Literature in English, British Isles Commons^™

Adam Ferguson And John Witherspoon In "Satan's Seminary": Douglas, The Critics. And Moral Philosophy, Thome Compton

Studies in Scottish Literature

Discusses the controversy over John Home's tragedy Douglas on its first staging,

A Taxonomical Study Of Literary Criticism, Joanne M. Shroba-Wehner

Theses

This paper explores the foundational influence of Plato and Aristotle on the development of literary criticism, tracing how their contrasting philosophies have shaped Western literary theory through successive historical periods. Plato’s skepticism toward mimetic art and his emphasis on divine inspiration set the stage for a long tradition of Platonic influence, later adapted by thinkers such as Sir Philip Sidney, Wordsworth, and Shelley. These Neoplatonists reinterpret Plato’s ideas, often granting greater value to poetic imagination and emotional resonance.

In contrast, Aristotle’s systematic approach to poetics—centered on imitation, catharsis, and structured drama—formed the bedrock for classical and neoclassical criticism. His ideas …

The Perception Of Coincidence: Artistic Symmetry In The "Wandering Rocks" Episode Of James Joyce's Ulysses, James A. Scruton

Masters Theses

James Joyce's Ulysses, the most influential novel of the twentieth century, has often been criticized for its fragmentation and complexity. Impenetrable to some readers, misunderstood by others, Ulysses bears within its eighteen episodes a symmetry of subject and form that at once clarifies and multiplies the meanings to be found there. Richard Ellmann calls Joyce's theory of art "the perception of coincidence," a theory best exemplified by "Wandering Rocks," the central episode of Ulysses. The use of "symmetrical coincidence" in ''Wandering Rocks" can be seen in two ways: 1)the internal structure of the episode, and 2)its location among …

Peredur To Percival: The Rise And Fall Of The Original Grail Knight, Sandra Eddins Gee

Theses & Honors Papers

No abstract provided.

Auden's Poetic Theory & The Child-Like Voice, Diana Graham

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

W. H. Auden shares with most of his contemporaries, including Yeats and Eliot, the goal of lighting modern man's way back to a sense of harmony with his universe--the certainty of identity which his ancestors enjoyed. In New Year Letter, Auden announces that the problem lies within man himself because each of us is possessed of a "double" nature, thus rendering us our own schismatics.

Auden finds that only with the help of divinity, specifically Christian, can the destructive element be overcome. To illustrate this solution in his poems then becomes Auden's great challenge. Employing a child-like voice or tone …

The Duke Of Dark Corners: Toward An Interpretation Of Measure For Measure's Duke Vincento, Jan Funk

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The multiple and widely varying interpretations of Duke Vincentio in Shakespeare's Measure for Measure can be reconciled and made into a consistent interpretation by the application of a framework consisting of both literary and Elizabethan conventions as well as a view of comedy that accepts the comic function of movement toward identity as comedy's goal. Duke Vincentio is the comic drive in the play. His behavioral motives are based on his sincere concern for his constituency and his courageous use of his power during a time when reform is vital. The morally equivocal means he sometimes employs are justified by …

Dickens' Consideration Of The Victorian Woman: A Study Of Dickens' Use Of Serialization In The Development Of Agnes Wickfield And Little Dorrit, Julie Weaver

Theses & Honors Papers

In 1816, Charles Dickens was engaged to compose the text for a series of illustrations . The project evolved into a novel, The Pickwick Papers, which was published in twenty consecutive monthly installments. This method of publication was inexpensive, thus providing access to novels for a wide ranee of the public . Furthermore , the serial format mad e the reader an active part of the novel by sparking anticipation of both plot and character development from month to month. In Dickens at Work , John Butt and Kathleen Tillotson point out that "To the reader the system meant not …

Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre And Villette: A Woman's Perspective, Rebecca Jill Forrester

Theses & Honors Papers

No abstract provided.

Orts 2a, 1982, The George Macdonald Society

Orts: The George MacDonald Society Newsletter

Together with the Church House and Lion Publishing, the Society recently held its most successful meeting so far. The Archbishop of York, Stuart Blanch, gave an interesting and amusing talk on his personal debt to George MacDonald. We will be producing the talk for our next newsletter. As the Archbishop began, a group of people walked past the closed door talking, making just enough noise to disturb the audience. A lady, sitting near the door, walked quickly out shh-ing to the offenders. She saw, a little too late however, that the Archbishop of Canterbury was leading the group. Following the …

To Wait Or To Act? Troilus, Ii, 954, Gregory M. Sadlek

English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Rhetoric Of The Proverb In The Marriage Of Heaven And Hell And The Tao Te Ching, Julie Tilton-Ling

Theses Digitization Project

No abstract provided.

Orwell: Did He Produce What He Professed?, Russell Dove Eyre

Theses Digitization Project

No abstract provided.

Diverse Journeys: Free-Writing, John Keats, And The Teaching Of Poetry, Patrick G. Scott

Faculty Publications

Reports on teaching John Keats's poem "La Belle Dame Sans Merci," using timed and cued freewriting as a preliminary to class discussion, and links the exercise to passages from Keats's letters about reading and personal literary response. At time of publication, the writer was not provided with proofs of the article, so the version linked here has handwritten corrections added.

