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Literature in English, North America, Ethnic and Cultural Minority

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Articles 121 - 150 of 182

Full-Text Articles in Children's and Young Adult Literature

The Story, The Narrator And The Reader: Mediated Horror In C.S. Lewis’S Narniad, William Thompson Feb 2022

The Story, The Narrator And The Reader: Mediated Horror In C.S. Lewis’S Narniad, William Thompson

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

In her introduction to Reading in the Dark: Horror in Children’s Literature and Culture, Jessica R. McCort defines horror for children and young adults as a hybrid genre, one having its roots in both the gothic and the nineteenth-century fairy tale. She explains that the exploration of dark forces in children’s books is often not limited to those tropes traditionally associated with the horror genre for adults: “Think of the books that are considered children’s classics. The best of them contain dark forces of one kind or another, as well as internal battles between the light and the dark: …


Environmental Horror And Restoration: Tolkien And Today, Jessica Dickinson Goodman, Caitlin Rottler Feb 2022

Environmental Horror And Restoration: Tolkien And Today, Jessica Dickinson Goodman, Caitlin Rottler

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

J.R.R. Tolkien never forgot the felling of a willow tree that had overlooked the mill-pool in Sarehole, nor how his former climbing companion had been left to rot in the grass. His horror at that small environmental violence bleeds through his works, from poems like “From the many-willow’d margin of the immemorial Thames” (1913) to the Party Tree in The Hobbit (1937) to a letter to The Daily Telegraph in 1972 when he decried the modern “torture and murder of trees.” This presentation will draw on the excellent foundations laid by Dinah Hazell, as well as the father-son pair of …


Nature And Horror In Tolkien’S Legendarium, Julia Bowers Feb 2022

Nature And Horror In Tolkien’S Legendarium, Julia Bowers

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

Tolkien incorporates horror in his legendarium through the twisting of the natural world in order to signal upcoming dangers to his characters. This creates a dichotomy between the idyllic natural world that represents good in his works and the twisted natural world that has been tampered with by evil. Most of the focus on Tolkien’s portrayal of nature looks at the conflict between nature and technology; the natural world of Middle-earth is portrayed as more complex than merely all nature being good. His natural settings take on an eerie tone to convey a sense of horror to the reader as …


Charles Williams' P'O- L'U - The Cthulhu Connection, Eric Rauscher Feb 2022

Charles Williams' P'O- L'U - The Cthulhu Connection, Eric Rauscher

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

This presentation delineates the connections between horrific elements in the work of H.P. Lovecraft and the situation of P’o-L’u from Charles Williams.


Delight In Horror’: Charles Williams And Russell Kirk On Hell And The Supernatural, Camilo Peralta Feb 2022

Delight In Horror’: Charles Williams And Russell Kirk On Hell And The Supernatural, Camilo Peralta

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

Charles Williams has always been one of the more overlooked members of the Inklings, and the continued neglect of his poetry and “supernatural thrillers” suggests that he is not likely to experience a dramatic increase in popularity anytime soon. Similarly, Russell Kirk is an American historian who will always be better known for writing The Conservative Mind in 1953 than for any of the dozens of short stories and novels he wrote, many of which deal with ghostly or supernatural themes. In fact, Kirk acknowledged Williams to be an important influence on his fiction; this influence is perhaps most evident …


White Shadows, Black Riders And Restless Wights: Undead Horror Monsters In The Fantasy Worlds Of J.R.R. Tolkien And George R.R. Martin, Franz Klug Feb 2022

White Shadows, Black Riders And Restless Wights: Undead Horror Monsters In The Fantasy Worlds Of J.R.R. Tolkien And George R.R. Martin, Franz Klug

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

The proposed essay aims at comparing J.R.R. Tolkien’s Nazgûl and barrow-wights with the white walkers (also known as “the Others”) and wights from George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire. To begin with, the folkloric/mythological templates for these sub-created monsters would be scrutinized. The introductory ascription of source material would be followed by an analysis of these creatures as horror monsters and gothic elements within the fantasy worlds of Tolkien and Martin. This analysis would also be linked to addressing the question of how the gothic/horror genre influenced the fantasy worlds of both authors, and as in …


Adoring The Head Of Alcasan: Posthuman Horror And Anticipatory Corpse In Lewis’S That Hideous Strength, Mark Brians Feb 2022

