Hood College Department of English and Communication Arts
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Item "Only a Demon in Her Shape": A Queer Positive Reading of Bram Stoker's Dracula(2024) Kayla Swain; Dr. Mitchell-Buck, Heather; Dr. Knapp, Elizabeth; Dr. Pincikowski, Scott; Hood College English and Communication Arts; Hood College Departmental HonorsSince Dracula embodies a lot of Queer stereotypes from the time and multiple members of Stoker’s band of heroes show signs of being closeted, many scholars have taken to reading Stoker’s heroes’ rejection of Dracula as a rejection of their Queer identities. The problem with such readings is that they tend to emphasis the groups’ acts of Queer shame without acknowledging the fact that they come to find love and acceptance among one another and so, resolve their fears, insecurities, and the self-hatred they feel as a result of being a Queer person living in late nineteenth century England. By acknowledging neither the acceptance the group receives from one another nor the resolution of their Queer shame, those who read Stoker’s horror novel through a Queer lens have repeatedly reached the conclusion that Dracula is symbolic of and or intended to represent Stoker’s heroes’ Queer desires and sentiment. All the while, another interpretation, one that acknowledges the groups’ acceptance of their Queer identities and paints Dracula as a symbol of the negative, monstrous image of the “homosexual” that tormented the Queer community in the aftermath of the 1885 Amendment and Oscar Wilde trials, has gone mostly unexplored and ignored. And that interpretation is what this paper explores.Item Digital Ministry: An analysis of social media use in local Christian youth ministries(2024-04-25) Weinel, Braden; Goldenbach, Alan; Hood College Department of English and Communication Arts; Hood College Departmental Honors ProgramItem Migrant Motherhood: The Impact of How Literature Frames Depression-Era Women(2024-04) Emily Webb; Dr. Amy Gottfried; Hood College Department of English and Communication Arts; Hood College Departmental HonorsItem The Role of Prophecy and Destiny in Young Adult Literature through the Lens of the Tiger's Curse Series(2024-04-23) Sell, Rachel; Mitchell-Buck, Heather; Department of English and Communication Arts; Hood College Departmental HonorsYoung adult literature is transformative and helpful for adolescent readers during a pivotal time in their lives, and the use of prophecy enhances literature's ability to impact readers' attitudes and emotions about themselves and their challenges. The Tiger's Curse series provides young readers with a character who navigates similar developmental challenges and reaches her full potential as she follows the tasks outlined in an ancient prophecy. The series artfully combines prophecy with romance, a search for purpose and self-potential, and forming connections and relationships, which mirrors young readers’ realities to imbibe the sense that we are all destined to achieve something; this sentiment is a welcome and necessary message to youth who are tasked with finding themselves and their role in life.Item Let Me Go: A Novella(2024-04-22) Madison Gerow; Dr. Amy Gottfried; Dr. Janis Judson; Dr. Heather Mitchell-Buck; Hood College Department of English and Communication Arts; Hood College Departmental HonorsItem Queen Gertrude in Theory: The Construction of Hamlet’s Mother in Criticism and Film(2016-05) Murphy, Taylor; Sandona, Mark; Hood College English and Communication Arts; Hood College Departmental HonorsShakespeare’s Queen Gertrude has one of the smallest central roles in Hamlet’s tragedy. However, despite her notable physical absence, Hamlet and Claudius spend much time in the play ruminating on their respective relationships with the queen. Gertrude’s absence in the play extends to literary criticism on Hamlet: her character is the least developed of Hamlet characters in literary criticism, especially in early literary criticism. The lack of attention Gertrude receives in this area begs the question, why? What is it about her character that makes her unworthy of analysis? Early critics tend to reduce Gertrude to the comments Hamlet makes about her and, while recent critics look at Gertrude’s personal words and actions, they still create readings of her that are rooted in the role she has with these male characters. Perhaps it is this role as a mother and queen that makes literary critics view Gertrude in a one-dimensional way, but Shakespeare’s ambiguities could also be the cause.Item Some Voices We Remember: A Collection of Poems(2018-04-23) Polito, Taylor A.; Angello, Aaron; Hood College English and Communication Arts; Hood College Departmental HonorsThe collective reality we live in each day is crafted by the unique experiences of each individual, the perceived appropriate responses to these experiences, and whether one is willing to challenge the perception of what is acceptable of this reality we share. Poetry creates necessary dissonance between the unique experience and the collective reality. Through my research, I have fine tuned my ability to distinguish modern poetic works that create friction between the perceived reality and the individual reality effectively from modern poetic works that serve separate purposes. Several texts I have looked at over the course of my research revolve around themes of identity, race, sexuality, and what it means to be a modern American challenging a difficult sociopolitical climate. The most effective works I read tend to relay political messages through the exploration of personal experiences using deconstruction and reconstruction of poetic form.Item The Brightest Fell: Renaissance Variations of the Fall of Lucifer in Marlovian