syllabus for an OER version of a Nineteenth-Century U.S. Literature undergraduate course.

Humanity's Fate: An Analysis Of Speculative Human Evolution In Literary Fiction, Celeste T. Johnson

Senior Theses

Speculative human evolution is a literature subgenre of science fiction that explores the potential future of humanity and descendant species. Little academic research has been done to evaluate the scientific accuracy of works of this genre or assess the relationship between the themes presented in the works and our current world. Future human species and their evolutionary journeys were assessed for scientific possibility through comparison with current research in fields such as anthropology, evolutionary biology, and sociology. It was found that the species depicted in works of speculative human evolution were largely based in scientific accuracy and could possibly exist …

"Real Women Have Bodies": A Study In Adaptation, Madison Ephlin

Honors Projects

The art of adaptation is a difficult process, and is often hard to please general audiences that have a connection to the source material. As a student who studies both English Literature and Film Production, the question asked through this study is what does it take to write a “successful” adaptation? What qualifies as “successful”? How does an adaptation balance the themes, characterization, and plot of a piece of literature with the continuous momentum and visual complexity that the medium of film requires, all in 120 pages or less? This study engages with these questions by actively practicing adaptation, adapting …

Psychological Criticism And Shakespearean Allusions In J.M. Barrie’S Dear Brutus: A Neverland For Adults, Kathryn Alley

Senior Honors Theses

In Peter Pan, Sir James Barrie welcomes readers into Neverland, the realm of eternal youth. Barrie’s lesser-known play, Dear Brutus, ushers audiences into a supernatural garden free of responsibility, reality, and permanence. Referring to Cassius’ words in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, the 1917 tragedy explores the consequences of romantic escapism and the seductive power of second chances. Through the lens of Freud’s and Lacan’s psychological criticism, and Barrie’s connection to his might-have-been daughter, Margaret, Dear Brutus unveils the plight of eight mysterious strangers by illustrating that all adults are lost children. Dear Brutus feels in many ways like …

The Cross And The Crime Scene: The Convergence Of Writing As A Christian And The Mystery Genre, Ellie Talalight

Senior Honors Theses

This creative thesis begins with a discussion of the different approaches to writing as a Christian. It describes the evangelistic approach, the integrative approach, and the thematic approach, which vary in the degree to which the author’s faith is explicitly or implicitly included. The thesis then focuses on the way Dorothy Sayers and G. K. Chesterton incorporated their faith into their mystery stories. It then includes excerpts from an original mystery novel. Finally, it considers the value and purpose of this project.

Robert Burns’ Poetic Style Through His Poetry, Songs, And Correspondence, Abigail Druckenmiller

Senior Theses

This thesis explores connections and contradictions within the songs, correspondence, and poems of Scotland’s bard, Robert Burns. A selection of works from each of these categories is presented to compare the ways Burns writes verse, lyrics, and letters. Through this thesis, I analyzed his work looking at subject matter, use of the Scots dialect, structure, and poetic devices in order to offer holistic commentary on Burns’ style in a way that includes his letters more heavily than most other Burns scholarship. Overall, I thought Burns remained a consistent man of conviction and societal criticism throughout my findings, as well as …

Editorial, Janet Brennan Croft

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

No abstract provided.

Terry Pratchett’S Witches Novels And The Consensus Fantasy Universe: A Feminist Perspective, Clair J. Hutchings-Budd Ms

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Abstract

Between 1987 and 2015, Terry Pratchett published eleven novels and one short story within his Discworld universe that came to be known as his “Witches” sub-series. In these texts he engaged with the narrative imperatives, preoccupations, and tropes which together make up the consensus fantasy universe, and those deeper mythologies and legendarium with which the author necessarily has an intertextual relationship. This paper focuses upon one aspect of that consensus universe, which is the difference between male and female magical practitioners—witches and wizards—in the fantasy canon, and how Pratchett sought to challenge and subvert the stereotypes of the genre …

The Unicorn Trade: Towards A Cultural History Of The Mass-Market Unicorn, Timothy S. Miller

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

As genre fantasy congealed around a Tolkienian core in the middle decades of the 20th century, two fantastical creatures emerged as the dominant emblems of the form: the dragon and the unicorn. Either one might serve to adorn genre labels on the spines of library books, or act as the colophon for a publisher’s fantasy line. Dipping in and out of touchstone texts in the fantasy tradition such as Peter S. Beagle’s The Last Unicorn and Michael Bishop’s Unicorn Mountain, this essay will commence a preliminary exploration of the wider mass cultural adoption of one of these two creatures, …

The Felix Culpa In Tolkien's Legendarium: A Catalyst For Character And Reader Transformation, Nathan C J Hood

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Examines the role of the felix culpa, or ‘happy fault’, in J.R.R. Tolkien’s legendarium. The article argues that this motif, originating within the Christian theological tradition, was adapted by Tolkien into the guiding structure of Middle-earth’s grand narrative. It shows the importance of the felix culpa in Tolkien’s secondary world by analysing the trope’s role in the Ainulindale and The Silmarillion. It then moves to consider the ways in which the presence of happy faults in The Lord of the Rings has a transformative impact upon the morality and spirituality of its characters and readers.

Mythopoesis In Tennyson's Idylls Of The King, Rebecca A. Umland

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

This essay examines mythopoesis in Tennyson’s Idylls of the King. This epic Arthurian poem includes features of the futuristic and fantasy genres and confounds linear time. The poet creates an imaginary geography—one steeped in history and myth—for the arrival and departure of his remarkable hero, Arthur. Moreover, through the mythopoesis of his epic poem, Tennyson’s King is more than human, differing in both degree and kind from his knights. The bookend poems that open and close the combined Idylls represent two of Tennyson’s boldest departures from the received legend that emerged out of the Middle Ages.

