Literature in English, British Isles Commons^™

“[T]He Observance Of Trifles": Mapping Imperial Assemblages In Nineteenth-Century British Serialized Crime Fiction, Dana Joy Gavin

English Theses & Dissertations

This project investigates representations of the ecological and Imperialist relationships in a selection of serialized crime fiction texts: Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret, Wilkie Collins’ The Moonstone, and Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes adventures (appearing in The Strand Magazine: An Illustrated Monthly beginning in 1891). I examine serialized crime fiction published in the nineteenth century as a map of the ecological and Imperialist relationships established through the nineteenth-century British publishing industry. Serialized crime fiction was both popular and profitable, representing not only commercial success but one that tapped into the reading populace’s imagination. Readers craved serialized stories …

Inviting Submission: Isabella Beeton At The Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine, 1856-1865, Julie Megan Sorge Way

English Theses & Dissertations

Isabella Beeton, creator of the iconic domestic manual Beeton’s Book of Household Management, died suddenly in 1865, just before her twenty-ninth birthday. Her popular book survived to codify stereotypical Victorian female ideals. Yet the “Mrs Beeton” mythos camouflages a remarkable talent: far from domestic drudgery, Beeton maintained a vibrant career as a writer and editor at the Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine (EDM), traveling widely to research the latest fashions and laboring behind the scenes to ensure the magazine’s success. Closely examining Beeton’s EDM work demonstrates how these formative, productive years shaped her later, more popular writing. Such a …

Her Precious White Body/Her Tender Black Flesh: The Gothic Link To Black Women's (Mis)Treatment In Real Life And On The Page, Madisty R. Thomas

English Theses & Dissertations

As a work in progress, this thesis explores the interplay between historical and contemporary devaluation of and violence against Black women, materially and discursively, including visual mediums and written text. Specifically, I focus on the gothic novel to illuminate the impact race-based inventions such as chattel slavery and human exhibitions, as well as the generic tropes of the Gothic, have had on Black women’s representation and lived experience via a wide-ranging introduction and close examination of Richard Marsh’s The Beetle. Additionally, the conclusion attempts to suggest how Black women and girls might survive in this antiblack world, thus escape …

Men, Women, And Italians: The Masquerade Of Narrative And Identity In Richardson's Sir Charles Grandison, Ruth A. Holmes

English Theses & Dissertations

The chaotic masquerades that proliferated during the British long eighteenth century punctuated the period’s preoccupation with order and categorization. The identity categories that the masquerade disrupted, the novel reinforced, or perhaps even created. It was in the middle of this period, in the political center of Britain, that Samuel Richardson published his third and final novel, The History of Sir Charles Grandison (1753), a novel which centers England and was also centered by England, a national treasure entangled in literary and cultural history. Tracing the nexus of gender and nationalism in Grandison then becomes important given the novel’s active entanglement …

The Spooky Vein: The Reparative Gothic-Modern In The Works Of Richard A.W. Hughes, Corwin R. Baden

English Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation explores the dual nature of Richard A.W. Hughes as a marginalized Gothicist and modernist. This duality facilitated the development of the author’s reparative vision for a 20th-century world traumatized by planetary war. The present study utilizes close readings—both surface and symptomatic—combined with archival research to assert that Hughes fashions this reparative imperative consistently across his corpus: in his short stories, poems, novels, stage plays, and screenplays. In his short stories, this vision includes an embrace of the Stranger, a shadowy Gothic figure whose possessions, power, difference, and familiarity lead the human subject from contestation, through representation, and toward …

John Donne And The Paradox: An Analysis Of “Batter My Heart, Three-Person’D God”, Lily Daniels

OUR Journal: ODU Undergraduate Research Journal

A paradox is a statement that appears contradictory but ultimately makes sense. “Sonnet XIV: Batter my heart, three person’d God” (1632) by John Donne reflects the many paradoxes within the Bible and Christian faith. Read within the context of his religious beliefs and the rest of the Holy Sonnets, “Batter my heart, three-person’d God” is a poem that exhibits Donne’s theology of God and the process of salvation. The speaker affirms that the power of the triune God is required to break the bonds of sin. He finds freedom from sin in submitting to God’s will, and he finds innocence …

