Master of Arts in English
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Browsing Master of Arts in English by Subject "Autoethnography"
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Item Disabled Identities Revealed Through the Empiricism of a Quartet of Female Dramatis Personae: a Psycho-Social Autoethnographic Portrait(Southern New Hampshire University, 2022-11-11) Domenick, Anthony; Harrison, Marlen; Lee, Christopher; ChristopherDramatists have always built upon pure psychological foundations for character development. The intrinsic qualities associated with humanity impel subjective thoughts, insights, and interpretations on consciousness and introspection. There have been a plethora of protagonists and antagonists to illustrate this argument. In particular, the following four female personas exemplify motifs of affliction, dereliction and social ostracism: Annie Sullivan and Helen Keller from The Miracle Worker, Sarah Norman from Children of a Lesser God, and Laura Wingfield from The Glass Menagerie. These characters are detailed and contrasted through an autoethnographic perspective culminating in the universal theme of psychosocial survival. The cognitive processes, sensibilities, and visceral tendencies of these disabled female characters rouse exploration. Orphaned, blind, and institutionalized, Annie Sullivan overcame egregious cruelties through fervency for an education. With indefatigable exertion, her first job was teaching a deaf, blind, and mute Helen Keller, an exile from humanity, appropriate behavior and basic communication skills with the ultimate goal of language and its significance. The pedagogy process becomes a quagmire of violent tantrums and thwarted efforts. Analogously, Sarah Norman is also a defector from humanity. A version of a misanthrope, Sarah rejects the hearing world with its condescending nonconformity to the language, culture, and values of her world, the deaf world. Laura Wingfield also disengages humankind with a penchant for escapism tethered to an incandescent menagerie of unicorns. What is most intriguing about all four personas is the dramatist’s distillation of the human experience, in particular, their social and psychological adaptation and resignation as an affirmation of their inured reality.Item Healing the Educator through the Written Word(Southern New Hampshire University, 2024-01-01) LaVergne, Emily; Harrison, Marlen; Lee, Christopher“Healing the Educator Through the Written Word” centralizes on the lived experience of a female educator and how scriptotherapy, particularly Expressive Writing, offers benefits as relief from the stress of emotional labor. While Expressive Writing has been studied extensively as a writing tool for students, to date there is no intentional scholarship on Expressive Writing employed as a tool for educators as a daily practice. My work is to create a space for teachers to use writing to their advantage regularly: to reflect, to express, to remember, and to inspire. Helene Cixous’s theoretical concept of writing and Virginia Woolf's Angel in the House are utilized to center the experience of female educators and maximize therapeutic effects while maintaining a space for their marginalized voice. Through a blending of academic research and my own lived experience as an educator and writer, I both position Expressive Writing as a viable tool for the female educator’s daily use as effective relief of stressful symptoms and as a reflective practice for professional development and personal growth.Item Latina Voices, the Immigrant Experience and the Missing Stories in American Literature(Southern New Hampshire University, 2022-03-20) Camacho, Crista Cristella; Harrison, Marlen; Lee, ChristopherLatina/Chicana stories in American literature are important to understand contemporary America as a multicultural society. However, Chicana/Latina literature is not considered part of mainstream American literature. Previous papers regarding this topic have brought up challenges that Latina/Chicana literature confronted in the space of American literature. The absence of Latina/Chicana stories in American life has affected the development of immigrants and their children’s identity. This paper explores and suggests the importance of Latina/Chicana stories in America from the perspective of Chicana/Latina writers. Looking at the text through Feminist and Marxist lenses highlights the problems that ultimately marginalize Latina/Chicana writers. Their stories are rooted in economic and gender inequalities in America and in their countries of Origin/Heritage. The Autoethnography method provides the narrative of the author’s personal experience as a Latina/Chicana developing her identity as a guiding point to display the need of advancing the growth of multicultural American literature.Item Louisa May Alcott's Little Women and Me, her Reader(Southern New Hampshire University, 2023-05-16) Ainsworth, Michele; Harrison, Marlen; Lee, ChristopherAt the beginning of her book, Little Women, Louisa May Alcott presents Pilgrim’s Progress as a guidebook for living to the March sisters. In turn, Little Women itself allows the female reader to use Alcott’s text for their own journey to their feminist self. This paper illustrates how Alcott’s book, Little Women influences the develop of agency in its reader. Therefore, the 19th century female writer, Louisa May Alcott continues to have relevance and influence toward the 21st century woman, reflecting the link between feminist thought and literature. By using autoethnography within this paper I am using my own voice and my experiences to illustrate the discovery of how Little Women affected me and my role in society. This paper uses a combination of the theoretical frameworks of both feminism and the reader-response literary theories. The reader-response theory allows me to illustrate my own reactions to Alcott’s book and how I could look up to Jo March as a role model and her sisters as friends. The feminism lens illustrates how Alcott modeled aspiring writer Jo March as herself therefore illustrating how young women can reach their full potential despite how they perform their gender. This paper incorporates arts-based research (ABR) and the form of creating with collage to illustrate creating art provides the creator with the empowerment of agency.Item Queer Representation in Literature: Opening the Door to Self-Exploration and Identification with Tamsyn Muir(Southern New Hampshire University, 2023-07-12) Hurst, Kendra; Harrision, Marlen; Lee, ChristopherThis paper uses queer and feminist theory in conjunction with an autoethnographic approach to interrogate the interaction between literature, gender representation, the individual, and society through a reading of the works of fiction author Tamsyn Muir from the perspective of a gender-queer reader. We respond to previous research by scholars including Meredith Miller, Westbrook and Schiltz, and A. Šporčič, addressing representation in text, societal gender attribution, and the utility of science fiction as a genre in exploring the concept of gender. Through a textual analysis of specific themes, characters, and stylistic choices found in Muir’s work, we ultimately argue that representation of a wide variety of gender presentations, as well as aspirational literature that presents a post-queer, radically accepting society, can only work to support the free expression of all people.