English Language and Literature Commons^™

Coleridge’S Living Power: “The Eolian Harp”, Thomas Formichelli

The Criterion

No abstract provided.

Truth In Fragments: Narrative Multiplicity In Gloria Naylor’S Mama Day, Lilly Patton

The Criterion

No abstract provided.

Looking Towards The Past And Future With Waiata: Māori Historical Traditions In Ka Eke Ki Wairaka, Nuala Reynolds

The Criterion

No abstract provided.

Dryden: Master Of Rhetoric, Bradley Rose

The Criterion

No abstract provided.

The Ruination Of A Creator By His Own Hand: Doctor Faustus’ Self-Distance From Godliness And Unimaginative Sloth, Amanda Sopchockchai

The Criterion

No abstract provided.

Finding “Humberland”: The French Language As A Privatized Signal In Lolita, Mae Legare

The Criterion

No abstract provided.

Flickers Of Desire: Shared Consciousness And Queer Ethics In Mrs. Dalloway, Maeve Doherty

The Criterion

No abstract provided.

Complete Issue

The Criterion

No abstract provided.

Calon A Hiraeth, Abigail Kubat

English Senior Capstone

It is a medieval historical fiction piece set in King John's kingdom. The heroine, Isolda, must navigate challenges regarding betrothal, marriage, identity, and her home as she comes to discover who she is made to be.

Plurality Of Place: A Critical Walk Through The Ananda Meditation Retreat, Heidi L. Cram

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

This autoethnographic research project is located in the fertile literary world of authors Gary Snyder and J. Donald Walters’s historic Bald Mountain land cooperative in Northern CA. This is the site of Walters’s Ananda Meditation Retreat, and Snyder's Ring of Bones Zendo. The project takes a creative embodied approach to analyzing and contributing to this location's literature of place through the genres of creative nonfiction and interpretive mapping. The cooperative's focus on Eastern and Indigenous spiritual practice seeded the countercultural bubble which surrounds these two institutions and generated a ripple of rich and varied literature of place. Through autoethnographic inquiry, …

What's That Sound?, Leslie Lemus

Athena: Undergraduate Research and Literary Journal

"What’s That Sound?" is a metaphorical short story that explores racism through the lens of a mysterious, ever-growing sound. The protagonist begins to hear a strange noise, subtle at first, then increasingly deafening as they navigate daily life. Despite their confusion and efforts to understand the source, those around them, particularly white individuals, dismiss or deny the sound’s existence. Only other people of color acknowledge it, sharing a collective understanding. Through symbolism, the story illustrates how racism operates as an ever-present force felt deeply by marginalized communities, yet often ignored or unheard by those not directly affected.

“But I’M Glad I’M Not A Hog!”: The Pig, The Laborer & “Humanity” In Animal Farm (1945) & The Jungle (1905), Madelyn Bell

English Honors Papers

This thesis places The Jungle and Animal Farm in conversation with one another to examine how each text engages, reframes, and complicates Marxist conceptions of labor, class, and (de)individuality through the figure of the pig. Beginning from the pig’s marked similarity to humans – its intelligence, sociality, and symbolic proximity – the analysis considers how this likeness makes the pig a particularly charged symbol for negotiating the moral and conceptual boundary between human and animal, inviting a reading in which human structures are reflected back through the animal form. Attending each novel’s distinct concern with socialism – Sinclair’s investment in …

Portal To The Possible: Naming The Liberatory Classroom Applications Within Afrofuturist And Queer-Futurist Ya Literature, Westley Wrenn Cardani

English Honors Papers

This thesis is an intertwining of disciplines and chronologies. Using English and educational theories, I employ thematic literary analysis, close readings, and lesson plan design to answer the following question: How do works of Afrofuturist and queer-futurist Young Adult literature present us with liberatory possibilities, and how can those stories be effectively pedagogically employed in classrooms to cultivate ‘future imaginings’? In this work, although it pertains to all students, I am especially concerned with the capacity of Black, Brown, queer, and trans* students to dream and construct futures given the operations of systems of oppression which attempt to tell them …

Borrowed Mantles: Neoclassicism, Theology, And The Construction Of Authority In Phillis Wheatley-Peters, Zoe N. Lament

Honors Theses

This thesis examines how Phillis Wheatley-Peters established literary and intellectual authority within an eighteenth-century world that questioned both her authorship and her intellectual capability as an enslaved Black woman. Rather than focusing on the external validation provided by the prefatory materials to Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773), this study argues that Wheatley-Peters constructs authority through the poetry itself. Specifically, it explores how her use of neoclassical poetic conventions alongside Christian theological language functions to establish credibility and strengthen her moral and intellectual arguments.

