Master of Arts in English
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Browsing Master of Arts in English by Author "Jackson, Jennie"
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Item Cross Temporal Analysis of Existentialist Authors Dostoevsky, Kafka, Camus, and Ellison Relative to the Divergence Between Their Disenfranchised and Non-Marginalized Characters(Southern New Hampshire University, 2021-03-03) Beal, Sherri Guffey; Jackson, Jennie; Lee, ChristopherThrough their works, existentialist authors such as Fyodor Dostoevsky, Albert Camus, Franz Kafka, and Ralph Ellison endorsed groundbreaking beliefs which advanced the limits of intellectualism. Traits such as alienation, nihilism, absurdism, and authenticity seeped into the plotlines of their novels. Through the literary lens of New Historicism, a cross-temporal examination will be performed on several of their works. It will explore their intentional minimization of certain characters and how their storyline conclusions were deliberately written as ambiguous in order to bring their plights to the foreground. The authors purposely othered characters in order to make their story heard. These four authors created characters whose shared existential transformations and profound life experiences paralleled or were painfully close to their own. Through their protagonists and supporting characters, Dostoevsky, Camus, Kafka, and Ellison utilized a type of rhetorical chronotope to convey a message about the negative effects of hegemonic exploitation due to race, gender, or economic circumstances. In addition, the writing of nineteenth century Dostoevsky and early twentieth century Kafka influenced the later writings of Camus and Ellison. Although these authors were trying to impart this message to their own respective audiences throughout a time-span of almost one hundred years, they were all essentially conveying a tragically similar message. It is a message that still needs to be heard today, as has become overwhelmingly apparent.Item Destabilizing Gender Binaries and Ideologies: The Progression of Gender and Queer Studies Through Twentieth Century Literature(Southern New Hampshire University, 2021-04-02) Cole, Nakida LeeAnn; Jackson, Jennie; Lee, Christopher; ChristopherToday, when you pick up a new novel, it hardly comes as a surprise when you are introduced to characters who defy gender binaries and ideologies that have been in place for hundreds of years. This has not always been the case. During the 1900s, there seemed to be a shift in the creation of literature, the intent of literature, and the way that literature was analyzed in terms of gender and sexuality; ample research has been done in the field of gender and queer studies, allowing new perspectives to form and new information to be shared. And while the different genders and sexuality preferences have been voiced in various ways, literature has been an exceptional outlet to share this knowledge, especially during the twentieth century. The addition of queer studies that emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s has provided a new perspective not only on feminist aspects presented in literature but also on how gender identity and sexual preferences are portrayed in literature, giving a voice to those who have been silenced for far too long. During the twentieth century, authors such as Virginia Woolf, James Baldwin, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Jeanette Winterson pushed the boundaries of gender ideologies, effectively using the strength of their own voices to upset the oppressive nature of gender binaries. The unsettling of these binaries in twentieth-century literature has created a long-standing platform for others to speak their own truth.Item The Effects of Socioeconomic Status on Women Writers: Past and Present(Southern New Hampshire University, 2021-03-01) Yu, Michelle; Jackson, Jennie; Lee, ChristopherSince the beginning of recorded history, women have often been relegated to the roles of wife and mother. As such, the workforce has been largely a male-dominated arena; exceptions given for occupations that men viewed as too feminine, such as nurses and educators. Despite many women having had equal abilities to their male counterparts, professional writing was generally reserved for men. Looking back through the ages of British literature, one thing is glaringly obvious; women who were set on having writing as a career were prepared to assert themselves against the patriarchal views of society. Despite their assertion of their abilities and worthiness, there were— and continue to be— outside factors that would determine the success of female writers in England from the nineteenth century all the way through to the modern era. This thesis aims to show how these outside factors, specifically gender and socioeconomic status, have affected women writers throughout multiple centuries. It is not enough to study only the literary works of these prominent female writers, but this thesis also considers the circumstances of their personal lives as well. While there have been many studies of the lives and works of British female authors, there have been few that consider the effects of gender and socioeconomic status, while also spanning centuries to include women writers from vastly different societies. By applying both the feminist and Marxist lenses of literary criticism to the lives and works of Mary Wollstonecraft, Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, Virginia Woolf, and J.K. Rowling, this thesis asserts that while women’s socioeconomic status may have an effect on their becoming a successful, published author, it is not the only determining factor. All of these women were born at different times in British history, under different reigning royal families, within different social classes, and with different hardships to be faced— yet they still have all become wildly successful in their own rights.Item Where There Is Heroism There Is Hope(Southern New Hampshire University, 2021-03-01) Schmidt, Emily; Jackson, Jennie; Lee, ChristopherDystopian fiction, in many ways, reflects a broken, modern society that craves individuality, aches for purpose, longs for unity, and yearns for a sign of relief when there seems to be no hope in sight. With an ever changing, all consuming, life sucking, obsession with media today, coupled with the loss of individuality in a world that tries too desperately to sell the idea of uniformity for the common good, dystopian texts present an interesting perspective of the human existence. This paper seeks to add to the ongoing discourse on the human existence within the world of literature, which includes a close examination of several examples of dystopian fiction that demonstrate opposition toward modern reliance on consumer capitalism, criticizes mass manipulation through oppressive media propaganda, and calls for a response to an instinctive obligation for renewal of the human existence. George Orwell’s 1984, Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, and Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games reveal an unsettling, yet realistic and unfiltered view of the human existence with a modernistic response that attempts to restore peace and balance to the human experience through the audacious actions of an antihero. Central to this examination are the fears and anxieties exposed in dystopian fiction that ask readers to consider life’s purpose, showing that without the ability to think and act freely, humanity is doomed to a life that is void of individuality without needed social change.