Adoring The Head Of Alcasan: Posthuman Horror And Anticipatory Corpse In Lewis’S That Hideous Strength, Mark Brians

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

At the pinnacle of Lewis’ That Hideous Strength (2003) is the reanimation of the decapitated head of Francois Alcasan. The sheer biological persistence that is afforded to it by the biosynthetic technics of medicinal artifice, allows the head to be possessed by “macrobes”— maleficent spiritual beings imprisoned within the circle of the moon. The goal of this reanimation project is purportedly “the conquest of death […] to bring out of that cocoon of organic life […] the man who will not die, the artificial man, free from Nature. Nature is the ladder we have climbed up by, now we kick …


The Overlooked Vampire: Might Macdonald’S Lilith Be Repopularized?, A. J. Prufrock Feb 2022

The Overlooked Vampire: Might Macdonald’S Lilith Be Repopularized?, A. J. Prufrock

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

Lilith (1895) is George MacDonald’s premier work of symbolic fiction. W.H. Auden asserts that Lilith is “equal, if not superior, to the best of Poe." A cursory reading of the novel reveals much in Narnia can be traced directly to passages. Why has MacDonald’s Lilith received so little commentary and why is it picked up and then put down by even avid readers of fantasy? Universalist theology and chauvinism have been blamed, but literary style is unarguably the main stumbling block. C.S. Lewis, who says of MacDonald, “I fancy I have never written a book in which I did not …


Tolkien As A Folk Horror Author, Monica Sanz Feb 2022

Tolkien As A Folk Horror Author, Monica Sanz

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

Folk Horror, although being identified as a cinematographic genre quite recently, sinks its roots in an undeniable tradition of English writers who used English rural landscapes, ancient beliefs and culturally differentiated communities as humus for their prose and poetry. From the literary tradition of the 8th Century on, creatures and beliefs belonging to dark times have left their mark on our literature, traditions and folklore. Tolkien, as a philologist, was well aware of the hints and bits of these almost unknown legends and creatures left in our language, in the form of loose words, etymologies and fragmentary texts. In this …


Organizational Culture: An Examination Of The Role Of Leadership In Neutralizing The Negative Effects Of Technostress During Operational Shifts, David P. Kirkland Dec 2021

Organizational Culture: An Examination Of The Role Of Leadership In Neutralizing The Negative Effects Of Technostress During Operational Shifts, David P. Kirkland

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

COVID-19 created a support problem for public universities across the United States and required that IT departments and professionals alter how they performed in 2020, and perhaps beyond. IT professionals tasked with safeguarding large amounts of data were required to shift to a teleworking posture to continue offering a similar level of service as previously expected. In addition to the technological shift that organizations experienced because of COVID-19, leadership challenges also impacted IT departments across the United States. The rapid shift of operational duties has the propensity to increase technology-related stress, due to employee perception of being successful in their …


Existentially Guilty: Where Do I Go From Here?, Devontae Wilson Jul 2021

Existentially Guilty: Where Do I Go From Here?, Devontae Wilson

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

Teachers, students, parents, and even politicians have been forced to confront the by-products of not having difficult conversations about race and class. Political pundits are using this moment in history sparked by recorded injustice and the publicized murders of unarmed black people at the hands of law enforcement to demonize Critical Race Theory (CRT), a framework created to analyze how the law is racialized. This portfolio is largely a result of Dr. Rudine Sims-Bishop’s “Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors” and contextualizing it through my personal experience as a classroom teacher, as a black man in a majority white, female …


Entertainment Media Perceptions Of Minorities In Young Adult Adaptations, Kynnadie Bennett Apr 2021

Entertainment Media Perceptions Of Minorities In Young Adult Adaptations, Kynnadie Bennett

Scholars Week

This is an exploration of stereotypical and racist portrayals of minorities, specifically African-American, Latinx, and Native American communities, in film and television in the past and how that has affected representation in film adaptations of young adult literature. Young adult literature is one of the highest-selling genres in literature, purchased by both young adults and actual adults. In recent years, young adult literature has been adapted into film and television series and while representation has improved since the early years of entertainment history, there are still problems in the industry: many of the stereotypes remain, some minorities lack representation, and …


Race Youth In Twentieth-Century American Literature And Culture, Claire E. Lenviel Jan 2021

Race Youth In Twentieth-Century American Literature And Culture, Claire E. Lenviel

