Schedule of Events

My capstone presentation explores the 19th-century romance novel, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, which I examine through a feminist lens. I put my research into the feminist features of Hawthorne’s novel in the context of my earlier high school exposure to it, which occurred in the context of a very conservative, Christian high school, which viewed the novel exclusively through its theme of adultery. In contrast, my concern in this presentation is the question of Hester Prynne, the main character, who was written as a strong female figure. I am interested in exploring why Hawthorne would choose to write such a strong female character in 19th century America, defying dominant gender and religious stereotypes. For my research, I examined various contemporary reviews of the novel, a biography about Nathaniel Hawthorne, the novel itself, and critical analyses. I examine characters, key scenes, and symbols, in order to take the feminist theme back to Hawthorne’s own personal life as he was writing this novel.

Theologians have identified the major spiritual gifts in Paul's first letter to the Corinthians as the source for our understanding of the charismata. For centuries, most Western Christians saw the charismatic practices as outdated, radical, and overly emotional, as would also be the case in the twentieth century "Charismatic Movement." In the sixteenth century, Martin Luther had emphasized a rational rather than a charismatic approach to worship. He also, however, valued the emotional aspects of worship through music and used music to appeal to and include the less educated, less sophisticated members of Lutheran congregations. Luther's example of merging rather than polarizing rational and emotional styles of worship is reflected in the position of many of today's ELCA Lutherans, who, in response to the excesses of the Charismatic movement, are attempting to unify emotionalism and rationalism through "blended worship." After researching the debates about rational vs. charismatic worship style, I have concluded that a blended style of worship in the Lutheran church satisfies Paul's call for Christian unity as well as reinforces Luther's goal to educate Christians to worship rationally in the vernacular of the people.

This research examines the arc of the public and scholarly reception of John Steinbeck’s 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath and organizes an argument for the inclusion of the novel in collegiate level curricula. The Grapes of Wrath is simultaneously, and thus controversially, a political and an introspective novel; a Biblical and a scientific novel; a social-statement making and a best-selling novel. Controversy has plagued Wrath for decades and propelled it as well: it is included on Modern Library’s 100 Best Novels List above Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse and Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises. Despite its celebrity, the novel is used – when it is used – primarily as a literary primer to engage early high school students in the practice of identifying symbols. This project evaluates Wrath’s book review history, analyzes three critical editions of Wrath, and draws from author correspondence and ephemera to develop a critical summary of the text and to argue that its dissension must be used to promote its position in higher academia. The Grapes of Wrath is a valuable text because of its debatable nature and inability to be unanimously classified. Scholars must take this distinctive text as an opportunity to reflect upon our proclivity for strict categorizations of creativity and art and the effects of those lines being blurred.

The dominance of the English language in the global community is both advantageous and detrimental to U.S. citizens. The prominent role that English plays on the world’s stage is perhaps partly responsible for the perception that Americans have no need to learn another language. Even with the current educational emphasis on diversity and globalization, most of our schools are not introducing a second language requirement until middle school or high school. Respected theorists, including Noam Chomsky and Danny Steinberg, agree that this is far too late for students to become well versed in a second language. What then stands in the way of expanding foreign language in the U.S? The objections to an immediate introduction of second language education in elementary schools are based principally upon cost, time, and the misguided mentality that elementary children are too young for second language education. These issues make it unlikely that such a quick solution could prevail. A gradual implementation of second language education into elementary school curricula may be a plausible, more optimistic possibility, but again, not likely to be implemented anytime soon. Our other choice is to do nothing. If that becomes our option, we fall far behind the rest of the world in our effort to achieve greater cultural understanding, thereby remaining myopic, and being perceived as such.
 

Since 1994, when Swarthmore College student Justin Hall wrote the world’s first online blog, blogging has continued to become more pervasive, more ubiquitous, and at the same time, more reviled in the public forum. The increasing radicalization of the responses to online blogging itself demonstrates the growing importance of blogging’s explosive popularity. After exploring a significant number of print and online sources, I have determined: 1) that positive responses to blogging focus primarily on the benefits of an interactive platform for freedom of speech, and that 2) the negative responses generally characterize blogging as unreliable and unprofessional. Interestingly, many of these negative responses tend to be generated by professional journalists, for whom blogging is threatening to transform and marginalize their traditional journalism practices. Examples of such transformations include journalism’s incorporation of blogging methods and material, the soliciting of audience participation, and the increased emphasis on subjective involvement and perspective. Ultimately, the accessibility and interactive quality of blogs are driving the transformation of traditional journalism to a modernized alternative that uses the features of blogging as its preferred platform.

