Literary Analysis and Inspiration

location_on Location: Burlington A

(Links to papers / posters are embargoed until 4/7)

All times in Eastern Time Zone

• assignment_ind Georgi, M. “ Sexuality and Maturity in the Selected Works of Stephen King ”
  As one of the most prominent horror writers from the late twentieth century, many works from Stephen King have been analyzed by scholars. What is lacking from these analyses is the discussion of hypersexualization and hypermaturization of minors throughout several of his major works. In order to fully determine the extent of these themes, the works of It (1986), The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon (1999), The Shining (1977), Doctor Sleep (2013), and The Outsider (2018) are examined. I analyze these novels and their portrayal of women, both adults and adolescents in an attempt to scrutinize the selected works of Stephen King in a way that is not often discussed by scholars.
• assignment_ind Knappenberger, A., Adkins, S. & Stryanec, E. “ Fostria: Where Utopia Meets Foster Care ”
  Fostria was created as the final project of our Honors First Year Seminar course, “Brave New Worlds,” which explored fictious and real-life visions of utopias to better understand the challenges and aspirations of different societies. Our mission was to spread awareness about the shortcomings of the foster care system while simultaneously exposing ourselves to the obstacles associated with creating a working, ethical society. Our objective with Fostria was to not only alleviate the issues of children who fall through the cracks of the foster care system but also to do so in a sustainable way. Our method was to identify an underserved demographic and then divide the components of a functional community and foster system into individual research tasks. We then reconvened and collectively pieced together solutions that best met our objective statement. The result was an environmentally friendly community with a focus on a therapy-integrated educational system; it works alongside familial housing for foster children to create a group identity and belonging within Fostria. Overall, we realized the details of creating the community were supplementary rather than superior to catering to the needs of belonging and growth for our demographic.
• assignment_ind Nichols, L. “ “Like Dying and Like Being Born”: The Portal, the Door, and the Closet in Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West ”
  This paper is a literary analysis of Mohsin Hamid’s novel Exit West through the lens of queer theory and LGBT symbolism. Previous scholarship surrounding Exit West has focused on Hamid’s use of fantasy elements as a commentary on xenophobia and colonialism. By drawing on noted texts in queer theory, including Sedgwick’s Epistemology of the Closet, this criticism connects Hamid’s portal plot to the experience of coming out. The research’s scope encompasses the intersection of the closet and coming out with migration and refugee experience.