Literature in English, British Isles Commons^™

Phillis Wheatley Peters’S British Publicity Campaign, Susan Carlile

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

Scholarship has tended to place its focus on Phillis Wheatley Peters’ unsuccessful efforts in America, followed by an account of one British figure, the Countess of Huntingdon, who patronized the publication of Poems on Various Subjects in London in 1773. However, the chronology of the British campaign, the modes of print publication, and the locations in which Phillis Wheatley Peters’ words were published deserve closer attention. This essay highlights previously unknown or unremarked upon British publications outside London, the Drewry Derby Mercury, the Ipswich Journal, the Hibernian, and John Gillies’s Memoirs of the Life of the Reverend George Whitefield, …

The Artful Voyeur: Seamus Heaney As Parrhesiastes, Olivia Ransbottom

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Critics Edna Longley and Ciaran Carson have examined the complicated relationship between Seamus Heaney's poetry and the Northern Irish conflict, arguing that, in general, he refrained from clear political commentary. Despite this, Seamus Heaney was a revolutionary poet celebrated for his vivid imagery and commentary on ordinary life in Northern Ireland. While these critics say he held back on stating his political opinion or mystified the violence, this paper argues that he was a parrhesiastes (one who speaks truth to the rest of society for the sake of truth itself) of his time, choosing to practice the ancient Greek idea …

Chaucer’S Contradictory Representations Of Fourteenth Century Knighthood In The Canterbury Tales, Nicholas Cabrera

Theses and Dissertations

Differences in interpretation have long dominated scholarship regarding knighthood in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. But these differences fail to consider the nuance of the text and the historical realities of the period in which Chaucer wrote. Chaucer’s depiction of knighthood represents the institution as filled with tensions and contradictions.

The Affable Raphael: Milton's Surrogate Instructor In Paradise Lost., Beau Kilpatrick

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

John Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667) is a beautifully written epic that continues to be a stalwart text in the English literary canon, with unlimited potential for interpretation. In this dissertation I propose that Paradise Lost can be read as a pedagogical lesson for Milton’s “fit audience,” where the author implements his views on education in the context of heaven, hell, and Paradise. In the poem, Milton presents three pedagogical methodologies: first, the wrong way to knowledge is presented through Satan’s manipulations of the fallen angels and Eve; second, the divine way to knowledge is illustrated via Michael’s prophecy to Adam …

Recognizing Traps And Frightening Wolves: Foxes And Lions As A Representative Of Machiavellian Political Ideology In Shakespeare’S Comedies, Grace A. Powell

Student Scholar Showcase

While William Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets have been discussed time and time again over the past few centuries, one topic that has been less traversed is the connection between his Comedies and Niccolò Machiavelli’s political ideologies. This project will explore references of lions and foxes in Shakespeare’s Comedies and the leaders and monarchs within them to determine how beliefs about Machiavelli’s political ideology influenced Shakespeare’s literature and became symbols for leadership and power. This project will be important for gaining historical context on Machiavellian political discourse and how it was represented in the contemporary dramatic literature of William Shakespeare. I …

Miscellaneous, Bruce R. Johnson

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

Announcements:

Call for papers (The Abolition of Man 80 Years On)

The C. S. Lewis Correspondence Project

The Inaugural Undiscovered C.S. Lewis Conference (George Fox University, Newberg, Oregon September 5-8, 2024)

Submission guidelines, style guide, copyright notice, and order form.

Review Of Further Up And Further In, Bruce R. Johnson

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

Review of Further Up and Further In. Written and performed by Max McLean. Phoenix, AZ: Herberger Theater, 18 March 2023.

Review Of Bareface, David Bates

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

Review of C. S. Lewis, Bareface (Proposed title for Till We Have Faces). Produced by Ballet 5:8. Choreography and Lighting by Julianna Rubio Slager. Costumes by Lorianne Robertson. Props by Sarah L. Freeman. Chicago, United States: Harris Theatre, 22 April 2023.

Review Of The Nature Of Middle-Earth, Brenton D.G. Dickieson

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

Review of J. R. R. Tolkien, The Nature of Middle-earth, ed. by Carl Hostetter (New York: Mariner Books, 2021). 464 pages, including appendices and index. $32.00. ISBN 9780358454601.

Review Of A Narnian Vision Of The Atonement: A Defense Of The Ransom Theory, William Gentrup

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

Review of Charles Taliaferro, A Narnian Vision of the Atonement: A Defense of the Ransom Theory (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2022). 134 pages. $37.00. ISBN 9781666796537.

Review Of The Lion's Country: C.S. Lewis's Theory Of The Real, David N. Beckmann

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

Review of Charlie W. Starr, The Lion’s Country: C. S. Lewis’s Theory of the Real (Kent, OH; Kent State University Press, 2022). 132 pages. $18.95. ISBN 9781606354537.

