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Writing-about-writing and Joan Didion: creating a space for emotion as epistemic tool in first-year composition
(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2018) Christen, Julie Ann; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Kathleen Ryan
This project considers the problem of the cultural binary created between emotion and reasoning as ways of knowing. I address this binary within the context of first-year composition (FYC) by developing three central tenets for emotion as epistemic tool through a review of emotion scholarship in rhetoric and composition. These include: 1) emotions must be specific and nameable; 2) emotion challenges cultural assumptions and beliefs; and 3) we use the connection between emotion and experience as a method of inquiry. Having established these tenets, I situate emotion as epistemic tool in a writing-about-writing (WAW) approach to FYC and argue that this pedagogy is an effective site for emotion as epistemic tool, though it lacks concrete examples for how this works in writing. To address that, I suggest Joan Didion's memoirs as an access point for students to see emotion working as epistemic tool outside academic writing. Finally, I connect these agendas in a curriculum design for a WAW course in FYC on emotion as epistemic tool that includes a course schedule, assignment sheets, and unit rationales.
Bitter business and spoken daggers: George Peele's senecanism and the origins of William Shakespeare's ethos of revenge in 'Titus Andronicus'
(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2017) Lynch, Jeff Raymond; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Gretchen E. Minton
For nearly three centuries, scholars and critics have argued that Titus Andronicus, Shakespeare's earliest revenge tragedy, lacks for thematic and characterological consistency and dramaturgical merit. Many have suggested that Titus was not written by Shakespeare--or not written by him alone. In 2002, British scholar Brian Vickers presented a comprehensive study of the authorship of the play, concluding that Titus was co-written by Shakespeare and his early modern contemporary George Peele. Critical literary scholarship has not caught up with Vickers's settlement of the authorship question and there exists a lacuna in the analysis of the play, namely, for my purposes, how do the disparately authored scenes reflect sourcing influences and intratextual character development regarding revenge as a literary descendant of classical drama and as an ethical enterprise of moral agents. Shakespeare's subsequent treatments of the ethical dimensions of vengeance, as both a public and private manifestation of the quest for justice and a psychological response to injury, spawn from the complex tropology in Titus--both those he assumed from Peele and those he introduced into the text himself. A study of the moral philosophy espoused in the joint composition of Titus affords the opportunity for a deeper understanding of how early modern playwrights addressed the desire for revenge as a psychological and moral activity and how the jointly composed play launched Shakespeare's subsequent negotiation with the revenge tragedy genre and the ethos of revenge in his later revenge tragedies.
Wards of state: complicating agency and identity for youth in foster care as portrayed in young adult literature
(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2017) Stephens, Shauna Mae; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Robert Petrone
Young adult literature has become popular amongst a wider audience, and accordingly has developed significant influence on youth and adults alike. Because of this, it is important for scholars and educators to critically consider what messages the literature is passing on to and about adolescents. Texts that feature youth in foster care break from the tradition in some important ways, giving greater influence and visibility to the institutional authorities that operate in the lives of youth. Critically examining these texts allows insight into the messages inherent in the literature about adolescent agency and authority, and the way such messages reinforce the cultural construct around youth in general, and foster youth specifically. This project begins with an examination of the theoretical background around the cultural construct of youth, the critical merit of young adult literature, and the institutional authorities at work in both. Then, these ideas are applied to the critical textual analysis of four recent, popular young adult novels that feature youth in foster care. Looking across the text set from this position demonstrates the power of the institutions over individual agency. Additionally, the web of authority created by the muddying of any defining lines within and between institutions and the lack of stability in their lives makes coming to any single sense of self nearly impossible. At the end of each text, the only option they have to find any stability is to give up their agency and submit to the institutions that operate in their lives. The analysis shows that the literature that is available fails to show the complicated life of foster youth for what it is, instead reinforcing the stereotypes while continuing to support the status quo. Studies like this one may be able to help break from the tradition and allow for a more critical reading of young adult literature, giving agency back to the very youth targeted by the texts.
We're not much to look at: resisting representations of rurality using a critical rural perspective
(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2017) Behrens, Allison Nicole; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Robert Petrone
Addressing the challenges and silences faced by rural schools and students is a matter of social justice, making rural issues a valid and needed topic for classroom study. This project addresses the minimal curricular presence of contemporary rural literary representations in the secondary English classroom. It investigates rural depictions in several Young Adult (YA) novels which reveal the persistent presence of stereotypical depictions of rural people and places. Because of the presence of these stereotypes, this project offers an analysis tool for engaging with rural texts called the Critical Rural Perspective. This paper also examines some possible benefits of using rural YA literature in the classroom. When contemporary rural YA novels are read in the classroom, students can transfer their understanding of the discursive construction of rurality seen in textual representations to the ways that language is used to create what it means to be rural. By becoming aware of the construction of rural identity, students can analyze, resist, and manipulate the single story of rurality which can set the stage for a more nuanced societal understanding of rural people.
