Literature in English, British Isles Commons^™

"Samson Agonistes" And Milton's Paradoxical Weakness, Hudson Rice

Liberty University Research Week

Undergraduate

Textual or Investigative

Paradise And Paradiso: Echoes Of A Fortunate Fall, Kathryn Alley

Liberty University Research Week

Undergraduate

Textual or Investigative

The Mythopoeic Code Of Tolkien: A Christian Platonic Reading Of The Legendarium (2021), By Jyrki Korpua, John Wm. Houghton

Journal of Tolkien Research

Book review, by John Wm. Houghton, of The Mythopoeic Code of Tolkien: A Christian Platonic Reading of the Legendarium (2021), by Jyrki Korpua

Apocalypse Then And Now: Narrative Influence And Thematic Subversion Of Victorian Literature In Modern American War Narratives, Douglas James Scully

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, I argue that by looking at the lasting impact of Victorian war literature on a variety of modern media, one can see that an increased cultural awareness of trauma has led to less humane depictions of the traumatized. The multitude of Sherlock Holmes adaptations produced and set in various time periods and covering assorted wars serves as a strong example in my first chapter of how a Victorian-produced text can have a lingering impact, and the veteran Watson serves as a strong tool for adaptors to use when commenting on the shifting nature of war and the …

Something “Transcendentally Stimulating”: Resistance And Antidote To Empiricist British Culture In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’S Sherlock Holmes, Crissy Preston, Crissy M. Preston

Master of Arts in Classical Studies

Sherlock Holmes is a name synonymous with detective and perhaps more familiar to households than his creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. His lasting impact as a literary figure is indisputable, but the curiosity surrounding the reasons for his longevity in popularity remain an enigma to many scholars and critics. In my thesis, I will discuss some of the reasons Holmes relates to readers from various time periods, age groups, and nationalities for more than a century. The first section of this project will establish the empiricist culture surrounding the decadent late 1800s, which compose the setting for most of Doyle’s …

Neil Gaiman's Elevated Fairy Tale: Childhood Trauma Through The Lens Of Postmodernism, Faith Adams

Student Works

In The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman explores the influence of trauma on identity formation. In the sinister world of his liminal fantasy, Gaiman’s nameless narrator strives to assemble a comforting sense of identity in the midst of traumatic chaos. Viewed through a postmodern lens, Gaiman’s use of hypertextuality and non-linear storytelling undermines idealized views of objective truth and reality, ultimately suggesting that nothing in life can be reduced to a binary.

The Importance Of Reading In Jane Austen's Novels, Leah Rice

Student Works

Reading is a central theme of both Emma (1815) and Pride and Prejudice (1813), two of Jane Austen’s most celebrated novels. The characters are constantly reading books, comparing the sizes of their libraries, and endeavoring to respond to tricky situations based on their readings of them. Mr. Darcy claims that a lady’s education is not complete until she adds to all the usual accomplishments something “more substantial”: the “improvement of her mind by extensive reading” (27). Though reading is regarded as a source of knowledge and even wisdom, these novels are what Bonaparte calls “a map of misreading” (142). Elizabeth …

The Linguistic Reimagining Of Natural Elements In Gerard Manley Hopkins' Nature Sonnets, Leah Rice

Student Works

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889) was a Victorian poet and Jesuit priest now numbered among the major English poets. When the first edition of his poems was published posthumously in 1918 by his friend Robert Bridges, it “baffled more readers than it converted” (Martin 50). Nevertheless, despite this original reticence to accept Hopkins as a poet, the tests of time and scholarship has proven his depth and continued relevance of study.

Robert Burns’ Poetic Style Through His Poetry, Songs, And Correspondence, Abigail Druckenmiller

Senior Theses

This thesis explores connections and contradictions within the songs, correspondence, and poems of Scotland’s bard, Robert Burns. A selection of works from each of these categories is presented to compare the ways Burns writes verse, lyrics, and letters. Through this thesis, I analyzed his work looking at subject matter, use of the Scots dialect, structure, and poetic devices in order to offer holistic commentary on Burns’ style in a way that includes his letters more heavily than most other Burns scholarship. Overall, I thought Burns remained a consistent man of conviction and societal criticism throughout my findings, as well as …

Terry Pratchett’S Witches Novels And The Consensus Fantasy Universe: A Feminist Perspective, Clair J. Hutchings-Budd Ms

