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This project examines different modes of cultural production from the postcolonial Anglophone world to identify how marginal populations have either been subjugated or empowered by various forms of consumerism. Four case studies specifically follow the flow of products, resources, and labor either in the colonies or London. In doing so,

This project examines different modes of cultural production from the postcolonial Anglophone world to identify how marginal populations have either been subjugated or empowered by various forms of consumerism. Four case studies specifically follow the flow of products, resources, and labor either in the colonies or London. In doing so, these investigations reveal how neocolonial systems both radiate from old imperial centers and occupy postcolonial countries. Using this method corroborates contemporary postcolonial theory positing that modern “Empire” is now amorphous and stateless rather than constrained to the metropole and colony. The temporal progression of each chapter traces how commodification and resource exploitation has evolved from colonial to contemporary periods. Each section of this study consequently considers geography and time to show how consumer culture grew via imperialism, yet also supported and challenged the progression of colonial conquest. Accordingly, as empire and consumerism have transformed alongside each other, so too have the tools that marginal groups use to fight against economic and cultural subjugation. Novels remain as one traditional format – and consumer product – that can resist the effects of colonization. Other contemporary postcolonial artists, however, use different forms of media to subvert or challenge modes of neocolonial oppression. Texts such as screenplays, low-budget films, memoirs, fashion subcultures, music videos, and advertisements illuminate how postcolonial groups represent themselves. Altogether, these various cultural productions illuminate how marginalized populations have used consumer products and practices to disrupt global economies that continue to profit from the commodification, appropriation, or subjugation of minority populations.
ContributorsTerneus, José Sebastián (Author) / Mallot, Dr. J. Edward (Thesis advisor) / Bebout, Dr. Lee (Committee member) / Castle, Dr. Gregory (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
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Description

This paper explores the intersection of female madness and Gothic space in four pieces of Gothic media: Jane Eyre written By Charlotte Brontë, "The Yellow Wallpaper" written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Carrie (1976) directed by Brian De Palma, and Midsommar (2016) directed by Ari Aster. In these texts, female characters

This paper explores the intersection of female madness and Gothic space in four pieces of Gothic media: Jane Eyre written By Charlotte Brontë, "The Yellow Wallpaper" written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Carrie (1976) directed by Brian De Palma, and Midsommar (2016) directed by Ari Aster. In these texts, female characters find themselves driven “mad,” either by their own design or from outside influences. While the madness presents itself differently in each text, they all share common elements, especially in terms of Gothic space. Each text sees its madwoman affected by the environment around them whether it is explicitly stated in-text or not. Gothic space acts as both a metanarrative on the characters’ lives and emotions, and as literal, physical spaces that the characters inhabit and interact with. Oftentimes, what the character cannot express is told through the environment around her. Feelings of suffocation, misery, entrapment, and repression are represented in and through haunted homes, quasi-asylums, closets, schools, attics, and sun-lit fields. In analyzing all four texts individually and in relation to one another, this paper also argues for the presence of a paradox inherent in the cultural formation of female madness. In each text, all written/created across 200+ years, a common theme emerges. Though the expression of madness for the women in each text is a freeing and liberating experience, they also meet tragic and often violent ends. The madness exhibited in each text is both a response to and an expression of trauma - resulting in either victimization or villainization for the women who succumb to it. The end result depicts women who have been physically, mentally, and emotionally destroyed from their own madness. In freeing themselves, they unknowingly and unintentionally subject themselves to further pain and misery.