The universal subject of escape from the mundane has expedited the persistent use of the classical Lotus Eaters story in Western cultures. After having been originally introduced in the Greek bardic/oral narrative poetic tradition, the Lotus Eaters was incorporated by Homer in his epic poem, The Odyssey. Since then, it has been adapted by other authors in a number of widely divergent eras and cultures. Its continued popularity is hardly surprising—since audiences from all walks of life can relate to its strongly stated themes involving ennui and escape. Using Homer as a touchstone and Lord Alfred Tennyson and James Joyce as examples, my goal in this project has been to demonstrate how Tennyson’s  Victorian and Joyce’s Modernist renderings of The Odyssey’s “The Lotus Eaters” illustrate the ongoing relevance and appeal of the story. In addition, contrasting these two adaptations of the classic story has clarified some interesting specific differences between the Victorian and the Modernist zeitgeist.

I have done my capstone project on One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey. To start off the presentation, I will give a reading of a creative piece I have written regarding the characters of the book. I wrote this piece with the mindset of a mentally ill person. My goal in writing this was to capture the effect that Kesey’s book would have on a real person that is having similar emotions, thoughts, and experiences that the characters in the book have. This piece is important to me because it expresses my belief that One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest can have a lasting impression on a person who is mentally ill. I will explain how I have used personal experience with mental illness to help capture an authentic voice that represents the mentally ill. Following my reading, I will discuss themes coming from Kesey’s book. These themes include masculinity, and mental illness. I will take these themes and show how they can be seen as a catalyst to the formation of camaraderie amongst the members of the ward, and how this camaraderie helps shape them over the course of the story.

For my project, I analyze Virginia Woolf’s late novel, The Waves. This novel was her most experimental and what Woolf considered as the epitome of her style. The novel’s form was the main object of early criticism for this work. However, a new trend has appeared in contemporary Woolf scholarship: the interdisciplinary approach. In my presentation, I analyze this trend as it relates to The Waves, and explore some of the implications of this type of scholarship. I break down some of the scholarship of the last twenty years and the different approaches it takes towards The Waves. I also explore how scholarship itself influences the way that we read this work and literature in general. By using Woolf’s own theories about the mutability of words and the common reader, I will approach this issue of literary scholarship from Woolf’s perspective. I will also apply these theories directly to interdisciplinary scholarship and argue that this new trend is more in line with Woolf’s theories than older forms of criticism. Finally, I will argue that The Waves is particularly suited to this type of scholarship because of its experimental nature and is finally coming into its own in the field of Woolf scholarship.

The body of work of John Steinbeck has been debated in terms of cultural relevancy ever since it first gained critical popularity, but perhaps the most hotly debated work in terms of fair racial representation was undoubtedly Steinbeck’s Tortilla Flat. The novel, which revolves around the misadventures of several Mexican-American “paisano” residents of the hill country of California’s Monterey, was praised in the early years following its release in 1935 for its pseudo-comedic caricatures of the poverty-stricken life of the “paisanos.” However, as reviews grew out of simple appreciation for the text and into cultural criticism, many writers began to question whether or not Steinbeck’s treatment of the Mexican-Americans in Tortilla Flat was, perhaps, inherently racist.
In an attempt to find a definitive answer to many cultural literary critics’ arguments on Steinbeck’s work, I looked at a multitude of sources (including movie representations, literary reviews, and criticisms) and have an interactive presentation that determines the fairness of Steinbeck’s Tortilla Flat in terms of accurate cultural representation.

The sonnet has played an influential role in the poetic discipline since the sixteenth century both as a central literary art form and valuable skill for all writers who have mastered it. Through the first composed sonnet sequence, “Astrophil and Stella,” Sir Philip Sidney illustrates to each of his readers the power of a structured form mixed effortlessly with a lyric voice, painting the perfect image of unrequited love. For Sidney, ‘authentic experiences’ are necessary in order to produce quality work, otherwise there would be no passion or emotion that would grab the reader’s attention, which then relates to how self-introspection effectively serves to entertain and to teach. After analyzing Sidney’s sequence, I aim to recognize the development of my own academic voice by employing a critical self-analysis that will generate more experiential learning.  Sidney the writer frames his passion and emotions though his fictional counterpart, Astrophil, and in turn, I seek to reflect on the differences between my lyric writing voice and my academic voice, since both help demonstrate my thought process and how I choose to cater to reader’s emotions, making for a more valuable understanding and message.