Karley Adney

It’s Not a Matter of Message but of Messenger: Miltonic Principles in Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure

Karley Adney — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 10:05:12 PDT

Thomas Hardy once referred to his masterpiece Jude the Obscure as 'tragedy, told for its own sake as a presentation of particulars containing a good deal that was universal. Although the novel was roundly criticized upon its publication for dealing explicitly with issues like divorce and adultery, it was through these issues that the novel dealt with the universal, as Hardy would have put it.

Shaping Shakespeare, Reflecting History: Adaptations of Othello for Children in 1990s Britain

Karley Adney — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 11:34:05 PDT

In this article, two 1990s British adaptations of Shakespeare's Othello for children are studied with the primary critical lens of New Historicism. This analysis concerns itself with the cultural resonances adaptors pass to their readers and how those traces shape the Shakespearean texts they adapt. This study contends that cultural contexts, transactions, and negotiations of the time incontestably shape these adaptations. To truly appreciate the choices made by the adaptors of the 1990s, reflections on Britain in the 1980s serve as points of comparison. As a result, analyzing and accounting for the cultural influences provides a whole reading of the texts in question.

The Influence of Gender and Harry Potter’s Heroic Transformation

Karley Adney — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 09:29:36 PDT

Taking up the various conceptions of heroism that are conjured in the Harry Potter series, this collection examines the ways fictional heroism in the twenty-first century challenges the idealized forms of a somewhat simplistic masculinity associated with genres like the epic, romance and classic adventure story. The collection's three sections address broad issues related to genre, Harry Potter's development as the central heroic character and the question of who qualifies as a hero in the Harry Potter series. Among the topics are Harry Potter as both epic and postmodern hero, the series as a modern-day example of psychomachia, the series' indebtedness to the Gothic tradition, Harry's development in the first six film adaptations, Harry Potter and the idea of the English gentleman, Hermione Granger's explicitly female version of heroism, adult role models in Harry Potter, and the complex depictions of heroism exhibited by the series' minor characters. Together, the essays suggest that the Harry Potter novels rely on established generic, moral and popular codes to develop new and genuine ways of expressing what a globalized world has applauded as ethically exemplary models of heroism based on responsibility, courage, humility and kindness.

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Serling and the Sputnik Crisis: How The Twilight Zone Encouraged Children to Love/Fear Space

Karley Adney — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 09:04:51 PDT

How Multigenre Papers Help Students Understand Audience

Karley Adney — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 09:03:04 PDT

To Save or Murder a Child: The Role of Catholicism in Rosemary’s Baby, The Omen, and The Eoxrcist

Karley Adney — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 08:54:08 PDT

Defending Donne: ‘The Flea’ and “Elegy XIX’ as Compliments to Womankind

Karley Adney — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 08:48:51 PDT

The Wife of Bath is one of Geoffrey Chaucer’s most famous characters; she was a woman strong enough to govern her own life. One may assume that this woman, penned by a man, could be labeled now as a feminist. It is possible, though, that Chaucer created this boisterous, opinionated woman not simply to assert that women are capable of being independent, but merely to show that women who attempt to do so are all as rude and coarse as she. So, her statements about life, love, and marriage may not be her own sentiments, but merely an echo of Chaucer’s personal beliefs concerning women.