RSS 1.0English Honors Theses
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From One Mentally Ill Artist to Another: An Actor Takes on Bo Burnham's Bleak Musical Humor, Inside-styleIn 2020, actor and comic Bo Burnham filmed, directed, produced, and acted in Inside, a musical comedy special filmed in his guesthouse. Inside is a piece of artwork dripping with sarcasm that reflects Burnham's cynical view of the world. It is laden with apparently genuine moments brought into question by Burnham's performativity. Burnham and his stage persona are two very different people, and Inside shows how he straddles this line and blends the personal and the performer into one entity whose mental stability is questionable at best. Upon my first viewing of Inside during COVID-19, I heard my voice overlaid with Burnham's. His performativity and self-criticism resonated strongly with my creative spirit. The harshly realistic concepts of acting to survive and existing in a hyper-critical, Internet-saturated world felt like he was peering into my anxiety-riddled mind. Analyzing Burnham's comedy specials and considering the suffocating post-COVID landscape I still find myself in, I selected songs and monologues I could re-perform. Pulling from fevered breakdowns and journal entries, I wrote monologues, weaving together my texts and his into a cohesive story, interspersed with my recreations of his witty and often startlingly melancholy music, and created, filmed, and recorded this all in one academic year, solely in my dorm room. This film is a space where the lines between my acting and ramblings, captured by the camera, are blurred so indistinguishably that no one, perhaps even myself, can tell the difference.
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Tales of Eilu – A Fantasy Audio DramaStorytelling is about building on the canon of humanity and expanding the scope of what we can achieve through the power of words. In recent years, fantasy storytelling and audio storytelling have seen massive growth in terms of popularity in mainstream culture -- allowing for stories that are not confined by societal norms. During such turbulent years of my life, these modes of telling a story have been a haven for me as a creator. When we take various topics we are passionate about and put them together into one project, we can make something that is fueled by true magic. With Tales of Eilu, I hope to accomplish several things, but mainly I will be pushing myself to branch out as a storyteller. My primary goal was to complete the first extremely-polished episode of this series and build skills that will be able to help me to keep producing episodes after graduation. With the help of sound design and voice acting, I hope to capture the hearts and minds of those listening in this new world. I really want this project to be in an audio format because it will be more accessible to those that are interested in fantasy stories without having to sit down and face the daunting task of completing large volumes of them. Along with that, the flexibility of fantasy storytelling allows me to create a world for queer characters to learn and grow without the overbearing weight of societal norms and expectations. As a queer person, I want to give myself, and fellow people in my community, a world that truly sees love as simply love and does not define queerness by struggles of existing as queer. This piece is available on several podcasting platforms, but its most prominent home is on Spotify. This audio piece is a culmination of my experiences as a storyteller thus far, but it is only the beginning for this fantastical world -- a springboard for a whole series set in the world of Eilu.
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Work/houseWork/house is a hybrid creative-research project that explores the narratives of Irish workhouse pauper inmates during the Great Famine. The project takes on multiple forms: a chapbook printed by Salem State University, a longer manuscript draft, and a digital story told through the coding platform Twine. Research on Irish workhouses was conducted independently after partaking in a free, audio-visual tour of the former Kilkenny Union Workhouse site in July 2022, the writing happening in conjunction with research. The sixteen poems included in the chapbook (and the roughly forty poems in the manuscript, still a work-in-progress) incorporate Irish poetic forms, Irish mythology, and real narratives of pauper inmates who resided in the South Dublin and Kilkenny Union Workhouses. These inmates include Eliza Dalton, a young woman who arrived in the South Dublin workhouse at age nine, and incited uprisings with other workhouse girls; Jane Kane, who drifted in and out of that same South Dublin workhouse while working at her mother’s brothel; Thomas Kelly, a deaf and blind inmate living in the Kilkenny Union workhouse, whose death circumstances were extensively investigated by workhouse Guardians; and James Heam, who, at fourteen, appealed his unjust corporeal punishment. Other phenomena typical of the time – contraction of venereal diseases, infanticide, poverty and starvation – are referenced throughout the poems. Artistic license (such as the blurring of timelines) has been taken in the creation of themes such as hunger, reclamation of femininity and humanity in oppressive social structures, bodily autonomy, complex relationships to/with land and language, motherhood, and female friendship.
