Tag: Oral Session 1 DL

Defamiliarizing the Horror Genre

Presenter(s): Jess Thompson

Faculty Mentor(s): Angela Bogart-Montieth

Oral Session 1 DL

This project explores the method behind the fear-inducing works of fiction created by two of the most famous masterminds of literary horror, Edgar Allan Poe and Stephen King. The research delves into close readings of both King and Poe’s work, and analyzes the tactic known as “defamiliarizing the familiar,” a strategy that turns a variety of recognizable components—from characters to setting to even stylistic choices—into something strange in order to disorient and scare the reader. As an aspiring horror fiction writer, my goal is to put the work of these two authors in conversation with each other in order to borrow tools from them and further improve my own writing.

Revealing the Reveal: How and Why Authors Build to and Execute Plot Twist

Presenter(s): Andrew Tesoriero

Faculty Mentor(s): Mark Hennion

Oral Session 1 DL

Authors evoke narrative surprise to catch the audience off-balance. While plot twists are often associated with film, fiction also employs foreshadowing to build towards their reveals. However, fiction is a different medium than film. Film is often seen from outside its characters whereas fiction often puts the reader in a character’s mind or over their shoulder in the third person. Thus, interiority can make a plot twist more satisfying. When inside a character’s head, a reveal that they are not what they seem is more impactful than if viewed from the outside. Authors such as O. Henry, Ursula K. Le Guin, James Tiptree Jr., Seth Dickinson and Kazuo Ishiguro have used plot twists and narrative surprise to catch the reader off-balance. The meaning and emotional impact of each of their works is enhanced by the plot twist, but all in different ways that suit their disparate genres and tones. These authors’ varying works demonstrate multiple ways of executing plot twists: some feature dramatic reveal moments, others never acknowledge the twist and wait for the reader to figure out what is going on, but each of them use narrative surprise to support the tone and meaning of the piece.

Who is Speaking: Fictive De-Construction and the Second Person in Italo Cavino’s If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler

Presenter(s): Rory Allen

Faculty Mentor(s): Mark Hennion

Oral Session 1 DL

When writing a story, an author usually tries to erase all trace that the world and characters have been constructed so the reader seamlessly slips into the fictional realm without being reminded that a writer exists and is directing the story from behind the curtain. However, second person narration has the potential to disrupt this dynamic. My essay argues that the second person narrative style as utilized by Italo Calvino’s metafictive novella, If On a Winter’s Night a Traveler, redefines the fictional space that the protagonist and narrator inhabit. This, in turn, forces the reader to confront the roles of the author and narrator and exposes the construction of ‘story-telling’ in both the fictional and real realities.