Wizards And Woods: The Environmental Ethics Of Tolkien’S Istari, Kenton L. Sena, Philip J. Vogel

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Tolkien’s wizards are some of the most interesting and impactful characters in The Lord of the Rings, sent to Middle-earth to inspire the free peoples to resist Sauron. Principal among the Istari are Gandalf and Saruman, both of whom feature prominently in the events of The Lord of the Rings. A much more minor role, however, is played by Radagast the Brown, who appears only in passing mentions in The Hobbit and serves almost as a messenger in The Lord of the Rings. These three Istari enable an interesting discussion of environmental relationships, with Radagast and Saruman portrayed as failures …

Gollum From Medieval Tragedy To Liberal Tragedy In J. R. R. Tolkien’S The Lord Of The Rings, Masoud Tadayoni, Mohsen Hanif

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

J.R.R. Tolkien’s legendarium represents different archetypal myths that constitute a diverse treasury of literary genres. Tragedy in variegated forms also appears in many of his mythological tales and characters. Gollum in The Lord of the Rings experiences a unique instance of tragedy when it is compared with Tolkien’s earlier sketches of the genre. We demonstrate that the character Gollum sustains a twofold type of tragedy that originates from Tolkien’s perception of medieval and modern spirits of thought. Raymond Williams in Modern Tragedy draws upon historical traditions of tragedy to survey different characteristics of “modern tragedy”. According to him, the cornerstones …

Sentience And Sapience In The One Ring: The Reality Of Tolkien’S Master Ring, Larry L. Burriss

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

In this paper, the author proposes J.R.R. Tolkien’s Ring of Power actually possesses (within the fantasy “frame”) both sentience (consciousness) and sapience (the ability to think and act). Numerous other writers have investigated the literary and mythic origins of the One Ring, but there appears little discussion, beyond its creation, of how and why the Ring does what it does. The author here uses Tolkien’s own writing (rather than the myriad of fan speculation or the numerous adaptations of the Tolkien canon) to show the One Ring has, within the frame of the story, an innate ability to think and …

The One Ring Of King Solomon, Giovanni Carmine Costabile

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Tolkien source criticism has long been looking for the source of the One Ring in the wrong places. Neither the historical ispiration from World War II and the Atomic Bomb nor the proposed literary influences such as the Ring of the Nibelungs, Wagner's Ring, or the several examples of invisibility rings found in world literature may suffice to explain the complexity of Tolkien's unique creation. Nonetheless, the same cannot be said so easily with regards to another possible source once we survey the richness of the related legends: it is the fabled signet ring of King Solomon.

The Dragon And The Railway Station, Verlyn Flieger

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

The curious substitution of Bletchley Station for Paddington Station between two versions of “On Fairy-stories” may have a simple origin in Tolkien’s interest in code-breaking, but on investigation (as with most things Tolkien-related) goes deeper.

Thinking Queerly: Medievalism, Wizardry, And Neurodiversity In Young Adult Texts By Jes Battis, Marisa Mills

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

This is my review of Jes Battis's book Thinking Queerly: Medievalism, Wizardry, and Neurodiversity in Young Adult Texts. Battis’s book reads beautifully and easily, even if you are not well-versed in disability studies or queer theory, and I imagine that even a reader who is not especially knowledgeable about either medievalisms or YA literature could also follow along well. This book is written in an uncommonly accessible, even conversational style, that is utterly enthralling, and yet Battis’s work still shows impressive scholarly rigor and scope. If I were to describe the book in a single sentence, it would be this …

George Macdonald In The Age Of Miracles: Incarnation, Doubt, And Reenchantment By Timothy Larsen, James Hamby

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

No abstract provided.

Harry Potter And The Other; Race, Justice And Difference In The Wizarding World, Edited By Sarah Park Dahlen And Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, And Open At The Close: Literary Essays On Harry Potter, Edited By Cecelia Koncharr Farr, Joseph R. Young

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

This is a review of the book Harry Potter and the Other; Race, Justice and Difference in the Wizarding World edited by Sarah Park Dahlen and Ebony Elizabeth Thomas.

The Medieval Mind Of C.S. Lewis: How Great Books Shaped A Great Mind By Jason M. Baxter, Josiah Peterson

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

In his new book, The Medieval Mind of C.S. Lewis, Jason Baxter identifies the medieval thought and practices, and many of the specific medieval authors and texts, just below the surface in Lewis’s popular writings and argues that Lewis “was not a successful modernizer of Christianity and writer of fiction despite the fact that he spent so much time studying old, dusty books, but because of them.” (6)

Discovering Dune: Essays On Frank Herbert’S Epic Saga., Edited By Dominic J. Nardi And N. Trevor Brierly, G. Connor Salter

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

G. Connor Salter reviews Discovering Dune: Essays on Frank Herbert’s Epic Saga, edited by Dominic J. Nardi and N. Trevor Brierly, considering its new contributions to studies of Frank Herbert's work. Essays included fit into four categories (Politics and Power, History and Religion, Biology and Ecology, and Philosophy, Choice and Ethics) and range from Herbert's use of ecology in Dune to how game theory may help explain certain characters' apparent ability to see the future. Discovering Dune also includes an appendix which contains the only up-to-date bibliography of Herbert's work (primary and secondary sources).

Mythmaking Across Boundaries, Edited By Züleyha Çetiner-Öktem, Sarah Beach

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

No abstract provided.