Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons^™

Hard Rain, R. L. Boyer

The Mythic Circle

No abstract provided.

Beyond Blue Mountains, R. L. Boyer

The Mythic Circle

No abstract provided.

My Dreamy Manifesto Under The Starry Sky - Cometward, Pawel Markiewicz

The Mythic Circle

Attention: This manifesto has in itself a magic power and it can finally refute the communist manifesto (1847/48) and its successors in the form of communist states. It burns a peaceful campfire!

Ghost Dancing Between Worlds, R. L. Boyer

The Mythic Circle

No abstract provided.

Like Water In Your Footprints, R. L. Boyer

The Mythic Circle

No abstract provided.

September, Meg Moseman

The Mythic Circle

No abstract provided.

Further Up And Further In, Meg Moseman

The Mythic Circle

No abstract provided.

In Baba Yaga's Garden, Janet Brennan Croft

The Mythic Circle

No abstract provided.

'Tomboy' Is Anachronistic. But The Concept Still Has Something To Teach Us, Lynne Stahl

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This article explores the tomboy trope in film and literature and the "taming" that characterizes it, framing both in relation to contemporary debates about gender and sexual identity as well as cultural anxieties around queer, trans, and nonbinary identity. Examining texts from Louisa May Alcott's Little Women to the 1980 film Little Darlings, the article argues that even while the term tomboy may be obsolete, tomboy narratives document processes of rebellion that hold continuing value.

“To Be Men, Not Destroyers”: Developing Dabrowskian Personalities In Ezra Pound’S The Cantos And Neil Gaiman’S American Gods, Michelle A. Nicholson

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Kazimierz Dabrowski’s psychological theory of positive disintegration is a lesser known theory of personality development that offers an alternative critical perspective of literature. It provides a framework for the characterization of postmodern protagonists who move beyond heroic indoctrination to construct their own self-organized, autonomous identities. Ezra Pound’s The Cantos captures the speaker-poet’s extensive process of inner conflict, providing a unique opportunity to track the progress of the hero’s transformation into a personality, or a man. American Gods is a more fully realized portrayal of a character who undergoes the complete paradigmatic collapse of positive disintegration and deliberate self-derived self-revision …

“Rewriting The Rules:” Postcolonial Perspectives On Contemporary Young Adult Literature, Ryan Moore

Augsburg Honors Review

Literature has long been the foundation of the English Language Arts (ELA) classroom. It is through the reading and exploration of literature that ELA teachers and their students achieve learning objectives and course standards; additionally, it should be a goal of every ELA teacher to present students with literature that they will find engaging, challenging, and enjoyable. When the importance of literature to the ELA classroom is fully considered, it is logical to assume great care should go into the selection of the texts used. There seems, however, to be a tendency for schools to lean back on the same …

The Queer Literature Club, Olivia Behm

Honors Projects

The Queer Literature Club was established August 30, 2018 with the purpose of distributing young adult literature with LGBTQ+ characters and themes as well as providing a space space for LGBTQ+ students. The QLC spent the 2018-2019 academic year establishing itself as a thriving community and has gained standing as an officially recognized campus organization. The club is open to students who want to see themselves reflected in the literature they read - literature meant for an age that is particularly difficult for LGBTQ+ youth - and allies. Through the progression of the year, it was found that the QLC …

See And Be Seen: Young Adult Refugee Literature In The High School Curriculum, Patrice Splan

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, there are more than 25 million refugees in the world today, over half of whom are under the age of 18. As these young people adapt to new schools and communities, it is essential that all students have opportunities to see themselves represented in literature and to develop understandings of the experiences of others. This project provides an analysis of young adult refugee literature with a unit plan for application of texts in a ninth-grade Virginia English classroom, stressing the importance of education as a tool for awareness, reflection, and empathy.

“Queen Of The Underworld And Mistress Of The Labyrinth;” An Exploration And Critique Of Females In The Bildungsroman, Melissa Aucompaugh

CURCE Annual Undergraduate Conference

I explore the female bildungsroman expressed as a Counter Bildungsroman, the coming of age through a singular sexual event, coupled with a “a fall” and the Contra Bildungsroman, a more complex entrance into womanhood that reconfigures the female coming of age as rebirth instead of a fall. The first chapter, The Counter Bildungsroman, exposes how the Counter Bildungsroman’s coming of age scenario portrays the problematic expression of sexuality (or lack thereof) and entrance into womanhood in the film Labyrinth and the poem “Goblin Market.” Symbols emerge as supplements for the denied sexuality: the consumption of fruit …

A Sign Of The Times, Zoe Roswell

CURCE Annual Undergraduate Conference

I drafted this short story for an assignment in my Creative Writing 102z course based on techniques we learned in class including estrangement but also it was inspired, in part, by Tennessee Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie”. Williams’ play touches on certain familial mental health struggles in each character that were deep rooted and I wanted to communicate the same effect. My story revolves around the present life and childhood of Charles, an underground boxer, who was orphaned at a young age due to both of his parents’ struggles with mental illness. Charles experienced his mother’s mental deterioration before and following …

“The Fight Starts Here:” Appalachian Mountaintop Removal In Three Contemporary Young Adult Novels, Sarah Mawhinney

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Mountaintop removal is an issue that has plagued Appalachia as companies harvest coal from the mountains and cause consequent environmental and community effects. By focusing on three contemporary young adult novels that feature mountaintop removal, correlations between the novels and the real environmental and community effects can be drawn. The novels examined include: Saving Wonder by Mary Knight (2016), Dig Too Deep by Amy Allgeyer (2016), and The Secret Wisdom of the Earth by Christopher Scotton (2015). Mountaintop removal is a devastating and invasive process, and the costs on the land and people are irreversible as landscapes are drastically altered, …

