Modern Literature Commons^™

Fixing Ground Zero: Race And Religion In Francis Lawrence’S I Am Legend, Michael E. Heyes

Journal of Religion & Film

Francis Lawrence’s I Am Legend is a complex intertext of Matheson’s novel of the same name and its two previous film adaptations. While the film attempts to depict racism as monstrous, the frequent invocation of 9/11 imagery and Christian symbolism throughout the film recodes the vampiric dark-seekers as radical Islamic terrorists. This serves to further enshrine an us/Christians vs. them/Muslim dichotomy present in post-9/11 America, a dichotomy that the film presents as “curable” through the spread of Christianity and the fall of Islam.

Desire, Curiosity, And The Search For Truth In Proust, Moreno, And Bechdel, Santiago Parga Linares

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Marcel Proust’s influence on twentieth century literature is broad and has been well documented. This dissertation attempts a comparative reading of À la recherche du temps perdu that places it in contrast with Colombian writer Marvel Moreno’s 1987 novel, En diciembre llegaban las brisas, and Alison Bechdel’s 2006 comic memoir, Fun Home. Starting from a Deleuzian reading of the Recherche, this dissertation proposes the notion of the “proustian truth seeker”, a thematic and stylistic phenomenon which can be traced in all three writers. The characteristics of the truth seeker can be used to understand the ways in …

Una Democracia Aterrorrizada: Justicia Y Afecto En Los Textos De La Transición Democrática Argentina, Mariana Graciano

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation analyzes the links between justice and affect in some of the most emblematic texts of the democratic transition in Argentina. Films, novels and photos are incorporated here as texts or complex utterances, as they constitute a framework of signs with a communicative intention that makes sense in a given context. In order to analyze these links, I consider terms from the field of transitional justice (reconciliation, forgiveness, restoration) and specific affects (terror, empathy, guilt, resentment, tenderness, happiness and cruelty).

The key questions guiding this thesis are: what links did visual arts and literature have in relation to the …

“To Write Of Him And Pardon Crave”: Negotiating Biblical Authority In Lanyer’S Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum, Andrew Fleck

Literatures and Cultural Studies Faculty Publications

Aemilia Lanyer refers extensively to the Gospels in writing her poem on the Passion, Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum. Alluding to the events of Christ's final day, she incorporates details from each of the Gospel accounts of the Crucifixion. Focusing on specific echoes of the translations available to her, it is possible to trace which bible Lanyer preferred. Surprisingly, despite Lanyer's preference for the Geneva translation, she also made use of the Bishops' Bible, suggesting that the poet carefully sifted through different English translations as she sought to generate biblical authority for her account of the Passion.

Pirandello Proto-Modern: A New Reading Of L’Esclusa, Bradford Masoni

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Luigi Pirandello’s first novel, L’Esclusa, written in 1893, but not published in its definitive edition until 1927, straddles two literary worlds: that of the realistic style of the Italian veristi, and something new, a style and approach to narrative that anticipates the theory of writing Pirandello lays out in his long essay L’Umorismo, as well as the kinds of experimental writing that one associates with early-20^th-century modernism in general, and with Pirandello’s later work in particular. The novel’s living in both worlds, however, makes it an interesting and problematic text. First, it gives readers insight into …

Agency And Political Engagement In Gide And Barrault's Post-War Theatrical Adaptation Of Kafka's The Trial, Yevgenya Strakovsky

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article, "Agency and Political Engagement in Gide and Barrault's Post-war Theatrical Adaptation of Kafka's The Trial" Yevgenya Strakovsky considers the political themes of André Gide and Jean-Louis Barrault's Le Procès (The Trial, 1947), the first theatrical adaptation of Franz Kafka's Der Prozess (The Trial, 1914). Strakovsky demonstrates that Le Procès, written and staged in the immediate aftermath of World War II, levels a critique against the passive complicity of citizens in unjust persecution in both its script and its staging. The paper also considers the elements of Kafka's prose that lend themselves to …

Reinventing Translation: Toward A Common Language For Scholar-Practitioners, Ann Kowal Smith, Karen R. Nestor

Engaged Management ReView

Translation starts in one language, and converts to a second. But it doesn't change the languages or the people who "speak" them. We propose – instead of translation – the joint development of theory and practice that becomes a common language – a common language of a community of scholar-practitioners. This paper describes the work of two scholar-practitioners committed to addressing a pressing problem of practice: the educational attainment and skills required for positive outcomes in the 21st century workplace. This paper considers the original design and implementation of an innovative, theory-based workplace learning initiative (Books@Work) and, arising from this …

Heroes Vs. Villains, Evan A. Poole

Sierpinski’s Square

This article questions the use of heroes and villains in literature, whether our perceptions of these characters as good and evil is proper, and what literature should do beyond this dichotomy.

