Modern Literature Commons^™

To Print A Remake: An Analysis Of Hollywood Remakes And Their Cultural Value, Connor F. Seaton

Honors Undergraduate Theses

In recent years, audiences and movie critics have expressed concern that Hollywood’s growing reliance on remakes, sequels, franchises, and similar adaptations has led to a broader worry that originality is fading from modern cinema and that the industry is instead focused on using adaptations to maximize profits. Although adaptation is often seen as a commercially driven framework for reproducing existing intellectual property in a new media format, this thesis argues that it should be recognized as an autonomous cultural category with its own artistic, historical, and social significance and merit. By analyzing adaptation scholarship and reviewing its complex historical development, …

La Importancia De Los Personajes Femeninos En Como Agua Para Chocolate Como Medio Para Entender El Papel De Las Mujeres Mexicanas En Dos Momentos Históricos, Jessica R. Sloan-Cooper

CMC Senior Theses

En la novela, Como agua para chocolate, escrito por Laura Esquivel, el personaje central, Tita, se encuentra a sí misma entre dos mundos completamente diferentes en su hogar; uno es restringido y estricto, y tiene que ver con su madre, Mamá Elena, y el otro es libre e ilimitado, relacionado con su hermana, Gertrudis. Cuando Tita no puede casarse con el hombre que ama, Pedro, se da cuenta que está atrapada en dos realidades en conflicto. ¿Cómo puede ser? Esta novela toma lugar en dos momentos históricos centrales: El Porfiriato y la Revolución mexicana. El Porfiriato es el prolongado régimen …

Heart Of Stone: Geomorphization Through Stone-Oriented Affects, Grace F. Foster

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis draws from the work of geologist Marcia Bjornerud to bring a scientific (specifically geologic) understanding of humanity’s relationship to our home planet to bear in a literary context. I employ Bjornerud’s term “geomorphization” to expand from inter-species kinship to inter-substance kinship and to establish stone as an active, lively subject without relying on anthropomorphization. Geomorphization as I define it refers to recognizing similarity between ourselves and stone/Earth on the basis of our stoniness rather than stone’s human-ness. Geomorphizing ourselves entails what Bjornerud calls “timefulness,” a geologic perspective on temporality that sees the past as continually acting in the …

When To Bite Back: Queerness, Resistance, And Reclamation Of The Monstrous Identity In Andrew Joseph White’S Hell Followed With Us, Aster J. Mehigan Mx.

English

Who gets the right to define morality? Who gets to define what is monstrous? Frankenstein’s Creature, the vampires of Lost Boys, The Craft’s head witch Nancy Downs; these characters follow a pattern through the decades of those alienated from society, in this case being written with queer subtext, being deemed as monstrous. These queer monsters become the villains of the story, causing chaos, death and destruction in their wake, seeking revenge against a world that ostracizes them. The 2022 dystopian YA horror of Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White challenges the villanized monstrous identity through its transgender protagonist …

Ideology And Iconography In Gustav Machatý’S Ecstasy (1933), Karl E. Toepfer

Open Educational Resources

This essay discusses the cinematic construction of sexual ecstatic experience in Gustav Machaty's 1933 film Ecstasy. Sergei Eisenstein's theory of cinematic montage governs the shapes the way the filmmakers organize the representation of erotic desire and rapture. But the film also shows affinity with the Czech "Poetist" movement of the 1920s in constructing a guiding view of ecstatic experience. The essay analyzes many images in the film, and concludes with an application of montage theory of ecstatic cinema to the consumption of erotic videos and internet imagery.

Roan Stallion, Tamar And Other Poems: Centennial Edition, By Robinson Jeffers, Brett Colasacco

Jeffers Studies

No abstract provided.

Wild Anthropocene Literature And Multispecies Justice In Deep Time, By Louise Economides, George Hart

Jeffers Studies

No abstract provided.

Voices Of The Headland: Robinson Jeffers And The Bird Of Prey, By Alan Malnar, Eric San George

Jeffers Studies

No abstract provided.

The Making Of Jewish-American Progress In Gertrude Stein’S, The Making Of Americans: Being A History Of A Family’S Progress, Rochel L. Gasson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation provides a comprehensive reading of Gertrude Stein’s The Making of Americans (TMOA), situating the novel at the intersection of literary modernism, Jewish American identity, and feminist thought. It argues that Stein reconceives American progress not as linear advancement but as a recursive, relational, and culturally grounded process. Through experimental form, repetitive syntax, and a sustained present tense, TMOA dramatizes the psychological and social complexities of immigrant families navigating assimilation while maintaining heritage. Characters such as the Old Man, his son, and the Dehning and Herland families reveal generational tensions, moral labor, and the ambivalences of upward …

Best Integrated Writing Fall 2025 - Complete Edition, Wright State University School Of Humanities And Cultural Studies, Tracy Smith, Kristie Mckiernan

Best Integrated Writing

Best Integrated Writing includes excellent student writing from Integrated Writing courses taught at Wright State University.