Theses and Dissertations--English

Race Youth in Twentieth-Century American Literature and Culture argues for the centrality of black youth, both real and literary, to the trajectories of African American literature and its repudiation of white supremacy. Drawing on research into the rise of the adolescent and teenager as distinct social categories, I argue that age-based subjectivity should inform how we read race-based subjectivity. My first chapter explores how early twentieth-century black periodicals push back against white supremacist theories of human development in an explicit appeal to what I call “race youth,” the children and adolescents who would take up the mantle of racial uplift. …


“Fetch M’Dear”: Healers, Midwives, Witches, And Conjuring Women In Select Ya And Toni Morrison Novels, Diane Mallett-Birkitt Dec 2020

“Fetch M’Dear”: Healers, Midwives, Witches, And Conjuring Women In Select Ya And Toni Morrison Novels, Diane Mallett-Birkitt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Accusations and persecution of witchcraft have been embedded in global culture for centuries. For as long as these persecutions have occurred, women have found themselves accused most frequently. Older women with herbal knowledge were often called on to assist with childbirth or termination of pregnancies and this “secret knowledge” often led them to be suspected of supernatural abilities, often of a satanic nature. Intrigued by these wise women who appeared to have mysterious powers and a penchant for arousing the ire of men in the legal, medical, and religious communities, I began to notice their frequent appearance in novels. Does …


The Impact Of Occupational Self-Efficacy On Job Performance, Kaeley A. Tener Aug 2020

The Impact Of Occupational Self-Efficacy On Job Performance, Kaeley A. Tener

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

From business-related literature, the occupational-self efficacy (OSE) theory has been used to explain employee confidence, motivation, success, or lack of success when used in conjunction with measurable training or evaluation. The presence and effects of OSE have been seen in various occupational sectors and industries. For Human Resources practitioners, utilizing the concepts of OSE in the workforce is more than just training or communication. The present study analyzed the presence and effects of OSE on an online student population at a technical college in a Midwestern University. The results from frequency, correlation, and cross-tabulation tests reveal that levels of OSE …


Entertainment Media Perceptions Of Minorities In Young Adult Adaptations, Kynnadie Bennett Apr 2020

Entertainment Media Perceptions Of Minorities In Young Adult Adaptations, Kynnadie Bennett

Honors College Theses

This is an exploration of stereotypical and racist portrayals of minorities, specifically African-American, Latinx, and Native American communities, in film and television in the past and how that has affected representation in film adaptations of young adult literature. Young adult literature is one of the highest-selling genres in literature, purchased by both young adults and actual adults. In recent years, young adult literature has been adapted into film and television series and while representation has improved since the early years of entertainment history, there are still problems in the industry: many of the stereotypes remain, some minorities lack representation, and …


Feminist Theology And The Fantastic In Jewish Poetics And Children's Literature (1960s–Present), Meira S. Levinson Feb 2020

Feminist Theology And The Fantastic In Jewish Poetics And Children's Literature (1960s–Present), Meira S. Levinson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation traces the development of Jewish fantasy rhetoric in post-WWII British and American literature, focusing on three genres: kabbalistic Beat poetry, children’s fantasy, and graphic novels/comics. Despite increasing scholarly attention to all these areas, little work has focused on fantasy rhetoric or issues of gender and sexuality within non-canonical Jewish literature, or on interplays of religion and fantasy in children’s literature. Jewish kabbalistic poetry and children’s fantasy speak to each other in their mutual engagements with the otherworldly, mystical and monstrous, interrogations of gender, and complex portrayals of feminist theological potentialities. I identify and analyze Jewish-hermeneutic themes and methodologies …


Early Black Poetry, Social Justice, And Black Children: Receptions Of Child Activism In African American Literary History, Tabitha Lashay Joy Lowery Jan 2020

Early Black Poetry, Social Justice, And Black Children: Receptions Of Child Activism In African American Literary History, Tabitha Lashay Joy Lowery

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

In spite of the substantial amount of critical work that has been produced on the recovery of early African American literature in the last few decades, our representations of black authors are still limited. Current studies of early African American poets privilege the identification of African American literature with resistance to slavery. This identification has persisted and has made the field one-dimensional. My dissertation provides reception histories of four early black poets—Phillis Wheatley, George Moses Horton, Frances Harper, and Paul Laurence Dunbar—to argue for and present an expansive understanding of African American literature. A thorough examination of these authors’ circulation …


