Modern Literature Commons^™

Voltaire's Victims And Us, Andrew J. Mckenna

Modern Languages and Literatures: Faculty Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.

“The Other One”: An Unpublished Chapter Of Sarah Orne Jewett’S The Country Of The Pointed Firs, Melissa J. Homestead, Terry Heller

Department of English: Faculty Publications

Sarah Orne Jewett’s The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896) has long been central to literary critical debates about the nature and character of American literary regionalism. In the early 1990s, some New Historicist critics aligned the emergence of the literary movement with the rise of tourism as two means by which urban elites defined themselves as a socially and racially privileged class in the postwar nation. In an influential analysis of the mutually reinforcing development of the literary marketplace and class and cultural hierarchies, Richard Brodhead describes regionalism in Cultures of Letters (1993) as evidencing “an elite need for …

Mil Y Una Muertes De Sergio Ramírez Y Los Fantasmas De La Construcción Nacional Nicaragüense, Alberto Ribas-Casasayas

Modern Languages & Literature

Este artículo analiza la novela Mil y una muertes del nicaragüense Sergio Ramírez con un énfasis en los temas de lo fantasmal, fotografía e identidad nacional. Partiendo de un cuestionamiento de la “internacionalización”de la temática novelística de Ramírez, este artículo describe cómo el personaje principal de la novela, el fotógrafo Castellón, evoca fracasos personales y estéticos que por otra parte alumbran condiciones de i n f aciudadanía de cuerpos sujetos a la merced del estado y situados al borde de la catástrofe. A l mismo tiempo, la frustración vital de Castellón es eco de una frustración simbólica más amplia, la …

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

Articles

No abstract provided.

La (In)Gravidez De Las Palabras: Experiencia Y Lenguaje En Flores De Un Solo Día De Anna-Kazumi Stahl, Karina Elizabeth Vázquez

Latin American, Latino and Iberian Studies Faculty Publications

La novela Flores de un solo día (2002) ha llamado la atención de la crítica literaria académica por plasmar temáticamente el conjunto de particularidades lingüísticas de su autora. Nacida en Shreveport, al norte de Luisiana, en 1962, de madre japonesa y padre alemán-norteamericano, Anna-Kazumi Stahl eligió como patria escrituraria el español rioplatense al mudarse a Buenos Aires en 1995. Para esta escritora que habla inglés, japonés y alemán, aprender español y escribir en esta lengua ha sido enfrentarse a un "otro" que se encuentra más allá de su mando y termina por convertirse en "el mejor recurso para una …

A Voice Full Of Money: Metaphor And The Art Of Meaning, Kathryn V. Mccracken

Senior Honors Theses

The common definition of metaphor as a “comparison between two things that does not include the words ‘like’ or ‘as’” has, in the recent decades, lost the respect of serious students of language. Originating in Aristotelian thought, this “Comparison Theory” of metaphor is oversimplifying and therefore inadequate. By using examples to outline these inadequacies, a more accurate, more robust view of metaphor emerges. Far from being a mere literary flourish, the concept of metaphor—especially as metaphor is identified as the means through which symbols function—is at the very base of the general process of meaning conveyance through language.

In order …

Review Of Prison Noir, Eric K. Anderson

Bearing Witness: Joyce Carol Oates Studies

A review of an anthology edited by Joyce Carol Oates with reference to the editor's literary engagement with the prison system.

The Bad Boy: A Cultural Phenomenon, Writing Collective Ffc 100.12

e-Research: A Journal of Undergraduate Work

The bad boy is a cultural phenomenon that exists as an archetype in all sorts of artistic mediums, though most prevalently in literature and film, and even in the real world. The bad boy is defined through his actions and his philosophy of resistance - of challenging the world (ours or his own) on the normalcy of its convictions. This article explores the ways in which the bad boy manifests and the vast categories he may occupy - from hero to criminal, introvert to public performer, or sexual deviant to authoritarian dictator. The bad boy is many things: a liberator, …

Review Of Lovely, Dark, Deep, Eric K. Anderson

Bearing Witness: Joyce Carol Oates Studies

Review of Joyce Carol Oates’s book of short stories Lovely, Dark, Deep considering themes of tumultuous love affairs, Darwinian notion of survival of the fittest, and representations of writers.

Literature And Science In Nineteenth-Century Realist Novels: A Book Review Article About Ambrière's And Bender's Work, Anne-Marie Reboul

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

No abstract provided.

Utopian Literature From The Sixteenth Century To Present Day, Lisa Sikkink

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

Sir Thomas More’s Utopia, Lois Lowry’s The Giver, Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland, Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We, and George Orwell’s 1984 are all works of utopian literature. Although they were written during different time periods, the issues they explore are remarkably similar. My research project explores such ideas as literature, sex and reproduction, society, and family life in these utopian works in order to demonstrate these affinities.

