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- Creators: Department of English
- Member of: Theses and Dissertations
Description
A collection of poems concentrating on 15 small moments, tied together to explore the ardor, tensions, and fragility a relationship. Conceptions of language, teeth, domesticated dogs, and a car accident recur throughout the manuscript as a means of navigating this narrative and of questioning the role of memory in our lives.
ContributorsOpich, Sophie Aurelia (Author) / Ball, Sally (Thesis director) / Dubie Jr., Norman (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
This thesis explores how the characterization of mentally ill characters evolves in literature within the United States in order to understand if and how modern notions of mental illness have impacted American writers’ fictional depictions of insanity. For this reason, this project compares and contrasts American fiction from the 19th century and 21st century. More specifically, the thesis explores the two centuries to trace evolutions in the use of gothic tropes, the progression of the theme of identity, relevant paratexts, and public conversations about fictional mental illness in modern texts—all of which send specific messages about mental health and impact the ways in which the reader understands the characters with mental illness. Ultimately, this thesis argues that the evolved use of tropes, the theme of identity, paratexts, and public conversations suggest there has been a shift from othering characters with mental illness towards accepting these characters and normalizing mental illness as an ordinary and familiar part of the human experience. In short, an increased understanding of mental health accompanies literary choices that create a more sympathetic representation of mental illness overall, even when fiction writers might still rely heavily on 19th-century tropes regarding madness.
ContributorsHagerman, Rachel L (Author) / Soares, Rebecca (Thesis director) / Murphy, Patricia C. (Committee member) / Department of English (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-12
Description
The writing of the Medieval period has been influential for centuries yet is often simplified by caricatures of the brave knight and lovely damsel. Especially in terms of gender, this period in western history is particularly strict and binary. However, through unique authors such as Marie de France, a rare female writer of the period, we can see complex, yet subtle, presentations of difference that may be unexpected to some readers. Within the lays of Marie de France, I aim to analyze the feminized male figures of Lanval, Guigemar and Bisclavret as models of gender difference using a lens of modern gender theory, specifically the ideas of theorists such as Judith Butler and R.W. Connell. These male figures of demonstrate deviations from the standard medieval masculinity through androgyny and hyper-masculinity in ways unique for the period. The conventions of the Western medieval culture are then subverted by the supernatural, making the lays lasting examples of gender expression. Using modern theory, we can take a step back from previous historical periods and try to better understand the society and culture of that time and place. By examining these male figures of difference and medieval standards of masculinity of a context long past we can see how to grow and progress further in the modern day. Gender can be understood as a social construct even centuries ago, exemplified by the unique figures of difference presented by such authors as Marie de France. Keeping that in mind, we can reanalyze literature in innovative ways and continue to seek new understandings of gender and masculinity.
ContributorsHoran, Christina Cassidy (Author) / Newhauser, Richard G. (Thesis director) / Soares, Rebecca (Committee member) / Department of English (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
In my Honors Thesis, I endeavor to complicate and to respond to conventional debates over historical periodization and the problem of what it means to be "modern." I understand the modern as a conceptual product of discourses surrounding religion, science, and industry. Specifically, the modern era has been defined as one in which the forms of rationalization associated with quantitative and experimental scientific methods and large-scale, technologically sophisticated industrial production have surpassed the "irrational" superstitions associated with religion. Critical responses to this definition have largely had the goal of supplanting it with another way of conceiving of the historical discontinuity between the "modern" and the "non-modern." In three essays, I aim to complicate the terms (religion, science, and industry) in which these debates have been conducted and to relate them to one another both historically and conceptually. As opposed to the goal of re-defining the modern, my goal in these essays is to complicate the existing definitions and to reveal and challenge the ideological motives of historical periodization. I illuminate the connections of the modern conception of "religion" to a colonial system of power, between scientific development and changes in economic and religious thinking, and between contemporary technological and industrial projects to an "enchanted" view of the world. In tracing these connections, I am indebted to conventional discourses of modernization, Max Weber's theory of "disenchantment," and recent scholarship on the use of materialist methods in the study of history. In these essays, I move beyond the critical project of "re-imagining" the modern, and illuminate some of the ideological commitments of that project that I consider untenable. In addition to a more sophisticated historical understanding of the meaning of religion, science, and industry, what I aim to achieve in my thesis is a better framing of some of the largest problems faced by contemporary humanity, including the looming risks of ecological, economic, and geopolitical collapse. In this framing, I situate these risks in the context of their connection to strategies of historical periodization, and argue that managing them will require a radically new view of religion, science, industry, and the roles that they play in producing historical discontinuity.
