Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2018, English

In this dissertation, I draw on folkloristics, feminist and queer scholarship, and narrative theory to propose an interdisciplinary understanding of the Gothic literary aesthetic that hinges on its folkloric debt, particularly its debt to faerie legends and fairy tales. I am interested in how folk narrative intertexts are used in nineteenth-century British literature to produce what we know as “the Gothic.” Notoriously difficult to define precisely, scholars have long settled for linking the Gothic to particular plots and motifs—in contrast, I argue that it is largely the connecting of a text to an unsettling, unexplainable folk past that produces the aesthetic/mode/feel that we now refer to as Gothic. It is no coincidence that the nineteenth-century rise of interest in folklore study and collection corresponds almost exactly to the creation of the first Gothic texts. The thoughtful use of folk narrative—so frequently the voice of the marginalized and forgotten—allows for an engagement with both history and the unknown, a questioning and subversion of constructed societal expectations (particularly with regard to gender and sexuality), and a probing of the deepest, darkest complexities of our selves.

Committee: Clare Simmons (Advisor); Ray Cashman (Advisor); Merrill Kaplan (Committee Member); Jill Galvan (Committee Member) Subjects: British and Irish Literature; Folklore; Gender; Gender Studies; Literature; Womens Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, English

This project functions as an examination of the folkloristic question of the generic category of the “fake”, “fictitious”, or “invented” legend. Using The Blair Witch Project (1999) motion picture as an example text, case study, and vehicle for this exploration, this project engages with historical folkloristic discourses of authenticity, extant taxonomies of legendry and legend performance contexts, and the novel category of the “folkloresque” system of folkloric popular culture allusion. These domains are examined in order to reimagine an allegedly “fake” legend complex (the marketing campaign surrounding The Blair Witch Project's initial premiere) as nevertheless engaged in certain critical contexts of folkloresque legend performance – namely, process and participation. These contexts, this project ultimately argues, serve in part as public platforms through which the generic boundaries of “fake” legend texts (like The Blair Witch Project) are generically reinforced or renegotiated by emic interlocutors through a pronounced reliance on commensurately folkloric rhetoric, performances, and other processes.

Committee: Merrill Kaplan (Advisor); Amy Shuman (Committee Member); Elizabeth Hewitt (Committee Member); Dorothy Noyes (Committee Member) Subjects: American Studies; Film Studies; Folklore; Literature

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2023, English

The makers of commercial popular culture often incorporate folklore into their works. Although their definition of folklore is generally restricted to pre-modern narratives and beliefs that form only a small part of what folklore is, their works relate to traditional content in a more expansive way. This dissertation examines a contemporary television genre that not only incorporates traditional content but, I argue, functions as folklore in its own right by negotiating truth and belief, constructing social Others, and, at the meta-level, constituting an archive. Since the 1990s, serial narratives in which everyday people investigate and solve supernatural disturbances in a procedural format have become a mainstay of North American television and streaming media. Such programs, including The X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, have generally lacked a cohesive genre designation. I argue for “supernatural procedural” as the genre's preferred term and trace its history from predecessors in Victorian-era occult detective fiction to early forms in 1970s television, through solidification in the 1990s into its current permutations. I outline conventions that include, among others, realistic worldbuilding, a blend of episodic and serial storytelling, and, notably, a tendency to engage with folklore. Employing an approach blending folkloristics and popular culture studies, I argue that specific characteristics of the supernatural procedural allow series to function as televisual folklore: folklore not just adapted by, but actually occurring within the television medium. This emphasis contributes to newer avenues in folklore studies, which has only recently begun seriously analyzing television, and popular culture studies, where folkloristic perspectives are often overlooked. This work considers the abovementioned series at length alongside subsequent programs like Supernatural and Grimm, using supporting analysis from Lucifer, Evil, SurrealEstate, and Wellington Pa (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Dorothy Noyes (Advisor); Angus Fletcher (Committee Member); Merrill Kaplan (Committee Member); Jared Gardner (Advisor) Subjects: Film Studies; Folklore; Mass Media

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 1940, English

Committee: Rea McCain (Advisor) Subjects: Literature

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2021, Arts and Sciences: Germanic Languages and Literature

In his 2015 production Faust I+II, Robert Wilson fuses elements of Postdramatic theater with German classicism. In the post-Brechtian world of theater, Wilson is able to bring together elements of absolute theater, the grand operas of the nineteenth century, and the tradition of epic theater in one production. As a leading figure in the world of Postdramatic theater, Robert Wilson's work throughout the twentieth century has made a significant impact. His Faust I+II highlights his signature design aesthetic and incorporates elements of contemporary Western culture to create a unique version of Goethe's Faust I and Faust II. This dissertation discusses two main topics: 1) Robert Wilson's chronological development in the world of Postdramatic theater and 2) the literary-historical development of the Faust legend. The project culminates in an in-depth discussion and close reading of Wilson's Faust I+II.

