Literature in English, British Isles | Open Access Articles

Gifted Amateurs And Other Essays On Tolkien, The Inklings, And Fantasy Literature (2023), By David Bratman, Douglas Charles Kane

Journal of Tolkien Research

Book review, by Douglas C. Kane, of Gifted Amateurs and Other Essays on Tolkien, the Inklings, and Fantasy Literature (2023), by David Bratman

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Space For The Savant: An Update On Henry Higgins’S Autism, Abby Zwart

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

Henry Higgins, one of the leads of Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion, has been retrospectively diagnosed as an autistic character by lay readers and two scholars (Rodelle Weintraub, 2006; Sonya Loftis Freeman, 2014). Weintraub’s work is accurate but outdated, and Loftis presents several valid concerns about labelling Higgins an autistic savant, but Henry Higgins should be embraced as a neurodivergent character because today, a decade after the last publication addressing his neurostatus, society has a much more nuanced understanding of autism that can easily make space for his inclusion in the retrospective canon of neurodivergent characters.

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A Panoptic System And Social Control’S Influence On The Children In Henry James’S 'The Turn Of The Screw', Taylor Whittington

The Corinthian

This paper’s purpose is to offer a new reading of the children in Henry James’s novella The Turn of The Screw (1898). The paper argues that the characters are subjects of Foucault’s panopticon and social control, which results in Flora’s loss of social status and Miles’s death due to their lack of adherence to the social control. I also argue that the social control and the panoptic system integrate themselves into the Bly household and work alongside one another to reinforce the hierarchy. A panoptic system represents a type of surveillance based on Bentham’s architectural design that subject prisoners to …

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Translating And Illustrating Tolkien (2023) Ed. By Will Sherwood, Arden R. Smith

Journal of Tolkien Research

Book review, by Arden R. Smith, of Translating and Illustrating Tolkien (2023), ed. by Will Sherwood

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A Romantic Austen: The Discordant Feminist Discourse Of Adapting Sense And Sensibility, Evan Teigland

Honors Projects

This undergraduate thesis explores the intertextual and critical conversations around Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, and the 1995 screen adaptation of the same name, with a focus on how each text understands the interplay between feminine romance and feminine agency. A non-essentialist theory of adaptation is applied to construct an interpretive model that esteems Emma Thompson’s version of the story and considers its consequence to different communities of Austen readership, which is measured by the distinctly feminist themes detectable in the sexuality of Sense and Sensibility fanfiction. This investigation uncovers the importance of expanding the interpretive power and possibilities of …

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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 …

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The Lady’S Museum Project, A Digital Critical And Teaching Edition Of Charlotte Lennox’S Lady’S Museum (1760-61), Completes Phase Two Of Its Three-Phase Development Schedule, Karenza Sutton-Bennett

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

The Lady’s Museum (1760–61) was among the most important early periodicals largely written by one of the most important eighteenth-century authors, Charlotte Lennox, whose multigenre, proto-feminist writing is beginning to receive the critical and pedagogical attention it deserves. Yet no modern edition of the text has existed—until now. Launched in 2021, the Lady’s Museum Project is presenting the first critical edition of—and learning community around—Lennox’s Museum in three open-access formats to encourage the widest possible readership: a non-specialist digital, interactive edition of the text and LibriVox audiobook intended for public and undergraduate-student audiences, and a specialist digital edition intended for …

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Review Of The Oxford English Literary History: Volume 5: 1645–1714: The Later Seventeenth Century, By Margaret J. M. Ezell, Karen Griscom

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

A review of The Oxford English Literary History: Volume 5: 1645–1714: The Later Seventeenth Century by Margaret J. M. Ezell.

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Review Of The Cambridge Edition Of The Works Of Anne Finch, Countess Of Winchilsea, Edited By Jennifer Keith Et Al, Melissa Schoenberger

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

A review of The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea, edited by Jennifer Keith et. al.

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Out Of The Closet And Into The Classroom: Teaching Anne Finch's Plays, Diana Solomon

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

The publication of the Cambridge Edition of the Works of Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea makes it possible to teach not only a much wider assorted of her edited poetry, but also Finch’s two dramas: the tragicomedy The Triumphs of Love and Innocence, and the tragedy Aristomenes. This essay proposes integrating Finch’s plays into a course on Restoration and eighteenth-century drama by proposing a class, “Genre Trouble,” which sets them in dialogue with frequently-taught plays of the era. Included herein are a syllabus of primary and secondary sources, suggestions for discussing Finch’s plays and dramatic paratexts in comparison to works …

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Teaching Poetry With Anne Finch: Manuscript Culture As Early Modern Social Media, Jennifer Keith