Living The Humanities: Ghosts, Literature, & Social Justice, Emily A. Phillips

Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal

How do we bridge the perceived divide between the study of humanities in our Jesuit universities and the real-world problems that surround our campuses? Jacques Derrida’s “hauntology" offers us a compelling way to move between the classroom and life, to guide our students through the Universal Apostolic Preferences of “To walk with the poor, the outcasts of the world, those whose dignity has been violated, in a mission of reconciliation and justice” and “To accompany young people in the creation of a hope-filled future.” This article offers a framework for combining literary analysis, historical inquiry, and creative writing in an …

Neurodivergent Kintsugi, Jenée Stanfield

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

Jenée Stanfield is a late-realized, neuroqueer woman living in the Pacific Northwest with her spouse and her dog. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from Pacific Lutheran University and is currently working towards a MS in Restorative Practices at the International Institute for Restorative Practices.

She has presented professional development workshops and conference sessions on topics related to neurodivergent community and neurodivergent-affirming restorative practices in higher education. She co-founded a neurodivergent staff and faculty community at the college where she works as an advisor.

“War Is God” And “Unguessed Kinships”: Blood Meridian And Cormac Mccarthy’S “Border Tetralogy”, Seth Reeves

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis applies the metaphysics of philosopher Gilles Deleuze to Cormac McCarthy’s novel Blood Meridian, arguing that the novel initiates a thread of immanent subjectivity that unfolds throughout the Border Trilogy that follows it. Against a hierarchical metaphysics of transcendence, specifically an inverted Platonic Idealism, Blood Meridian dramatizes an immanent world of “optical democracy,” a prose style that levels the human and nonhuman and eludes subject and object categories. The kid’s autonomy from Judge Holden’s violent domination marks the truncated beginning of a Deleuzian subjectivity of becoming-other and immanent kinship. This incomplete gesture continues in the Border Trilogy, where …

Nene Leakes As A Modern Medea, Jazzlyn L. White

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This paper examines how The Real Housewives of Atlanta functions as a modern form of Greek tragedy through its portrayal of Nene Leakes, whose rise and fall within the Bravo franchise mirrors the tragic arc of Euripides’ Medea. Both Medea and Leakes represent women who defy the systems that once empowered them Medea through her rebellion against patriarchal and familial structures, and Leakes through her public confrontation with the television industry that made her a star. By analyzing these two figures through rhetorical, feminist, and media studies frameworks, this paper argues that reality television operates as a contemporary stage …

Simone De Beauvoir’S Influence On “The Handmaid’S Tale”, Hailee Jones

Fall Showcase for Research and Creative Inquiry

Using the theories that Simone de Beauvoir presents in The Second Sex, this paper will analyze Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. Discussing how Gilead reflects the oppression women face, and the idea of women as “other,” and Beauvoir describes. She spends much time discussing the Hegelian master-slave dialectic, which is seen in The Handmaid’s Tale through Gilead’s laws. Forcing the Handmaids to not only be an incubator for the commander, but also forcing them to do the shopping for the household, and not allowing them basic human rights such as reading. Mussett analyzes this and gives further analysis on women …

“I’M From The Federal Government And I’M Here To Help”: An Examination Of How Firekeeper’S Daughter Educates About Settler Colonialism, Robert Petrone

Occasional Paper Series

This essay offers an examination of various ways Angeline Boulley’s best-selling, award-winning Indigenous Young Adult novel, Firekeeper’s Daughter attends to and educates about settler colonialism. At the core of this analysis is the guiding question: In what ways does Firekeeper’s Daughter illuminate the ongoing social structure of settler colonialism within the context of what is currently known as “The United States”? Specifically, this analysis focuses on the topics of Native identity, including colonial mechanism of blood quantum; and the ways institutions such as the FBI operate from values and epistemologies of compartmentalization and deficit notions of Native Peoples. Across this …

