Tag: Literature

The More it Looks Like Queer Street, The More I Ask

Presenter(s): Guy Jones − Psychology

Faculty Mentor(s): Mai-Lin Cheng

Oral Session 2O

Research Area: Literature

The infamous Mr. Hyde from Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella “Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” is remembered by most as monstrous, however one of Hyde’s most interesting qualities is his incredibly average, normal appearance. If Hyde functioned as a reflection of that which the Victorian populace feared, this begs the question of what his common appearance represented to the audience at the time of publication. The Victorian era was marked by increasingly nationalist sentiments and a great deal of insecurity regarding unseen foreign invaders polluting the purity of Londoners’ lineages. These invisible intruders were largely grouped under the term degenerate, popularized by Cesare Lombroso around the 1850s, and believed to be inherently evil. Among these degenerates were foreigners, the mentally ill, and homosexuals. These deviant identities were heavily interconnected as foreigners were believed to be the origins of homosexuality and other so-called mental illnesses. The subtle depiction of Hyde mimics the Victorian understanding of these supposed degenerates as documented in primary sources and in research done by Historians on the time period. Enfield, on page 14, declared that “the more it looks like Queer Street, the less I ask” however, anyone can admit a name like Queer Street demands questions.

A River Runs Through: An Analysis Of Ken Kesey’s Sometimes A Great Notion Exploring the Mirroring of a Fictional River to the Flow of the Novel Through Syntax and Form

Presenter(s): Alison Hamilton − English

Faculty Mentor(s): Corbett Upton

Oral Session 3O

Research Area: Humanities, Literature

In this project I will be analyzing Ken Kesey’s novel Sometimes A Great Notion, and discussing how his stylistic choices and singular form bring the world of the novel to life, and highlight the significance of the river within the novel. This story finds its own flow and cohesion using first person, second person, and third person narration, while also switching between many different characters. Almost every character in the novel has their consciousness explored as we see the story from their perspective. We also encounter an omniscient third person noncharacter narrator who begins each section of the novel and occasionally interjects with their own thoughts. Throughout the novel Kesey changes his syntax and appearance of sentences and paragraphs to show the changes in character, perspective, and time. A glance at any page of the novel shows an abundance of differing appearances of the text: from italics, to parentheses, to punctuation, to font size. Using these tools Kesey gives the readers visual cues to who is speaking, what time it is, and what perspective is being presented. I Sometimes A Great Notion n, Kesey has managed to create a portrait of a town and its people. He shows how a river can connect people far and wide and through time, and he creates that river through his unique structure and narrative choices. I will show how the flow of the novel itself emulates the flow of the river within the story.