ContributorsNeibergall, William (Author) / Bennett, Gaymon (Thesis director) / Suk, Mina (Committee member) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
For this project, I use qualitative textual analysis to compare the differences and/or similarities between (1) how the former residents of Tempe’s historic San Pablo barrio (1872-1955) conveyed their sense of place, meaning, and displacement in oral and written histories and (2) how Tempe’s Anglo residents at the time of San Pablo’s occupation and dissolution conveyed their sense of the place, meaning, and displacement of San Pablo in newspaper articles. I have located my investigation of any perceived or lacking disparities between how these two groups perceived San Pablo’s place and meaning within the context of San Pablo’s dissolution and the displacement of its residents in the mid 1950s. As I follow the process through which some communities are able to suppress, take over, and erase others from dominant narratives and political decisions without any perceived consequences, I will bring to the foreground the emotional impact of place and displacement in order to highlight how the former residents of ‘erased’ communities make sense of and respond to their displacement.
ContributorsRoberson, Jessica Bridges (Author) / Michelaki, Konstantina-Eleni (Thesis director) / Toon, Richard (Committee member) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor) / School of Social Transformation (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
This paper examines how fictional depictions of animals affect real-world human perception and attitudes towards conservation. Through examining several distinct categories of fictional animal portrayal (animals in roles of leading protagonists and antagonists,
anthropomorphized animals, human characters who are associated with animals, animal
symbolism and motifs, and depictions of nature as a whole unified entity), the specific mechanisms which cause a portrayal to have a greater or weaker impact on real-world perceptions are identified, as well as the motives behind these mechanisms and how they are used to both aid and harm animal conservation outlooks.
ContributorsLurito, Bryan (Author) / Barca, Lisa (Thesis director) / Meloy, Elizabeth (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
Tiered Seas is a first draft of a young adult novel. It is set in a fantasy world and uses worldbuilding and character development as the primary vehicles of the story. The story follows Edric as he travels across the seas to save his home at the urging of the dragon Mallen, and largely focuses on the relationship between these two characters.
ContributorsCraig, Katrina (Author) / Irish, Jennifer (Thesis director) / Knaresboro, Tarah (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
The Phoenician language was an ancient language spoken by the Phoenicians in modern day Lebanon. The goal of this project is to research the language, looking at the alphabet, inspecting sounds of how the language was spoken (phonology/morphology), as well as the languages structure (grammar, word order, syntax). As well as adding onto the history of the language, the people, culture, and what made the language ultimately die out.
ContributorsHaddad, Yasmine (Author) / Lopez-Villegas, Cristian (Thesis director) / Pruitt, Kathryn (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Division of Teacher Preparation (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
The objective of this project is to determine whether a finite-element model can predict the threshold temperatures at which mechanical failure will occur in perovskite-silicon tandem modules. No such computational thermomechanical analysis has been performed on perovskite-silicon tandem modules. Previous literature has demonstrated the effectiveness of finite element methods in predicting cracking of perovskites under bending loads and for characterizing the thermomechanical behavior of solar photovoltaic devices. This work computationally synthesizes these two research areas to determine design criteria for mechanically robust next-generation tandem photovoltaic devices and modules.
ContributorsMachbitz, David (Author) / Rolston, Nicholas (Thesis director) / Ladani, Leila (Committee member) / Murthy, Raghavendra (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
The History of the Future is a film series presented by ASU’s Center for Science and the Imagination in partnership with Majestic Neighborhood Cinema Grill Tempe. Once a month in the fall and spring seasons, Majestic Theater screens a retro sci-fi film I have selected that is set in the future and invites audience members to relive the nostalgia of seeing the movie in theaters all while applying its lessons to today’s future. For each film screening, I choose a guest speaker to introduce the movie and prime the audience to think of the film as just one imagination of the future. The project furthers CSI’s mission to connect with our community’s imaginations that can enact change for our collective future.
ContributorsHakkal, Devan (Author) / Wylie, Ruth (Thesis director) / Beard, Bob (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor)
Created2024-05