Through close readings of poems including "On Being Brought from Africa to America" and …

Writing Against The War Machine: Wiflred Owen's Poetic Challenge To World War I Pro-War Rhetoric, Elizabeth Woods

Theses and Dissertations

Wilfred Owen, a soldier-poet who fought in World War I, is often labeled an anti-war poet, with some claiming that he was against the war in its entirety. This thesis explores the opinion that Owen is not an anti-war poet but rather that he wrote against anti-pro-war rhetoric. This includes all types of pro-war rhetoric influential in England for recruitment purposes but mainly focuses on poetry that would be published in newspapers for everyday readers to see. Owen seems to specifically resist two types of pro-war rhetoric, the myth of the German barbarian and what he called the old lie. …

Unmasked And Unprotected: An Autistic Poet's Journey Of Imperfect Confession, Cynthia Short

Theses and Dissertations

Cynthia Short’s thesis analyzes the consumption and contortion of neurodivergent experience across the clinical, personal, and artistic stages. Combining intersectional memoir with clinical research, traditional poetics, and spoken word experience, she weaves a first-person narrative of consumption and redefinition by systems that did not understand her. Yet, she argues that imperfect confession -done without self-knowledge, resources, or proper self-worth to resist consumption – still has its place. Her collection of twenty-nine self-authored poems serves as a testament to the growth her imperfect confession allowed, outlining her struggles with identity, clinical experimentation and economic survival in a world not meant for …

To Become More Fully Human, Mandy Luszeck, Rachel Knecht

The Utah English Journal

On September 10th, 2025, I joined a club I never wanted to join—the club of teaching at a school where an act of senseless gun violence took an individual’s life during hours meant for open dialogue and education. On the same day, the teachers at Evergreen High School also joined that club.

Engagement Is Not A Checklist, Michael S. Bowden

The Utah English Journal

A Familiar Classroom Scene

A teacher stands at the front of her classroom, mid-lesson, and scans the room to check for understanding. She sees what many teachers recognize in their classrooms every day: a sea of students, each seemingly in a different place. In the projector’s glow, she sees a few students intently taking notes on the lesson; a couple are scratching doodles on their page, one is staring straight ahead but not really interacting, and she can hear two more click-clacking on their keyboards as they are looking at something on their Chromebooks.

Four Feedback Tips For A Fifth Year, Annika Nielson

The Utah English Journal

Over the past four years of teaching writing, I’ve picked up a few lessons. One is that students will wait until the very last minute to submit a piece, no matter how much in-class drafting time I build into the schedule. Another is that many students see writing as big, bad, and boring: they have been trained to think that their writing will be corrected with red pens and long lists of mistakes.

Book Review: The Bletchley Riddle, Tiffany Bills

The Utah English Journal

Protagonist Lizzie Novis has many labels: half-Jewish, half-American, half-Polish-British, and precocious little sister. One label she refuses to adopt is orphan. The news of her mother’s presumed death upon Hitler’s invasion of Poland reaches her in 1939 London, but she refuses to let it reach her heart. She can’t believe her vibrant, independent mother Willa is not returning from an embassy assignment in Warsaw. She is determined to find out what happened to her, whether or not her older brother Jakob, busy with a mysterious new job, will help or not. But perhaps Jakob isn’t as clueless about Willa’s disappearance …

The Utah English Journal, Volume 54, 2026: Full Issue

The Utah English Journal

No abstract provided.

Book Review: From The Editor, Jace Brown

The Utah English Journal

As I have worked with the reviewers on this edition of the Utah English Journal, I have found myself thinking often about community. I grew up in what was once a small town in central Utah, then moved to Ohio to pursue my PhD in Education. After graduating, I was beyond thrilled to accept a teaching position at Weber State University and return to my Utah community. It was with this perspective—of leaving, returning, and re-entering—that I began reflecting on the many communities in our lives: the communities where we grow up, the communities where we work, and the communities …

Book Review: A Most Perilous World: The True Story Of The Young Abolitionists And Their Crusade Against Slavery, Mercedes Allen

The Utah English Journal

A Most Perilous World brings the reader into the chaotic, tumultuous, and important days leading into the Civil War, during the war itself, and the Reconstruction Period (1854–1872). The book follows four lesser-known but vital historical figures: Lucy McKim, daughter of generational abolitionists; Lewis Douglass, the son of Frederick Douglass; George Garrison, son of abolitionist and journalist William Lloyd Garrison; and Charlotte Forten, daughter of free Blacks living in the north helping slaves to freedom. Though history remembers their parents more clearly, these young people prove that anyone, regardless of age, can make a difference—even when it seems hopeless.