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Overwatered ClassesHave you ever wondered when you started stressing so much or when you lost your focus and began grieving what once was? I have found that is part of being human, and I believe it is time to explore those topics and discuss them openly to understand ourselves, and our youth, better. My chapbook, “Overwatered Classes” discusses the impact of stress on a student’s education and how a broken system can emphasize or overlook difficulties in mental health. By comparing the natural world to students, I hope to help readers who desire to understand their world and their community in a more personal way. An abundance of societal and scholarly stress and a shortage of resources leaves students overburdened, or overwatered, with expectations that aren’t their own. My aspiration for this project is to start a dialogue about the stigma of stress impacting human experiences. While writing about my own experiences in the education system, I analyzed which of my experiences are not singular, but scarily common among students. I hope this will help me and my colleagues be better educators in the future but the poetry is for a wider audience. This chapbook is written for anyone who is ready to confront topics considering traumatic experiences, grief, and common disabilities. Some of the heavy subject matter discusses the cycle of frustration or depression with a bleak outlook but I believe it can have a positive end. “Overwatered Classes” is written for most students, educators, and anyone who seeks to understand and support those having difficulty. Most of all it is for anyone who is fighting to understand their own battles, as I once was. You can be understood and deserve patience, if not from others than from yourself.
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Sapphic Conceptions Of The MuseFrom Dante to Gertrude Stein, some of the most prominent artists have found inspiration in another. This thesis explores what it is to be a muse and the role compulsory heterosexuality has in the conception of the passive muse in text as well as narrative cinema. Utilizing Audre Lorde's biomythography Zami a New Spelling of my Name and the film Portrait of Lady on Fire, I explore how these artists conceive of their muses. The difference between the passive muse conception and the various conceptions of these artists is necessary. Since the parameters of the passive muse conception do not account for women as content creators, much less lesbians as content creators, these artists cannot participate it in seeing as the convection doe not encompass them. Moreover, in this text and film, the muses experience the antithetical process to that of the passive muse. Which is to say they go from being an object in many regards to a subject. These works rely heavily on overarching themes of solidarity and the artists’ conception of their muses as extensions of themselves.
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Streaming Consciousness: Treading the Conceptual Rapids of Psychological TheoryThis thesis is the first section in a book length project. The aim of this thesis is to explore the relationship between the academic field of psychology and the creative nature of the field. Through use of memoir, detail, and conscious experience, this thesis is a contemporary interpretation of the theories of Sigmund Freud.
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Pleasure and Pain in Charlotte Bronte's Villette and Jane EyreLike every character, Lucy Snowe and Jane Eyre, respective protagonists of Charlotte Brontë's Villette and Jane Eyre, grapple with pursuing pleasure and avoiding pain. Pleasure and pain are unavoidable universals, of course, but everyone treats their own pleasure and pain differently. Furthermore, pleasure and pain do not exist in a vacuum; there are other considerations—such as morality, self-respect, and lack of absolute control—that affect how each person treats and prioritizes them. Lucy and Jane, in particular, are not hedonists, so when looking at how they pursue pleasure and avoid pain, it is also important to account for the things that they care about more than either. Examining how Brontë's heroines approach pleasure and pain in relation to other facets of their lives reveals their priorities, an understanding of which is essential to understanding their choices and burgeoning selfhood.
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Navigating My Life: Memoirs of a College StudentFor many students, college is one of the most defining times in a person's life. With the overarching theme of coming-of-age, this collection of creative nonfiction essays details the author's personal development during her college years. The pieces are centered on experiences, including her time spent as an orientation leader, her travels to Europe and the Northeastern United States, and her coverage of a political rally.
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The Whale as an Object: Examining the Subject/Object Relationship in Herman Melville's Moby DickHieroglyphic images appear recurrently throughout the text of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. Whether the marks in question are ancient Egyptian ciphers, Queequeg’s cryptic tattoos, or scars on the backs of whales, Melville claims all are hieroglyphical. This project will examine Melville’s use of hieroglyphics in Moby Dick to broach debates about what language is and how it gets its meaning. Do words have intrinsic significance, or is their significance supplied by the reader alone? Are all—or any—hieroglyphics decipherable? What could ancient Egyptian figures have in common with the “hieroglyphic” scratches on whales? This project will engage with John T. Irwin’s American Hieroglyphics, perhaps the most notable work to use the hieroglyphic in raising questions of meaning and interpretation. Additionally, the project will incorporate works by John Searle and Walter Benn Michaels to explore different accounts of what language is, what texts count as language, and how language becomes meaningful.
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The Rebirth of Chile in Relation to Childbirth and Female PainChilean novelists Isabel Allende and Diamela Eltit wrote during a time in which Augusto Pinochet’s reign created chaos within the government and suffering for its citizens. In the works The House of the Spirits by Allende and The Fourth World by Eltit, emphasis is placed on the female characters’ inability to have full freedom of speech, and also how the burdens of conceiving a child and giving birth became not just an infliction upon their bodies but upon their existence as women in a disadvantaged society. By analyzing the conceptions, pregnancies, and births of various characters in the novels while referencing how society treated women during Pinochet’s dictatorship, this paper will reveal that childbirth is used as a metaphor for the birth of a new Chile.
