EWL Seniors Present Final Research [Photos]

On Tuesday, December 4 and Thursday, 6, senior English and World Literatures students presented their final research as part of their capstone course with Dr. Martha Sledge.
 
About the Course

The topic for this semester’s seminar is Toni Morrison’s 1987 novel Beloved. The class began the semester reading Morrison’s award-winning book and articles which illustrate the varieties of theoretical approaches scholars have taken in interpreting this complex text. The class also explored questions of gender, genre, identity, race, and language, among others. By studying these different approaches to Beloved, the students honed their skills in using theoretical approaches necessary to producing their own critical work.

The Fall 2018 Senior Seminar Program

 

Panel One: Women and Trauma

Peggy Fiocco “‘Pacify My Mind’: Escapism of the Trauma of Slave Women through Spiritualism and Storytelling in Toni Morrison’s Beloved and Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing”

Thannia Quilpas “‘It’s a tree, Lu’: Deconstructing Trauma in Toni Morrison’s Beloved”

Panel Two: Women and the Patriarchy

Solange Guerrero “The Politics of the Home: An Analysis of Laura Esquivel’s Like Water for Chocolate and Toni Morrison’s Beloved”

Cassie Sublette “Are They Guilty?: Reader Response to Trauma Narrative in Beloved and Atonement” 

Panel Three: Language and Power

Katherine DeZarlo “‘Four Legs Good, Two Legs Bad’: Breaking the Binary of Human-Animal in Animal Farm and Beloved”

Yesenia Martinez “Spread Truth: Understanding Assimilation and Trauma in Down These Mean Streets by Piri Thomas and Beloved by Toni Morrison”

Emily Karandy “Writing While Black: Exploring the Hierarchy of Language in Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime and Toni Morrison’s Beloved”

Panel Four: Identity

Devon Elizabeth Sofia “What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger: The Appeal of Appearance and the Purpose Behind Color and Clothing in Beloved, as a Commentary on Power Dynamics”

Kayla Ryan ‘I Can’t Breathe’: Slavery and Police Brutality in The Hate U Give and Beloved”

Lauren L’Heureux “Colonialist Prescriptions of Identity: Regaining Autonomy through the Use of the Magical and the Fantastical in Toni Morrison’s Beloved and Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses”

Zarah-Mikayla Lattimore “Property and Rage: Infanticide as Protest in Toni Morrison’s Beloved”

Published: December 06, 2018

Contact

Dr. Martha Sledge
646-393-4119
msledge@mmm.edu