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Abstract

Between 1987 and 2015, Terry Pratchett published eleven novels and one short story within his Discworld universe that came to be known as his “Witches” sub-series. In these texts he engaged with the narrative imperatives, preoccupations, and tropes which together make up the consensus fantasy universe, and those deeper mythologies and legendarium with which the author necessarily has an intertextual relationship. This paper focuses upon one aspect of that consensus universe, which is the difference between male and female magical practitioners—witches and wizards—in the fantasy canon, and how Pratchett sought to challenge and subvert the stereotypes of the genre …

The One Ring Of King Solomon, Giovanni Carmine Costabile

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Tolkien source criticism has long been looking for the source of the One Ring in the wrong places. Neither the historical ispiration from World War II and the Atomic Bomb nor the proposed literary influences such as the Ring of the Nibelungs, Wagner's Ring, or the several examples of invisibility rings found in world literature may suffice to explain the complexity of Tolkien's unique creation. Nonetheless, the same cannot be said so easily with regards to another possible source once we survey the richness of the related legends: it is the fabled signet ring of King Solomon.

Tolkien, Enchantment, And Loss: Steps On The Developmental Journey By John Rosegrant, Timothy K. Lenz

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

No abstract provided.

“Þer Watz Mete, Þer Watz Myrþe, Þer Watz Much Ioye”: The Manipulative Sotilte Of Middle English Romance, Kelly Evans

English Theses and Dissertations

The Middle English sotilte and its Middle French counterpart, the entremet, refer to the elements during a feast that conjure wonder. Like “feast” and “banquet,” both terms have been used interchangeably, with the entremet coming to signify a sweet dessert at the end of a meal in modern usage of the term. In Middle English romance, the sotilte of the feast builds upon the connotations that “subtlety” carry—guile, artifice, craft, even deceit.

Perhaps the most well-known of all Middle English sotiltes is the sudden intrusion of the Green Knight during the Christmastide feast in Sir Gawain and the Green …

Anti-Woman Invective On The Early Modern Stage: Abuse, Degradation, And Resistance, Savannah Xaver

Dissertations

On the early modern stage, gendered epithets like “strumpet,” “mermaid,” “minx,” “hobby horse,” “courtesan,” “drab,” and “whore” are not just markers of misogyny. Instead, these insults harm the male user as well as their female target. My cross-playwright and cross-genre connections show the complex, wide use and impact of anti-woman terms. A wide-ranging study of the plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries reveals that gendered insults signify masculine mental decline in tragedies as well as comedies and tragicomedies. In tragedy, the increasingly violent language of male slur users – like, for example, the frustrated Othello, who declares, of his wife, …

Psychological Criticism And Shakespearean Allusions In J.M. Barrie’S Dear Brutus: A Neverland For Adults, Kathryn Alley

Senior Honors Theses

In Peter Pan, Sir James Barrie welcomes readers into Neverland, the realm of eternal youth. Barrie’s lesser-known play, Dear Brutus, ushers audiences into a supernatural garden free of responsibility, reality, and permanence. Referring to Cassius’ words in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, the 1917 tragedy explores the consequences of romantic escapism and the seductive power of second chances. Through the lens of Freud’s and Lacan’s psychological criticism, and Barrie’s connection to his might-have-been daughter, Margaret, Dear Brutus unveils the plight of eight mysterious strangers by illustrating that all adults are lost children. Dear Brutus feels in many ways like …

Nólë Hyarmenillo: An Anthology Of Iberian Scholarship On Tolkien (2022), Edited By Nuno Simões Rodrigues, Martin Simonson, And Angélica Varandas., Marjorie Burns

Journal of Tolkien Research

Book review, by Marjorie Burns, of Nólë Hyarmenillo: An Anthology of Iberian Scholarship on Tolkien (2022), edited by Nuno Simões Rodrigues, Martin Simonson, and Angélica Varandas.

Transmisogyny In Popular Culture, Feminisms, And Shakespeare Studies, Lisa S. Starks

USF St. Petersburg Campus Faculty Publications

In this article, I deal with the disparagement of femininity and trans persons in multiple levels of our culture, including in some feminist theory and Shakespearean criticism. I point out that contemporary culture, patriarchal institutions, and some feminist positions share misogynistic stances towards expressions and embodiments of femininity; and these perspectives carry over into some criticism, as well as our academic institutions and classrooms. I examine the double-standard that is often applied to feminine-gendered behavior and bodies in contemporary culture and the profession. In so doing, I address the points of tension and common ground between feminist, queer, and transgender …

To Be Necessary: The Remarkable Life Of Mary Wollstonecraft, Elisabeth Phillips

Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History

Although overshadowed by her daughter, Mary Shelley, in the public imagination, Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) stands as a significant figure in her time who left a significant legacy. Her writings advocating for women’s education, equal rights, and career opportunities established her as the progenitor of the modern women’s rights movement. Wollstonecraft’s ideas resonated in the era of the Atlantic world revolutions and laid the foundation for later advances of women in the Western world; therefore, it is important to study her contributions in the present.