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

This essay discusses two approaches I use to teach Anne Finch's—and others'—poetry. Drawing on certain habits of early modern manuscript culture, I make visible to my students ways that reading and writing are socially embedded practices, which may variously involve exchange, reciprocity, or censorship. By adapting the "quaint" habits of manuscript culture practiced by Finch and many others to specific assignments, I encourage students to experience poetry as living, sociable occasions of reading and writing. To augment my students' engagement with early modern poetry I connect it to frameworks from their twenty-first-century reading and writing worlds. These exercises in "early …

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Anne Finch On The Patio: A Scholarly Eat And Greet, Melissa Schoenberger

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

This article recounts an instructional event for English majors held in the central campus library. Students engaged with various materials related to the career and editorial history of Anne Finch. The event offered students an introduction to questions of information literacy, textual history, and literary studies.

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Teaching Finch And / In Performance: A Media Studies Approach (With Toolkit), Elizabeth Heckendorn Cook

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

Teaching the birdsong poems and compositions for musical settings of Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea, through media theory allows students to connect their own social-media-based expressive arts practices with the multimedia practices of early modern women writers.

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Introduction: Teaching The Works Of Anne Finch, Part Ii, Jennifer Keith, Tiffany Potter

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

This essay introduces Part Two of the two-part “Concise Collection on Teaching the Works of Anne Finch," guest edited by Jennifer Keith (Aphra Behn Online, vol. 14, no. 1, 2024). The first part of this collection appeared in Fall 2023.

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Politics, Authorship, And Philosophy: Teaching Margaret Cavendish’S The Blazing World In The Diverse Graduate Classroom, Martine Van Elk

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

This essay explores how Margaret Cavendish’s The Blazing World works differently when taught and read on its own and in combination with Cavendish’s other works. Focusing specifically on the graduate classroom, I examine and present strategies for teaching the book alongside works by other early modern women and for teaching it in a single-author course. While in isolation, The Blazing World allows for discussions that focus primarily on questions of gender, genre, class, and politics, read in tandem with Cavendish’s other works, in particular her philosophical writings, The Blazing World becomes a source for reflections on questions of creaturely identity, …

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Teaching Margaret Cavendish’S Philosophy: Early Modern Women And The Question Of Biography, Peter West

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

In my contribution to this Concise Collection on Margaret Cavendish, I focus on teaching Cavendish’s work in the context of philosophy (and, more specifically, Early Modern Philosophy). I have three aims. First, to explain why teaching women from philosophy’s history is crucially important to the discipline. Second, to outline my own reflections on teaching Cavendish’s philosophy. Third, to defend a specific claim about the benefits of teaching Cavendish to philosophy students; namely, that introducing biographical detail alongside philosophical ideas enriches the learning experience.

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Teaching Queer Theory And The History Of Sexuality With Margaret Cavendish’S The Convent Of Pleasure, Valerie Billing

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

This article summarizes my approach to teaching Cavendish’s play The Convent of Pleasure in my course “LGBTQ+ Literature and Culture,” which I teach at a small liberal arts college in the Midwest. I demonstrate how I teach the play with excerpts from literary scholarship in queer theory in order to help students sharpen their close reading skills, teach scholarly engagement, and deepen students’ understanding of early modern and Restoration comedy and the history of sexuality.

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“A World Of Her Own Invention”: Teaching Margaret Cavendish’S Blazing World In The Early British Literature Survey And Beyond, Vanessa L. Rapatz

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

Margaret Cavendish has only recently been included in the canonical literature anthologies and even then, the samplings of her prolific writings are severely truncated. However, even this small taste of Cavendish’s poems and excerpts of A Description of a New World called The Blazing World leave early British literature survey students hungry for more. Frequently, students in the survey choose to focus on Cavendish’s writing for their research projects in which they practice feminist and queer readings and engage with Cavendish as a key player in utopian and science fiction genres. Beyond the survey course, Blazing World works wonderfully in …

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Relocating Early Modern Women: Teaching Margaret Cavendish To A Broader Audience, Jennifer Topale

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

Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle, can be called many things: writer, poet, philosopher, woman, Royalist, eccentric rule-breaker, scientific collaborator, utopian thinker, and the list goes on. Unfortunately, access to her writings, typically her The Description of a New World, Called the Blazing World, are often limited in academic settings to courses centered on the seventeenth century, early modern utopian literature, Restoration literature, and possibly an early modern women writers class. Though these are all wonderful course topics, they are often upper-division courses specifically designed for English majors of the early modern period. Limiting Cavendish to only these courses means that …

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Concise Collections: Teaching Margaret Cavendish, Part I, E Mariah Spencer

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

This is the introduction of Part I of the "Concise Collection on Teaching the Works of Margaret Cavendish."