Mary O’Donnell’S 1992 Debut Retains Its Awesome Word Power 25 Years On The Light Makers Was A Compelling, Beautifully Written Tale Of Relationship Breakdown, Eamon Maher

Articles

In 1992, I remember reading Mary O’Donnell’s debut novel, The Light Makers, with a mixture of awe and excitement: awe that a novel could be this well-written, excitement at what I perceived to be the advent of a significant new voice in Irish fiction. Two other novels followed in the 1990s – Virgin and the Boy (1996) and The Elysium Testament (1999) – that failed to capture the public imagination in the same way. They are both good novels, but they are not nearly as compelling as The Light Makers. We had to wait 15 more years for …

Prototyping Mina Loy's Alphabet, Margaret Konkol

English Faculty Publications

An important branch of digital humanities involves prototyping the past. This entails approaching material forms of knowledge as sites within which epistemological and ontological problems may be evaluated as physical embodied practices. This essay discusses the interpretive and methodological implications of using 3D printing technologies to prototype the archival diagrams of a proposed but never constructed plastic segmental alphabet letter kit – a game designed by Mina Loy for F.A.O. Schwarz. Although it is intended as a toy for young children, “The Alphabet that Builds Itself,” is also a work of object typography which articulates a theory of language as …

The Evolution Of An Enduring Expertise: Understanding Irish Economists In Irish Public Discourse In The Great Recession, Joe Fitzgerald, Brendan O'Rourke

Other

This work focuses on the institutional and social contexts of Irish economists’ prominence in public discourse in Ireland during the Great Recession. While examining performative aspects of experts’ legitimacy is important, understanding the wider societal context of how particular professional expertise is recognised is also vital (Collins & Evans 2007). The economics profession generally is characterised by strong hierarchy and dense integration (Fourcade, 2009; Mirowski & Plehwe, 2009; Pautz, 2014), we explore such phenomena in the Irish context. The Irish context is of interest more generally as a prominent PIIGS country in the Eurozone crisis, as a small peripheral state …

Course Syllabus (Su17) Coli 331: “‘World-Traveling’: Alterity And Liminality In Spike Lee’S Do The Right Thing And Amiri Baraka’S Dutchman”, Christopher Southward

Comparative Literature Faculty and Student Scholarship

Course Description:

This semester, we’ll view Spike Lee’s 1989 Do the Right Thing and Shirley Knight’s 1966 cinematic production of Amiri Baraka’s Dutchman through the critical lenses of Maria Lugones’ notions of ‘worlds’ and ‘world-traveling,’[1] which she develops in Pilgrimages/Peregrinajes: Theorizing Coalition against Multiple Oppressions. Our task is to analyze a number of the problematics addressed in these visual works as discernible ‘world(s)’ of meaning and experience constituted by the libidinous investments, concrete practices, and ideological convictions of the human subjects who bear and circulate them.

[1] Maria Lugones, Pilgrimages/Peregrinajes: Theorizing Coalition against Multiple Oppressions, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, …

Book Review - Among The Living, Linda M. Golian-Lui

Georgia Library Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Citizens United V The Federal Election Commission, Inverted Totalitarianism And Contemporary Fiction, Cory R. Chambers

PSU McNair Scholars Online Journal

In this paper I will explore the results of the 2010 Supreme Court Citizens United vs The Federal Election Commission as reflected in the contemporary literature. I will look at the role the corporation plays in American politics post Citizens United. My primary texts is the novel Super Sad True Love Story. My research question is: did the Citizens United decision open the door for ‘inverted totalitarianism’ to seep through the cracks of American society Using the allegorical novel Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart, I will show how Citizens United, the political theory of …

From Foix To Dalí: Versions Of Catalan Surrealism Between Barcelona And Paris, Enric Bou

