High school is bad enough with cliques, coursework, and the impending threat of college – now some old evil is coming to Solomon Starek High School (SSH for short). It’s up to transfer student Ella, older than time and unthinkably powerful, to stop it. Ella’s certainly up to the task, but the world’s changed since the last time she was in it. Society has merged magic with science, and Ella’s not sure she’s up for that. Can her new classmates help her stop what’s coming, or will they fall short? This excerpt tracks Ella’s first days at school, and sets the stage for the chaos to come.

This thesis argues that Spenser's handling of character, situation, and theme throughout The Shepheardes Calender corresponds to the traditional significant of the planetary and zodiacal governors of the twelve eclogues. The introductory chapter outlines some fundamental principles of the two astrological traditions relevant to the present study, traditions that I have loosely called Ptolemaic or "scientific" and Neoplatonic, and explains that the lack of horoscopal information about the characters constitutes no serious barrier to my approach. To avoid the repetition that would result from organizing the study around zodiacal zodiacal signs, i have used a planet-by-planet approach. Chapter I analyses Colin Clout's past achievements and his present predicament in terms of two distinct but related conceptions of Saturn and melancholy: its main argument is that Colin's early accomplishments align him with a benevolent Saturn and with what Yates calls inspired melancholy (based ultimately on the "Aristotelian" Physical Problems XXX), the early Venus leads him in a contrary direction, and the frustration of this Venerean impulse makes him a victim of the malevolent Saturn of popular asrology. Chapter II argues that in "Februarie", ruled by Jupiter, a mean between Saturn and Venus, the confict between the malevolent Saturn and the earthly Venus reappears in the debate between a Saturnian Thenot and a Venerean Cuddie, and that since all figures in the debate and the tale are "failed Jupiters",the conflict ends in a deadlock aptly corresponding to the fact that the fish in Pisces move in the opposite direction, but within the same element, and are bound by a common cord. In "November", however, Dido is a true Jovial figure, and the Jovial aspect of the eclogue's context temporarily dispels Colin's Saturnian gloom and cooperate with the benevolent Saturn to lift Colin's mind "above the starry skie", a movement appropriate to the significations of the centaur-figure Saggitarius. Chapter III shows that Spencer accommodates Mars in his Calender: by parodic reduction on "March" and by evoking Mars in "October" to point beyond the pastoral to his projected epic. The Venus inherited by the Renaissance represents a vast range of ideas about love and beauty, from the basest carnality through to the principles of cosmic harmony and the most mystical expressions of love for God. Chapter IV discusses the correspondence between several of these significations and the eclogues for Venus' two signs, Taurus ("April") and Libra ("September")" in addition to discussing Golin's misadventure in love, this chapter demonstrates "April's" suitability for a celebration of the encomiastic poet; discusses the manifestations of Venus that are in harmony with the benevolent Saturn; examines Eliza's role as a Venus figure presiding over an idyllic natural, political, and poetic environment in contrast to to the iron age of the framing dialogue; and shows that although the world Diggon describes in "September" is the antithesis of that depicted in the "April" ode, Roffyn in actuality, and Hobbinoll and Diggon in potentiality, represent the forces (seen as another Saturn- Venus combination) that can effectively reconstruct the world in imitation of the peace, harmony, justice, mercy, friendship and liberality of the "April" ode. Chapter V examines Mercurial motifs in "Maye" and "August": the stress in "Maye's" debate on the duties and responsibilities of the clergy, particularly with respect: to worldly wealth and to preaching ability and'debating skills, is suitable to Mercury's rulership, as is the emphasis on 'fraud, deceit, and wealth in Piers' tale; Mercury's gift of verbal skill and dexterity is manifested in both the roundelay and the sestina in "August". Since the sun signifies things spiritual, while the moon is an age-old symbol of material mutability, "Julye" appropriately deals with ecclesiastical matters and "June" with secular; the two eclogues are complementary discussions of the moral and practical problems for the poet and priest of prominence or aspiration. Chapter VI shows that Spenser handles the themes of prominence and aspiration in ways suitable to the celestial governors of these eclogues: the sun and Leo are consistently associated with the ambitious or pre-eminent and with the perils and temptations besetting them, so "Julye's" debate covers these subjects and provides a 'catalogue of notable men; the most wellknown properties of the moon and Cancer (e.g., the moon's inconstancy and its shining by borrowed light and the sun's reversal of direction in Cancer) do not augur well for any ambitious impulse, so in "June" neither speaker is ambitious and Colin provides a bewildering series of rationalizations to justify his loss of aspiration. The concluding chapter suggests some possibilities for further study. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Whore Foods is a poetry thesis exploring the life of a cashier at an organic grocery store. To be the cashier is to be exposed. To be a femme gay body in public is to become heterosexual. A community can be formed through isolation. Cashiers and customers made individuals through capitalism form collectives. Through pleasure, through community, the work seeks to gather.

THEOPHANIES MAY 2021 SARAH ALI, B.A., UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA CRUZ M.F.A., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Ocean Vuong A collection of poems.