An “Other” Tongue: Nadsat As Anti-Language In A Clockwork Orange, Ian Hugo

The Graduate Review

In this essay, I explore how “Nadsat” is used in Anthony Burgess’s 1962 novella A Clockwork Orange. “Nadsat” is a constructed language that suffuses English vernacular with words and phrases of Russian origin, and it can often prove a significant obstacle to reader comprehension of the overall narrative. However, apart from merely acting as a whim of experimentalism, I argue that Nadsat serves a functional purpose in the text, drawing on research from a variety of fields including literary studies, psychology, philosophy, and linguistics. I begin by showing how Nadsat excludes those who do not “speak” it or (in …

Investigating The Relationship Between Noun Classes And Plant Folk Taxonomy In Chasu Language Of Kilimanjaro Region In Tanzania, Peter Rabson Mziray

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

The current study investigates the relationship between noun classes and plant folk taxonomy in Chasu (G 22). The study focuses on two objectives: the first objective is to describe the plant folk taxonomy in Chasu and the second objective is to determine the relationship between noun classes and plant folk taxonomy in Chasu. Data were collected from rural villages in Same and Mwanga districts by using free listing, field interviews (jungle-walk-and-identify), and written texts containing Chasu plant names. The findings reveal that Chasu folk taxonomy reflects different ethnobotanical categories; including a unique beginner which is mmea/mimea ‘plant(s)’, and three life …

The Construction And Reflection Of The Theoretical Knowledge System Of Chinese Literature And Art:Summary Of The 16th Annual Conference Of The Chinese Association For Theory Of Literature And Art, Qianpeng Gu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

No abstract provided.

Différance, Transparency And Truth: Jean-Luc Nancy On Beauty, Zhizhong Zhang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

In God, Justice, Love, Beauty, Jean-Luc Nancy thoroughly elucidates his perspectives on beauty, extending beyond the confines of conventional epistemological aesthetics by introducing deconstructionism to the discourses on aesthetic issues. Specifically, Nancy reinterprets the legend of Narcissus, positioning its theme as the movement of beauty's self differentialspacing, and unveiling the différance inherent in beauty. However, as a generalized spacing movement, différance cannot highlight the singularity of beauty. Consequently, through an analysis of douard Manet's painting Reading, Nancy contends that beauty, as a motion of meaning that transcends signification, can only be represented as being of near-nothingness, that is, as a …

Dufrenne's Genetic Phenomenological Explanation Of “Affective A Priori”, Ziming Huang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The discussion on the nature of the affective in phenomenology can be traced back to the debate on the universality of the aesthetic affective in modern epistemological aesthetics. Dufrenne interpreted it from the perspective of genetic phenomenology and identified it as a problem of “affective a priori.” The “affective” is an object of feeling triggered by the work and constituted by the subject; and “a priori” is a means of preforming the object within the subject. As the constituent structure of the object, the affective a priori indicates the unity of the objective cosmological a priori and …

Rita Felski's Critique Of Contextualism: Taking Rem Koolhaas And Bruno Latour As A Clue, Lijun Su

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

With a special nested structure, Rita Felski follows and finalizes Rem Koolhaas and Bruno Latour's manifesto of “Context Stinks!” The three theorists of different disciplines such as architecture, sociology and literature take context as a conservative proposition. In response to the contextualist paradigm that is threatened by self-limitation, self-exclusion and generalization, Koolhaas creates space for innovation through the strategy of “bigness”, while Latour questions the theory of social entities, introducing non-human actors into a new coordinate system. Based on them, Felski tries to remold the future of literature within the framework of actor-network theory, in order to forestall text from …

Derrida's Theory Of Sovereignty—And His Criticism Of Robinson Crusoe, Jinlong Xiao

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The 20th century has witnessed an unprecedented exploration and development of the concept of human essence in the Western theoretical community. In the early 20th century, Heidegger proposed that human essence was existence. Later, Foucault argued that human essence was power. By the end of the 20th century, Derrida clearly pointed out that human essence was neither pure existence as advocated by the existentialists, nor pure power, as claimed by the power theorists. Instead, it is something between existence and power: the “powerization” of existence, which Derrida termed “sovereignty.” The operating rhythm of sovereignty involves the autonomy of automation, specifically …

Atmosphere And Artistic Appeal (Qi Yun): An Unfinished Reflection On The Modern Interpretation Of “Artistic Appeal And Rhythmic Vitality” From The Perspective Of Atmosphere Aesthetics, Lei Li

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Drawing from the traditional binary thinking of subject-object division and confrontation, the modern interpretation of “artistic appeal and rhythmic vitality” since the twentieth century considers it either as an aesthetic feature or the overall spirit of the artwork, or as the painter's inner harmony and resonance, failing to fully realize that the ideal effect of “artistic appeal and rhythmic vitality” can only be generated by the two-way communication and resonance between the creator and the object. In the light of the aesthetics of atmosphere, “artistic appeal” is a special category or an advanced state of atmosphere that arises from the …