The Family In Modern Northern Irish Drama, Ray Wallace

Masters Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to show the plight of the family in Northern Ireland. The four plays which are the subject of this study--Within Two Shadows by Wilson John Haire, The Flats By John Boyd, Nightfall to Belfast by Patrick Galvin, and The Death of Humpty Dumpty by J. Graham Reid--deal with this innocent faction and highlight three principal effects of the troubles on their family lives. First, the families suffer internal division. They are alienated by religious/political differences which are as inseparable in these dramas as they are in Northern Irish life. Socialist doctrine opposes Christian …

The Treatment Of Women In The History Of Rasselas, Prince Of Abyssinia, Cindy Fritz

Masters Theses

Dr. Samuel Johnson, one of the most prolific and profound contributers to the English language, is, unfortunately, better known for his life and his anti-feminist point of view. James Boswell, in his book The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D., provides many pieces of Johnson's conversations which attempt to illustrate the doctor's belief that women were unable to understand the complexities of anything beyond their domestic duties, a belief widely supported among the classes throughout the seventeenth century until the middle eighteenth century. However, this paper, using historical and biographical evidence, demonstrates that Johnson's attitude towards women, specifically in his …

There's No Place Like Home: The Haunted House As Literary Motif, Mary Catherine Mcdaniel

Masters Theses

This thesis traces the development of the haunted house in British and American literature and covers a time span of roughly two hundred years. Its approach is chronological: beginning with Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto, it examines the use of the Bad Place as a literary motif, emphasizing the consistencies in its development while noting the inconsistencies as well. From Walpole to Stephen King, we see that the haunted house has continuously represented two things. On one hand, it may serve as a repository for unexpiated sin. The traditional haunted house, in fact, is nothing more than the …

Virginia Woolf: A Study In Style, Gregory Lee Manifold

Masters Theses

Virginia Woolf is one of the eminent stylists of the twentieth century. This paper, "Virginia Woolf: A Study in Style", is an exploration of the use of stylistic technique in Mrs. Woolf's two most outstanding novels, Mrs. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse. The basic assumption of the paper is that the meaning of a work, especially the works of Mrs. Woolf, is as accessible through the study of style as it is through the more traditional study of content. Taking its cue from the works of Norman Holland and his "reader-response" criticism, the paper details four techniques of style …

Infinite Intellectual Leap-Frog: Tracing Three Character Voices Through Four Of Tom Stoppard's Works--Lord Malquist And Mr. Moon, Albert's Bridge, Jumpers, And Dirty Linen, Judy Laurene Donaldson

Masters Theses

Tom Stoppard (1937- ), British playwright, creates in his Absurd novel Lord Malquist and Mr. Moon (1966) three character voices that begin a debate on man's reason for existence. Instead of resolving the debate at the end of his novel, Stoppard, using the same character voices in various combinations, continues the debate in three of his later works: the plays Albert's Bridge (1968), Jumpers (1972), and Dirty Linen (1976). The three character voices include the realist's, who ties to make some sense out of the disorder of the world and to find his place in it; the manipulator's, who ignores …

Robin Hood And Jesse James And The Basis Of Outlaw Hero Traditions In English And American Folk Balladry, Jacquline Burton

Theses & Honors Papers

No abstract provided.

Orts 1, 1981, The George Macdonald Society

Orts: The George MacDonald Society Newsletter

This is the first of a hopefully regular series to keep you informed of the Committee’s intentions and also to act as a method of communication between all our other members world-wide. Our membership is now rapidly approaching sixty, from afar afield as Japan and Sweden, which I am sure would have surprised George MacDonald himself as well as pleasing him.

Orts 2, 1981, The George Macdonald Society

Orts: The George MacDonald Society Newsletter

Our second General Meeting held on the 6th May, had the pleasure of welcoming two of our members from abroad. From America, Professor Joyce Hines and from France, Mlle. Georgette Lormant.

The Rejection And Redefinition Of Romance In Byron’S Early Poetry, Ronald A. Schroeder

Studies in English, New Series

No abstract provided.

Steig, Dickens And Phiz; Stone, Dickens And The Invisible World: Fairy Tales, Fantasy, And Novel Making, Alton P. Latimer

Studies in English, New Series

No abstract provided.

Dr. Johnson’S Treatment Of English Particles In The Dictionary, Jeffrey T. Gross

Studies in English, New Series

No abstract provided.

Byron, The Complete Poetical Works, Ronald A. Schroeder

Studies in English, New Series

No abstract provided.

Fussell, Abroad: British Literary Traveling Between The Wars, Charles Sanders

Studies in English, New Series

No abstract provided.

Hughes, The Maniac In The Cellar: Sensation Novels Of The 1860’S, Natalie Schroeder

Studies in English, New Series

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Kingship In William Dunbar’S Thrissil And The Rois, J. C. Nitzsche

Studies in English, New Series

No abstract provided.

The Other Fiction Of Wilkie Collins: The Dover Editions, Kirk H. Beetz

Studies in English, New Series

No abstract provided.

Shelley’S The Cenci: Corruption And The Calculating Faculty, John F. Schell

Studies in English, New Series

No abstract provided.