Committee: Evan Torner Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Todd Herzog (Committee Member); Walter Erhart Ph.D. (Committee Member); Carol Anne Costabile-Heming Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Germanic Literature

Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, Youngstown State University, 2018, Northeast Ohio Master of Fine Arts (Creative Writing)

This collection, and subsequent beginning of a novel, roots itself in the speculation and depths of when humans confront death in unique ways. Each story ruminates of the wonderment of loneliness, death, and family through each story. The collection starts in a town that has no graveyard, and ends in a similar place where local legends become real. Place and class struggles underscore each story. The characters in the collection interact with ghosts, robots, and, ultimately, their inner selves. A mix of horror, elements of fantasy, and sci-fi bind these stories together with high and low notes of optimism and grief, but always tonally dark at the edges.

Committee: Christopher Barzak MFA (Advisor); Imad Rahman MFA (Committee Member); Eric Wasserman MFA (Committee Member) Subjects: Literature

Master of Music (MM), Bowling Green State University, 2015, Music History

In 1986, Nintendo released a role-playing game in America known as The Legend of Zelda, which has since become a world-wide gaming sensation. A unique game element to the series is the use of musical instruments and in 1998, the Nintendo game makers brought the musical material to the forefront in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. For the first time in The Legend of Zelda series, players were required to remember short tunes in order to complete the game. The memory and skill of the main character, and thus the player, expands over the course of the game, resulting in the use of the ocarina to travel forward in time to save the world. In 2002, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker was released, with the main character acquiring a baton to conduct musical works for individuals as well as for the world at large, once again in the quest to save the world from evil. Using the theoretical framework described by Bob Snyder in his book, Music and Memory, I will utilize the three types of memory that Snyder identifies in his study to examine the musical world of The Legend of Zelda. The three types of memory are as follows: 1) echoic memory, which is the immediate recognition of the raw sensory data, 2) short-term memory, the conscious awareness of the information, and 3) long-term memory, or the unconscious storage of information. Long-term memory has several types of cues, which will be considered in regards to the player as well as the game characters and world of The Legend of Zelda. This study of memory will help facilitate further scholarship that explores the complex relationship between the game world, the real world, and the music that traverses both.

Committee: Kara Attrep PhD (Advisor); Alexa Woloshyn PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Music

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2014, Spanish and Portuguese

The rich mountain of Potosi, with its famed silver mines, has commanded the attention of Europeans, creoles (Americans of Spanish descent), and indigenous Andeans since the Spanish colonizers of Peru were made aware of its existence in 1545. Soon after its discovery, the rich mountain was represented in a variety of written and visual texts created by writers and artists from the Andes, Spain, and other parts of Europe. Independent of its physical form, in these representations the rich mountain assumed a discursive meaning, functioning as an icon that, depending on the context, represented abstract ideas of wealth, immorality, dominance, and spirituality. This dissertation brings together texts, images, and maps to discuss the multifaceted iconicity of Potosi and its cultural salience in these representations. Besides functioning as an icon that supported Spain's "official history;" a discourse that presented Spanish achievements as heroic and providential, other representations of the rich mountain supported alternative discourses regarding Spanish colonial history. To advance individual and nationalistic agendas, authors, artists, and mapmakers strove to control the meaning associated with the iconic rich mountain. My dissertation shows that for an early modern audience the mountain of Potosi was more than just a source of silver; it was also an icon that contributed to discourses negotiating issues of economy, morality, spatial and political dominance, and spiritual expression.