Artl@s Bulletin

The purpose of this article is to illustrate a little known episode of Salvador Dalí’s initial intervention in the surrealist movement: his relationship with Catalan writer Josep Vicenç Foix. To what extent writers such as Foix adapted Surrealism in his own writing and what kind of exchanges he had with Paris? Was Foix a predecessor of Dalí’s surrealist writing? As early as 1918, J.V. Foix made an impact in Catalan literary circles and one of the first imitators of Apollinaire (and maybe Breton). After 1926 Foix he developed a close relationship with Dalí and helped him with the publication of …

Outlandish Outsourcing, Traci Grodner

Best Integrated Writing

Grodner Provides a review of Thomas Friedman’s The Lexus and the Olive Tree that relates a personal anecdote about outsourcing to her academic analysis of the text. Grodner concludes that outsourcing has dire implications for both domestic and foreign workers.

An Excerpt From The Latin Ladies, Julia Gomez-Cambronero

Best Integrated Writing

In this excerpt, Gomez-Cambronero offers an editorial about the effect of U.S. involvement in Central America’s politics on the children of the region. It also contains Gomez-Cambronero’s essay on a poem by Rubén Darío.

Best Integrated Writing 2017 - Complete Edition

Best Integrated Writing

Best Integrated Writing includes excellent student writing from Integrated Writing courses taught at Wright State University. The journal is published annually by the Wright State University Department of English Language and Literatures.

Changing Publishing Ecologies: A Landscape Study Of New University Presses And Academic-Led Publishing: A Report To Jisc, Janneke Adema, Graham Stone, Chris Keene

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

Introduction

A new wave of university presses is emerging. Common characteristics are that they are open access (OA), digital first, library-based, and they often offer a smaller set of services than a traditional publisher, blurring the line between publisher and platform. In tandem, a small but notable number of academics and researchers have set up their own publishing initiatives, often demonstrating an innovative or unique approach either in workflow, peer review, technology or business model.

These new publishing initiatives have a potentially disruptive effect on the scholarly communication environment, providing new avenues for the dissemination of research outputs and acting …

Mermaid Song: The Notebooks Of The Writing Woman, Gianna T. Ward-Vetrano

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis is built on the model of Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook, that is, it is a feminist project of holistic integration that does not reject fracturing, ambiguity, or contradiction, but aims to attain a more complex and thus truer portrait of the woman writing. Lessing’s notebooks examine conflicts between communism and capitalism, racial conflict in Africa, conflict between men and women, and the conflict between the protagonist Anna Wulf’s identity as a woman and her identity as a writer, each of which she then attempts to integrate into the singular golden notebook of the title. I propose …

For Narrativity: How Creating Narratives Structures Experience And Self, Natallia Stelmak Schabner

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation responds to the challenge to narrativity posed by Galen Strawson in “Against Narrativity,” where he claims that not everyone is Narrative by nature and that there is no reason to be. I make my claim “For Narrativity” as a mental process of form finding and coherence seeking over time that is an inherent mental activity and essential for experience of one’s Self. I make my case through examinations of our experience of time, our use of language, how we plan, and our sense of Self. In the first chapter, I show that considering Narrativity as viewing life as …

Glorious And Execrable: The Dead And Their Bodies In World War I Poetry, Rebecca E. Straple

The Hilltop Review

While many scholars of World War I poetry have identified aspects of soldier poets’ work that embody the change from enthusiastic support of the war to disillusioned criticism of it, in this paper I argue for an additional, and highly meaningful marker of this significant change: the use of the dead and their bodies in this poetry. The commonly held critical view of World War I poetry is that there is a clear divide between poetry of the early and late years of the war, usually located after the Battle of the Somme in 1916, where poetry moves from odes …

Le Global Et Le Local : Réécriture De Paris Et Reconstruction D’Un Espace Esthétisé, Buata B. Malela

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

This article concerns the representation of Paris in the literary discourse of Michel Houellebecq and Alain Mabanckou. It is about placing space at the heart of our reflection to understand their production. Geocriticism approach brings them closer and makes it possible to show the coherence of their literary approach and the presence of space as the main literary subject.