Wench, Witch, Wife, Widow: The Power Of Address Terms In The Witch Of Edmonton, Laura Kolb

Publications and Research

This chapter explores address terms and their power to shape social reality, especially for women and the socially precarious. The opening of The Witch of Edmonton—“Come, wench!”—is the first of many moments in which one character classifies another in terms of gender, class, or social position. Tracking characters’ reactions to being named (and thereby “placed”) reveals divergent perspectives on the fit between assigned social identity and self-evaluation.

Tolkien Dogmatics: Theology Through Mythology With The Maker Of Middle-Earth (2022) By Austin M. Freeman, Thomas Honegger

Journal of Tolkien Research

Book review, by Thomas Honegger, of Tolkien Dogmatics: Theology through Mythology with the Maker of Middle-earth (2022) by Austin M. Freeman

Second Age, Middle Age, Norbert Schürer

Journal of Tolkien Research

The recent releases of the volume The Fall of Númenor and the series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power raise the question: What is the significance of the Second Age of Tolkien’s legendarium? This article suggests that Tolkien conceived of the Second Age as parallel to the Middle Ages in our world, which were the focus of his academic career in his studies of Old and Middle English language and literature. As various frameworks and overviews for the legendarium demonstrate, Tolkien thought of the Second Age, like the Middle Ages, as uniquely looking backwards and forwards …

Contagious Animality: Species, Disease, And Metaphor In Early Modern Literature And Culture, Jeremy Cornelius

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In my dissertation, Contagious Animality: Species, Disease, and Metaphor in Early Modern Literature and Culture, I close read examples of Renaissance drama alongside their contemporary cultural texts to examine anxieties around social differences as constructed and mediated through what I call “contagious animality” in early modern English culture. Animal metaphors circulated anxieties around social differences on the early modern cultural stage in English drama where animality elicits uncertainties about identitarian constructions of difference. In this vein, I close read formal elements and their interactions with early modern culture to argue that animal metaphors transmit modes of speciating difference in …

"Where Sex Is Directly Concerned" Agatha Christie And The Feminization Of Detective Fiction, Barbara Javori

Theses and Dissertations

Agatha Christie’s name is synonymous with the Whodunit. She is without a doubt one the most popular and best selling authors of all time. Christie’s work built upon the first examples of detective fiction, including Edgar Allan Poe, Wilkie Collins, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. However, Christie’s embrace of the traditionally female spaces, her subversion of expectations, and her unlikely detectives set her apart from her predecessors with their focus on male intellect, patriarchal superiority, and absent female characters. Christie’s novels established recognizable patterns still used today in books, television and movies. This project examines the arc of detective fiction …

Orts 78, 2023, The George Macdonald Society

Orts: The George MacDonald Society Newsletter

The main purpose of this edition of Orts is to give our George MacDonald Society members and friends early notice that registration for our 2024 George MacDonald Conference at Wheaton College has now gone live. You can see the current line up of Keynote Speakers on the registration page, and more speakers and participants will be added over the coming weeks. We have some exciting plans that we truly hope will make this a celebration worthy of George for everyone. We anticipate this event will prove popular and spaces are limited, so we would encourage you to take full advantage …

Review Of Andrew Hadfield, John Donne: In The Shadow Of Religion, Brooke Conti

English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The History Of The Book From Chaucer To Shakespeare, Heather Blatt

Printing and the Book During the Reformation: 1450-1650, an NEH Summer Seminar for College and University Teachers

Book history syllabus

Slides On Thomas More's Warning To Readers, Travis Curtright

Printing and the Book During the Reformation: 1450-1650, an NEH Summer Seminar for College and University Teachers

Slides on Thomas More's Warning to Readers, from A Treatise on the Passion (1534)

Lesson Plan: 16th-Century Books Using Anglo-Saxon Type, Rachel Roberts

Printing and the Book During the Reformation: 1450-1650, an NEH Summer Seminar for College and University Teachers

Lesson plan for book history / literature course

Student Handout: Early Modern Readers And Thomas More’S Treatise On The Passion, Travis Curtright

Printing and the Book During the Reformation: 1450-1650, an NEH Summer Seminar for College and University Teachers

Lesson Plan and Handout for Thomas More's Warning to Readers, from his Treatise on the Passion

Premodern British Literature And The History Of The Book, Travis Knapp

Printing and the Book During the Reformation: 1450-1650, an NEH Summer Seminar for College and University Teachers

Book history syllabus for university literature course