Kentucky, following in the footsteps of her parent state, Virginia, has given to America some of her most distinguished statesmen. She gave to the Confederacy its only president, Jefferson Davis, and to the Federal Union its war president, Abraham Lincoln. Housed in a noble pile of imperishable granite, on its exact original site, near Hodgenville, the humble log cabin in which Lincoln was born is now preserved as a national shrine. At Fairview a towering obelisk marks the birthplace of Jefferson Davis. These two statesmen were born, one year between them, of the same pioneering stock. One moved north of the slavery line; the other went southward into the heart of the slave country. Thereafter their lives ran by contrasting, instead of by parallel, lines. But in temperament and in sentiment both remained forever Kentuckians at heart. [Cobb. Kentucky, p. 40] In the field of literature Kentucky has not been so outstanding, but far too little is known of the writers whom she has produced. In the field of descriptive narrative perhaps no more representative writer has sprung from Kentucky soil than the one chosen for this study. James Lane Allen has done for Kentucky, or rather a particular section of Kentucky, what Thomas Nelson Page has done for Virginia and George W. Cable for Louisiana. More than any other author he has made the Bluegrass region of Kentucky both known to his countrymen and Europeans. “Both in rendering incomparably the prodigal beauty of his homeland and in portraying the vanished types of antebellum days, Mr. Allen is a rare artist.” [International Encyclopedia]

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Sexuality in the early novels of Robert Penn Warren is generally not appealing, intimate, or indicative of love between partners, in part due to the seeming coldness of the female characters and the near-asexuality of the males. However, when both social and personal interactions between the characters are analyzed semiotically according to the theories of Julia Kristeva, a pattern emerges which explains the harshness of the bond between men and women.

This dissertation uses theories of cognitive conceptual integration (as outlined by Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner) to propose a model of narrative reading that mediates between narratology and theories of reception. I use this model to demonstrate how new experimental narratives achieve a potent balance between a determinate and open story-form. Where the high postmodernists of the 1970s and 80s created ironic, undecidable story-worlds, the novels considered here allow readers to embrace seemingly opposite propositions without retreating into ironic suspension, trading the postmodernist “neither/nor” for a new “both/and.” This technique demands significant revision of both descriptions of radical experimentation in twenty-first-century novels, and of earlier narratological accounts of the distinction between story and discourse. Each novel considered in this dissertation encourages its reader to recognize combined concepts in the course of the reading process. Shelley Jackson’s Half Life combines singular and plural identity, reimagining individualist subjectivity and the literary treatment of (dis)ability. Mark Z. Danielewski’s Only Revolutions combines objective and subjective temporality, offering a new perspective on American myth-making in the popular post-Kerouac road-novel tradition. Percival Everett’s Erasure combines reliable and unreliable narration to create a complex critique of the idea of an African American novel tradition. M.D. Coverley’s hypertext novel Califia involves the reader in all three of these discursive dimensions at once, updating the marginalized art of hypertext fiction by inviting the reader to see his or her role in navigating the text as both creative and determined—the epitome of open-and-closed form. My analysis demonstrates how cognitive blending is a precise method for describing how a reader interprets complex narrative structures. I propose this blending-model as a new approach to contemporary experimental fiction from the perspective of the reader’s cognitive work, and show how it offers new readings of important contemporary fiction. I argue that twenty-first-century authors attempt simultaneously to construct “open” forms, and to address real socio-cultural concerns in the world; I also argue that a narratology founded on theories of cognitive processes is best-equipped to describe the operations of reading and understanding these complex narrative forms.

<p>This dissertation considers the<em> use –</em> both the function and the value – of history in nine contemporary Canadian historical novels: Steven Heighton's <em>Afterlands </em>(2005), Don Gillmor's <em>Kanata</em> (2009), Rudy Wiebe's <em>A Discovery of Strangers </em>(1995), Fred Stenson's <em>The Trade </em>(2000), Michael Crummey's <em>River Thieves </em>(2003), Lawrence Hill's <em>The Book of Negroes </em>(2007), Merilyn Simonds's <em>The Holding </em>(2005), Aimée Laberge's <em>Where the River Narrows</em> (2004) and Jane Urquhart's <em>A Map of Glass </em>(2006). It asks what responsibilities authors of historical novels hold to the past and to readers in the present. It argues for making a distinction between irresponsible and responsible historical fiction, a separation marked not by the strict adherence to “fact,” but rather by the acknowledgement of the continued effect of past actions and relationships on the present, specifically the present configuration of the nation called Canada. I also characterize responsible historical fiction as committed to the notion of “truth-to-meaning” and requiring an engaged and active reader.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>This thesis explores the intersection of storytelling and spirituality in contemporary Native literature in Canada. The invocation of the oral tradition and its history will be examined in the works of Eden Robinson, Joseph Boyden, and Harry Robinson, as each author attempts to orient his or her narratives within a First Nations framework. By gesturing towards orality in their written literature, these authors acknowledge the dialogic nature of a narrative that has been shaped by ancestral experiences and memory and thus write against the colonial master narrative of the contemporary Canadian nation-state. In Joseph Boyden's <em>Through Black Spruce</em>, Eden Robinson's <em>Monkey Beach</em>, and the transcribed collections of Harry Robinson's stories, the invocation of orality becomes the vehicle through which to explore Indigenous ways of knowing and traditional spiritual beliefs. This thesis first considers the ways in which the mode of storytelling allows each author to create a new narrative that introduces readers to an Indigenous perspective on the processes of history. It then examines the evolution of specific spiritual beings from traditional narratives into contemporary settings as a way to explore neocolonial attitudes and the compromised contexts of modern Indigenous life in communities across Canada that continue to be haunted by a legacy of colonialism. I end with an exploration of the potential for healing that each author envisions as communities move into a decolonization process through the regeneration of tribal languages, a reconnection to sacred space, and a reimagining of the Canadian master narrative and its colonial interpretation of history.</p> / Master of English