Committee: Lisa Voigt Dr. (Advisor); Lucia Costigan Dr. (Committee Member); Elizabeth Davis Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Art History; Cartography; Comparative Literature; Latin American History; Latin American Literature; Latin American Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2012, French and Italian

This dissertation traces the literary and cultural implications of the representation of suicide and despair in courtly literature from medieval France. The study begins with an introduction to the scholarly work already done on literary texts and is followed by a historical introduction to the problem of suicide and despair in medieval society. Scenes of suicide and despair fall into five main categories: the martyr trope, the desire for union outside the constraints of mortal life, the erotic, the way to truly express the value of life, and the apprehension of death, and they function together to show pieces of the individual personality of each character as well as to highlight societal and cultural problems that would lead a character to despair. Despair and suicide were both grave sins according to the Church in the Middle Ages, yet authors make no obvious commentary or explicit judgment against their despairing or suicidal characters. They do judge them for other sins and transgressions, so this dissertation seeks to examine how the authors do view their characters and what that implies about societal reactions to their problems. Texts from Augustine of Hippo, Ratherius of Verona, and the Fourth Lateran Council provide the religious implications of suicide and despair, and the use of historical studies also inform the societal practices. The texts studied are: The Golden Legend in its Latin, French, and Old Occitan versions; Le Roman d'Eneas; Le Roman de Troie; Partonopeus de Blois; Chretien de Troyes's Le Chevalier au Lion, ou Yvain; and Crescas du Caylar's Le Roman de la Reine Ester. The saints and martyrs from early Christianity provide a significant amount of literary inspiration in the Middle Ages, and their tradition sets the stage for characters to express a wish for an end to earthly existence in a religiously acceptable way. The romans antiques, inspired by Classical war epics, provide another tradition of facing voluntary death or even wishing for d (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Sarah-Grace Heller PhD (Advisor); Jennifer Willging PhD (Committee Member); Christopher A. Jones PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Literature

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2011, EDU Teaching and Learning

The creatures and gods of ancient and traditional myth have been included in young adult and middle grade children's literature for as long as those literary designations have existed. Often allusions and metaphors draw a reader's attention to think of a Greek god, a Norse myth or a monster from Homer's Odyssey. Within the last several years, particularly between 2005 and 2010, a significant number of young adult and middle grade children's novels have presented the gods and creatures of various cultures' traditional myths in modern realistic settings, raising the question of how myth and its characters are presented in these novels. These mythic figures interact with young protagonists and exist within a reality that is familiar to the reader, taking on ideological present-day meanings. This study is a description of the analysis of the resulting ways and positions characters of traditional or new myth and mythic tensions are presented within this publishing trend. Content analysis of the shared motifs and themes within a sample of 40 young adult and middle grade children's novels, the inclusions and re-presentations of these mythic figures extends the realms within which myth is traditionally understood. Myth is expanded in terms of these novels' use of time and place and its categorizations as fantasy or reality. The realms of myth are also broadened by the ideological implications the novels are steeped in; whether they include messages about nationalism, environmental conservation, the privileging of the myths of one culture or the interaction among myths of multiple cultures. The realm of myth is also extended in terms of the varied relationships explored among the mythic figures and human characters and whether the gods are positioned as absentee parents to the young protagonists, as friends or as antagonists. Although few young adult and middle grade novels within my sample depict the mythic figures of popular contemporary religions, the inclusion of angels (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Barbara Kiefer PhD (Advisor); Linda Parsons PhD (Committee Member); Amy Shuman PhD (Committee Member); Anna Soter PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Literature

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2011, English (Arts and Sciences)

In his Brut, La¿¿¿¿amon links Arthur with pre-Conquest England and emphasizes Arthur's prophesied return, expressing a desire for the native English to regain their cultural and political supremacy in England. Instrumental to Arthur's return is Argante, the queen of Avalon, who receives Arthur's mortally wounded body and will restore him to health so he can return to Britain. La¿¿¿¿amon's association of Argante with local healing-well traditions and naming practices link her with the local Worcestershire region, while his rejection of non-local literary and linguistic influences and his association of her with other figures who represent native English national identity reinforce Argante's nationalistic role. La¿¿¿¿amon's redefinition of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Morgen as Argante reasserts the region's important role in maintaining and restoring native English cultural and political supremacy.

