The Guatemalan Civil War (1960-1996), catalyzed by U.S. intervention, was a 36-year-long war that resulted in the death of over 200,000 Guatemalans. The destabilization created by this war generated a refugee crisis, and ultimately a rise in “diasporic” Guatemalan literature. Hector Tobar’s novel, The Tattooed Soldier (1998), is a story about migration and assimilation rooted in the context of the Guatemalan Civil War. Scholars and critics have come to understand this novel as a diasporic novel, focusing on the themes of identity and community. However, if we analyze this novel through a migrational studies lens, the text reveals political and social contexts that challenge how we think about the formation, existence, and future of the Central American diaspora. My method of reading the novel alongside archival material subverts the conventional diasporic framework by transnationalizing the novel, and more broadly, Latinx studies. To further understand this as a migrational narrative, they use Dr. Farah Jasmine Griffin’s The African American Migration Narrative as a model for analyzing migrational literature. Now more than ever the current discourses surrounding U.S. politics and culture are invigorated by the dialogues and contexts of Latinx, Indigenous, and Ethnic Studies. With increasing attacks on immigrants, specifically with deportation and "legality," it is imperative that we continue to bring these stories to light.

Through a historical analysis study of South Korea’s Gwangju Uprising and its aftermath, this thesis investigates how individually held memories coalesce into collectively held memories. In doing so, I formulate a taxonomy of the various forces that cause some narratives to become privileged over others. Memory studies scholarship largely neglects to differentiate between the terms “dominant narrative” and “collective memory.” It also lacks a holistic analysis of the distinct, competing forces that cause narratives to ascend to become dominant narratives and collective memories, as scholars typically consider only one of these forces at a time. However, I explore this process in detail, tracing the progression from memories, to narratives, to dominant narrative, and, ultimately, to collective memory. In doing so, I define dominant narrative as a representation of an event set forth by a certain group that is more popular than existing counternarratives. Collective memory, on the other hand, is a narrative that has surpassed the dominant narrative in that it has obtained societal consensus—in other words, faces very little contestation—and is institutionalized through various modes of remembrance. I frame the development of these concepts by introducing my posited “channels”—legal, cultural, civil, and political—and analyzing their interactions. Overall, this thesis seeks to assist in understanding the larger picture of how and why we remember what we remember and relevant ramifications.

Modern data privacy laws, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), assume that granting individuals greater control over their data will ensure meaningful privacy. However, this model of individual control often proves inadequate. My research explores this paradox by analyzing the works of Franz Kafka, whose depictions of bureaucracy, surveillance, and psychological submission offer a critique of today’s digital landscape, leading to the research question: How do Kafka's works provide insight into the limitations of current data collection practices, and what do his portrayals of the paradox of control reveal about the potential future consequences of relying on individual autonomy as the primary safeguard for data privacy? I use literary analysis to examine five of Kafka’s texts—The Castle, The Trial, In the Penal Colony, The Judgment, and Before the Law—and compare their themes with modern surveillance practices and legal frameworks. I conclude that simply giving people more choices does not guarantee autonomy, as systemic power imbalances and human psychology often lead individuals to surrender control. Kafka’s characters mirror this behavior, revealing how people comply with surveillance out of habit, confusion, or resignation. This project underscores the urgent need to rethink privacy models and highlights how literature can offer critical insight into contemporary policy failures.

This project presents a new English translation of Elegies to My Beloved (Wagahito ni Atafuru Aika), a 1935 poetry collection by Japanese modernist Ito Shizuo, written during the pre-war years of cultural upheaval and personal introspection. Through close reading and archival research into Ito’s diaries, I uncover his deep admiration for Rainer Maria Rilke and the central role Rilke played in shaping the philosophical and lyrical fabric of this collection. My translations aim to preserve Ito’s symbolic density, tonal restraint, and emotional ambiguity, while also exploring how he appropriates and reimagines Rilkean motifs such as the divided self, transcendental figures, and the poetics of distance and longing. Alongside these translations, I offer a comparative literary analysis that situates Elegies to My Beloved within a transnational modernist lineage, with particular attention to Rilke’s Duino Elegies, where personal grief becomes a gateway to existential reflection and metaphysical inquiry. This project highlights not only the resonance between Ito and Rilke, but also the unique inflection of global modernist poetics through a Japanese lens. By recovering Ito’s overlooked contribution to 20th-century lyricism, the work expands the scope of literary modernism and underscores the critical value of translation as both interpretation and scholarship.