Travel As A Ritual Toward Transformative Consciousness: Juxtaposing Che Guevara’S Biography And Teacher Candidates’ Narratives, Yishan Lea

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of Education and Professional Studies

This article discusses the development of critical consciousness by examining
the biographical-narratives in relationship to the experiential accounts on
travel. Biographical narratives are important cultural texts filled with history
and cultural nuances. The biography of Ernesto Che Guevara has resonated
with readers and viewers from around the world. By dreaming seemingly
impossible dreams and garnering triumph in the face of mounting obstacles,
Che has inspired the generations that have followed him. The life of Che,
which is a myth of idealism, has captivated the hearts of many around the
globe. This paper engages in the process of reading student narratives …

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

Journal of Interdisciplinary Feminist Thought

No abstract provided.

Facing The Wreck: Death, Optimism, And The Fragmented Form, Rachael Marie Schaffner

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Walter Benjamin described history as a winged angel who faces backwards, staring perpetually into the past as the violent winds of destiny carry him into the future (Illuminations). Despite a western, post-enlightenment myth of eternal progress, the wreckage of human contributions to history is clearly evident in our 21st-century understanding of anthropogenic impact on global ecology. In the context of these ecological crises (and the resulting political and economic questions), postmodern novels reveal a powerful ability to imagine different ways of living and interacting with the world. This thesis traces the relationship between fragmentation, death, and liminal experiences …

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.

Joining ``The Mathematician's Delirium To The Poet's Logic'': Mathematical Literature And Literary Mathematics, Rita Capezzi, Christine Kinsey

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

This paper describes our team-taught interdisciplinary mathematics and literature course, Mathematical Literature and Literary Mathematics, which invites students to consider Raymond Queneau's challenge: "Why shouldn't one demand a certain effort on the reader's part? Everything is always explained to him. He must eventually tire of being treated with such contempt.'' We study works by Berge, Borges, Calvino, Perec, Queneau, Robbe-Grillet and Stoppard, among others. From a literary critical perspective, the course highlights the play of language rather than the primacy of meaning. We choose texts where mathematical concepts are subjects or structuring elements of the literature, and ideally both. …

Ancres Invisibles, Jimia Boutouba

Modern Languages & Literature

Cet article se propose d’examiner la manière dont Invisibles (2011) de Nasser Djemaï confère une présence scénique aux vieux immigrés maghrébins qui ont toujours vécu à l’ombre des regards et des consciences. Présence spectrale, ils hantent de leur vieillesse les foyers, errent dans les cafés, se posent sur les bancs publics sans que personne ne les voie. En particulier, cet article examine la manière dont cette pièce inscrit en plein le risque de la perte de l’histoire, et la fantomisation de l’humain ; comment elle fait surgir un rapport nouveau à l’espace, à l’histoire et au présent, en mettant en …

Teaching Attentive Reading And Motivated Writing Through Digital Editing, Amanda A. Gailey

Department of English: Faculty Publications

Though English departments, including my own at the University of Nebraska, have been teaching digital humanities (DH) courses for over a decade, hyperbolic claims about the perils and promises of using computers in the study of literature continue to appear in the press. A piece in the Los Angeles Review of Books likens the algorithms used by some digital humanities methods to fascism (Marche). Another, in The Huffington Post, compares the rise of digital humanities to “our uncritical acceptance of drone attacks” (Mohamed). On the other hand, digital humanists such as Franco Moretti, who famously promote “distant reading” as opposed …

Espacios Femeninos En Posesas De La Habana: Un Caso De Llaves Desaparecidas, Olympia Gonzalez

Modern Languages and Literatures: Faculty Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.

Dissonant Divas In Chicana Music: The Limits Of La Onda By Deborah R. Vargaswild Tongues: Transnational Mexican Popular Culture By Rita E. Urquijo-Ruizperforming The Us Latina And Latino Borderlands Edited By Arturo J. Aldama, Chela Sandoval, And Peter J. García, Cathryn Josefina Merla-Watson

Literatures and Cultural Studies Faculty Publications

Despite the performative turn of the 1990s, a disjuncture has persisted between performance studies, though self-admittedly expansive and porous, and much of the scholarship produced around the diverse acts constituting Latina/o performance. The books reviewed here engage Latina/o performance on its own terms and terrains while reconceiving the limits of the archive as well as the subjects and substance of performance. Myriad works considered here further intervene in debates regarding critical regionalism and transnationalism within Chicana/o and Latina/o studies, as well as American studies, by embracing a hemispheric approach while also being attuned to the inflections of the local. Also …