A Study Of The Historical Formation Of The “Fengyao” Pattern And The “Touchun” Pattern In Five-Character Metrical Poetry, Zhao Zhang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Since the Song dynasty, the touchun pattern has referred to the five-character metrical poetry in which the antithesis is used in the first couplet rather than the second; the fengyao pattern has referred to those in which the antithesis is only used in the third couplet. These two patterns began to flourish in the works of Shen Quanqi and Song Zhiwen. During the High Tang dynasty, they were equated in number with the standard format of metrical poetry. It was not until the Dali era that they were finally confirmed as variant formats of five-character metrical poetry. This trend of …

A New Explanation Of The Connotation And Poetic Significance Of “Poetry Springs From Emotions And Hence Reads Beautifully” In Rhapsody On Literature, Yanfeng Cai, Xiaoli Wei

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Traditionally, “poetry springs from emotions and hence reads beautifully” in Rhapsody on Literature has been interpreted primarily within the poetic context of expressing emotions and aspirations, often overlooking the broader connotation of “emotion” and the logical relationship between “springing from emotions” (yuanqing) and “beautiful” (qimi). Two key concepts are essential in understanding of this sentence. The first is “emotions”, which has been widely used to denote an objective state, essence, and reality since the pre-Qin era. Recognizing the objective meaning of “emotion” is crucial for a correct understanding of the poetic connotation of “springing from emotions”. …

New Changes In The Theater Ecology In The Late-Qing Shanghai: A Study Based On Wang Guifen's Contract Payment Lawsuit, Chunning Zhao

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Contract payment lawsuits discussed in this paper were disputes over rights and interests arising from the operation of modern xiqu (Chinese opera). During Wang Guifen's performances in Shanghai, he was involved in such lawsuits with quite a few theaters, including Xin Dangui, Tianxian, Liuchun, Tianfu, and Guixian. The practice of inviting and recruiting famous actors with high contract payments was a common form of commercial competition in Shanghai's theaters, and it was also the direct cause of job-hopping by well-known actors and their involvement in legal disputes. The high contract payments intensified malicious competition between theaters, hindered the healthy development …

A Semiotic Interpretation Of Landscape Painting And Its Limitations: A Focus On Duan Lian, Yiqing Liu, Zhijie Sun

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Duan Lian has offered a semiotic interpretation of the history of landscape painting. He argues that the formation, development, divergence and decline of landscape painting are all conveyed through the form of images. This constitutes an interaction of image symbols from form to concept, providing new perspectives and paradigms for the study of landscape painting and semiotics. However, regarding the transcendence of landscape painting, we contend that Duan Lian's semiotic interpretation of landscape painting cannot fully capture its intrinsic aesthetics and spirit, as this approach may lead to an underestimation and weakening of the artistic essence of landscape painting. Semiotics, …

Education For The Average Person And The Celestial-Human Strategy In Ancient Poetry Education: Pedagogical Choices In The Context Of The Li-Du And Su-Huang Debates, Shugong Zhao

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

As early as the Wei and Jin dynasties, Chinese literary culture developed a marked adulation of genius. Yet, poetry education took a distinct approach, which favored models not solely based on genius. In discussions contrasting Li Bai and Du Fu, Li Bai was esteemed for his rare natural gift, while Du Fu was valued for his profound intellectual insight. Similarly, in the Su-Huang debates, Su Shi was praised for innate talent, while Huang Tingjian was noted for his disciplined scholarship. Despite these distinctions, poetry education consistently recommended emulating figures like Du Fu and Huang Tingjian. This choice reflects the ancient …

“The Poetics Of Graphite Stone Paintings” And The Quality Of Modern Scholars' Paintings: Wu Changshuo And Pan Tianshou As Examples, Zhongyi Xia

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

To identify why only “the poetics of graphite stone paintings” in Wu Changshuo and Pan Tianshou's works deserve to be referred to as representative of “modern scholars' paintings,” several issues need clarification. First, what is the boundary between “paintings by scholars” and “paintings by literati?” Second, how does one identify Wu's “stubborn stone” not only as a kind of “scholarly painting,” but also as “modern?” Third, how does one recognize Pan's “massive rock” as a “scholarly painting” worthy of being called “modern?” The response is as follows. Firstly, “scholarly painting” is rooted in tranquility and introverted in the self-sanctity of …