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

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 …

Mental Illness In Young Adult Literature: A Classroom Approach, Claire Ghent

Honors College Theses

As high school curriculum in the 21st century evolves, the need to increase exposure of diverse literature that reflects culture, gender, and ethnicity is growing. One crucial area often overlooked by educators, parents, and publishers is literature that provides attention to mental illness, in spite of the growing amount of adolescents who suffer from a mental illness. By increasing awareness of mental illness in the classrooms, teachers can reduce stigma and increase empathy in their students while still providing challenging and engaging literary interactions. One of the best vehicles to deliver mental illness and stigma education is young adult literature …

"I Wanted Her Dead More Than Voldemort": Examining People's Hatred Of Dolores Umbridge, Jessica Griffeth

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This Plan B thesis explores the question: Why do audience members detest Dolores Umbridge so much? Dolores Umbridge is an incredibly hated woman in the Harry Potter series who has attracted attention from audiences, but Umbridge has not been studied fully by scholarship. When scholars do discuss Umbridge, they typically focus on her cruelty while ignoring her other characteristics. Looking at popular internet audience reactions to Umbridge, however, shows the complexities of Umbridge’s character by revealing what Louise Rosenblatt calls the “transaction” between the audience and the texts, and scholarship has ignored that “transaction.” Using quantitative and qualitative methods to …

Choosing Advocacy

Occasional Paper Series

Two articles comprise this publication. In "Beyond the Story-Book Ending: Literature for Young Children About Parental Estrangement and Loss," Megan Matt analyzes over 30 books for young children on the topics of abandonment, estrangement, divorce, and foster care. She observes that this loss might appear as an event within the story or as a fear articulated by a young child. She states that, as an educator, she hopes that she can make the children realize that their own stories are "real" and legitimate, no matter what messages they might encounter or fail to encounter in the media. In "Walking the …

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.

“Auntie, What Ails Thee?”: The Parzival Question In Orphan Black, Janet Brennan Croft

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

In Arthurian legend, the question Parzival fails to ask upon first seeing the Grail procession in the Fisher King’s castle, and must return to ask later, is the central turning point of his quest. While in many versions the question is about the Grail and its purpose, in Wolfram von Eschenbach’s retelling, the question posed is “What ails thee, Uncle?”, and it is the moment of humility, compassion, and sympathy that is essential to the achieving of the Grail vision, the healing of the Fisher King, and the restoration of the land. In the television series Orphan Black, the …

Narnian Stars, Ruth Berman

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

No abstract provided.

The Place Of The Lion And War In Heaven By Charles Williams, Janet Brennan Croft

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

No abstract provided.

Editorial, Janet Brennan Croft

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

This is Mythlore’s Official 50th Anniversary Issue, a major milestone in the life of any journal and one we are proud to have reached with the ongoing support of the Mythopoeic Society and the Council of Stewards, our dedicated editorial advisory board members, and our subscribers. Mythlore stands on the shoulders of giants, a theme that unites this entire issue.

On The Shoulders Of Gi(E)Nts: The Joys Of Bibliographic Scholarship And Fanzines In Tolkien Studies, Robin Anne Reid

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

I would like to thank the Council of Stewards for their kind invitation to speak at this year’s conference, with special thanks to Janet Brennan Croft, Leslie Donovan, Alicia Fox-Lenz, and Lynn Maudlin. I was thrilled when Alicia sent me the invitation to attend as guest scholar, especially when she said my recent bibliographic scholarship was a reason. I am happy to be able to join you all this year to celebrate one of The Mythopoeic Society’s series of 50th anniversary events, specifically, the launch of Mythlore. The journal, due to its longevity and focus on mythopoeic literature, is …

Mythlore At 50, Janet Brennan Croft

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

A plan to publish a joural representing the interests of the members of The Mythopoeic Society was announced in 1968 by the late Glen GoodKnight, who founded the society in 1967. Mythlore published its first issue on 3 January 1969, timed for J.R.R. Tolkien’s birthday. One early announcement of the journal appeared in Locus in late 1968:

It was inevitable that the Mythopoeic Society would start its own journal or fanzine. The name of this fanzine will be MYTHLORE. Glen Goodnight [sic] is editor, yours truly [Bernie Zuber] associate editor and art editor, and Tim Kirk associate art editor. Deadline …

The Last Serialist: C.S. Lewis And J.W. Dunne, Guy W B Inchbald

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

C.S. Lewis was influenced by Serialism, a theory of time, dreams and immortality proposed by J.W. Dunne. The closing chapters of the final Chronicle of Narnia, The Last Battle, are examined here. Relevant aspects of Dunne’s theory are drawn out and his known influence on the works of Lewis revisited. The closing chapters of The Last Battle are now seen to embrace many features of Serialism’s infinite regress to immortality.

Saruman As ‘Sophist’ Or Sophist Foil? Tolkien’S Wizards And The Ethics Of Persuasion, Chad Chisholm

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

Persuasive speaking is an important part of J.R.R. Tolkien's fiction, and the wizards Gandalf and Saruman are often the most skilled orators and speakers in the Middle-earth stories. Literary critics and Tolkien scholars (including the author in his prior publications) have spent much time discussing how the oratory of the wizards helps to advance the narrative action within the stories as well as add depth to the wizards themselves and the other characters. Many critics describe the speech of Saruman as 'sophistry,' but does the white wizard really personify the rhetoric of the historical Sophists? The author explores this question, …