and Shakespearean Drama(2017-04) Samuels, Logan; Sandona, Mark; Hood College English and Communication Arts; Hood College Departmental HonorsPerhaps the greatest struggle for triumph through usurpation, which resulted in immense failure and an eternity of punishment, is the tale of Lucifer, the infamous challenger of God and his kingdom of heaven. Ambitious for power, Lucifer’s attempt to steal God’s throne ends in his banishment from heaven, and a drastic fall from God’s grace into the depths of hell. “The Fall of Lucifer” is a familiar tale with mysterious origins, which many people, regardless of their religious beliefs and upbringing are familiar with. Lucifer’s fall has been showcased in literature and film, and has been the basis for the creation of the underworld. From Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy to John Milton’s Paradise Lost, Lucifer is a recognizable face and a key player in conjuring up most images and interpretations of hell. Lucifer’s fall has been retold time and again, whether it be for the purposes of entertainment or as a serious warning to those who threaten to stray from their dutiful place, yearning to wield more power than to which they are accustomed. The fall incorporates a variety of morals and lessons which caution against the dangers of jealousy, pride, ambition and reaching beyond who we are meant to be and what we are tasked to do. This project will explore the roots of the fall of Lucifer in its medieval play form and examine its progression and reimagined vision for the Renaissance stage.Item The Jane Austen Movie Club: An Analysis of Modern Jane Austen Film Adaptations(2017-05) Blaser, Eleanor; Orloff, Katherine; Hood College English and Communication Arts; Hood College Departmental HonorsWhen the first epic motion picture, The Birth of a Nation, was released in 1915, Jane Austen had been dead for almost one hundred years, and the quaint stories of her regency girls trying to find husbands seemed to be far from most filmmakers minds. Austen wouldn’t make her way to the big screen for another twenty-five years, with Robert Z. Leonard’s 1940 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, and her characters wouldn’t make it into the modern world for much longer. Yet in the last couple of decades, Austen has gone through a resurgence in the world of film, thanks in no small part to one particular genre: the modern movie adaptation. The last twenty years have seen Jane Austen characters all over the world – from the streets of Beverly Hills to the beaches in India – reimagined and rewritten to work in the modern day. While some of these adaptations have been more successful than others, they ultimately help to illuminate her genius, and show both her great foresight and her ability to construct timeless characters and plots. Modern adaptations of Jane Austen have all helped to prove that the stories of Austen do not grow old with time, and that her universality as a writer still shines through just as brightly almost two hundred years after her death.Item “The Reservation of My Mind”: Changes in Sherman Alexie’s Post 9/11 Literature(2015-12) Pietrzak, Sara; Gottfried, Amy; Hood College English and Communication Arts; Hood College Departmental HonorsSherman Alexie is a complicated author to write about and to discuss for a multitude of reasons. He is a living poet and author who is active on social media, accomplished in several art forms, political, and at times polarizing. A member of the Spokane/Coeur d'Alene tribe, Alexie was raised on the Spokane Indian reservation in Wellpinit, Washington, and now resides in Seattle, Washington. He is a Native American author who, at times, alternately embraces and rejects the idea of what a writer’s ethnicity means in terms of opportunity and responsibility. Often, these views are in opposition to one another. His works, while not directly autobiographical, feature details from his very public life history, sometimes making obvious connections between himself and his characters, seemingly begging readers to connect the dots. While small biographical details are not the focus of this research, they do help to support ideas of how larger autobiographical themes translate into his literature, particularly how the events surrounding September 11th, 2001 affected Alexie’s writing.Item Love Thy Ideal Neighbor: Permitted and Forbidden Relationships in Utopian Fiction(2018-04) Barrientos, Miranda; Mitchell-Buck, Heather; Hood College English and Communication Arts; Hood College Departmental HonorsWriting a story that takes place in a fictional setting requires the author to do at least a little bit of worldbuilding—that is, creating a fictional world. Aside from names of places, such a story needs to convey how the fictional culture has influenced its characters. While some readers find it satisfying to know through the text that the author has put thought into the story's world at large, other readers do not notice this unless there is a crucial piece missing. If the story draws attention to the characters' eating habits, for instance, then readers will notice whether the author explains how the people in the fictional setting get their food. Creating a utopia in a story is a form of worldbuilding; what distinguishes utopian writing from other worldbuilding is its message about how the written society functions compared with the author's native society: what works, what falls short of the ideal, and what risks are in its near future.Item The Evolution of Women in Bollywood Films(2023-04-24) Ramcharran, Jessica; Orloff, Katherine; English and Communication Arts; Hood College Departmental HonorsItem An Analysis of the Impact of Social Media on Student-Athlete Mental