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Item Representations of American Identity and Political Expression in Popular Soccer Discourse(2023-05-20) Bennett, ChristopherThis thesis addresses the question of how American soccer identity is represented in popular discourse, in order to better understand the intersection of mediated sports, culture, and marketplace conflict. Grant Wahl’s archived digital publications for Sports Illustrated and best selling books The Beckham Experiment and Masters of Modern Soccer were rhetorically analyzed to identify explicit and implicit argumentative language in popular soccer conversations. Sut Jhally's theories of the commodification of sports are employed to understand how argumentative language functions to construct American identity in soccer spaces. This research finds that popular discourse produces, circulates, and consumes "American" as a negative brand in soccer, often associating it with hubris and incompetence and masking larger economic inequities.Item Naming matters : 'Anglo-Saxon' from Hengist and Horsa to Charlotte the WASP Princess.(Wheaton College. (Norton, Mass.), 2021-05-16) Robertson, Johnese MarieIn 2019, medievalist and scholar, Mary Rambaran-Olm, delivered a very public resignation from her position as second vice president of The International Society of Anglo-Saxonist due to the society’s refusal to change its name. This triggered a larger conversation about the use of the term “Anglo-Saxon.” Not only has “Anglo-Saxon” been used incorrectly, but recently it has been adopted by white supremacists that have incited violence and racism behind their use of the term. This thesis examines the origins of “Anglo-Saxon” up until the 20th century through the term W.A.S.P. (White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant) as well as the origins of Anglo-Saxon studies within the English Curriculum. I also discuss the controversy surrounding the name change in 2019 which leads me to discussing why naming matters with a term like “Anglo-Saxon,” specifically in a field that has a history of being alienating towards Black and POC scholars.Item When Death is the Maiden: Art, Literature, and the English Female Ghost, 1860 to 1911.(Wheaton College. (Norton, Mass.), 2021-05-16) Mustoe, CalaisThis honors thesis analyzes the relationship between the literary female ghost and art culture from 1860 to 1911. I expand on previous research regarding the feminist potential of ghosts, as well as research on how visual and artistic representations of dead women in the nineteenth century reflected the period’s male fantasies and constituted an assertion of male domination in the face of women’s socio-political gains in England. By exploring three distinct ghost stories, each containing female ghosts that correspond to specific art movements, I argue that the female ghost evoked patriarchal artistic tropes concerning dead women. They also ultimately challenged the aestheticization and fetishization of inert female forms so as to question or critique broader cultural constructions of women during the long nineteenth century.Item Narrating the burn : The emergence of a political voice for Zimbabwean women in the novels of Tsitsi Dangarembga and Yvonne Vera.(Wheaton College (MA), 2019) Salois, HollyIn this thesis, I explore three novels by Tsitsi Dangarembga and three novels by Yvonne Vera in order to interrogate how they have decided to narrate black Zimbabwean women and give them an emerging political voice in the midst of this oppressive society. Ultimately, I argue that Dangarembga and Vera expose the systemic forces acting upon black Zimbabwean women through making the novel form their own. These two women novelists had to navigate an overwhelmingly masculine literary sphere as they experimented with the best ways to narrate the disruptions and violence that black Zimbabwean women faced before, during, and after the war for liberation.Item Women, Mothers, and Feminine Power in Beowulf.(Wheaton College (MA)., 2020-05-10) Cahill, AbigailThis thesis discusses women, mothers, and feminine power in Beowulf. It draws a parallel and foil between Hildeburh and Brimwylf (also called Grendel’s Mother). This foil is solved through examination of power wielded by women within the world of Beowulf and Anglo-Saxon culture. Feminine power is diplomatic and masculine power is violent. Power and gender roles of Beowulf are connected and important to understand the poem fully.