The Campus Queen in Literature and Culture: Prom Queen Profiles explores the nuanced relationship between femininity and power and provides a scholarly framework for understanding the evolution of the prom queen’s archetypal ubiquity. Semantically, the titles are nearly synonymous—prom queen, homecoming queen, winterfest princess—as all denote the longstanding tradition in the United States of conferring royal status upon teenage popularity. Yet whatever we call it, high school royalty remains one of the most paradoxical realities of youth culture, for as fervently as it gets dismissed and discredited, it is just as frequently revered and respected. A physical manifestation of the student body’s collective hegemonic efforts, the campus queen occupies a significant space in literature and culture, excavating truths both timeless and telling. A signature survey of the genre, this study traces the historical underpinnings and cultural implications of the campus queen, examining the longevity of the archetype and ultimately reimagining the narrative for future generations.

Semantically, the titles are nearly synonymous Homecoming Queen, Prom Queen, Winter Ball Duchess, Spring Fling Princess as all denote the arguably archaic tradition in the United States of conferring regal status upon teenage popularity. Yet, whatever we call it, high school royalty, with its varied rituals and regalia, remains one of the most perplexing, paradoxical phenomena of youth culture, for as fervently as it is dismissed and discredited, it is just as frequently revered and respected. Indeed, adolescent readers and viewers in the United States consume campus royalty centered stories at a steady pace, and have been doing so for quite some time. If the discipline of adolescent literature thrives on dialogues regarding the dynamics of power, then the study of the campus queen figure is essential and perhaps overdue. After all, the figure of the campus queen exists because of adolescent power not only can much be gained from an exploration of her power and how she accepts and then wields it, but perhaps more strikingly fascinating is the mere fact that she is, in her reign, the physical manifestation of the student bodys collective hegemonic efforts. Hence, this study traces the historical and cultural underpinnings of the campus queen figure in popular culture, examining the evolution of both the literary figure and of the genre. In four chapters Long Live the Campus Queen, The Girl and Her Power, The Group and Their Power, and The Genre and Its Power this dissertation explores the ways in which the campus queen, as a telling literary and cultural figure, occupies a significant space and assumes an unparalleled role in the field of adolescent literature.

Life on a university campus with its own unconventional but dynamic culture ascribes to itself so many unusual privileges which provide unique opportunities for taking liberties mostly in a broad antisocial sense. In the university, several interests groups or clubs are commonplace. Against the Heavy Weights Club, another club Silver Lines Movement is born. SLM vows to oppose all antisocial, antidemocratic tendencies including economic exploitation on campus. The ensuing battle between the two clubs reveals the frenzied struggles for supremacy in all aspects of campus life. It also exposes the special interests of godfathers from inside and outside campus. The peak of the story is woven around Banke's daring and tragic adventure with the Military Governor who is completely dazed by Banke's stunning beauty and keen wit.

This edited volume assembles the work of leading international scholars in a comprehensive history of Russian literary theory and criticism from 1917 to the post-Soviet age. By examining the dynamics of literary criticism and theory in three arenas—political, intellectual, and institutional—the authors capture the progression and structure of Russian literary criticism and its changing function and discourse. The chapters follow early movements such as formalism, the Bakhtin Circle, Proletklut, futurism, the fellow-travelers, and the Russian Association of Proletarian Writers. By the cultural revolution of 1928, literary criticism became a mechanism of Soviet policies, synchronous with official ideology. The chapters follow theory and criticism into the 1930s with examinations of the Union of Soviet Writers, semantic paleontology, and socialist realism under Stalin. A more "humanized" literary criticism appeared during the ravaging years of World War II, only to be supplanted by a return to the party line, Soviet heroism, and anti-Semitism in the late Stalinist period. During Khrushchev's Thaw, there was a remarkable rise in liberal literature and criticism, that was later refuted in the nationalist movement of the "long" 1970s. The same decade saw, on the other hand, the rise to prominence of semiotics and structuralism. Postmodernism and a strong revival of academic literary studies have shared the stage since the start of the post-Soviet era. For the first time anywhere, this collection analyzes all of the important theorists and major critical movements during a tumultuous ideological period in Russian history, including developments in emigre literary theory and criticism.

The History begins with the first full-scale critical consideration of Scotland's earliest literature, drawn from the diverse cultures and languages of its early peoples. The first volume covers the literature produced during the medieval and early modern period in Scotland, surveying the riches of Scottish work in Gaelic, Welsh, Old Norse, Old English and Old French, as well as in Latin and Scots. New scholarship is brought to bear, not only on imaginative literature, but also law, politics, theology and philosophy, all placed in the context of the evolution of Scotland's geography, history, languages and material cultures from our earliest times up to 1707.

The Edinburgh Companion to Contemporary Scottish Literature examines the ways in which the cultural and political role of Scottish writing has changed since the country's successful referendum on national self-rule in 1997. In doing so, it makes a convincing case for a distinctive post-devolution Scottish criticism. Introducing over forty original essays under four main headings - 'Contexts', 'Genres', 'Authors' and 'Topics' - the volume covers the entire spectrum of current interests and topical concerns in the field of Scottish studies and heralds a new era in Scottish writing, literary criticism and cultural theory. It records and critically outlines prominent literary trends and developments, the specific political circumstances and aesthetic agendas that propel them, as well as literature's capacity for envisioning new and alternative futures. Issues under discussion include class, sexuality and gender, nationhood and globalisation, the New Europe and cosmopolitan citizenship, postcoloniality,