9:00-10:15: Session 1A Waiting on the World to Change

Ashley Milliner “Writing an Economy of the Self: Politics and Nature in Walden”

My presentation considers Henry David Thoreau's Walden as more than just a book about nature. Walden also represents the political stress on cultural terror, and offers a critique of American oppression. Walden encouraged individuals to simplify and create a stance against cultural exploitation by relinquishing the self.

Evan Cameron "Walking with the Wounded: War, Whitman, and the Beginning of Humanistic Medicine"

This presentation considers the application of Whitman's writing to contemporary medical practice, through close readings of Drum-Taps and his autobiography Specimen Days. His poetry and narratives from Civil War hospitals are then considered as possible examples of empathic behavior for the modern-day physician.

Megan Conkle “‘The junk that goes with being human drops away’: Gary Snyder and Spiritual Activism”

This presentation examines Snyder's poetry collection, Riprap, and how he uses the fundamental ideas of Buddhism to help him provide reproachful social commentary and a call for universal change. The paper discusses the way in which a poetry collection can be utilized in an activism role.

Chair: Cynthia Richards Rick Incorvati

Carmiele Wilkerson

HOLLENBECK 215

9:00-10:15: Session 1B Check The Label

Clint Rodgers “The Laughter Within: The Cherry Orchard's Use of Humor”

Anton Chekhov insisted that The Cherry Orchard was a comedy, while all of his critics perceived it as a tragedy. This research asserts that the characters of the play certainly possess humor by suffering from needless delusion, distraction, and addiction all of their own making in the turmoil of class conflict in late nineteenth-century Russia.

Adrienne Stout “Oscar's Handbag: Wilde's Triumph and Tragedy through Unidentity”

The complexities and controversies surrounding Oscar Wilde are many, and this prohibits us from simply identifying him as an "Irish playwright," or a "homosexual playwright." He is both of these and more. This presentation will explain how Wilde cannot quite fit into the labels that today's readers ascribe to him. Using several of Wilde's works, we will also explore the unique space that Wilde creates for himself, an "unidentity," and how this space both helped him achieve notoriety, and ultimately led to his fall from society's graces.

Claire Kozlowski “The Origins, Effects, and Elimination of Rape Culture in Samuel Richardson's Pamela and Aphra Behn's The Rover to Today”

This presentation discusses what the term “rape culture” means in today's society, and how these 17th and 18th century works illustrate this modern concept by comparing the literature to modern day examples.

Chair: Scot Hinson Robin Inboden D’Arcy Fallon

HOLLENBECK 316

9:00-10:15: Session 1C

This Presentation is Brought to You by the Letter “S”

Sam Reynolds “Spirituality in the Face of Death”

Throughout Herman Melville's Moby Dick, there are many spiritual experiences that the characters undergo. While Ahab is on a quest to kill the white whale it becomes a quest to find the wholeness that he lacks both physically and spiritually. For Ishmael, he boards the ship as a way to escape the harshness of the world and ends up searching for an end to his orphaned status. Moby Dick comes to represent the ubiquity and inscrutability of religion for both of the characters. As a result, both Ishmael and Ahab yearn to find wholeness through the ship and the capture of the white whale.

Kelsey Matson “Second-guessing Gulliver: Jonathan Swift's Creative and Political Writing at the Height of his Career”

Jonathan Swift has been labeled a multitude of titles: essayist, political activist, poet, priest, the list goes on; but, he is known first and foremost for his satires written at the height of his career: Drapier's Letters, Gulliver's Travels, and "A Modest Proposal." The problem with Swift is the difficulty of naming the exact genres of his work that pushed the boundaries of the 18th century literary sphere. This discussion will cover the historical and political issues, as well as the literary elements, that transform Swift's work from journalism and high literature into something unexpected: a genre that still eludes set restrictions today.

Sam Evans “Sphere and Loathing: The repercussions of rejecting the female sphere in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein”

This presentation discusses Victor Frankenstein's loss of family, friends, sanity, and a private self because he doesn't give a voice to the women in his life. Without the caretaker role of the woman, man loses his humanity.

Chair: Lori Askeland Mac McClelland Mike Mattison

HOLLENBECK 336

10:30-11:45: Session 2A Take Me to the River (Drop Me in the Water)

Jon Drewsen

“'Provincetown sand in my shoes': Sympathy, Cape Cod, and the Unraveling of Walden.”