Review Of The Man Born To Be King: Wade Annotated Edition, Barbara L. Prescott

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

Review of Dorothy L. Sayers, The Man Born to Be King: Wade Annotated Edition, ed. by Kathryn Wehr (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2023). 464 pages. $43.49. ISBN 9781514005330.

Review Of C.S. Lewis In America: Readings And Reception, 1935-1947, Gina Dalfonzo

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

Review of Mark Noll, C. S. Lewis in America: Readings and Reception, 1935 –1947 (Donovan Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2023). 176 pages. $20.00. ISBN 9781514007006.

Review Of Mere Evangelism, Monique Stam

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

Review of Randy Newman, Mere Evangelism, (Charlotte, NC: The Good Book Company, 2021). 160 pages. $16.99. ISBN 9781784986445.

Review Of The Case For Aslan: Evidence For Jesus In The Land Of Narnia, Brian C. Roden

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

Review of David Marshall, The Case for Aslan: Evidence for Jesus in the Land of Narnia (Tampa, FL: DeWard Publishing Company, 2022). 219 pages. $14.99. ISBN 9781947929210.

Review Of Inkling, Historian, Soldier, And Brother: A Life Of Warren Hamilton Lewis, Crystal Hurd

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

Review of Don King, Inkling, Historian, Soldier, and Brother: A Life of Warren Hamilton Lewis (Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2023). 193 pages, including Epilogue, Notes, Bibliography, and Index. $45.00. ISBN 9781606354506.

Review Of The Abolition Of Man: The Deluxe Edition, John Stanifer

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

Review of Carson Grubaugh, Midjourney AI, Sean Michael Robinson, and Luciano Floridi, The Abolition of Man: The Deluxe Edition (St. Paul, Minnesota: Living the Line, 2023). 228 pages, including an Afterword to each issue and essays. $35.00. ISBN 9781736860571.

Review Of The Major And The Missionary: The Letters Of Warren Hamilton Lewis And Blanche Biggs, Crystal Hurd

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

Review of Diana Glyer, ed., The Major and the Missionary: The Letters of Warren Hamilton Lewis and Blanche Biggs (Nashville: Rabbit Room Press, 2023). 277 pages, including “Afterword” and Index. $18.00. ISBN 9781951872205.

Review Of The Chronicles Of Transformation: A Spiritual Journey With C.S. Lewis, Josiah Peterson

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

Review of Leonard J. DeLorenzo, ed. The Chronicles of Transformation: A Spiritual Journey with C.S. Lewis (San Francisco: Ignatius, 2022). 251 pages. $17.95. ISBN 9781621645351.

“A Noise Of Great Good Coming”: C. S. Lewis’S Dymer As A Spiritual Autobiography, Norbert Feinendegen

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

C. S. Lewis is no doubt one of the most recognized Christian prose writers of the twentieth century. The same, however, cannot be said about his pre-Christian attempts to make a name for himself as a poet. His two volumes of poetry, Spirits in Bondage (1919) and Dymer (1926), received few positive reviews and found even fewer readers at the time of publication, and sadly they didn’t receive much attention after Lewis became famous as a Christian apologist and novelist.

I am going to argue that Dymer is a symbolic narrative in which every event on the level of the …

Frontmatter (Volume 17, Issue 1), Bruce R. Johnson

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

General Editor's Note:

This year’s Table of Contents requires some explanation. As a young man, C. S. Lewis aspired to make his mark as a poet. His first two books remain testaments to that unrealized dream: Spirits in Bondage: A Cycle of Lyrics (1919) and his narrative poem, Dymer (1926). Don King has done much to refocus scholarly attention on the poetry of Lewis through C. S. Lewis, Poet: The Legacy of His Poetic Impulse (2001) and more recently in The Collected Poems of C. S. Lewis: A Critical Edition (2015). Jerry Root first advanced his own theory regarding the …

Pedro Mexía And The Politics Of Translation In The Early Modern World, Erin Fairweather, Robert Fritz

Posters-at-the-Capitol

Spanish humanist Pedro Mexía (1497-1551) wrote two highly influential texts in the sixteenth century, the Silva de varia lección (1540) and the Historia imperial y cesárea (1545), which were, notably, written in Spanish, a vernacular language, as opposed to Latin, the academic language of the age. As these books presented previously inaccessible scientific and historical knowledge to the common person, they were soon translated into several languages, achieving widespread fame and influence. However, the texts have been mostly forgotten and have seen little study in recent times. Nevertheless, the Silva and the Historia can help us better understand the politics …

The Literary Gestalt Of The Restaurant Review, Anke Klitzing

European Journal of Food Drink and Society

The restaurant review is a quintessential form of gastronomic writing, but it has rarely been studied in terms of its literary form. This paper investigates the literary gestalt of restaurant reviews through a gastrocritical reading of two reviews by the Irish restaurant critic Helen Lucy Burke. It concludes that restaurant reviews typically include mimesis and evocative descriptions, a meal plot, inherent tension due to the performance character of the restaurant meal and incorporation anxiety, and a combination of phenomenological and ethnographic reporting. These literary features serve to make reviews an accurate and reliable account of the reviewer’s immersive experience, to …

