Modern Literature Commons^™

Revelations: Spirituality As Privileged Perspectivism In Magical Realist Distortions, Isabella Scala-Kazanecki

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis examines the role of spiritual beliefs in the literary mode now known as magical realism in Cuban Alejo Carpentier’s The Kingdom of This World (1949), Indian-Born British and American Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses (1988), and a lesser-known novel, Household Saints (1981) by Francine Prose, an American writer. The Kingdom of This World, itself the originator of the mode of magical realism, has allowed me to conclude with Carpentier that magical realism arises from “privileged revelations,” as he notes in the preface to his seminal book. But these revelations in magical realism are not necessarily always of the …

Fictional And Historical Narratives Of African American Soldiers Of Wwii, Abigail Rae Stewart

Honors Theses

This thesis examines the experiences of African American soldiers during World War II through the dual lenses of oral histories and fictionalized accounts, arguing that both are essential to fully understanding their multifaceted journeys at home and abroad. Oral histories provide direct, personal narratives from veterans themselves, capturing their voices, emotions, and reflections on the discrimination, camaraderie, and resilience that defined their wartime and postwar lives. These firsthand accounts offer invaluable insights into the structural realities of systemic racism within the military and society, as well as the personal sacrifices these soldiers made in the name of a country that …

“Freedom, You Have Turned From Me!” Exploring The Facts Vs. The Fiction Of Sisi In Netflix’S The Empress, Anastasia Marie Raebel

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

As one of the most beautiful women of her day, head-strong, and in opposition to the strict traditions of her court life, Empress Elisabeth of Austria - also known as Sisi - is remembered for her confidence and free-spirit. While Sisi’s image is admired throughout Austria (and Bavaria) on postcards, posters, and knick-knacks, she is lesser known to American audiences. During her life, she was often criticized for leaving her responsibilities with the court to go on long trips or for prioritizing her love of Hungary over the Austrian people. However, after the Empress’s tragic death, her public image changed; …

Milk Tooth, 2023, Macy Bernard, Victoria Bohney, Mathea Brink, Mackenzie Britton, Shawn Cruze, Madelyn Dakken, Jada Dokken, Isaiah Dunham, Liz Fisher, Brooke Froehle, Oak Greyson, Gordon Hess, Joseph Kettelhodt, Hannah Lewis, Marissa Marxhausen, Hunter Meland, Autumn Miles, Natalie Nelson, Emma Niessink, Lauren Winkelman, Luke Yartz

Milk Tooth

"Writings by Bemidji State University Students". Sponsored by the Bemidji State University English Department.

Documents And The Malady Of Truth, Ronald E. Day

Proceedings from the Document Academy

This article discusses documents, knowledge, and truth through a conceptual examination and through an examination of Flaubert's 19th century novel Madame Bovary. It argues that the main characters of Madame Bovary deceive themselves by believing that the contents of the fictional and medical texts they read convey truth. In contrast, the article argues that modern knowledge is constituted by documentary evidence operating in knowledge networks and processes where the result of such operations is what can be claimed to be true about the world through such processes. The representational malady that Madame and Doctor Bovary suffer in the novel was …

Entropic Interactionist Theory: Reading Social Constructionism Through Thermodynamics And Samuel Beckett, Brie Barron

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

This essay aims to explain the breakdown of social constructs through the concept of Entropic Interactionist Theory. EIT argues that it is the nature of creations to be vulnerable to the same forces as their creator, and that social constructions (like identity, for example) are subject to the very same physical forces that give rise to humanity’s creative impulse. At its core, EIT is informed by social constructionism and Nietzschean sociological theory, but it names the second law of thermodynamics and the concept of entropy as the driving force behind societal disintegration. The complication with this theory is that it …

Intro To Jewish American Literature, Amy W. Kratka

Open Educational Resources

No abstract provided.