While looking to find a similar sympathetic connection with the sea at Cape Cod as he did at Walden Pond, Thoreau comes to understand his inability to have such a connection at the expansive Cape, instead finding such unbounded sympathy upon his return to Walden in the melting sandbank. Viewing Cape Cod as a transcript of experiences that occur during the time between his experiment at Walden and his completion of Walden, I argue that Cape Cod helped to shape Walden into Thoreau’s masterpiece.

Claryssa Haugrud “The Economies of Friendship, Free Will, and Fate in Herman Melville's Moby-Dick”

This presentation discusses how factors of friendship, free will, and fate impact Ishmael and Ahab's life when the fated Pequod sinks.

Noah Havlice “Birds and Sula's Gothic Cycles”

This presentation examines Toni Morrison's Sula and how birds represent a harbinger of death in the novel. It showcases the instances in which birds and imagery thereof represent a moral, and often literal, demise of characters or groups. The presentation also examines outside sources and how this interpretation of Morrison's tale fits in with the ongoing scholarly debate regarding the work.

Chair: Mac McClelland Cynthia Richards

Scot Hinson

HOLLENBECK 215

10:30-11:45: Session 2B (…or not 2B…) Braids, Balance, and (Christa)Bel

Shannon Kelleher "Eros and the Unraveling of Innocence: Grappling with Desire in Coleridge's Christabel" This presentation will examine Samuel Taylor Coleridge's struggle to reconcile loss of innocence with the emergence of sexual desire in the poem Christabel. An understanding of the poem's Miltonic references, its unfinished aspect, and Coleridge's abandonment of Unitarianism offers a plausible interpretation of the poet's conclusion regarding sexual desire's place in the human experience.

Victoria Nave “All Love, are Loved: A Braid of Elegies by L.E.L., Elizabeth Barrett

Browning, and Christina Rossetti” This presentation posits a mini-elegiac tradition that links these three Victorian female poets as each defines herself through comparison and contrast with their direct predecessor.

Brandon Pytel “The Tragic Imbalance of the Pequod: Ahab and Starbuck as Two Parts of the Same Self” This paper explores the roles of Starbuck and Ahab as two parts of the same self. When this combination of self loses balance, the Pequod is left to destruction.

Chair: Rick Incorvati D’Arcy Fallon

Mike Mattison

HOLLENBECK 313

10:30-11:45: Session 2C Picking up the Split

Taylor Burmeister “Multiplicities of Self in Margaret Cavendish: the Construction of Fame Culture” Margaret Cavendish navigates between her aristocratic royalist upbringing and the emerging democratic culture associated with the revolution in order to create a name for herself. She utilizes the emerging democratic print culture to in turn carve out a space of renown that was once associated with the monarchy. This trend will lead to the democratic fame culture of the 18th century, and can be attributed to our contemporary infatuation with celebrities and the methods they take to achieve fame.

Elizabeth Boyer “Above, Below, and In Between: Colum McCann and the New York City Novel” This presentation will discuss Colum McCann's This Side of Brightness and Let the Great World Spin, examining the utilization of a high and low dichotomy, identity and association, and time. By acknowledging the differences between novels in these motifs, one can consider their relationship to one another in the context of 9/11.

Dorri Jones “The Other Woman: Sylvia Plath and Split Selves in The Great Gatsby” This paper will discuss Sylvia Plath's concept of split selves, particularly through an analysis of her poem “In Plaster,” which will be used as a lens to analyze Fitzgerald's Gatsby and the role Myrtle Wilson plays as the "yellow leg" in comparison to her Daisy counterpart. It touches on the social pressures forcing women to design themselves around a white "plaster" ideal versus the darker, more natural "yellow" self within them.

Chair: Kate MacDonald Carmiele Wilkerson

Lori Askeland

HOLLENBECK 315

1:00-2:15: Session 3A We Never Metafiction We Couldn’t Analyze

Adam Dyer “Stick to the Script: The Meaning of Certain Death in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead”

This presentation works to capture the metafictional ways in which Stoppard's play works, as well as the ways it maintains the awareness of a kind of double consciousness that connects the characters in Stoppard's play with the reader/audience.

Colton Bright “Rivaling the Romantics: The Byronic Era”

Byron tests himself, his characters, and society to transcend the scope of Romantic literature, giving birth to a philosophy grounded in movement. He recognizes the flaws of both sense and sensibility, and rather explores the concept of humanity's ability to anticipate and adapt through experience.