ContributorsBoyle, Molly Anne (Author) / Justice, George (Thesis director) / Sandler, Kevin (Committee member) / Department of English (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-05
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Description
Online communities have created such an outpouring of new media that academia has not had the time to catch up. Creepypasta is a genre of online horror short story that began in the early 2000’s on the forums 4chan and Something Awful. In the twenty-two years since its inception, the

Online communities have created such an outpouring of new media that academia has not had the time to catch up. Creepypasta is a genre of online horror short story that began in the early 2000’s on the forums 4chan and Something Awful. In the twenty-two years since its inception, the academic discourse around it has sprouted but not flourished. Creepypasta as a genre is perhaps one of the newest and least understood offshoots of horror and the gothic. Thus far there have been no full-bodied attempts at defining the genre or looking at the works as a whole, instead there is only focus on the parts. This thesis will be attempting to define the genre and will undertake this by first analyzing the components that define the genre, its origins, claims to authenticity, and publishing routes, as well as the folkloric connections which have been the focus of the majority of the literature thus far. This will move into an analysis of a single example of the form, Accounts from a Lonely Broadcast Station, to demonstrate the application of the definition of the genre, but also to show the wide breadth of potential of this genre in being analyzed academically.
ContributorsRamirez, Makayla (Author) / Justice, George (Thesis advisor) / Zarka, Emily (Committee member) / Baldini, Cajsa (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
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Description
This project seeks to probe into an unexplored horizon of young adult literature studies: the empowering potential of Young Adult Fantasy (YAF) with queer Latinx representation for queer Latinx youth. The two theoretical frameworks of analysis used in this project are: Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop’s concept of “Mirrors, Windows, and

This project seeks to probe into an unexplored horizon of young adult literature studies: the empowering potential of Young Adult Fantasy (YAF) with queer Latinx representation for queer Latinx youth. The two theoretical frameworks of analysis used in this project are: Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop’s concept of “Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors” (1990) and Gloria E. Anzaldúa’s “Conocimiento” individuation journey.
ContributorsMartinez, Nora Grace (Author) / Justice, George (Thesis director) / Blasingame, James (Committee member) / Bebout, Lee (Committee member) / School of Human Evolution & Social Change (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-12
Description
This dissertation looks at two works of nineteenth-century British fiction that are considered outliers: Sir Walter Scott's Saint Ronan's Well (1824) and George Eliot's "The Lifted Veil" (1859). Saint Ronan's Well, a work of domestic fiction, has long been described as unusual for Scott because it is unlike his signature

This dissertation looks at two works of nineteenth-century British fiction that are considered outliers: Sir Walter Scott's Saint Ronan's Well (1824) and George Eliot's "The Lifted Veil" (1859). Saint Ronan's Well, a work of domestic fiction, has long been described as unusual for Scott because it is unlike his signature historical novels. "The Lifted Veil,” a Gothic novella, is generally understood as different in kind from Eliot’s realist and social problem fiction. I describe both texts as outliers because they have been described as atypical (in the case of Eliot) or less worthy of study (in the case of Scott) by scholars, for myriad reasons. My work uses both computational methods and tools and traditional literary close readings to test and assess these outlier works. I use stylometry, a computational tool that reads and compares texts to determine authorship attribution, to determine if both texts are indeed outliers for these authors. In addition, I use stylometric methods to analyze claims made by initial reviewers and contemporary critics about comparative authors and genres for Saint Ronan's Well and "The Lifted Veil." I examine statistical or stylistic evidence to test whether those long-standing claims of literary difference are supported with computational evidence. Each chapter consists of a series of stylometric tests that are analyzed in conjunction with close readings of text. The dissertation reaches three conclusions, based on the results of stylometric tests described across its four chapters. First, I find that, although Saint Ronan's Well is written in a unique subgenre for Scott, it is statistically and stylistically similar to his other novels. Second, I argue that "The Lifted Veil" is both an outlier for Eliot and an outlier among canonical work of the period in general, as indicated by the results of several stylometric tests. Finally, I argue that focusing on literary outliers is a necessary and productive step forward for traditional and computational literary studies. Focusing on texts that are literary and statistical outliers shows how computational and traditional literary methods can blend together to test the extent of generalizable knowledge in literary studies, especially with nineteenth-century British fiction.
ContributorsCaddy, Scott Allen (Author) / Looser, Devoney (Thesis advisor) / Justice, George (Committee member) / Mann, Annika (Committee member) / Simeone, Michael (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021