"The Most Glorious War Recorded In The British Annals”: Portugal In British Figurations Of The Peninsular War, Manuela MourãO

English Faculty Publications

[First paragraph]

“THE MOST GLORIOUS WAR RECORDED IN THE BRITISH ANNALS,” AS ROBERT Southey described it in the dedication of his History of the Peninsular War,1 the conflict that brought together Portugal, Spain, and Britain against Napoleon’s armies between 1807 and 1814 was a dominant preoccupation of the British public in general, and of the first generation of Romantics in particular.2 Many critics have shown the extent to which the Iberian uprising against the tyranny of Napoleon galvanized the British people, united the British nation, and afforded Southey, Wordsworth, and Coleridge a renewed opportunity to sympathize with the cause of …

Shakespeare's Globe Archive: Theatres, Players & Performance, Rob Tench

Libraries Faculty & Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Twisting Facts To Suit Theories: In Defense Of Sherlock, Alicia Defonzo

English Faculty Publications

[First paragraph]

In August 2011, the Albemarle County school board unanimously voted to remove Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s A Study in Scarlet from the sixth-grade curricula. Over twenty students beseeched the board for the book to remain, and they were ignored. Teachers were afraid to voice their opinions on the matter. The novel has not been taught since in Albemarle, on any grade level, nor any other Sherlock Holmes texts.

The Sky Of Our Manufacture: The London Fog In British Fiction From Dickens To Woolf, Margaret Konkol

English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

“The Finest Production Of The Finest Country Upon Earth”: Gender And Nationality In The Writings Of Nineteenth-Century British Women Travelers To Portugal, Manuela MourãO

English Faculty Publications

First paragraph:

Critical attention to the writings of nineteenth-century British women travelers has repeatedly stressed their value as evidence of the writers’ attempts at overcoming the constraints of nineteenth-century ideologies of femininity that constructed women as inferior or ancillary (Frawley; Robinson; Foster; Dolan; Middleton); it has also often emphasized the importance of reading them within contemporary discourses such as imperialism, colonialism, or nationalism (Blunt; Frawley; Foster; Mills; Siegel). This essay focuses on three accounts by nineteenth- century British women travelers to Portugal— Marianne Baillie’s Lisbon in the Years 1821, 1822, and 1823 (1824); Julia Pardoe’s Traits and Traditions of Portugal …

Robert Southey On Portugal: Travel Narrative And The Writing Of History, Manuela MourãO

English Faculty Publications

First paragraph:

Robert Southey was once referred to by Ernest Bernhardt-Kabisch as “one of the best known of the unread poets” (9) in a study that deliberately focused on what he considered Southey’s largely failed poetic quest: “Southey’s grand failures,” he explained, “are more interesting than his modest successes and far more illuminative of Romanticism and Romantic myth-making generally” (9). In an oblique way, my focus in this essay is likewise another of Southey’s grand failures-- his planned, but never finished, History of Portugal. This ambitious project, despite remaining mostly unwritten, occupied much of Southey’s time in the early years …

The (Re)Naturalization Of Margaret Cavendish: Making Active The Relationship Between Nature And Female Subjectivity In Blazing World, Daniel P. Richards, Julie Chappell (Ed.), Kamille Stone Stanton (Ed.)

English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Illustrations And Text: Storyworld Space And The Multimodality Of Serialized Narrative, Laura Daniel Buchholz

English Faculty Publications

This essay examines the interaction between picture and text in the construction of the narrative spaces in George W. M. Reynolds's Mysteries of London (1844–45) and William Harrison Ainsworth's Jack Sheppard (1839) . Building on previous discussions from Gabriel Zoran (1984) and David Herman ( Story Logic, 2002) concerning the process by which space is constructed in verbal/written texts, this essay examines how such theories function in conjunction with the illustrations that often accompanied Victorian serialized narratives in their original publication. Specifically, I consider the interaction between the verbal and visual channels in the construction of interior rooms presented in …

Samuel Beckett And Testimony [Book Review], Marc A. Ouellette

English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

"Sample Speech I' The Market-Place": The Habermasian Public Sphere In Robert Browning's The Ring And The Book, Anthony Thomas Garcia