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One- A Collection of PoetryThis poetry collection - One - records touching moments in my life, the sparkles of my thoughts. This project consists of twenty-one poems along with a table of contents, foreword, introduction, acknowledgements and notes. It is broken down into four different sections titled Hazy/Mist, Things Remembered, Hallucinating and Trigger. The title of the poetry collection was chosen as "one" because I wanted to convey that everyone's life is unique. Like the gambling game with fate, you'll never know what will happen in the next second. With specific rules of the usage of imagery, metaphors, and similes, and musical rhythms, my poetry style contains not only Chinese styles but also other Western free art forms.
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Unreal Magazine: A Feminist Magazine Dedicated to Women in MusicThe basis of this project was to create an online magazine geared towards the subject of women in music. In today's society, women are still seen and treated as second-class citizens. In particular, women are considered to be less talented and are typically taken less-seriously than their male counterparts. Because of this, it is important to showcase female musicians in a strong, empowering light in order to show and fix the sexism and misconstrued ideals in today's society. For this project, I read both music and feminist publications in order to better understand the subject matters and industries. I had to continually stay up-to-date with music blogs and websites in order to discover new music and artists that would complement my magazine. The end result was an e-zine that showcased female musicians in a positive light. I made sure to write each article so females were portrayed as accomplished, hard-working, and unique members of the music industry and society as a whole. Seeing all these articles together in a cohesive manner made it clear that misogyny is apparent and impossible to ignore in today's society. Creating a visual representation of influential women will encourage both women and men to pursue their passions despite obstacles and challenges. The e-zine can be found at: http://unrealzine.wix.com/unreal
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William Butler Yeats: Nationalism, Mythology, and the New Irish TraditionWilliam Butler Yeats has been regarded as one of the most important poets of the modern era. His poetry is known throughout the world for its attention to form, masterful imagery, and its distinctly Irish nature. Always a patriot, much of Yeats’ life was devoted to the resurrection of Irish culture in what he hoped would be a Celtic Renaissance free from the heavily political implications of the Irish nationalist movement of his time. This essay seeks to discuss and understand Yeats’ methods and inspirations behind conveying his nationalism and love of Irish lore through his poetry, especially in his earlier years of publication. He was concerned not just with people’s knowledge of Ireland and her storied past, but also with the cultural wellbeing of Ireland’s future, especially when it came to fostering future Irish artists and creative types. This essay examines seven works by Yeats organized into three sections, each individual section representing a different point in his creative journey towards finding his voice for Ireland’s future writers and artists. His hope was to foster the creation of a literary tradition that was Irish in its roots for the entertainment, advancement, and representation of a thoroughly Irish people. This paper seeks to discover how exactly he went about attempting to create such a tradition.
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Disordered: A Collection of PoetryThe basis for this chapbook of poetry (titled Disordered) was my experience with mental illnesses. There is a problem with lack of awareness of mental illness in writing communities and in other communities, as well as stigma surrounding these diseases. The title was chosen because I wanted to convey the idea that mental illness is something that is very difficult to deal with; however, it does not necessarily mean that you are disabled, a word that comes with a negative connotation. The projects consists of fifteen poems along with a table of contents, artist’s note, introduction, acknowledgements, notes, and reflection. It is broken down into three sections titled Collapse/Relapse, Me/You, and Potential. In my project, I wanted to portray people with mental illnesses as people similar to everyone else. However, I also wanted to show the unique problems that people with mental illnesses face. I feel that it is important to show both of these sides of people with mental illness, in order to get a full picture of what it is really like to have a mental illness. Writing in general helps me heal from my mental illnesses, and writing specifically about mental illness has helped me learn how to heal more effectively. My hope is that others will be able to relate to my writing and that it will bring about less stigma surrounding mental illness.
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Adolescent Attitudes Towards Social Media in the ClassroomAs a future educator, I am concerned with the growing influence of social media in the lives of adolescents. With technology constantly changing, educators must reevaluate their techniques in order to teach effectively. For example, teachers might consider the relationship between students’ attention spans and their social media use. Teachers might also consider the effects of the different styles of writing students read online. This project examines the correlation between high school students' writing habits and their social media usage. Data has been gathered from 19 high school juniors in an AP Language and Composition class. The methodology for this project uses grounded theory research and includes surveys and writing samples. Students completed a survey about their social media usage that asked what websites they use, how often they use these websites, and whether or not they try to use proper spelling and grammar when posting online. In addition to the survey, students also provided an "on demand" writing sample of approximately 180 words. In order to discern any correlation between social media usage and writing habits, data was coded to identify differences in sentence length, spelling/grammar issues, incorrect punctuation usage, usage of transitions, awkward phrasing, and usage of the first person. This study found that there was no correlation between students’ social media habits and their writing styles. However, the data revealed students’ attitudes towards using social media in the classroom, information that is essential for teachers to understand in order to utilize technology effectively.