Book Review: When We Ride, Madalynn Belliston

The Utah English Journal

What do you do when someone you love makes choices that can harm your future? This is the challenge for Diego Benevides in Rex Ogle’s novel in verse, When We Ride. Nicknamed by his best friend Lawson, he goes by Benny to everyone but mom. The novel opens with Benny’s life flashing before his eyes as a gun is pointed directly at him.

Book Review: The Ballerina Of Auschwitz, Kourtney Amodio

The Utah English Journal

Dr. Edith Eger’s young adult memoir, The Ballerina of Auschwitz, is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the transformative power of choosing how we respond to life’s darkest moments. As a sixteen-year-old Jewish ballerina, Edith was torn from her home in Hungary and sent to Auschwitz, where she endured unimaginable horrors, including being forced to dance for Josef Mengele on the night her parents were sent to the gas chambers. Yet this harrowing beginning is only part of her story. Edith’s journey from concentration camp survivor to renowned psychologist offers readers profound insights into trauma, …

Book Review: The Other Side Of Tomorrow, Adam Hellewell

The Utah English Journal

Yunho and Myunghee, the young protagonists of The Other Side of Tomorrow, written in verse by Tina Cho and illustrated by Deb JJ Lee, have not experienced a traditional happy childhood. For them, North Korea is the backdrop of their impoverished, lonely, and brutal adolescence.

Book Review: Pursuing Language And Metalinguistics In K-12 Classrooms: A Framework For Critical Engagement, Leah Day

The Utah English Journal

The linguistic diversity that exists in many classrooms in the United States, and Utah more specifically, creates the perfect opportunity for teachers and students to discuss the intersection between power, language, and identity. As the number of multilingual learners in our classrooms increases, the need for these talks grows more and more urgent. This book offers extensive professional development for practitioners hoping to incorporate more discussions of language and linguistic awareness in their classrooms with their students. It is an overview of a wide variety of research as well as practical applications in a teaching context. Throughout, there is an …

Book Review: Under The Same Stars, Sara Tesch

The Utah English Journal

On the front of the hardcover edition, acclaimed YA author Libba Bray intrigues the reader with three simple, telegraphic sentences: “Three rebels. Two murders. A century of secrets.” Using three distinct timelines, Bray creates a young adult novel perfect for fans of historical fiction and mysteries. Elements of young adult realism are also present within Bray’s 2025 novel, a Good Morning America Young Adult Book Club pick. Under the Same Stars brings the reader on a journey of self-discovery, mystery, and sacrifice in 1940s Germany, 1980s West Germany, and 2020 New York, stricken with COVID-19.

Book Review: J Vs. K, Miranda Folau

The Utah English Journal

J Vs. K is an engaging story about two fifth-grade boys who find themselves in a rivalry over the school competition to create the “best story”. The story begins when K, a new student, gains attention for his natural writing abilities. This is a threat to J, who dislikes reading and writing, but loves to draw. J has been so excited to enter the storytelling contest at school and has been dreaming of his year to shine and win, bringing fame to the fifth-grade class. The boys quickly find themselves in competition, and become very self-conscious as outside acknowledgements of …

Beyond The Book Report: Finding Student Voice Through Podcasting, Gaby Dawson, Johnny Allred

The Utah English Journal

“Mrs. Dawson, I never want to write another essay again,” a student groaned after class, clearly worn out by the end-of-term pileup of assignments. As a student teacher in a ninth-grade English Language Arts (ELA) classroom, Gaby could relate to her student’s fatigue— she only had one last reading unit to plan and teach before the end of the semester. However, with thoughts of winter break at the forefront of her students’ minds, Gaby noticed it was getting increasingly difficult to keep them engaged. To finish the semester strong, she needed a high-interest project and summative assessment that could reenergize …