Tag: Watson

Lydia Batenhorst

Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss: Themes of Deception and Death in Women’s Stories in the Hebrew Bible

In my capstone, I will be studying five women from the Hebrew Bible: Eve, Rebekah, Jael, Delilah, and Jezebel. What a fascinating group of widely upsetting and despised women! My objective is to explore how we might be able to redeem these characters, focusing on their strengths and other interpretations to provide a perspective that is contrary or new to the typical reading of these characters. In order to do so, I narrowed the lens, concentrating on the destructive themes of deception and death in these stories. For the first theme, I have chosen to focus on three women whose stories reflect the tensions of deception: Rebekah, Jael, and Delilah. For the second, two of the most despised women in the Hebrew Bible – Eve and Jezebel – will be analyzed through this theme of death. I believe this exploration will be worthwhile and important because their characters are often used – whether explicitly or implicitly, whether intentionally or unintentionally – to define and limit perceptions of women. By recovering and renewing their stories and roles, we are recovering the more positive portrayals and perceptions of women while challenging the largely negative common beliefs of and standard narrative for women that has been laid upon us, justified in the “deceitful, seductive, weak-willed, unreliable, temptress” narrative, portrayal, and interpretation of women likes these five.

ENG 499, Senior Capstone

James Watson

L203

2:30 – 3 PM

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Jasmine Lay

Quiet Screams and Radio Silence

Discussion of writing style: Stream of consciousness, Quiet Screams and Radio Silence meaning, echoing of thoughts, Prose. To bring one inside someone’s head in a realistically scattered way. 

Artistic influences: Music, nature, other authors, traumas. Introduce lyric examples. Nick Flynn, Iain Thomas, JD Salinger, William Faulkner

Publication “”process”” of poetry book.

Sample reading from poetry book (Poetry Slam).

Acknowledgements

ENG 499, Senior Capstone

James Watson

L203

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10 – 10:30 AM

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Kinkade Barreiro

Existential Themes in Gothic Literature

Gothic Literature is known for its dark, mysterious, and dreadful imagery and stories. The Existential tradition is a response to Nihilism, which proposes what we live in a dark, mysterious reality with no inherent meaning. Existentialism attempts to show that our human experience isn’t dreadful, even if it is dark, mysterious, and devoid of meaning.

ENG 217, Studies in Gothic American Literature

James Watson

2 – 2:30 PM

Join the Zoom discussion afterward. The presenter and faculty advisor both have the password.

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Caitlin Bowen

Portrayals of Feminism Through the Novels of Jane Austen

Jane Austen is one of the most well-known British-English authors that lived the 18th century. While her novels and writings are often praised for their portrayal of day-to-day living in the English countryside, she also portrays the restrictions that were put on women during this time. In her novels Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, and Persuasion, Austen uses her female characters not only to illustrate the rigid expectations that society had for them but also to illustrate the different degrees of feminism available to these women while they still, for the most part, followed society’s rules. Her other novels, Emma, Mansfield Park, and Northanger Abbey provide other relevant examples of feminism in 18th century England; however, they do so in a different manner. This presentation will look at what feminism is and how it differed in the 18th century. It will also analyze the different women found in Austen’s novels and their situations in life, and try to understand what possible ideas, regarding feminism, Austen was trying to get her readers to comprehend.

ENG 499, Capstone

James Watson

1 – 1:30 PM

Join the Zoom discussion afterward. The presenter and faculty advisor both have the password.

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Alyssa Perovich

Reading and Analysis of the Original Short Story: Black Whiskey

In this presentation, I will be sharing a selection from my short story, Black Whiskey, followed by an analysis of its themes and structure. The story follows Saphia Deering, a woman with a seemingly mundane life, as her past comes back to haunt her. As Saphia faces her demons, a series of new events and people lead her back to the church. In my analysis, I break the story down into categories to determine the influences behind it. The character of Saphia develops throughout the story and reaches a point of divine intervention before passing away. Supporting characters in the story are paired with different settings to help Saphia along the way, experiencing little development themselves. Themes include addiction, depression, sadness, faith, and healing. The plot is focused around a journey of spiritual development and includes multiple peaks and plateaus. Black Whiskey is influenced heavily by authors in the genre of literary fiction, such as Toni Morrison, Ayn Rand, and Ray Bradbury.

ENG 499, Capstone

James Watson

Join the Zoom discussion afterward. The presenter and faculty advisor both have the password.

1:30 – 2 PM

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Tanner Dean

There is no Guru, there is no Mountain:  Beyond the “Ideal Other” and “Utopia” in To the Lighthouse and The Road 

People often flock to “gurus”, or throw themselves into movements, that seem to offer an answer to life’s antagonisms and sufferings. In To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf and The Road by Cormac McCarthy there is a subversion that is being done to free the reader from the cycle that is moving from a guru, or movement, to another, in an intellectual sense. People tend to throw themselves to self-help book after self-help book in hope of an answer, but in these novels there is a way to escape the ferry wheel that is certainty and embrace the depth and density of life amidst our struggle. In To the Lighthouse a psychanalytic framework is helpful for braking free from the “ideal other”, or guru. The Road uses imagery of stillness, relationality, and embodiment to show that a utopia cannot ever be possible, yet we should continue into the gray unknown. 

ENG 499, Capstone 

James Watson 

SPS 100 

1 – 1:30 PM 

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Kaitlin Martin

Common Threads: A Reflection on Six Short Works 

I will be presenting a small selection of creative pieces from my writing portfolio. The six short works I have chosen are representative of the three schools I have attended and will be read in conversation with the reflective paper I have written about the wonderful – and often intense, insane, barely endurable – journey I have been on for the last ten years. I will begin with two poems that were well-received but, ultimately, not chosen for advancement in regional writing competitions through Lane Community College; I will proceed with one short story and one poem written during my time at the University of Oregon; and I will end with another short story and poem that were penned here at NCU. The pieces will, ultimately, speak for themselves. They will illustrate what it’s like to be both artist and Christian, craving both sin and freedom, torn between independence and redemption – in essence, they will expose some of the intricate threadwork that connects me to you through the one thing we all have in common: our humanity. 

ENG 499, Capstone 

James Watson 

SPS 100 

1:30 – 2 PM

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