Literary Fiction And Sympathy: How Reading Makes You A Better Person, Emma Rose Wick

Honors Theses and Capstones

I argue in this thesis that literary fiction enhances our ability to sympathize with others as a result of observing—and thereby coming to feel for—the perspectives of the characters by engaging in mental perspective-taking. As a result, we become able to sympathize with an array of individuals whose experiences are unlike our own, and which we may never understand otherwise. I argue that the ability to sympathize with others is valuable for the sake of being a morally good person, and for having an overall good character. This has value in and of itself, particularly from an Aristotelian perspective. I …

Fictional Text And Reality Of The Possible, Shusheng Zhang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

This article explores the issue of reference in fictional texts, that is, the relationship between fictional texts and reality. Paul Ricoeur thinks that the reference of poetic language is not cancelled, but only suspended. Through its semantic creativity, it possesses the ability to transform reality and to turn our personal environment into a habitable world. The interpretation of the concept "world /Welt" and "environment /Umwelt" by Martin Heidegger and Hans-Georg Gadamer shed light on the significance of fictional texts in reality, for they propose to us possible modes of existence in the ontological sense. In other words, fictional texts can …

Milk Tooth, 2021, Bemidji State University, Tobiloba Aiyedun, Ardaschir Arguelles, Geneva Basye, Owen Besancon, Emily Comstock, Shawn Cruze, Nathan Datres, Joy Eastman, Misty Fear, Austin Fiedler, Greg Gentry, Alex Goehring, Luna Harbour, Kassandra Hart, Ashley Kinnard, Jewel Kraus, Adam Lacrosse, Jennifer Lavin, Daltyn Lofstrom, Stephanie Martin, Lauren Moberg, Danae Moksnes, Erin Muenter, Natalie Nelson, Alex Polchow, Tyler Solheim, Coralie Swedburg, Meghan Trimble, Sam Walker, Faith Weber, April Westlund, Sarah Williamson

Milk Tooth

"Writing by Bemidji State University Students". Sponsored by the Bemidji State University English Department

Modernism's Legacies: Forms, Feelings, And Figures, Shelby Sleevi

Dissertations

My dissertation, entitled "Modernism's Legacies: Forms, Feelings, and Figures," explores American modernism's legacies within contemporary fiction, not only as a set of aesthetic trends but also as a looming and influential mythos. Whether the practices and concerns of early twentieth-century literary modernism are evoked through obvious allusion, explicit reference, or strong resonance on the level of narrative, the contemporary texts in my discussion together attest to modernism's continued influence on and relevance for our current era. Tracing the legacies of William Faulkner, Gertrude Stein, Djuna Barnes, and Vladimir Nabokov in the contemporary fictions of Edward P. Jones, Julie Otsuka, George …

Infidelity As Reality: Re-Staging The Global South With Abbas Kiarostami’S Close-Up, Sinan Richards

Artl@s Bulletin

In this article, we contend that, in the fields of art and visual culture, the Global South is both an elaborate lie and a radical opportunity for transformation. We investigate Kiarostami’s Close-up alongside Lacan’s psychoanalysis to show how Close-up’s filmic narrative evokes the same ‘polyvalence’ and ‘slipperiness’ as the notion of the Global South. We argue that Kiarostami’s Close-up retroactively changed Sabzian’s fate, and in so doing, Kiarostami’s re-staging actively overwrites History itself. We read the same narrative move in the concept of the Global South to suggest that the Global South adopts the Kiarostamian strategy of infidelity as reality …

Review Of Fly Already, Michael F. Russo

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Review Of I Heart Oklahoma, Michael F. Russo

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Kentuckiana, And A Dash Of Cambodia: A Collection Of Short Stories, Brodie Lee Gress

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The following is a collection of five short stories set in regions familiar to me: “Dewberry Park,” “YouLead,” and “The Color Violet” in Indiana; “Mens Rea” in Kentucky; and “Tory Ride” in Cambodia. Gay identity plays a role in many of these stories, and other themes explored include family, region, socioeconomics, gender, mentality, and change. These stories are concerned with people on the brink, failing and surviving all the same. Some of them are intended to weigh, and some to satirize. I hope they all nick their readers.

Review Of Song For The Unraveling Of The World, Michael F. Russo

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Review Of The History Of Living Forever, Michael F. Russo

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

"The Tyrant Father": Leslie Stephen And Masculine Influences On Virginia Woolf And Her Novel, To The Lighthouse, Anya Graubard

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

This paper examines the volatile yet nurturing relationship between Virginia Woolf and her father, Leslie Stephen. It specifically considers the effects of three male “tyrants” in Woolf’s childhood, including not only her father but also her two half-brothers, who abused her sexually. Analysis of the dynamics of these relationships provides insight into Woolf’s lifelong battle with mental illness and helps us to understand the complicated relationships she had as an adult with men and women.

