Department of English

IAS 493

Senior CapstoneJanuary 2012

Dr. Nancy Dayton

Stephanie BinionEnglish Literature

Carrying Bones: Identity, Narrative, and Metanarrative in Country of My Skull and Song of Solomon

In both Country of My Skull and Song of Solomon, the sociological construct of narrative and metanarrative sets up a dynamic which can be used to analyze identity formation for individuals as well as for entire cultures. In both texts, the community constructs, creates, and sustains the metanarratives which shape individual’s identities. This paper explores the way bones function in both texts as an image for how individuals relate to the past in this process of re-creating new identities. For new identities to be reconstructed, the larger metanarrative of white supremacy which formed their initial personal narratives must be rejected and a new one adopted. In Country of my Skull, the metanarrative of apartheid is replaced with the African humanist concept of Ubuntu, and in Song of Solomon, the metanarrative of slavery is replaced with African American folk.

Kate CamaraEnglish Literature

Forming one’s racial identity is a difficult task. It is even more difficult when a person belongs to more than one race. The world often thinks mixed families represent true equality, and they do not struggle with race issues but live above them in a sense. This is especially assumed of those who share black and white heritage. When a child is both black and white, or biracial, the world thinks that race will never be an issue for him or her. The world could not be more wrong. Biracial individuals are sometimes the unhealthiest when it comes to race. In Nella Larsen’s Passing and James McBride’s The Color of Water the characters have differing stances when it comes to their races, some choose to ignore entire sides of their identity, while others explore their full identity. Through these stories it is evident that a truly healthy individual is one who acknowledges every part of their racial identity.

James DanielsEnglish Creative Writing

This project is the opening act of a planned novel, and takes place primarily in and around a cabin in a forest in a valley in Upstate New York. In this cabin, a human named Jenny, and her unnamed demon lover find sanctuary; the demon from his struggles to build reconciliation between angels and demons, and Jenny from the remnants of her own unhappy childhood. The demon is sent away on a mysterious mission, telling Jenny he will return in a few weeks. About a month later, the demon has still not returned. Jenny’s cabin is burned down, and she must flee to the caves, the world of darkness and demons, to escape from a murderous cult.

Diana DuncanEnglish Literature

Freudian theory is used to illuminate the different psychological stages Dorian Gray in The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde and William Wordsworth in his autobiographical poem Tintern Abbey find themselves in. The progression through id, ego, and superego are influenced by the pain and beauty both men experience and the memories they have stored up. Dorian chooses to deny the existence of his memory while Wordsworth delves deep into his, furthering his growth. There is also the inclusion of Wilde’s letter “De Profundis” which maps out Wilde’s own movement from the Dorian-like id stage to a more stable psychological state similar to that of Wordsworth in Tintern Abbey.

Hannah EhrsamEnglish Literature

Title: "The Lady's Dressing Room" and "My Last Duchess": Swift's and Browning's Construction of the Ideal Woman in 18th Century and Victoria Era Literature

This paper will examine the construction and deconstruction of the ideal woman in 18th Century and Victorian literature. It gives a brief historical overview of both time periods and how women's roles changed during those time periods. In addition to the construction and deconstruction process, there are two distinctions made when analyzing Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess" and Jonathan Swift's "The Lady's Dressing Room": the author's view of the "ideal" woman and the speaker's view of the "ideal" woman. This paper first analyzes each poem separately, identifying the construction and deconstruction processes. Second, it analyzes how the authors and their writing styles affected the construction of the "ideal" woman.

Natalie FriarEnglish Education

Most people would probably not place William Shakespeare and Jane Austen in the same category, but there are some areas in which they are very similar. They both write about love and relationships on a regular basis and in the case of this paper, they wrote about four sets of couples that went through very similar circumstances, ending with very similar results. In Shakespeare’s Much Ado about Nothing and Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, the characters of Hero and Claudio, Jane and Mr. Bingley, Beatrice and Benedick, and Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy all go through stages of falling and love and trials before they finally are married at story’s end. There are two categories of couples with two couples in each. There are similarities between Beatrice, Benedick, Elizabeth, and Mr. Darcy and there are similarities between Hero, Claudio, Jane, and Mr. Bingley. The characters are different in their own ways but they all display enough similarities to show how alike Shakespeare and Austen were in their writing of these particular stories.

Mario GonzalezEnglish Education

This paper focuses on the different ways that Shakespeare and Byron use comedy to draw the audience away from tragic emotions within A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Don Juan. It juxtaposes the tragic narratives of the texts with the comedic forms with which they are delivered. The paper first analyzes how both texts actually establish a tragic rather than comedic narrative. It then deconstructs the variety of ways Shakespeare creates comedic tone through the four love characters of Lysander, Demetrius, Helena, and Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and how Lord Byron creates comedy through the narrator of Don Juan.

Thad HarmonEnglish Creative Writing

A poetry collection intent on exploring both the private and social dimensions of ‘the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.’ Poems are collected according to the themes of loss, self and fantasy, the current state of things, and the craft itself. Postmodernism and its effects on the poet constitute a major current of the collection’s force, along with the nature of individual identity with respect to external, societal factors.

