RSS 1.0English electronic theses and dissertations (MU)
The items in this collection are the theses and dissertations written by students of the Department of English. Some items may be viewed only by members of the University of Missouri System and/or University of Missouri-Columbia. Click on one of the browse buttons above for a complete listing of the works.
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Recent Submissions
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The wise avenue
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2022)My dissertation's creative portion is a short story cycle constructed around two organizing principles: a place and a protagonist group. The cycle's setting is Dundalk, Maryland, a predominately white, working-class suburb. ... -
The ties that bind
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2022)[EMBARGOED UNTIL 8/1/2023] Inspired by Alexander Chee's recent How to Write an Autobiographical Novel, a memoir-in-essays, "The Ties that Bind" is lyric, personal, and a coming-of-age collection of nonfiction. In "Swimming ... -
Gender, power, madness: the narrative possibilities of hereditary mental illness in Louisa May Alcott's sensation fiction
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2022)While she was better known for her career as a writer of children's fiction, Louisa May Alcott published sensational stories of drugs, madness, and revenge both anonymously and under the pseudonym A.M. Barnard. Since this ... -
Linguistics peculiarities of contemporary feline narrative
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2022)The focus of this work is linguistic peculiarities of a feline point of view in textual narratives. Non-human/animalistic narration is barely studied, if it all, in Russian scientific discourse. In western linguonarratology ... -
Spatial politics and genre in the 21st century Arabic novel in English
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2022)This dissertation is a study of four 21st century Arabic novels translated to English, each of which narrates a regionally specific process of state-sanctioned property theft. I argue that the authors of these novels use ... -
The freedoms of B. Kumasi
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2021)I have long been concerned with what the United States of America owes its citizens. My mind is preoccupied with identifying gaps between the violent disparities endured by Black and marginalized communities and the rhetoric ... -
"Futures possible": reading for realism in contemporary literary genre fiction
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2022)[EMBARGOED UNTIL 6/1/2023] This thesis reads three contemporary novels, Colson Whitehead's Zone One, Thomas Pynchon's Inherent Vice, and Lydia Millet's Mermaids in Paradise in relation to literary realism. What is so novel ... -
Rites of leaving
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2022)[EMBARGOED UNTIL 5/31/2023] The school of Stoic philosophy traces its roots back to 300 B.C.E and thrived until the 4th century C.E, when it fell into decline and was ultimately assimilated into other systems of philosophy. ... -
The conditions
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2022)[EMBARGOED UNTIL 5/31/2023] The critical introduction to this dissertation examines Jericho Brown's 2019 Pulitzer Prize winning collection The Tradition as a work of eco-justice poetry. In this essay, I argue that the ... -
The graduate student novel: a new subgenre in university fiction
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2022)This study examines novels with graduate student protagonists, referred to as graduate student novels or grad novels, and argues that such novels should be considered distinct from others about university experiences. It ... -
From the body to language: life and mind in literature and film from the Modernist Era to the present
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2022)My dissertation focuses on the ways in which twentieth-century literature intersects with theories of living systems and biosemiotics, the biological capacity for meaning making. My critical readings highlight the process ... -
Beyond the trauma hero: the discourse of American war fiction from the Global War on Terror
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2022)The recent US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, the last major theatre of war for post 9/11 veterans, marks a turning point for the United States. This new period of relative warlessness allows the nation to reflect on ... -
Untangling the knot: the theory generation, irony, and neoliberalism
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2022)Significant typological work has been done in cataloging forms of life, literature, and culture in the alleged aftermath of the epoch of postmodernism, but recent critical works invite deeper considerations of the political ... -
Climate crisis: an exploration of climate fiction, magical realism, and intersectional trauma
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2022)The genre of climate fiction has never been more relevant than in the current age. With climate change affecting all parts of life from rising seas to food supply, it is more important than ever that authors find a way to ... -
The anxiety of authorship among women fantasy writers
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2022)This thesis applies Gilbert's and Gubar's feminist theory evident in The Madwoman in the Attic to the male-dominated, gender biased fantasy genre that works to support and embolden evidence of an existing "anxiety of ... -
Refrain
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2021)Refrain is set in 1950s Larissa, TX, where the disappearance of four local girls catapults the town into crisis, forcing them to confront their complicity and disregard for Native American life. Told from multiple points ... -
Social networks of friendship in the writings of early medieval english women
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2021)Communities of women is a topic in Early Medieval English Studies that has largely been overlooked unless it's researched and discussed in the context of men, marriage, and religion. One obstacle that has prevented scholarship ... -
Beautiful phantoms British literature, political economy, and biopolitics from 1780-1855
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2021)This dissertation explores the literary engagement with economics from 1780-1855. These years are critical to the development of both the novel and the discipline of political economy. This dissertation builds on previous ... -
The first inch of a saguaro
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2021)The First Inch of a Saguaro follows three Mexican American teenagers after their father, Luis, is arrested for a drug-related murder in an Arizona border town. During Luis' trial, fourteenyear-old Javier takes to leaving ... -
"The back-and-forth form" : epistolarity in late medieval literature
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2020)The project explores medieval epistolarity as a medium and genre. I examine the body of rhetorical theory that described the purpose and form of the letter, the ars dictaminis. I apply contemporary media theory to medieval ...