Once Upon A Time On Mango Street, Drake Deornellis Aug 2019

Once Upon A Time On Mango Street, Drake Deornellis

Montview Journal of Research & Scholarship

This paper examines how the use of fairytale allusions in Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street critiques and recreates standard constructions of female identity. Narrated by the young main character Esperanza, the novel explores the experiences of a variety of Latina women living on Mango Street. As Esperanza retells these stories, she frequently compares these women to fairytale characters, such as Cinderella and Rapunzel. These fairytales often define women as either “angels” or “monsters”: either they are perfect, or they are evil. Furthermore, this perfection for women is associated with dependence and passivity. As the women in the novel …


Technology Threat Avoidance Factors As Predictors Of Risky Cybersecurity Behavior Within The Enterprise, Andrew R. Gillam May 2019

Technology Threat Avoidance Factors As Predictors Of Risky Cybersecurity Behavior Within The Enterprise, Andrew R. Gillam

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Recent research of information technology (IT) end-user cybersecurity-related risky behaviors has focused on items such as IT user decision-making, impulsiveness, and internet use as predictors of human cyber vulnerability. Theories which guide user human behavioral intent, such as protection motivation theory (PMT, introduced by Rogers, 1975) and technology threat avoidance theory (TTAT, introduced by Liang and Xue, 2009) have not been widely investigated as antecedents of risky cybersecurity behavior (RScB). This dissertation describes exploratory research that analyzed and evaluated PMT/TTAT factors as predictors of RScB by enterprise IT users. This work uniquely contributes to the literature by investigating associations between …


Analysis Of The Effect Of An Ergonomic Improvement Program On Incident Rates In A Forklift Manufacturing/Assembly Plant, Miriah L. Cherry May 2019

Analysis Of The Effect Of An Ergonomic Improvement Program On Incident Rates In A Forklift Manufacturing/Assembly Plant, Miriah L. Cherry

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The company experienced a high volume of recordable injuries and decided it was time to implement an ergonomic program in order to drive down the number of ergonomic related injuries. The ergonomics program was implemented in mid-2016 and positively impacted the company’s incident rate. Due to the high ergonomic related incident rate the company had in 2016, the decision was made to implement an ergonomic improvement program in 2017. The goal is to determine the effectiveness of the ergonomics improvement program. This project consists of the study of data before and after the implementation as well as a review of …


Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, And Nowhere: The Influence Of Place On Bildungsroman, Brady Gwynn Apr 2019

Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, And Nowhere: The Influence Of Place On Bildungsroman, Brady Gwynn

Honors College Theses

This research focuses on two metropolitan cities, Los Angeles and Pittsburgh, and addresses their connection to the novel form. Bildungsroman texts are necessary for this analysis of place because adolescence allows for the awakening of oneself and one’s surroundings. On the brink of adulthood, these protagonists reminisce on home while exploring a new landscape: the city.


Representing The Angakkuq: Exploring Inuit Mythology Through Fiction, Abigail Studebaker Apr 2019

Representing The Angakkuq: Exploring Inuit Mythology Through Fiction, Abigail Studebaker

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Projects

This project is both a creative and critical foray into Inuit mythology. The Critical Preface unpacks how magical realism, young adult literature, and multicultural literature shaped the writing of the project, which is the first five chapters of a novel-in-progress titled Angakkuq. Angakkuq tells the story of a teenage girl, Alasi, of Inuit and American heritage living in the U.S. who begins experiencing strange, seemingly magical phenomena. As her story unfolds, she finds herself at the intersection of the past and the present, struggling to formulate her own identity while more and more is revealed about her father’s childhood growing …


“The Only Way Out Is In”: Negotiating Identity Through Narrative In The House On Mango Street And The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao, Brianna E. Taylor Apr 2018

“The Only Way Out Is In”: Negotiating Identity Through Narrative In The House On Mango Street And The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao, Brianna E. Taylor

