Literature in English, British Isles Commons^™

Vulnerability: Sensation And Subjectivity In The Late Victorian Novel, Michael Shelichach

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

“Vulnerability: Sensation and Subjectivity in the Late Victorian Novel” explores how developments in the science of psychology in the second half of the nineteenth century destabilized the genre of literary realism in Britain. Prominent mid-Victorian psychologists theorized a subject with a highly impressionable brain and nervous system. This new understanding of the mind’s potential vulnerability to external influence impelled contemporary novelists to contemplate the extent to which subjective interiority could be altered by the environment. Through close readings of canonical realist novels like Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations, George Eliot’s The Mill on the Floss and Wilkie Collins’s The Moonstone …

"A Mind Of Metal And Wheels": Agrarian Ruralism In Joss Whedon's Firefly And J.R.R Tolkien's The Lord Of The Rings, Christopher Hines

English (MA) Theses

Both Joss Whedon's Firefly and J.R.R Tolkien's The Lord of The Rings present settings that are just as much influenced by the environments in which they occur as they are by the characters who act within those environments. For J.R.R. Tolkien, it was his lived experience of having grown up in a changing England that influenced his depiction of the world, while Joss Whedon's Firefly revisits and readapts the American mythos of the Western and the cowboy and re-appropriates it to science fiction, placing the action in the far future and in space where humanity is once again exploring and …

Announcements, Abo Editors

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

No abstract provided.

Review Of Women, Performance, And The Material Of Memory: The Archival Tourist, 1780-1915, By Laura Engel, Leslie Ritchie

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

No abstract provided.

Review Of Eighteenth-Century Women’S Writing And The Methodist Media Revolution, By Andrew O. Winckles, Rebecca Nesvet

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

No abstract provided.

Review Of Women Wanderers And The Writing Of Mobility, 1784-1814, By Ingrid Horrocks, Elizabeth Porter

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

A review of Women Wanderers and the Writing of Mobility, 1784-1814 by Ingrid Horrocks. Written by Elizabeth Porter.

Review Of Writing And Constructing The Self In Great Britain In The Long Eighteenth Century, Edited By John Baker, Marion Leclair, And Allan Ingram, Kelly J. Plante

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

A review of Writing and Constructing the Self in Great Britain in the Long Eighteenth Century, eds. John Baker, Marion Leclair, and Allan Ingram. Written by Kelly Plante.

Review Of The Future Of Feminist Eighteenth-Century Scholarship: Beyond Recovery, Edited By Robin Runia, Erin M. Goss

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

Review of Robin Rubia, ed., The Future of Feminist Eighteenth-Century Scholarship: Beyond Recovery (Routledge, 2018)

Writing With Aphra: Solidarity, Generosity, And Fight Club Rules Beyond Summer 2020, Kirsten T. Saxton, Bethany E. Qualls

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

A short piece in praise of the summer Write With Aphra program for pandemic support of women and non binary writers and a discussion of how the program is useful beyond its original parameters

Absent Objects, Freya Purcell

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

Observations on studying during the Global Pandemic in the summer of 2020, access to archives. Considering the relationship between physical objects and the digital world in studying Design History.

Covid Diary: Scholarship And Gardening, Jessica Munns

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

No abstract provided.

Nothing Is Normal And Yet Normalcy Is The Demand, Crystal L. Matey

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

No abstract provided.

The Future Of The Field: Notes From Lockdown, Sofia Prado Huggins, Susannah B. Sanford

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

No abstract provided.

Feminist Scholarly Communities Have Been A Lifeline During The Pandemic, Karen Griscom

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

I teach writing and literature at a community college, and I am a third-year Ph.D. candidate. Because I balance full-time teaching and graduate research, I am accustomed to the intensity of a heavy workload. Still, during this past year, my home and work responsibilities have multiplied and with that so has my anxiety. Stress and lack of time have made it challenging to write and research. However, two feminist organizations have helped me cope and remain hopeful about my scholarship.

Summary Remarks On Conversations About “Researching, Reading And Writing During The Pandemic”, Kate Ozment, Mona Narain

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

Summary remarks on the Spring 2021 issue that includes Conversation essays by participants in the ABO summer 2020 writing camp #WriteWithAphra. The participants describe their experience of reading, researching, and writing during the pandemic.