Infinite Regress And The Illusion Of Actuality And Participation In Borges's 'The Aleph', Robin Mcallister

English Faculty Publications

Borges wants his reader to use imagination to participate in his fiction, to imagine the vision of the universe as an Aleph. The vision of the Aleph is paradoxical, impossible, inexpressible—a point in space, in the basement of a house in Buenos Aires, where all other points in the universe are simultaneously present. The reader sees the Aleph—or the illusion of the Aleph, watching it emerge as if through Borges’ own eyes, as an unrequited lover and frustrated poet gradually accommodating the infinite vision to the limitations of actual perception. The illusion of actual presence the reader evokes seems to …

Literary Theories Of Circumcision, A. W. Strouse

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

“Literary Theories of Circumcision” investigates a school of thought in which the prepuce, as a conceptual metaphor, organizes literary experience. In every period of English literature, major authors have employed the penis’s hood as a figure for thinking about reading and writing. These authors belong to a tradition that defines textuality as a foreskin and interpretation as circumcision. In “Literary Theories of Circumcision,” I investigate the origins of this literary-theoretical formulation in the writings of Saint Paul, and then I trace this formulation’s formal applications among medieval, early modern, and modernist writers. My study lays the groundwork for an ambitious …

Building Imaginary Worlds (2012) By Mark J.P. Wolf And Revisiting Imaginary World (2016) Edited By Mark J.P. Wolf, Andrew Higgins

Journal of Tolkien Research

Book review of Building Imaginary Worlds (2012) by Mark J.P. Wolf and Revisiting Imaginary Worlds (2016), edited by Mark J.P. Wolf, reviewed by Andrew Higgins

Monstrous Dolls: The Abject Body In Rosario Ferré’S Works, Mackenzie Fraser

Senior Theses

In this Honors Thesis project, I examine two literary texts, “The Youngest Doll” (1991) and The House on the Lagoon (1995), by Puerto Rican author Rosario Ferré (1938-2016) with attention to her depiction of the abject female body as a figure analyzed by both theories of gender and the subaltern. Using these critical frameworks as well as my own textual analysis, I argue that Ferré offers a postcolonial feminist critique of the double oppression—patriarchal and colonial— operating upon her female Puerto Rican characters. Yet these women also turn this abjection into transgression, allowing Ferré to expose the paradoxes of female …

Chinese Wines And Foreign Urns: Making Objects Of Lyric, Ryan Matthew Hintzman

Student Work

A 2016-2017 William Prize for best essay in East Asian Studies was awarded to Ryan Matthew Hintzman (Silliman College '17) for his essay submitted to the Department of Comparative Literature, "Chinese Wines and Foreign Urns: Making Objects of Lyric.” (Edward Kamens, Sumitomo Professor of Japanese Studies, advisor.)

Ryan Hintzman’s essay, Chinese Wines and Foreign Urns: Making Objects of Lyric is a work of awe-inspiring erudition, vision, and ambition. Ranging far and wide among traditional and more recent theories of the lyric and moving boldly from 8th century poems in Japanese to 19th and 20th century poems in English, Hintzman …

Not So Revisionary: The Regressive Treatment Of Gender In Alan Moore's Watchmen, Anna C. Marshall

The Downtown Review: An Interdisciplinary Journal Written and Peer-Reviewed by Mandel Honors College Students at Cleveland State University

While Alan Moore’s comic book Watchmen is often hailed as a revisionary text for introducing flawed superheroes and political anxiety to the genre, it is also remarkably regressive in its treatment of gender. Some critics do argue that women are given a newfound voice in Watchmen, but this interpretation neglects to examine character Laurie Jupiter adequately, or the ways in which other female characters' appearance and dialogue are limited and/or based on their sexuality and relationships with male characters. Watchmen's main female characters, mother and daughter Sally and Laurie Jupiter, lack autonomy and their identities are completely intertwined …

Humanity On The Verge Of Insanity: Maintaining Cultural Identity Against Oppressive Rule, Danica Katarina Skoric

Senior Theses

Ubuntu is a South African term in the Bantu language that translates to “human kindness.” This essay discusses the present-day impact of the South African philosophical concept of Ubuntu in light of the dehumanization, which Aboriginal Australians and Black South Africans faced, specifically during the period of 1960-1985. How has humanity been enslaved and degraded by assimilation and a cruel division of races, yet positively evolved and progressed due to the efforts of both female and male activists--in particular literary figure Oodgeroo Noonuccal and political leader Nelson Mandela? A lack of respect and tolerance as a result of colonialism has …