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Nature's PresentsWhen many people are outside in nature, they don’t notice many little events taking place. For example, a person might not notice a field mouse darting under a staircase or a frog that is severely injured. This collection of poems documents my experiences in nature, including many happenings that usually go unnoticed. During the writing process, I went through many steps, probably the most important of which was the writing period. First, I had to find inspiration. Most of my poems were written at Audubon Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary in Topsfield, MA. I found, as I walked around the sanctuary, that many incidents were happening around me all the time, many which I might not have noticed if I was not so aware of my surroundings. I often took pictures to document these experiences, which I have included in the first section of this collection, titled “Nature’s Presence.” All of my poems were about real events that happened or based of off real events that happened to me, truly documenting my experiences in the natural world.
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Milan Kundera and the Narrative SelfIn my thesis, I looked at several of Milan Kundera's novels to explore the relationship between the self and narratives. Specifically, I was interested in how narrative shapes the perception of our selves, both from internal and external perspectives. Using particular characters and historical contexts from Kundera's novels, I also argue from a non-traditional notion of truth that neither an inner or inhabited self nor a perceived external self can authoritatively claim to be more real or fundamental than the other. I argue that because the two are so intimately connected, even self-perception is impossible independent of a narrative.
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PiscesPisces is a collection of poems that give glimpses into my childhood, adolescent, and adulthood. They are also about learning how to heal, places that gave me serenity, and people that have inspired and molded me into who I am today. The title Pisces is a term that comes from astrology, and what happens to be my astrology sign. There are no poems that include or discuss my astrological sign. However, all my poems represent who I am, where I’ve come from, what inspires me, and events in my life that resonated with me the most. This collection is heavily influenced by some modern poets and their works, making use of some of their techniques to tell personal stories. Wallace Stevens and his selected poems in Sleeping on A Wing made me think about where writers get their inspiration from, and how we can see the world in a different way. In Stevens’s poem "Thirteen Ways of Looking at A Blackbird," he takes an object and looks at it from a variety perspective, exploring how one might encounter or see blackbirds. This collection uses this technique to write about objects that have sentimental value to me, such as my father’s military dog tags. These inspirations and themes represented within my collection not only represent my growth overtime, but my love for dance, my friends, and my family. I hope that my poems can shed light onto topics that are not talked about, and to send a message that you are never alone.
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Finding The Extraordinary In The Ordinary: Susan Orlean's Impact On Creative NonfictionSusan Orlean is one of the most innovative creative nonfiction writers of our time. Her interest in people and the ability to connect with them greatly inspires her work. She has worked for the New Yorker since 1992 and has published multiple collections of literary journalism pieces and book-length works such as The Orchid Thief, Library Book, and Saturday Night. Orlean is known for her ability to draw inspiration from the ordinary things in life. She takes on the role of a researcher, spending time with people all over the country (and sometimes the world), exploring normal aspects in their lives that seem outlandish to others. Writing about the eccentric, abnormal, and mundane is not a challenge for her, as some subjects she has written about are orchid collecting, taxidermy, library fires, and female bullfighters. As we dive into the world of creative nonfiction, I will ask, what makes us so interested to hear about the truth within everyday life that she writes about? How does she catch our attention and keep it? Orlean writes nonfiction, yet as readers, we feel as if we are reading a story that we cannot put down. She utilizes techniques such as; dialogue, word choice, and scene-setting to establish a strong narrative voice that compels you to keep reading. This presentation explores the creative nonfiction works of Orlean and analyzes her writing strategies and tactics she uses to both inform and interest her audience.
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Implications Of Inaccurate Representation In Crime And Prison Television DramasThe criminal justice system in the United States is extremely discriminatory against Black and Latinx people in particular and has many issues with racial disparities. Mass incarceration, legal discrimination, and unsafe prison conditions are only some of the problems that the system is facing. Black people have been disproportionately targeted by this system, as they have always been subject to over-policing and racism in the law, though Latinx people are also overrepresented in the system in comparison to the general population. The establishment of the War on Drugs in the 1980s only expanded these practices, and now the criminal justice system is at its breaking point. Media culture plays a role in shaping public sentiment about the criminal justice system. Television dramas about crime and prison sensationalize the system by encoding harmful narratives about crime and prison, which leads to audiences to decoding stereotypical and sensational messages. Using Stuart Hall’s encoding/decoding model of media communication, this project investigates the impact of television dramas on viewers’ perceptions of crime, prison, and the criminal justice system. I analyze two popular television dramas, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Oz, in relation to research on the realities of the criminal justice system and the impact of television on viewers. My analysis demonstrates that there are many ways in which these programs perpetuate harmful and inaccurate messages and stereotypes to viewers about crime, prison, criminals, and the criminal justice system due to inadequate representation, lack of productive discourse about crime and prison, and racist imagery encoding.