The Ripple Effect: The Influence Of Don Quixote In Modern Artistic Mediums, Zack Newman

World Languages and Cultures

This paper focuses on the influence of Don Quixote in modern cinema, television, literature, and magazines. It explores the ground breaking episodic nature of the work which has continued on to television, comic books, and graphic novels today. The project demonstrates timeless tropes and motifs that have been used in Don Quixote, Greek mythology, 20th and 21st century cinema, and television programs. This document takes a specific look at the social commentary of women’s rights and the double standards that are displayed in this work that still exist today. And finally, it explores the similarities of military and religious criticism …

Results From The 2014 Ap French Language And Culture Exam, Brian G. Kennelly

World Languages and Cultures

No abstract provided.

Mission - To Incite Hunger: The Contemporary Singaporean Food Memoir, Donna Lee Brien

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

No abstract provided.

The Journey Back: Revisiting Childhood Trauma, Ruth Lipman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines the adult's endeavor to revisit childhood trauma in four sets of literary texts that are not typically studied together. These works, all published after 1968, address the central problem of revisiting childhood trauma in order to open a potential for mourning and sometimes for healing. I explore connections between individual/family trauma and collective/historical trauma. I argue that the use of objects and/or photographs is integral to the process of touching and representing the buried, embodied wounds of childhood, propelling the journeys and conveying the experience to the reader. Each pairing of literary works concerns a different kind …

“The Valley Of The Shadow Of Books”: George Gissing, New Women, And Morbid Literary Detachment, Marisa Palacios Knox

Literatures and Cultural Studies Faculty Publications

Victorian consternation about the physiological—especially reproductive—repercussions of women readers’ affective involvement with fiction is well documented. This essay contends, however, that at the fin de siècle a new cultural anxiety developed around the possibility of the woman who under-identifies, that is, refuses or is simply incapable of a stereotypically feminine standard of personal identification with literature. As the number of women entering vocational training as well as higher education increased exponentially in the late nineteenth century, the threat of women’s influx into the workplace expressed itself in a discourse of concern for the vitiation of women’s “natural” responsiveness to reading …

Roth’S Humorous Art Of Ghost Writing, Paule Levy

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Roth's Humorous Art of Ghost Writing" Paule Lévy analyses Philip Roth's Exit Ghost, the last novel featuring Nathan Zuckerman, in which Roth reassesses his favorite alter ego's itinerary while exploring the troubled relation between writing and aging. Lévy considers Exit Ghost as an ironic sequel to The Ghost Writer and posits that in the light of Derrida's theories of writing and "hauntology" the central motifs of ghosts and "spectrality" in the novel are a means for Roth to reflect anew on the ambiguous relation between autobiography and fiction. Lévy asks whether Exit Ghost should be …

Philip Roth, Henry Roth And The History Of The Jews, Timothy Parrish

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Philip Roth, Henry Roth and the History of the Jews" Timothy Parrish argues that while Roth's status as a Jewish American writer has been a pressing issue since his career began and that while in recent scholarship Roth's achievement as a US-American writer is stressed, the durability of Roth's work depends more on its implied submission to a Jewish tradition. From "The Conversion of the Jews" (1959) to Nemesis (2010), his characters challenge endlessly the ethical and moral constructs of their Jewish community to acknowledge the fact that they exist inside of it. One might choose any …

Don’T Bow Down, Andrew B. Gibbs

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Perpetuating African ancestral customs, Mardi Gras Indians in New Orleans avoid the African American identity crises illuminated by the poetry of the Harlem Renaissance. The poetry of Langston Hughes, Claude McKay and Waring Cuney incorporate W.E.B. DuBois’ double-consciousness theory to reveal the identity issues and ancestral alienation plaguing African Americans at the turn of the twentieth-century. In comparison, unique political and social circumstances in New Orleans allowed enslaved Africans to practice their ancestral customs weekly. The preservation of this heritage fostered a black community in New Orleans rich in traditions, pride and self-conviction. The development of Mardi Gras Indian culture …

The Succubus And The Suckers: The Soul-Siphoning Leeches In The Stories Of Modernist Text., Victoria Bonilla

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This paper explores the various relationships found in John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men," Tennessee Williams's "A Streetcar Named Desire," Franz Kafka's "The Metamorphosis," and F. Scott Fitzgerald's "Tender is the Night." The exploration of each demonstrates the common theme of parasitic relations and the toll this dynamic takes on the persons involved.

Horizons, Volume 29, Spring 2014, Sacred Heart University

Vistas (Horizons)

An interdisciplinary, multi-cultural journal celebrating the creativity of SHU students during the academic year 2013-2014.