“The Direful Spectacle Of The Wrack”: Teaching Against Colonialism Through Shipwrecks And Shakespeare, Sara A. Rich

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

It has become increasingly apparent that anti-colonial and anti-racist pedagogies are necessary in higher education classrooms, and honors education as an experimental zone is an ideal place to test ideas that can be taken into the wider university community. Honors professors epitomize the teacher-scholar model, and this paper presents a six-year trajectory of anti-colonial pedagogy coupled with original interdisciplinary research in the social sciences, arts, and humanities. Bringing canonical Shakespeare into conversation with historical shipwrecks and their aftermath, students learn how The Tempest was written at a pivotal point in history, coincidentally situated in the same year as the earliest …

Madness As Response To Inherent Cultural Conflicts In Anglophone Fiction From 1700 To 2020, Anna Klambauer

Comparative Woman

Madness in literature has a long and colourful history. While its representation varies significantly in different literary periods, madness is nonetheless a consistent theme responding to inherent conflicts of civilisation. Thus, in the eighteenth-century novel, madness is subdued and forced to express itself in the language of rationality, while in the nineteenth century the theme becomes increasingly subversive. In the form of the madwoman trope (Gilbert and Gubar 1979), madness is simultaneously a reaction to restrictive patriarchal norms, and a frame in which the gender conflicts of the time can be safely and effectively played out. In the twentieth century, …

Will The Real J.G. Ballard Please Stand Up?, Scott Richard Stalcup

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation examines the longer works of British colonial author James Graham Ballard. Specifically, it attempts to answer the long-deflected question posed over the decades to Ballard regarding the treatment of female characters in his fiction. Though espousing liberal feminist ideals at times, Ballard’s repeated use of the lamia/damsel archetype, often in the same female character, strongly suggests he believed otherwise. Using predominantly radical-cultural feminist criticism as a critical lens, specifically the works of Ballard’s long-time nemesis Andrea Dworkin, this study focuses predominantly on the thematic tetralogies of Ballard’s fiction: the ecological disasters of the 1960s, the “techno-barbarism” of the …

"Widsith Came To Talk": Preservation Of The Scop Within Old English Poetry, India M. Johnson-Mccauley

Honors College Theses

This thesis discusses the role of the Old English scop in the context of the transition from orality to written works in Old English society. Scops, the storytellers, historians, and moral authorities within Old English society, utilized oral-formulaic composition to share the Germanic poetic tradition with the largely illiterate population. When Christian missionaries arrived in England and introduced the written language of Latin, the necessity of the scop gradually dissipated; many stories were written down in Latin and the authority on moral and historical teachings fell to the church. Orality continued in many regards, but the occupation of the scop …

“To Happily Lay The Foundation Of Patriotism In One Single Englishman”: Women, History Texts, And The Construction Of English National Identity, 1820-1870, Katrina Denman

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Existing historiography on nationalist pedagogy in nineteenth century England has not focused on women as major contributors to this process through their authorship of historical texts. This dissertation argues that school history texts authored by women in Romantic and Victorian England imbued an intentional brand of English national identity based on Protestant moralism in their readers. It specifically focuses on conversational histories, or texts structured around historical description followed by prescribed “conversations” between teacher and listener, which both anticipated potential questions from young readers and provided a scripted narrative for answering them in a way that fit the larger didactic …

Reading The Books Of Margery Kempe And Alice Pyett: Attachment And Feminist Restoration In Michelle Paver's "Wakenhyrst", Laura Varnam

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

This article examines reading, attachment, and the restoration of female voices in Michelle Paver's Wakenhyrst, a 2019 novel inspired by the fifteenth-century mystic and author, Margery Kempe. The article foregrounds and analyses the author’s own response to the novel and to Paver's comments about Kempe from the perspective of Rita Felski's work on art and attachment (2020) and in the context of Carolyn Dinshaw's reading of Hope Emily Allen's championing of Margery Kempe (2012). Underpinned by a framework that draws on medievalism studies (particularly Katherine Brown's concept of 'restoration'), the article explores the ways in which Paver's two readers …

Treating Traum(A): Examples In The Tanakh That Mirror Events During The Life Of Bonhoeffer And Crimes Of The Ian Rankin Novel Knots And Crosses, Geraldine Mitchell

Journal of Franco-Irish Studies

The Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) contains a wealth of stories reflecting life in the ancient world including struggles and wars that prove(d) traumatic. It is shown time and again that history repeats itself, and the stories of the Bible reappear in the modern world, both real and (crime) fictional. In this paper, traumatic experiences associated with the German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer as well as the fictional character DI John Rebus created by the crime writer Ian Rankin, are linked with similar incidents recorded in the Tanakh. The first novel in the Rebus series, Knots and Crosses, also forms the basis …