English Theses & Dissertations

In The Ring and the Book, Browning presents a spectrum of twelve dramatic monologues to tell a complicated murder story in 17th century Rome. Browning delves into the environs of 17th century Italy in creating the backdrop for the narrative in Books Two, Three, and Four, supplying these voices to provide historical and social context to the private matter of domestic violence. Understanding the function of this leading triad necessitates investigation into the relation of community and public space to the act of uxoricide. The counter-position of "Half-Rome" in Book II and "The Other Half-Rome" in Book III produces …

Othello's "Malignant Turk" And George Manwaring's "A True Discourse": The Cultural Politics Of A Textual Derivation, Imtiaz Habib

English Faculty Publications

A critique is presented of the play "Othello" by William Shakespeare, focusing on a reference from Othello's final speech to an incident in Aleppo, Syria that the author attributes to the manuscript essay "A True Discourse" by George Manwaring, a companion of English adventurer Sir Anthony Sherley. Early 17th century British history, Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, and Queen Elizabeth I are mentioned, as well as references in the works to Turks and the censorship of English literature.

The Mediterranean Apprenticeship Of British Slavery, By Gustav Ungerer. Madrid: Editorial Verbum, 2008 (Book Review), Imtiaz Habib

English Faculty Publications

The article reviews the book "The Mediterranean Apprenticeship of British Slavery," by Gustav Ungerer.

Racial Impersonation On The Elizabethan Stage: The Case Of Shakespeare Playing Aaron, Imtiaz Habib

English Faculty Publications

The article focuses on the implications of playwright William Shakespeare performing racial roles himself, such as Aaron in "Titus Andronicus." Several plays are discussed, including "Titus Andronicus," "The Merchant of Venice," and "Othello." The SHAXICON database, which compiles the text of Shakespeare's plays, is the primary source of evidence to suggest Shakespeare acted in his plays. Information about race relations in Great Britain's society during Shakespeare's time is also given.

The Progression Of Literary Representation Of Female Friendships In Nineteenth-Century British Literature, Debby Bangert

English Theses & Dissertations

No abstract.

Mary Stuart And The English Sonnet Tradition: A Reassessment, Megan K. Mize

English Theses & Dissertations

Queen of Scotland practically from birth, Mary Stuart occupied a unique position of authority for a woman in the early modem moment. As Stuart struggled to solidify her power in Scotland, she represented the threat of female agency within a patriarchal culture. Stuart's political opponents used her personal correspondence, including a sonnet sequence known as the Casket Sonnets, as a means of illustrating Stuart's supposed abuse of power. In the Sonnets, Stuart reversed Petrarchan gender roles, placing a female in the masculine role of the aggressive lover. As monarch, Stuart could not escape the political implications of her personal desire, …

English Ethnicity And Race In Early Modern Drama, By Mary Floyd-Wilson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003 (Book Review), Imtiaz Habib

English Faculty Publications

The article reviews the book "English Ethnicity and Race in Early Modern Drama," by Mary Floyd-Wilson.

Inside The Fairy Ring: Jane Eyre And The Victorian Fairy Tale, Kimberly Alford

English Theses & Dissertations

Focusing on nineteenth century literature in England, this paper explores the relationship of fairy tales to the realist novel. Even though the novels of the time are best known for being grounded firmly in realism, the world of fairies, existing most prominently in nineteenth-century children's literature, crept into novels and stories written for adults. The novel Jane Eyre, frequently discussed regarding its treatment of nineteenth century social issues, contains gothic and romantic elements alongside the realist mode. These elements contribute to a "transformation" of the text into a fairy tale. The novel becomes a fairy tale not in structure alone, …

Strange Embedded Fellows: The Socio-Narrative Radicalism Of Ann Radcliffe's Gothic Romance, E. Jordan Sellers Jr.