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“Always Unguarded And Often Uncivil”: A Case For Lydia In The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, Leah Benedict

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

Despite decades of feminist scholarship, Lydia Bennet has consistently been taken at Jane Austen’s word: she is viewed as capricious, difficult, and silly, and in most cases found to be deserving of her fate. But with the adaptation The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, Lydia became the character most likely to inspire a heightened emotional bond with viewers. Because of the show’s format, Lydia’s voice and experiences became more central, and were conveyed with greater sympathy than prior adaptations. Against all anticipation, many viewers immediately identified not with Lizzie, but with Lydia. My paper explores the cultural contexts surrounding the web …

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Behn And The “Epitaph On The Tombstone Of A Child”, Mary Ann O'Donnell

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

Aphra Behn’s poems usually celebrate some form of pastoral life or love, so much so that her “Epitaph on the Tombstone of a Child” seems anomalous in her 1685 Miscellany. The same poem (with two lines crossed out) appears in Cambridge University Library MS Add. 8460, Elizabeth Lyttelton’s Commonplace Book, where it is titled simply “Epitaph on William Fairfax.” The twelve lines also appear on one other material witness: the tomb marker for young William Fairfax, who was Elizabeth Lyttelton’s nephew and Sir Thomas Browne’s grandson. This article examines the poem itself, discusses the deleted lines, considers connections that …

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Eng 155: Introduction To Literary Studies, Joseph Donica

Open Educational Resources

An OER syllabus covering the ways humans have read and continue to read literature from a variety of critical and theoretical perspectives. An emphasis is placed on the application of critical thought to writing expository essays and responding to readings.

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Fallen Creator And Failed Christ: An Exploration Of Religious Imagery And Metafiction In Ian Mcewan’S Atonement, Tabitha Robinson

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

This paper examines the religious imagery in Atonement by Ian McEwan through a close reading of the structure and main characters Briony, Cecilia and Robbie. The novel is deeply concerned with questions of sin and redemption, which intersect with religious symbolism and metafiction to create the story. This paper reads Briony as both a creator god and a failed Christ figure and Cecilia and Robbie as Adam and Eve characters, showing the text’s self-awareness through its use of narrative to create meaning. It argues that the field of religious studies offers many theories and terms that enrich the field of …

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Blake’S Green Symbols Of Humanity, Society, And Spirituality, Angela J. Heagy

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

William Blake is an exemplar of Romantic poetry characterized by depictions of the occult, the divine, and human nature. Despite Blake’s reputation as a Romantic poet, many critics claim that there is not sufficient evidence to consider him a nature writer. As a result, Blake’s name is frequently omitted from ecological discussions; some scholars go so far as to claim that Blake’s poetry demonstrates a disregard for nature altogether. This article argues that an eco-critical analysis of Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience reveals nature to be Blake’s continual source of inspiration. Within this collection, nature represents the struggles …

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Like Shapes Moving In Another World: An Identification And Interpretation Of Mythical Figures In C. S. Lewis’ Novel The Silver Chair, Benjamin S. Perkin

Student Research

As a result of his conversion to Christianity, author C. S. Lewis felt compelled to formulate a unique definition of myth. From his perspective, myth is a means through which God communicates His truth to the non-Christian world. Myth recognizes the yearning for home all people experience yet cannot satisfy, but while it correctly diagnoses humanity’s symptoms, myth fails to treat the underlying disease responsible for them. The influence of non-Christian, specifically Greek, myth can be felt most strongly in The Silver Chair, the sixth installment of Lewis’ series The Chronicles of Narnia. Through the allusions this essay explores, in …

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Feminism And Female Identity In Adaptations Of Pride And Prejudice Throughout The 20th And 21st Centuries, Emily Suh, Emily Suh

Honors Theses

To many of her fans in the world, Austen is undeniably a feminist author, especially for her time in the nineteenth century. In a time where women were dependent upon male family members for their livelihoods, most of Austen’s heroines exhibit a sort of independence and strong will with a mind of their own, including in Pride and Prejudice. Elizabeth is the model for what an independent woman is, a woman who is not so concerned with the monetary value of matrimony and only falls in love because she wants to. Furthermore, female audiences tend to like Elizabeth more than …

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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.