Steeplechase: An ORCA Student Journal

While aimed at vastly different audiences, Sandra Cisneros’s beloved coming-of-age story The House on Mango Street and Junot Díaz’s Pulitzer Prize-winning debut novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao both uniquely capture the complexities of navigating the hyphenated territory between their respective Mexican-American and Dominican-American identities. Cisneros engages readers with the simple yet profound narrative voice of Esperanza in a series of vignettes that subtly reveal a growing consciousness of her role as a young Mexican-American woman and her creative consciousness as an artist. Through the multifaceted narrative perspective of Yunior, Díaz skillfully weaves together “ghetto nerd” Oscar de …


Deconstructing Native American Stereotypes Through The Reading Of Contemporary Multicultural Literature, Morgan Mcdougall Apr 2018

Deconstructing Native American Stereotypes Through The Reading Of Contemporary Multicultural Literature, Morgan Mcdougall

Ray Browne Conference on Cultural and Critical Studies (2015-2021)

This project will look specifically at the novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. Some of the questions to be addressed throughout the project include: what does it mean to be the “Other,” how can minority multicultural literature be used to help students deconstruct racial stereotypes, and what are the systems in place that have formed the division between “us” and the “other?” I will begin with a historical account of interactions with Native Americans within the United States, beginning with initial encounters and moving up to modern times. Providing this historical information will help …


Tracing Writer/Reader Identity In, And In Response To, Queer Latinx Autohistoria-Teorìa, Corrina Wells Jan 2018

Tracing Writer/Reader Identity In, And In Response To, Queer Latinx Autohistoria-Teorìa, Corrina Wells

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

This project examines how diverse representation changes the discourse around queer latinx identities. This project extends theories of representation that show how a text changes the imaginary of the reader through a two-part methodology. First, through explicating Spit & Passion and A Cup of Water Under My Bed, this project examines how these texts construct a readers’ imaginary. Then, through a corresponding qualitative assessment on readers’ responses to the texts, this project identifies the extent to which the texts change the beliefs and understandings of a small group of students. Articulating an ecology of identity using the texts under examination, …


Adult Learning And The Effect Of Education And Gender Interaction On Type 2 Diabetics, Abdi H. Nur Dec 2017

Adult Learning And The Effect Of Education And Gender Interaction On Type 2 Diabetics, Abdi H. Nur

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this mixed methods research study was to investigate whether the relationships between education and medication and healthy exercise adherence were the same among female and male Type 2 diabetic adult learners. The purpose included also exploring whether registered nurses would alter their approach to diabetic adult learners’ education on medication and healthy exercise adherence considering patients’ gender and education levels. The study also investigated the correlation between diabetes duration and medication and healthy exercise adherence. The research investigation employed mixed methods sequential explanatory design using qualitative data to help explain the quantitative findings. The quantitative study was …


An Investigation Of Principal Leadership Behaviors And Implementation Of Adult Learning Strategies On The Professional Learning Environment Of A K-12 School, Christina Larson Dec 2017

An Investigation Of Principal Leadership Behaviors And Implementation Of Adult Learning Strategies On The Professional Learning Environment Of A K-12 School, Christina Larson

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this quantitative study was to explore the influence of principal leadership behaviors and potential of utilizing adult learning strategies on the development of a school’s professional learning environment (PLE). The intention was also to determine if principals considered themselves prepared to develop and sustain such an environment. Research shows that principals and teachers perceive professional development needs and results differently. To obtain perspective from both groups, two separate surveys were administered. The results from this dissertation came from 262 principals and 433 teachers employed in K-12 public schools in Indiana. With the survey completed by principals, the …


An Exploration Of Job Satisfaction Levels, Pathways Into Education, And Recruiting Behaviors Of Teachers In Indiana, Tricia Johnson Dec 2017

An Exploration Of Job Satisfaction Levels, Pathways Into Education, And Recruiting Behaviors Of Teachers In Indiana, Tricia Johnson

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Teacher retention and recruitment has been studied from many different perspectives, but there is limited research on the issue from the perspectives of current teachers. The purpose of this quantitative study was to gather data to fill a gap in the research concerning teacher recruiting behaviors by asking teachers if they were likely to encourage different categories of people (friend or relative, community member, current student, other students, recent high school graduate, and their own child) to enter the field of education as a profession. Analysis of the data from 2,083 current Indiana teachers found multiple statistically significant differences in …


Let The Dodo Bird Speak: A Rejoinder On Diversity In Children's Books, Kafi Kumasi May 2017

Let The Dodo Bird Speak: A Rejoinder On Diversity In Children's Books, Kafi Kumasi

School of Information Sciences Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.