English Theses & Dissertations

Through a close narratological analysis of Ann Radcliffe's romances, this thesis will demonstrate that the form of Radcliffe's novels is fundamentally linked to her contemporary cultural contexts. Although traditional criticism of Radcliffe rather dubiously labels her a conservative writer and regularly cites her heroines and servants as idealized and submissive stock devices, this project will demonstrate that her characters have significant subversive agency based in narrative structure, which subtly points to the radicalism of Radcliffe's politics. These conventional readings of Radcliffe's novels have too long separated the concerns of servants, women, and Radcliffe's own politics. It is only when we …

Ravers At The Bush: Generation Ecstasy Goes To The Theatre, William C. Boles

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

Determining that seminal moment when a new theatrical movement comes to life has been one of the points of debate surrounding the challenging new plays and their talented, twenty something authors that have appeared on the British stage since the mid-1990s. Plays and authors like: Mojo (1995) by Jez Butterworth; Blasted (1995) by Sarah Kane; Closer (1997) by Patrick Marber; The Beauty Queen of Leenane (1996) by Martin McDonagh; Butterfly Kiss (1994) by Phyllis Nagy; Love and Understanding (1997) by Joe Penhall; Essex Girls (1994) by Rebecca Prichard; Shopping and Fucking (1996) by Mark Ravenhill; and Ashes and …

A Man's Home Is His Castle: A Look At The Relationship Between Fathers And Children In The Novels Of Jane Austen, Miranda M. Johnson-Parries

English Theses & Dissertations

In western society, the father is one of, if not the most, significant roles possible for a man. In the 18^th C bourgeois family, he was especially crucial. In the novels of Jane Austen, the father, even when absent, is a central figure: Dead fathers influence their children by their lack of planning and absence, while a physically present, but mentally distant father has much the same effect. I will analyze how seemingly peripheral male characters within Jane Austen's novels react to their stations in life and try to manipulate them in a similar way to Austen's much analyzed …

“A Midsummer Night's Dream”: A Director's Notebook, Natasha Bunnell

Institute for the Humanities Theses

This manuscript is an analysis of artistic growth as well as an attempt to document the creative process during this stage of growth. The production herein discussed was an excerpted version of A Midsummer Night's Dream ; however, the process of conceiving and staging the piece was identical to the process of producing an interpretation of the complete text. It is difficult to document all aspects of the theatre artist's creative process in writing and still photographs, thus, I have only included what I consider to be the most straightforward and significant elements for illustrating and analyzing the conclusions drawn: …

The Use Of Free Indirect Discourse In Burney, Austen, And Eliot, Elizabeth H. Harlan

English Theses & Dissertations

Free indirect discourse, a narrative technique used in third-person novels, occurs when the private thoughts of a character are voiced in a narrative passage and no indicator such as "she thought" is present. This technique, also known as represented thought or style indirect libre, is a blurring of the line between the character and the narrator. Although popularized in the works of Jane Austen, free indirect discourse can be traced back even further to Fanny Burney and it first appears as third person narratives are beginning to replace epistolary and journal-like novels. Some have attributed the development to a growing …

'There Shall Be No Discernible Traces Left': The Invisible Butler In Ishiguro's "The Remains Of The Day", Marc A. Ouellette

English Faculty Publications

This paper draws its title from an anecdote Stevens, the butler in The Remains of the Day (1989), recounts to illustrate the primary attribute for servants: the ability to perform duties without leaving any discernible traces. Mrs. D.C. Webster, an American married into British “old money,” expresses astonishment at the treatment of servants during an interview for the documentary, The Secret World of Fame and Fortune. Mrs. Webster “had a staff of twelve . . . They would do everything for you. If you took a sweater off, it would disappear. If they were too loud or if they were …

Negotiating Victorian Feminism: Anne Thackeray Ritchie's Short Fiction, Manuela MourãO

English Faculty Publications

First paragraph:

Best known for her autobiographical introductions to the collected works of her father, William Makepeace Thackeray, and for her biographical essays on several famous writers, Anne Thackeray Ritchie has repeatedly been considered most important as a source of inside information regarding her famous contemporaries. From Dickens to the Brownings, from Tennyson to James, she counted many of the canonical British nineteenth- and early- twentieth-century writers as her friends and often wrote to and about them.2 The scope of her work, however, is much wider and deserves closer scrutiny than it has so far received.