English literature

This thesis creates an adaptation of William Shakespeare's The Tempest that reshapes the play through a focus on queer identities. Specifically, through setting the play at a Drag club and changing the characters accordingly a nuanced view of how gender roles shape the interactions we have with ourselves, our society, and our environment. The chapters that proceed the adaptation provide evidence and supporting clarification for the ideas brought up in the adaptation.

Author Keywords: Adaptation, Drag, Gender, Queer, Shakespeare

This case study's fan fiction and its subsequent non-RPF romance novel version reveal a complex blend of the fan fiction, romance novel, intimatopia, pornography, slash fan fiction, Real Person Fan Fiction, and Men's Hockey Real Person Fan Fiction genres and subgenres. Intimatopia's ideological framework provides a specific method for the romance novel's reordering of self and society, as well as a description of the resulting ordered society and self. As analysis of the reader comments left on the Archive of Our Own fan fiction reveals, intimacy is also critical to the fan fiction's community, because the reader is driven to comment by the text's affective power. The relationship between the reader and the text is primary for the reader, whereas the author's primary aim is to seek an intimate relationship with their readers. There is a conceptual link between the literary and social contexts through their privileging of intimacy as a mode of interaction for the texts's characters, readers, and authors.

Author Keywords: Archive of Our Own, community, fan fiction, intimatopia, Men's Hockey Real Person Fan Fiction, romance novel

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, print death notices have increased in number, length, and deviations, often as the only form of public recognition for the deceased. This thesis provides close readings through feminist and anti-ageist lenses of ninety print death notices, published in The Peterborough Examiner and Peterborough This Week between October 2019 and October 2021. These readings inform and illustrate the deindividualization of older women in death notices as the product not only of the limitations of language and format, but of a community that panders to regional public interests and traditional ageist tropes of femininity to create worthy public subjects. An exploration of ambiguities, contradictions, and overdeterminations that break with conventions of death notices reveals unintentional makeovers, deindividualization, and the sidelining of older women as subjects of their own memorials and photos in an extension of the systemic and internalized gendered ageism older women experience in life.

Author Keywords: Ageism, COVID-19, Death Notices, Deindividualization of Women, Feminism, Older Women

This thesis examines how co-creators Kelly Sue DeConnick and Valentine De Landro's 2014 graphic work, Bitch Planet, is in all conceivable ways a seminal and prescient example of — to use their term — "non-compliance" in the comics form and industry. From its inception as a feminist dystopia, written by a white woman and illustrated by a Black man, in an industry that is over-represented by white men, Bitch Planet is a prime example of activist comics that is situated perfectly within the "Blue Age" of comics, to use the term coined by comic scholar Adrienne Resha. This is evident in the main narrative of Bitch Planet in which, in an industry still over-represented by white characters, the main cast of characters are four Black women and one Japanese-American woman, each of whom we see come up against a theologically patriarchal white supremacist system that imprisons them for crimes that are gendered, racialized, classist and ableist. DeConnick and De Landro's collaboration with other artists extends from Laurenn McCubbin's satirical paratextual in-universe advertisements on the back page of each comic which complement Bitch Planet's main narrative to an invitation to world- building to the greater comic community, allowing creators with marginalized identities to craft short comic stories that satirically and deeply explore the socio-political issues developed in the main narrative of Bitch Planet. The final act of "non-compliance" comes out of the expansion of authorship of Bitch Planet to the readership via the letters pages, and beyond: highlighting readers' Twitter messages, connecting with them through Tumblr, and posting pictures of fan "non-compliant" tattoos within the pages of Bitch Planet.

Author Keywords: Bitch Planet, comics, critical race studies, dystopia , gender studies, intersectional feminism

This thesis creates an adaptation of act five, scene three of William Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus that reshapes the play by focusing on female empowerment through the character Lavinia. Specifically, by using other Shakespearean characters' dialogue that can speak towards her situation, I have written a monologue and stage directions for Lavinia. The same patriarchal superstructures which existed in the West during the time of Shakespeare and at the time of the play's setting—and which still exist today—ensure that Lavinia remains silenced. Through my adaptation, I aim to challenge these structures in a meaningful way by returning both voice and agency to Lavinia.

Author Keywords: Adaptation, Agency, Metamorphosis, Patriarchy, Revenge, Voice

This thesis presents a critical history of stand-up comedy alongside rhetorical analyses of specific stand-up routines and performances to argue for stand-up's efficacy as a therapeutic artform. Through analysis of the history, function, and content of satire, this thesis presents stand-up comedy as an artform utilized for more than just simple laughter. Stand-up comedy, as a form and genre, provides the unique ability to engage with difficult subject matter, traumatic experiences, and offense for the benefit of both listener and audience in a way that subverts, therapizes, and equalizes instances of discrimination, trauma, and denigration.