Health(2023-04-24) Armstrong, Hannah; Goldenbach, Alan; English and Communication Arts; Hood College Departmental HonorsDiscussion surrounding mental health has become increasingly relevant and made its way to the forefront of conversations in recent years. On top of this, the emergence of a devastating global pandemic and a transition into a what may be deemed a “new normal” has certainly complicated the lives of many, especially young adults. In addition, prevalence and widespread use of social media has become increasingly common. The research in this paper seeks to discover how social media usage impacts collegiate student-athletes' mental health by analyzing the social media habits of these student-athletes.Item Empowering Female Characters in The Lord of the Rings and their Transition from Book to Film(2023-04-24) Wilson, Madelyn; Dodman, Trevor; Mitchell-Buck, Heather; Huard, Mallory; English and Communication Arts; Hood College Departmental HonorsItem Hera: A Novella(2023-04-20) Young, Dorian; Gottfried, Amy; English and Communication Arts; Hood College Departmental HonorsHera: A Novella tells the story of a human girl who has grown up in the Elven kingdom of Seren. Dark forces of the wasteland the Hadrianus are revealed and hidden powers uncovered after a heartbreaking betrayal and the discovery of a lost home and family. Does Hera have what it takes to confront her past while also forging her future?Item Perpetuating or Rejecting: The Use of Stereotypical Images in Sherman Alexie's Fiction(2023-04) Canzoneri, Rachel; Gottfried, Amy; Hood College Department of English and Communication Arts; Departmental HonorsThis paper explores the use of four central stereotypes of Indigenous Peoples — the “classic warrior”, the “living anachronism”, the “innately spiritual”, and finally the “barfly” — throughout the fiction of Sherman Alexie, while maintaining that Alexie simultaneously perpetuates and rejects these stereotypical images and ideals throughout his work.Item Callisto(2023-04-22) Lechowicz, Emily; Hood College English and Communication Arts; Hood College Departmental HonorsThis new adult story combines aspects of mythology, space, and fantasy.Item Glorification, Degradation, and Restoration: Variations of Penthesilea, Queen of the Amazons(2017-04) Baldwin, Samantha; Sandona, Mark; Hood College English and Communication Arts; Hood College Departmental HonorsThe Amazons have been a topic of discussion among classicists, artists, archaeologists, historians, and literary scholars for centuries. To this day, books are still being published that question whether the tribe of warrior women truly existed in ancient times1. In antiquity, references to the Amazons could be commonly found both in literature and art, most famous being the Parthenon's western metopes, which portray an Amazonomachy. Due to their perceived warlike nature, many of the ancient accounts and images of the Amazons revolve around battles; the most recognizable battle with the Amazons is a tale from the Trojan War. During the Trojan War, Queen Penthesilea lent her strength and the strength of her Amazonian army to Troy. While in battle, Penthesilea faces the legendary warrior Achilles, and she falls. Upon removing her helmet, Achilles is said to have fallen in love with the Amazon queen and laments her death (Arctinus). Though Homer never writes about the battle between Penthesilea and Achilles, a selection of other authors and vase painters of the time decided to approach the tale (e.g. fig. 1). It becomes clear that the story of the queen of the Amazons was widely known in both Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome.Item Frances Burney’s Cecilia, or Memoirs of an Heiress and Eighteenth-Century Britain(2016-05) Cook, Alexandra; Amt, Emilie; Hood College English and Communication Arts, and History; Hood College Departmental HonorsIn 1782 Frances Burney published her second novel, Cecilia, or Memoirs of an Heiress. Burney tended to write satirical social commentary, and Cecilia is no different. Inheritance, marriage and insanity are among the central topics covered in the novel in addition to numerous minor plots and themes. Through a combination of her observations of the society around her, as well as her personal experiences, Burney creates a fictional tale that portrays the ups and downs an heiress in Cecilia’s position might experience. In the novel, Burney demonstrates the detrimental effects that male authority could have on women through her depiction of Cecilia’s controlling guardians as well as through the patriarchal structure of society as a whole. Cecilia, or Memoirs of an Heiress is the story of the titular heroine who is bound by her uncle, the Dean’s, condition in his will: in order to receive her inheritance from her deceased uncle, Cecilia must marry a man who will take her last name, Beverley, in place of his own. As she is still underage, she is placed under the guardianship of three men: Mr. Harrel, Mr. Briggs, and Mr. Delvile. Cecilia and her third guardian’s son, Mortimer Delvile, fall in love over the course of the novel. However, the condition in her uncle’s will poses a problem to their relationship since Mortimer’s family would never accept the name change from Delvile to Beverley. Cecilia and Mortimer resort to a secret marriage in order to be together. Following the wedding, Cecilia experiences an episode of insanity as a result of extreme stress and anxiety. She eventually recovers and lives with Mortimer and his family in contentment, but the shadow that Burney casts on their happiness is ever present.Item The Women in Ink: A study of Women in Mainstream Modern Comic Books(2016) Berkowitz, Carly; Atwood, Elizabeth; Hood College English and Communication Arts; Hood College Departmental Honors