A New Poem By Anna Letitia Barbauld, Scott Krawczyk, William Mccarthy

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

This short discovery article presents information pertaining to a previously unknown poem of four lines by Anna Letitia Barbauld. The poem is housed at Duke University in the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

Ardelia, Orinda, And . . . Ke$Ha: Teaching #Me Too And The Gendered Sphere Of Poetry, Andrew Black

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

This article addresses the way in which the teaching of Anne Finch and Katherine Philips can be enhanced with classroom discussion of a surprising modern parallel: the sometimes coercive artistic and personal constraints placed on contemporary female pop artists by male producers. Focusing on Kesha, my class compares her recent struggles for autonomy and justice to the peculiar creative conditions which Anne Finch and Katherine Philips had to endure, inviting students to use their popular culture knowledge to gain a more nuanced insight into the historical gendering of creative cultures.

Teaching Eighteenth-Century English Coercion, Seduction, And Consent In Twenty-First Century India: Eliza Haywood’S Love In Excess, Sumi Bora

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

Classroom teaching informed by the #MeToo movement is widespread and diverse. This paper evolves from classroom discussion with Third Semester English Major students at Lokanayak Omeo Kumar Das College, Dhekiajuli, Assam, India. The paper engages itself with #MeToo Movement and scrutinizes the depiction of seduction in Eliza Haywood’s novel Love in Excess. The paper records the students’ connections between Haywood and their own desire to build consciousness among the marginalized section of women so that they voice issues of harassment in any form.

"Side By Side With A Ruinous, Ever-Present Past": Trauma-Informed Teaching And The Eighteenth Century, Clarissa, And Fantomina, Kate Parker, Bryan M. Kopp, Lindsay Steiner

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

This article explores the need for and applications of trauma-informed teaching in eighteenth-century studies, particularly around representations of sexual trauma (rape) and consent. The prevalence of trauma guarantees its presence in our classrooms, even and especially in its absences. As the field of eighteenth-century studies continues to reframe its white, Eurocentric, male-dominated past through more intentionally inclusive research and teaching methods, particularly those that explore the intersections of eighteenth-century studies and social justice approaches to education, the presence of trauma in our classrooms will become only more significant. Keeping in mind those students of marginalized identities who are most likely …

Customary Law And The Revival Of Natural Rights Reformism In Amelia Opie's Adeline Mowbray, Mark Zunac

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

This essay investigates the role of natural law within the philosophical debates in 1790s Britain over the origins and applicability of citizens' rights, an issue amplified by memories of the French Revolution. It marks Amelia Opie’s 1805 novel Adeline Mowbray as representative of a counterrevolutionary faction focused extensively on the rights of citizens, yet fully distinct from the theoretically grounded cosmopolitan vision of both the French Jacobins and their radical British counterparts. The novel serves as evidence that the British counterrevolution was not intrinsically opposed to reform, and that reform itself was not incompatible with moral duty and social good …

Looking Beyond The Enlightenment Mother-Teacher: Anna Letitia Barbauld And The Eighteenth-Century Maternal Ideal, Kathryn J. Ready

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

Based on her popular prose writing for children, liberal Dissenter Anna Letitia Barbauld has been cited as a prominent example of the Enlightenment mother-teacher associated with the influence of John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. However, close reading of her poetry reveals a complex maternal ideal in operation that was in part that of the Enlightenment mother-teacher, in part a modified form of republican motherhood, a strategic composite drawn, on the one hand, from classical republican discourse, which promoted the woman’s role in fostering patriotism and liberty, and, on the other, from contemporary defences of commerce, which highlighted women’s civilizing and …

The Boy In The Text: Mary Barber, Her Son, And Children's Poetry In Poems On Several Occasions, Chantel M. Lavoie

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

The Boy in the Text: Mary Barber, Her Son, and Children’s Poetry in Poems on Several Occasions

This paper reconsiders the work of Dublin poet Mary Barber, whose collection of poems appeared in 1733/34. There she acknowledges the assistance of Jonathan Swift, and frames her poetry as a pedagogical aid to her children’s education—particularly that of her eldest son, Constantine. Barber’s relationship with Swift has received much critical attention, as has her focus on her own motherhood—sometimes in critiques that suggest both of these hampered the quality and scope of her work. This paper asks readers to look at her …

Editors' Thanks To Dr. Linda Troost, Editor Ecw, Mona Narain

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

No abstract provided.