Bethany Roys “Crippled Heroines: A Look into Gender Stereotypes in Young Adult and Children’s Literature”

This presentation examines the Young Adult works of Divergent by Veronica Roth, Uglies by Scott Westerfield, and The Hunger Games movie. Tris, Tally, and Katniss are modern heroines who, though brave and forward in their actions, are still handicapped by their gender stereotypes. This talk will look into the growth and setbacks of gender stereotypes in today's Young Adult genre.

Lindsay Dukes “Liberating the Private Self in a Man’s World: Using Sappho in Romantic Literature”

This presentation will discuss the use of Sappho and her poetry in Romantic literature. Specifically, the dichotomy of the self and the many roles that women played in the late 18th century, and how Sappho’s writings provide both inspiration and commentary on women’s roles. Their use of her poetry was a liberating tool for the private self to be expressed, and Sappho echoes their thoughts on the patriarchal oppression faced at the time. Conversely, the men of the Romantic Era also used Sappho, but as a weapon to continue the patriarchal dominance.

Chair: Mike Mattison Robin Inboden

Kate MacDonald

HOLLENBECK 316

1:00-2:15: Session 3B It’s Just Your 19th (Century) Nervous Breakdown

Rebecca Petrilli “Jane Eyre: Manipulation as a Tool for Emotional Healing” This presentation explores Jane Eyre's manipulative tendencies and how she uses them to create the image of the life she desires but did not inherit, and to convince the reader of her importance.

Doug Robbins “Themes of Family and Religion in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein” Everyone knows Frankenstein is a classic horror story. While creating the story, Mary Shelley was influenced by two generations of family and friends that made one famous, talented, creative, and politically active literary circle. Literary critics are still talking about her story today.

Annie Clevidence “Watson's Rosy Lenses: A Look at Conan Doyle's Dr. John Watson's Importance in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.” This presentation considers Watson's role in the characterization of Sherlock Holmes. The discussion will illuminate how the importance of Watson as the narrator and friend to Holmes forges the link to Holmes' accessibility and likability to audiences.

Chair: Carmiele Wilkerson Mac McClelland Cynthia Richards

HOLLENBECK 332

2:30-3:45: Session 4A Poe, Poe Pitiful Me

Nick Kurtz “The Solipsistic Nightmare: A Journey Through Poe” This presentation considers Poe's traumatic past and how that translated to his writing, specifically his narratives. I argue that through his writing, Poe's narrators are simply jaded reflections of a brilliant mind pulled through tragedy.

David Johnson “Monomania and Self-Deception: Revealing the Cultural Discrimination within the Works of Edgar Allan Poe” This presentation considers the narrators of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “Berenice,” and “The Black Cat” as monomaniacal and self-deceiving characters who reflect mid-19th century American culture and the death of the American Dream.

Fran Stygar “Poe's Women: Victims of the Patriarchy or Empowered Spirits?” This presentation discusses the women in Poe's life and how they have been recreated and reborn in his gothic stories and poetry. Through his writing, he gives women new life, a new chance to fight back. Even though his tales are weaved with gore, violence, and the abuse of women, they are also empowering. Poe's women never seem to truly "die" at all. Instead, through their rebirth, they become stronger, and dominate the patriarchy that so desperately tried to keep them hidden in the darkness.

Chair: Robin Inboden Scot Hinson

Rick Incorvati

HOLLENBECK 329

2:30-3:45: Session 4B Welcome to the Real World

Will Gundlach “Rewriting Roy: Kushner's Approach to Writing Roy Cohn into Angels in America” The presentation looks to shed light on Tony Kushner's emotionally complex personal history with the late Roy Cohn, as both a Jewish male and a homosexual. It then seeks to analyze the way in which Kushner actually writes the character of Roy Cohn into the play.

Dee Dech “Susan Glaspell, Feminism, and Trifles: The Knotting of Minnie Wright's Case” This presentation focuses on the actual murder case behind Trifles, which changed Susan Glaspell's view on feminism and the unity between women.

Kelsey Johnson “Let's Hear it For the Boys: Wharton's Men, Their Apparel and Form in The Age of Innocence” This presentation considers Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence and Wharton's use of clothing, ornament, and form of the male characters of Newland Archer and Lawrence Lefferts in order to discuss key social class differences. It is an exploration of the contrasts between the structured class system of Old New York and a bohemian, European-style aristocracy.

Chair: D’Arcy Fallon

Lori Askeland Kate MacDonald

HOLLENBECK 332