English majors deliver senior thesis presentations
Twenty-three seniors majoring in English will give their thesis presentations in the DiStefano Lecture Hall April 19-20. Featured will be students’ examination and in-depth analysis of a variety of cultural topics drawn from popular contemporary novels, classic literature, fairy tales, television shows, movies, video games and social media, among others.
Seniors have been working under the supervision of Dr. Madeleine Esch, assistant professor of English, and Dr. Sally Gomaa, associate professor of English.
Friday, April 19 from 3:30-5:30 p.m.
Amy Cournoyer: “I’m Afraid I Just Blue Myself: Gay Subtext in ‘Arrested Development’”
Courtney Randall: “Sméagol Versus Gollum: The Bridge between Fantasy and Reality”
Breanne Cabral: “Massacres in the Media: The Ethics of Interviewing Child Survivors after Tragedy”
Patrick Kelley: “Life, Regalia, and the Pursuit of Bravery: Questionable Lessons Taught in Beowulf”
Kaitlyn Boisvert: “Revamping the Vampire Heroine: Reshaping the Character of Bella Swan through Twilight Fan Fiction”
Friday, April 19 from 5:30-6:30 p.m.
Shannon Del Ross: “Deconstructing the Gods: Laura as the True Hero(ine) in Neil Gaiman’s American Gods”
Taylor Gomes: “Believe what you will: Comparing Athletes’ Tweets and Media Coverage of the NHL Lockout”
Kathleen Sweeney: “There is No Middle Ground: Instability in A Game of Thrones”
Emma St. Laurent: “Pinning the Pages: Pinterest and Lifestyle Magazine Content Curation”
Molly Berry: “The New Shade of Grey: The Literary Perspective of the Ideal Woman as Portrayed in Fifty Shades of Grey and Mansfield Park”
Hannah Gonneville: “Is Snow White Still the Fairest of Them All? How Once Upon A Time Reinvents the Image of the Disney Princess”
Saturday, April 20 from 9 a.m. to noon
Daniel Johnson: “The Judge’s Hold: The Struggle for Voice in Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian”
Jeffrey Endriunas: “Accuracy and Truth: Does New Journalism Have a Place in the 21st Century?”
Micaela Sullivan: “A New Hemingway Code: Reevaluating the Characters in For Whom the Bell Tolls”
Mark Melikian: “Wilfred, the Anthropomorphic Dog: How Props Advance Comedy Within a Sitcom”
Melanie Sabrowske: “Within Her Grasp: A Reevaluation of Gender and Desire in Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary”
Miranda Hochberg: “You got the wrong guy. I’m the Dude, man: The Coen Brothers’ Use of Mistaken Identity in their Genre Films”
Justin Guay: “Pages Cease: Blurring the Boundaries of Reality and Fiction in Cloud Atlas”
Saturday, April 21 from 1:30-4 p.m.
Melanie Brozek: “#PrettyLittleLiars: How Hashtags Drive the Social TV Phenomenon”
Karen Krupa: “Narrative Technique in A Separate Peace: The Connection Between Identity and Narrator Reliability”
Hanna Mraz: “Dark Shadows? Expanding Auteur Theory through the Visual Elements of Tim Burton Films”
Erika Mutter: “Explaining the Unexplainable: A New Cultural Outlook on H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos”
Mike McDonald: “Inside the Helmet: Immersive Storytelling of First-Person Shooters in Halo”