In her letters, diaries, and memoir essays, Woolf reveals how she drew from her own experiences of childhood to write her most famous novel, To …

Review Of The Altruists, Michael F. Russo

Faculty Publications

A book review of the debut novel by Andrew Ridker.

Review Of Lost And Wanted, Michael F. Russo

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Review Of Such Good Work, Michael F. Russo

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Agonie | The Agony, Jerry Auld, Gilles Mossiere

The Goose

Un accident d’alpinisme s’est produit en 1920 près du mont Assiniboine dans les Rocheuses canadiennes. Le professeur Winthrop E. Stone fit une chute mortelle après s’être décordé sous le sommet du mont Eon ; sa femme Margaret, n’ayant pu compléter la descente, dut attendre les secours pendant sept jours, sans eau, nourriture ni vêtements chauds. Cette tragédie la marqua à vie, et elle n’en reparla jamais. Jon Whyte, écrivain de Banff, s’est inspiré de ces événements dans The Agony of Mrs. Stone, poème publié en 1977, qui sert de toile de fond à cette nouvelle. / A climbing accident took …

Literature And Popular Fiction : Examining The Distinction, Mark Christian Dards Collington

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

As a society we have developed a hierarchical distinction that we apply to fiction, defining some of it as superior (literature), and some of it as inferior (popular fiction). While this distinction undeniably exists, it resides in our social consciousness, and is not a delineation that is supported by demonstrable differences in the properties of the texts themselves. Rather, it serves to inflect our readings and interpretations of the texts dependent upon their categorization. This hierarchy has been constructed and imposed over time through the treatment of works by critics, academics, librarians, marketing departments, and others in a variety of …

Catholic Sensibility In The Early Fiction Of Edna O'Brien, Eamon Maher

Articles

No abstract provided.

Mcwilliams, Ellen. Women And Exile In Contemporary Irish Fiction, Maureen T. Reddy

Journal of Interdisciplinary Feminist Thought

No abstract provided.

Still Circling The Sun, Stefan Rafael Delagarza

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This work is a collection of traditional and experimental short stories that explore dynamic human relationships in a variety of settings: a bunker, a beach, and a family home, to name a few. Each character is on a journey to find deeper meaning in his or her life, and oftentimes, this means finding a path to forgiveness.

Bandera, Cesareo, A Refuge Of Lies: Reflections On Faith And Fiction. East Lansing, Mi: Msu Press, 2013, Andrew J. Mckenna

Modern Languages and Literatures: Faculty Publications and Other Works

A review is presented of Bandera, Cesareo, A Refuge of Lies: Reflections on Faith and Fiction. East Lansing, MI: MSU Press, 2013 (viii, 156 pp.) ISBN: 978-1-60917-378-4. $19.95.

Course Syllabus (Sp14) Coli 211 Literature & Psychology: "The Sublime, The Uncanny, And The Imagination", Christopher Southward

Comparative Literature Faculty and Student Scholarship

Course Description:

In a world in which what counts as knowledge is predominantly restricted to the measurable and the calculable, those elements of human experience which elude and exceed these parameters are often ignored and discounted. In this course, we will examine questions of the sublime, the uncanny, and the speculative as treated in literature, psychoanalysis, and philosophy in order to think and write critically about them. Here, we will consider the possible extent to which an openness to such experiences can enrich our lives.

Can The Raped Woman Speak?, Zainab El-Mansi

Dentistry

Rape has been known since the dawn of history as a method by which women were subjugated to the power of men. This horrid experience has always been silenced for several reasons which will be investigated in this book. Literature has always been able to uncover what is barred from expression; hence, part of this book is dedicated to surveying the different literary representations of this traumatic experience. What this book is concerned with is war rape, as it gains further connotations during wars and political conflicts. War rape is depicted in the two literary texts of analysis here: Coetzee's …

Dialogue In Fiction, Tracy A. Townsend

The Short Story

This close-reading and discussion-oriented lesson, which takes between sixty and seventy minutes, uses Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” as a model of how dialogue advances plot and develops character in fiction. It is useful in literature classrooms for its emphasis on drawing inferences from text and in creative writing contexts for teaching effective dialogue writing. This lesson is suitable for grades 9-12.