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Cloaked Trannies On The Silver Screen: "Evolutionary Derangement" And Cronenberg's Approach To Shaping A Critical Mindset Towards Trans Bodies, John David Hunter

All Theses

This thesis engages David Cronenberg’s 2022 film, Crimes of the Future, analyzing the text through the lens of Saul Tenser (Viggo Mortensten) as a transgender allegory. Through this, the project investigates the way in which Cronenberg’s text visually creates a Deleuzian language of the body, which is the body of becoming. This queer analysis of the film does so by utilizing the perspective of the trans body, through the character of Tenser, which more clearly illustrates the human body as one which is in a continual process of evolution. Following in the footsteps of scholars such as Susan …

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The Calling Of Governess, Karissa Maust

All Theses

The governess is a widely discussed figure in literary criticism. However, the motivations that cause literary characters to engage in the profession of governess are not often talked about. This thesis discusses the three primary motivations that inspired women to become governesses—survival, duty, and calling. It begins with a historical discussion of the governess, then illustrates women’s reasons for engaging in this occupation, using literary figures from Emma, Villette, and Jane Eyre to do so. The thesis then ends with a discussion of the modern American teacher—how she differs from the governess but also shares the lack of …

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Full-Text Articles in Literature in English, British Isles

Gifted Amateurs And Other Essays On Tolkien, The Inklings, And Fantasy Literature (2023), By David Bratman, Douglas Charles Kane

Journal of Tolkien Research

Space For The Savant: An Update On Henry Higgins’S Autism, Abby Zwart

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

A Panoptic System And Social Control’S Influence On The Children In Henry James’S 'The Turn Of The Screw', Taylor Whittington

The Corinthian

Translating And Illustrating Tolkien (2023) Ed. By Will Sherwood, Arden R. Smith

Journal of Tolkien Research

A Romantic Austen: The Discordant Feminist Discourse Of Adapting Sense And Sensibility, Evan Teigland

Honors Projects

The Artful Voyeur: Seamus Heaney As Parrhesiastes, Olivia Ransbottom

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

The Lady’S Museum Project, A Digital Critical And Teaching Edition Of Charlotte Lennox’S Lady’S Museum (1760-61), Completes Phase Two Of Its Three-Phase Development Schedule, Karenza Sutton-Bennett

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

Review Of The Oxford English Literary History: Volume 5: 1645–1714: The Later Seventeenth Century, By Margaret J. M. Ezell, Karen Griscom

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

Review Of The Cambridge Edition Of The Works Of Anne Finch, Countess Of Winchilsea, Edited By Jennifer Keith Et Al, Melissa Schoenberger

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

Out Of The Closet And Into The Classroom: Teaching Anne Finch's Plays, Diana Solomon

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

Teaching Poetry With Anne Finch: Manuscript Culture As Early Modern Social Media, Jennifer Keith

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

Anne Finch On The Patio: A Scholarly Eat And Greet, Melissa Schoenberger

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

Teaching Finch And / In Performance: A Media Studies Approach (With Toolkit), Elizabeth Heckendorn Cook

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

Introduction: Teaching The Works Of Anne Finch, Part Ii, Jennifer Keith, Tiffany Potter

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

Politics, Authorship, And Philosophy: Teaching Margaret Cavendish’S The Blazing World In The Diverse Graduate Classroom, Martine Van Elk

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

Teaching Margaret Cavendish’S Philosophy: Early Modern Women And The Question Of Biography, Peter West

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

Teaching Queer Theory And The History Of Sexuality With Margaret Cavendish’S The Convent Of Pleasure, Valerie Billing

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

“A World Of Her Own Invention”: Teaching Margaret Cavendish’S Blazing World In The Early British Literature Survey And Beyond, Vanessa L. Rapatz

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

Relocating Early Modern Women: Teaching Margaret Cavendish To A Broader Audience, Jennifer Topale

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

Concise Collections: Teaching Margaret Cavendish, Part I, E Mariah Spencer

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

“Always Unguarded And Often Uncivil”: A Case For Lydia In The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, Leah Benedict

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

Behn And The “Epitaph On The Tombstone Of A Child”, Mary Ann O'Donnell

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

Eng 155: Introduction To Literary Studies, Joseph Donica

Open Educational Resources

Fallen Creator And Failed Christ: An Exploration Of Religious Imagery And Metafiction In Ian Mcewan’S Atonement, Tabitha Robinson

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

Blake’S Green Symbols Of Humanity, Society, And Spirituality, Angela J. Heagy

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

Like Shapes Moving In Another World: An Identification And Interpretation Of Mythical Figures In C. S. Lewis’ Novel The Silver Chair, Benjamin S. Perkin

Student Research

Feminism And Female Identity In Adaptations Of Pride And Prejudice Throughout The 20th And 21st Centuries, Emily Suh, Emily Suh

Honors Theses

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

Theses and Dissertations

Cloaked Trannies On The Silver Screen: "Evolutionary Derangement" And Cronenberg's Approach To Shaping A Critical Mindset Towards Trans Bodies, John David Hunter

All Theses

The Calling Of Governess, Karissa Maust

All Theses