Spiral stairways : towards defining a romantic map of identity
(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2004) Genito, Virginia Lee; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Marvin D. L. Lansverk
The purpose of this paper is to define, interpret, and account for elements of a “Romantic map of identity” as set forth by Plotinus and adapted by Samuel Taylor Coleridge and others in the Neoplatonic Romantic tradition. The methodology explores interrelationships between the map’s components by defining the terms: (1) “Romantic,” (2) “map,” and (3) “identity,” drawing on the Christian Neoplatonic tradition of the early British Romantics, the Romantic transcendentalists of New England, and the related terms and concepts developed by C. G. Jung. Romantic characteristics are organized into four cardinal points: (1) a focus on concepts and representation of the whole self, (2) a transcendent vision of the emanation and fall of the soul from its source, (3) a sense of the mission to facilitate the soul’s return through unity, and (4) an emphasis on the creative, self-expressive individual in his or her personal environment and historical context. To explore the meaning of “identity,” Plotinus’s and Coleridge’s versions of the stages of identity development are outlined and compared in detail. This method demonstrates how synthesizing the four essentials with the Romantic mapping process generates a worldview, articulated by Coleridge, that echoes the Plotinian schema of the origin and creation of consciousness. This includes the theory that self-consciousness develops in stages through the circular process of the descent from the Source (through emanation) and the return (through soul evolution) within a larger macrocosmic context. These stages of development are schematized as a hierarchy, or the Great Chain of Being, and a holarchy, or inherent analogies between inner and outer experience. This approach generates an identity-mapping model that combines hierarchical and holarchical patterns, accounting for various mapping processes in the Neoplatonic Romantic tradition. This model is egg-like with layers, the ovoid “sliced” into “horizontal” sections, which synthesizes the “flat” hierarchical ladder design with the concentric spheres of a holarchy. This paper concludes that mapping the Romantic scheme of identity is important and relevant today; for an individual can rise no higher than his or her self-conception, and a culture can evolve no further than its most enlightened and self-realized individuals.
On the English classroom as discourse community : an inclusive pedagogy
(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2004) Sherrill, Perri Wilson; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Kimberly Myers
Our use of language provides us with a means to negotiate our interactions with the world. For many new college students, learning the language necessary to participate in academic discourse is a barrier to success. The idea presented in this thesis of an inclusive pedagogy primarily bridges the gap between the discourse used in academic situations and the various discourses students bring with them to academy. Since identity cannot and should not be erased from students’ studies and work, we must conceive of ways to break down the binary opposition between students’ academic and nonacademic identities. Simply stated, teachers can include all students by inviting them to examine the experiences upon which their prior knowledge is built, thus helping them see their experience as a path to transformation and new learning. A struggle for a diverse group of learners, brought together in an English course not by common interest but by the need to fill a university requirement, is to find a common language in which each individual member of the group can thrive. So, an initial lack of shared knowledge is an obstacle to the kind of inclusive pedagogy I advocate. Classroom communities of introductory courses have the potential to engage students in the shared purposes, understandings, interests, and language of particular disciplines. Therefore, I propose introducing students to the characteristics of different discourse communities and sharing the expectations of the particular discourse inherent in a given discipline—English in this case. Demystifying the concepts of discourse and discourse communities, by reading, writing, and speaking about them, will help students understand more about the knowledge we all already have as language users and thus begin to bring together the different ways of knowing they practice.
The eternal return : The Shipping News and the consideration of faith
(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2002) Jaten, Melissa Anna
Critical Literature Pedagogy
(2014-08) Borsheim-Black, Carlin; Macaluso, Michael; Petrone, Robert
Of memory and muses : the wellsprings of creativity
(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2013) Cook, Alissa Michelle; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Michael Sexson
The nine mythological Muses have been defined as representations of poetic form and as external sources for the origins of stories. They have been condemned by scholars as passive feminine supporters of a patriarchal system, and they have been accused of providing a misleading explanation as to the origins of inspiration by suggesting that creativity is externally based. However, if the Muses are understood as representations of human creative processes, then their story becomes the story of all other stories as they come into being. Through an exploration of the Muses' foundational mythology and their many forms throughout the generations, there is evidence that problematizes any simplistic or one-dimensional understanding of the Muses. Much of their meaning is embedded through implications (absences) and seems to function through the intricate relationship between the artist and the muse, a relationship that has been called a possession. An understanding of the Muse incorporates the interconnectedness that exists within the individual and between bodies of knowledge, as well as the unpredictability, uncertainty, and changeability of the very knowledge and inspiration offered by the nine goddesses.
The nature of cursing : efficacy, femininity and revenge in Shakespeare's curses
(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2013) Bitz, Amanda Rose Echeverria; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Gretchen E. Minton
Curses are present in many of Shakespeare's texts, specifically his first tetralogy and tragic plays. In an effort to elucidate the various effects they have on the plays in which they occur, I apply J.L. Austin's speech act theory to curses, in conjunction with fostering a cultural understanding of the beliefs surrounding curses in the early modern period. The role of curses differs based on the genre of the play in which they are uttered, so this thesis is divided into a chapter on the histories, namely Shakespeare's first tetralogy, and a chapter containing analysis of three tragedies: Titus Andronicus, King Lear, and Timon of Athens.The efficacy of curses varies with their position against Austin's performative and constative speech acts, and they frequently embody characteristics of both. Curses in Shakespearean plays are nearly always feminized and function as a tool for vengeance by marginalized characters, which serve to represent and reinforce the beliefs of the time surrounding curses.

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