Author Keywords: Abjection, Offense, Satire, Stand-up Comedy, Therapy

This three-part history explores Web 2.0's ability to make music products a collaborative, ongoing creative process that is reflective of early twentieth century live-music publics, where the realization of a performance was actualized by performers together with their audience in a shared physical space. By extension, I follow the changing dynamic of the producer/consumer relationship as they transitioned through different media and formats that altered their respective roles in music making. This study considers the role that rock ideology, specifically that of the 'indie-rock' habitus, plays in shaping both a rock artist's desired image and a fan-base's expectations. How rock musicians use the internet reveals their own views on authenticity in recorded music and the extent to which they are willing to participate in a public with their audience. Primary case studies used are: Neil Young, Dave Bidini, Beck Hansen and Joel Plaskett.

Keywords: popular music; indie-rock; Web 2.0; rock music collaboration; fan participation; publics; authenticity; habitus; Neil Young; Dave Bidini; Beck Hansen; Joel Plaskett; Song Reader; Scrappy Happiness; Canadian music

Author Keywords: authenticity, fan participation, indie-rock habitus, popular music, rock music collaboration, Web 2.0

ABSTRACT

Women as Gifts and the Triple Hecate Myth in Shakespeare's

Troilus and Cressida, Antony and Cleopatra, and Cymbeline

Women are placed into sexual roles by the patriarchal system in which we live. Gayle Rubin terms this a "sex/gender system" and explains that within this system women are exchanged as "gifts" between men to form kinship ties. The sexual roles this system creates are embodied in the "Triple Hecate myth." Hecate was the goddess of witchcraft in Ancient Greece and was known to have three faces: Maiden, Nymph and Crone. The Maiden is in girlhood and the label is applied to any woman before she becomes sexually active. The Nymph is a sexually active woman who lives within the norms of society. A sexually active woman who lives outside those norms is a Whore. A Crone is a woman who has passed menopause. She is seen as either a wise elder or a wicked stepmother figure.

In Shakespeare's plays Troilus and Cressida, Antony and Cleopatra, and Cymbeline, the female protagonists Cleopatra, Imogen and Cressida are all trying to control their own destinies and rise above or manipulate this patriarchal system of control. These three women are travelling through the "Triple Hecate Myth." Cleopatra begins a Whore and ends a Nymph, Imogen begins a Maiden and ends a Nymph, and Cressida begins a Maiden and ends a Whore. They each also problematize the "gift" exchange system either by attempting to self-exchange (Cleopatra and Imogen) or by being exchanged multiple times (Cressida).

Keywords: William Shakespeare, Triple Hecate Myth, Gift Exchange, Gayle Rubin, Cymbeline, Troilus and Cressida, Antony and Cleopatra, Feminist Criticism, Classical Studies

Author Keywords: Antony and Cleopatra, Cymbeline, Gayle Rubin, Shakespeare, Triple Hecate, Troilus and Cressida

This thesis proposes that Benjamin Britten's 'Peter Grimes' leads its audience toward actively constructing an attitude toward its maskless protagonist. Grimes's tragedy results from the social construction of his character from ambiguous and unseen actions. Utilizing the theories of Hannah Arendt and Carl Jung, this thesis proposes that Grimes may have resisted tragedy by constructing a public persona for himself. This thesis analyses the opera's music and narrative according to the difference between Grimes's lack of a public persona and the Borough- members' construction of a mask for him. A central contention of the thesis is that as another element of Britten's persona, Peter Grimes permitted the composer's entrance into the public sphere, despite his private inclinations and illegal sexuality. Like the opera's drama, the opera's "Sea Interludes" reveals the tragedy resulting from the failure to construct an attitude toward the public world. These "Sea Interludes" work alongside the opera's drama to induce the audience into a common perception of the opera's whole. Through ironic relation to the opera's musical and narrative parts, Benjamin Britten induces his audience's construction of personae, thereby bringing himself and them into a shared public realm.

Author Keywords: Benjamin Britten, E. M. Forster, English Opera, Montagu Slater, Peter Grimes, W. H. Auden

The university newspaper is a vital aspect of the university public, as it provides a platform for students to voice their opinions on topics pertaining to the culture of their university and gives students critical information about what is happening on campus. This thesis uses the University of Regina's The Carillon as a case study to evaluate how university newspapers interact with and influence their publics. In Chapter One, I detail the history of The Carillon, and how the radical atmosphere of the 1960s influenced the newspaper's growth. In Chapter Two, I explore how The Carillon uses facets of digitality—such as their website, multimedia, and social media—to increase its readership. The chapter examines how these digital platforms reach The Carillon's publics more efficiently, but still adhere to the traditions established by the newspaper from its inception. Finally, in Chapter Three, I assess the success of university newspapers which have transitioned to a strictly digital presence. For this assessment, I use the University of Alberta's The Gateway and the University of Prince Edward Island's The Cadre as case studies, and argue that The Carillon can learn from these digital newspapers to become more effective in using digital media to reach its student public. Altogether, this study of university newspapers offers a guide on how to maintain a balance between materiality and digitality, while also preserving the university newspaper's legacy and traditions.

Author Keywords: Digitality, Journalism, Materiality, Publics, The Carillon, University Newspapers