Tolkien: Scholar And Modern Game Pioneer, Alicia Breinke

ART 108: Introduction to Games Studies

History can be a necessity, or necessary evil for some people when we want to comprehend real-time issues or trends. Gaming is a trend that applies to this since we often seem to be drawn in by the excitement of the graphics, music, and storylines, yet it seems like people seldomly try to uncover their origins. At the same time, though, a game’s historic foundation is essential to understand since it can help us gain a greater appreciation for these experiences. Role play games are an exceptional example of this since many renowned ones have external influences. J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The …

J.R.R. Tolkien's "Homecoming" And Modern Alliterative Metre, Anna Smol, Rebecca Foster

Journal of Tolkien Research

J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm’s Son” is a modern English alliterative verse drama written in the metre of Old English poetry and demonstrating his interest in versification and his skill in writing original alliterative verse in new and versatile ways. Tolkien’s originality also lies in his use of alliterative metre in a play, a genre not written by the early English; in fact, “The Homecoming” is Tolkien’s only published drama as well as historical fiction. While Tolkien bases this work on historical events recounted in the Old English poem “The Battle of Maldon,” he also uses his drama …

The Nobility In Seeing Oneself: Unreliable Narration In British Postmodern Fiction, Jessica Marzocca

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

In an interview in 1989, Kazuo Ishiguro, author of The Remains of the Day, expresses an interest in “the whole business about following somebody’s thoughts around, as they try to trip themselves up or to hide from themselves,” a curiosity that directly correlates to the functionality of unreliable narration (Mason 347). That same interest can spill over into trying to trip up or hide from readers, a jump easily made when considering novels narrated in first-person like The Remains of the Day or Martin Amis’s Money: A Suicide Note, or even Muriel Spark’s third-person novel The Prime of …

Fan Fiction And The Trojan War: Contemporary Euripidean Perspective On The Treatment Of Enslaved Women In The Silence Of The Girls, A Thousand Ships, And For The Most Beautiful, Richard K. Sheldon

LSU Master's Theses

This study examines three contemporary novels of fan fiction, authored by women, that retell the Trojan War: Emily Hauser’s For the Most Beautiful (2016), Pat Barker’s The Silence of the Girls (2018), and Nathalie Haynes’ A Thousand Ships (2019). This study offers a reading of contemporary Homeric reception by analyzing the conversations that the novels initiate between each other, Homer’s Iliad, and Euripides’ tragedies, Hecuba (424 BCE) and Trojan Women (415 BCE). The study establishes a connection between the three authors and Euripides by treating the novels as works of fan fiction. In so doing, the study identifies …

The Serpent, The Apple, And The Fall: Deciphering The Biblical Undoing Of Mankind In 17th Century English Literature, Natalie Mauriello

English Undergraduate Distinction Projects

This paper analyzes the biblical narrative of mankind's fall from grace through the lens of John Milton's Paradise Lost by investigating and interpreting preceding texts, including Abraham Cowley's Davideis and Jeremy Taylor's Deus Justificatus.

Satire In The Cold War Era: Graham Greene's Our Man In Havana And Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast Of Champions, Sara Eslami

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Both Graham Greene and Kurt Vonnegut use satire to interrogate the social uneasiness during the Cold War; however, each author uses satire in different ways. Greene’s novel Our Man in Havana demonstrates this unease, as almost every character is paranoid besides the vacuum salesman and inept “spy” Wormold, who uses fiction to fabricate the reports he sends to the Secret Intelligence Service. Kurt Vonnegut’s Breakfast of Champions also has a protagonist who is strongly impacted by fiction, as Dwayne Hoover is so affected by Kilgore Trout’s literature that it drives him insane. Both authors use different satiric techniques as a …

“Like Dying And Like Being Born”: The Portal, The Door, And The Closet In Mohsin Hamid’S Exit West, Lynn Nichols

The Downtown Review: An Interdisciplinary Journal Written and Peer-Reviewed by Mandel Honors College Students at Cleveland State University

This paper analyzes Exit West by Mohsin Hamid through the lens of queer theory and LGBT symbolism. Scholarship surrounding Exit West has focused on the novel's magical realism as a commentary on xenophobia and colonialism. By drawing on noted texts in queer theory including Sedgwick's Epistemology of the Closet, this paper draws further connections between Hamid's portal plot and the experience of coming out. This argument considers the intersectionality of migration and coming out to demonstrate that for characters like Nadia, these experiences must overlap.