Jessica JohnsonEnglish Education

This paper utilizes character studies in order to examine the complexities of each author’s presentation of the concepts of good and evil in Frankenstein and the Harry Potter series. In each of these works, characters are not presented as purely “good” or “evil,” but are shown to have elements of both goodness and evil in them. The paper studies each author’s lack of purely “good” or “evil” characters and examines the authorial intent of these presentations. A strong focus is on each author’s attempt to create sympathy for so-called “evil” characters. The paper also explores each author’s seeming view of the cause of evil based on her presentation of good and evil through character development. This paper ultimately attempts to explain why each author presented the concepts of good and evil in the way she did within the context of her characters.

Norah KundratEnglish Creative Writing

A young girl, Martana Volpari, moves to the Italian province of Umbria where she stays with her father and grandparents. After her father is killed tragically in a wild boar hunting accident, she adopts an orphaned piglet and raises it. The two are practically inseparable as they grow up together and travel around bucolic Italy. They go on many adventures and even befriend an eccentric old ceramicist. But Martana is tormented by nightmarish visions, and her boar often seems the only anchor in reality. The darkness intensifies when she moves to Venice and comes into conflict with her godfather.

Robbie MaakestadEnglish Creative Writing

Old Men with Dislocated Femurs

Old Men with Dislocated Femurs is a creative non-fiction story about a hike the author took with three friends around the Sea of Galilee in 24 hours. Robbie Maakestad had the privilege of studying in Jerusalem in the spring of 2011 and on a free weekend, with little rhyme or reason (and with minimal planning) he and his buddies decided to attempt a trek around the sea. Each of the hikers told an account of a crazy event from their past to kill time while they walked, and a retelling of their stories is contained in this piece amidst the details of the hike; thus, it is a narrative frame-tale. The adventure turned out to be much more eventful than any of the hikers had anticipated – the name is derived from a self-description of how one of the guys felt midway through the hike. This piece takes a look at the difficulty that a person can overcome and how a seemingly insignificant event in someone’s life can inspire him or her.

Randy MagnusonEnglish Education

This paper was an analysis of two characters from American literature: Jay Gatsby of The Great Gatsby, and Eliot Rosewater from God Bless You Mr. Rosewater. Analysis of these characters was centered around the selfless, unconditional love that each shows to his beloved, be it a single person or a group of people. Not only were the characters themselves examined, but also the inherently selfish nature of society and how it stifles altruistic love. These themes were studied in the context of American modernism (The Great Gatsby) and postmodernism (God Bless You Mr. Rosewater), incorporating core ideas and styles from these periods. Although the love given by Gatsby and Rosewater is abused and misunderstood by those around them, it is ultimately argued that each was correct in his endeavors, and that one person acting out of selfless love can make a difference, even in a rapacious, self-centered society.

Bailey McElravyEnglish Literature

Obscure Birth and Conspicuous Beauty: Identity Construction in "Evelina" and "Lady Audley's Secret"

This paper adds to current academic conversations regarding the contents and function of sentimental and sensational fiction the process of identity construction. Using Frances Burney's sentimental novel "Evelina" and Mary Elizabeth Braddon's sensational novel "Lady Audley's Secret," this paper identifies the existence of a woman of obscure birth and conspicuous beauty in each of the novels. This construction of identity rests upon the privileging of either birth or beauty and illustrates the disparity between them in regard to agency and sources of identity. Examination of these two popular novels and the heroines' respective journeys to identity reflect the goals of both sentimental and sensational fiction.

Mary TaitEnglish Creative Writing

Burns is based on a Scottish fairytale ballad called Tam Lin, specifically on a version transcribed by the Scottish poet Robert Burns. The tale follows a girl who meets an enchanted man in the forest by the name of Tam Lin, and her interactions and eventual rescue of him from the fairy queen who holds him prisoner. This is the first of three sections that retell the ballad’s story, based on the ballad’s first two scenes. Set in the time of the wars for Scottish independence, it strays a bit from the actual story of the ballad, though it still contains many of the themes, symbols, characters and plot elements of the original tale. In Burns the girl’s name is Casey, and she is the third daughter of a nobleman in southern Scotland. Expecting a near engagement to a neighboring nobleman’s son, her plans are disrupted when she assists a wounded Scottish soldier in the woods named Tam Lin. When rumors spread and her family’s reputation is threatened she must decide whether to risk her social standing for the life she wants or to live how she has been asked.

Brittany UnruhEnglish Literature

Senior Project

How a character treats “the Other” signifies his or her growth and development. The primary characters in Nadine Gordimer’s July’s People and Katherine Mansfield’s “The Garden Party” begin with varied perspectives of the liminal space that exists between themselves, wealthy whites, and “the Other.” However, through role reversals and direct exposure, each character’s original view of liminal space as well as their perceptions of “the Other” are put to the test. Mansfield and Gordimer leave the endings of these pieces ambiguous so as to place the burden of deciphering right and wrong behavior to the reader. July, the subject of the title of Gordimer’s novel, is the only primary, non-white character from the two works and his struggles with double-consciousness as well as mimicry illuminate the problems and struggles that “the Other” must deal with when he is a minority living in the space of the majority.