Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University proudly showcases the work of undergraduate honors students by sharing this collection exclusively with the ASU community.
Barrett accepts high performing, academically engaged undergraduate students and works with them in collaboration with all of the other academic units at Arizona State University. All Barrett students complete a thesis or creative project which is an opportunity to explore an intellectual interest and produce an original piece of scholarly research. The thesis or creative project is supervised and defended in front of a faculty committee. Students are able to engage with professors who are nationally recognized in their fields and committed to working with honors students. Completing a Barrett thesis or creative project is an opportunity for undergraduate honors students to contribute to the ASU academic community in a meaningful way.
An analysis of the relationship between haunted house films and economic anxieties of different cultures and time periods.
Speculative fiction and fantasy media have abundant power to portray alternative realities or imagined futures for minority groups. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, from the late 1990s-early 2000s, and Wynonna Earp, from the late 2010s, are two fantasy television shows that produce this often-progressive, impactful representation, particularly for lesbians and bisexual people. Drawing on Queer and Monster Theories from Susan Stryker, Marilee Lindemann, Harry Benshoff, and Alexis Lothian, this thesis examines queer representation in these TV shows and how it contributes to the normalization of LGBTQ+ individuals whilst simultaneously honoring the shows’ queer fans. Normalizing non-cishetero genders and sexualities helps rewrite the narrative of LGBTQ+ people being considered “deviant” and threatening societal order; and holding true to queer roots of challenging social norms prevents the power of the queer community from being influenced by the pressures of compulsory heterosexuality.
This story ---Under Still Faces--- is a horror fiction story. It is influenced primarily by classic, gothic literature with themes from the horror and true crime genres. The story includes critical/theoretical concepts, literary devices, and techniques from gothic literature primarily including Freud’s Uncanny, uneven framing, and an unreliable narrator. It employs themes from Edgar Allan Poe’s novels as well as his thesis regarding plot in The Philosophy of Composition. Particular descriptive themes in conjunction with the use of gothic elements surprise the reader about the story’s true ending similar to Poe’s The Oval Portrait. Included is an analysis of the literary decisions made in the piece to evoke specific reactions and feelings from the reader.