Committee: Marsha Dutton PhD (Advisor); Loreen Giese PhD (Committee Member); Jill Ingram PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Medieval Literature

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2010, English (Arts and Sciences)

Cameron scholars have identified Victorian photographer Julia Margaret Cameron as a poet, but her writings have received surprisingly little attention. I assert that Cameron's writings are a crucial part of literary and photographic history because they provide a multi-faceted vision of women as strong autonomous figures who also revere their roles as daughters, wives and mothers. Using twentieth and twenty-first century art-historical and feminist theory, I reflect on the ways Cameron's literary and photographic works resisted the influence of “the Victorian Cult of the Dead,” the portrayal of women as objects for “the male gaze,” and the stereotype of “the femme fatale.” After placing her writings and photographs in dialogue with each other, I show that Cameron used her creative endeavors to dispute a restrictive gender ideology that portrayed women as idealized objects and codependent victims, and that Cameron instead depicted women as maintaining their resolution through their hardships, or their “gloom.” In contrast to nineteenth-century social norms that dictated the submission and domestication of Victorian women, Cameron photographically refashioned women from male-authored texts into more complex figures of femininity that balanced resilience and independence with their roles as daughters, wives, and mothers. When Cameron began her photographic career, she was fully aware of the ongoing debate regarding photography's status and strove to make photographs that would be considered art. Cameron incorporated the painterly style of symbolic narrative allegory to intervene in the male-dominated traditions of the PreRaphaelite Brotherhood, Arthurian Legend via Lord Alfred Tennyson, Shakespearean tradition and Biblical tradition photographically refashioning female characters from male-authored texts into active, self-sufficient women. Cameron communicated her perception of women through the real-life convergence of her identities as mother, wife, and artist as (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Carey Snyder PhD (Committee Chair); Josephine Bloomfield PhD (Committee Member); Nicole Reynolds PhD (Committee Member); Joseph Lamb PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Literature

BA, Oberlin College, 2008, Hispanic Studies

En esta tesis me prepongo a estudiar el desarrollo de la leyenda de Joaquin Murrieta, un bandido hispano quien gano fama durante la fiebre del oro en California. Sigo las transformaciones de esta leyenda cronologicamente, desde la muerte del Joaquin en 1853 hasta el presente. En cada periodo en que surge la leyenda, la relaciono con las condiciones sociales, politicas, y economicas de la epoca. De este modo, puedo examinar como la historia y las tensiones raciales entre angloamericanos e hispanos han influido la manera en que autores y artistas han representado a Joaquin. In this dissertation, I propose to study the development of the legend of Joaquin Murrieta, a Hispanic bandit who became famous during the Gold Rush in California. I follow the transformations of this legend chronologically, from Joaquin's death in 1853 to the present. In each time period in which the legend appears, I relate it to social, political, and economic conditions of that period. In this way, I can examine how history and racial tensions between Anglo-Americans and Hispanics have influenced the way in which authors and artists have represented Joaquin.

Committee: Ana Cara Ph.D. (Advisor); Patrick O'Connor Ph.D. (Committee Member); Edward Melillo Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; American Literature; Comparative Literature; Folklore; Hispanic Americans; Latin American Literature; Literature

Master of Fine Arts (MFA), Bowling Green State University, 2009, Creative Writing/Fiction

This collection of short stories is what I believe to be the strongest writing I've done while enrolled at the university that can be linked together as a cohesive whole. Each story is an exploration of various themes: masculinity, duty, family and God.

Committee: Wendell Mayo (Committee Chair); Theresa Williams (Committee Member) Subjects: American Literature; Armed Forces; Fine Arts; Folklore

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2009, Popular Culture

Firmly rooted in personal experience and individual memory, food symbolizes multiple aspects of one's life, identity, and community. However, food contamination events and food contamination hoaxes present challenges to this sense of identity and community. When food contamination events occur, United States news media is in a position to address their audiences' health concerns through discourses on identity, in terms of social role, group identity, and socially constructed identity markers. Through detailed examinations of television news transcripts, this paper attempts to locate food contamination narratives within issues of gender, class, regionalism, and nationalism. Specifically, this thesis studies food contamination discourse surrounding three events: Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butters contamination with salmonella in 2007, the E. coli contamination of bagged spinach in 2006 and a 2005 contamination hoax involving Wendys chili. An analysis of the words and phrases loaded with connotations and visual descriptions are particularly important to this thesis, because they are vital to the construction and distribution of relatable and troubling stories about food. Although “Food Contamination Narrative in US News Media” uses semiotic and content analysis to study news media, this thesis also relies on cultural and folkloristic theory to uncover social constructions of identity. This thesis suggests that food contamination narratives, as constructed through broadcast news rhetoric, may effect an individual's perception of themselves and their relationship to the larger national body.

Committee: Marilyn Motz PhD (Advisor); Esther Clinton PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: American Studies; Folklore; Gender; Mass Media; Rhetoric