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Description
The application of Toni Morrison’s Beloved as a lens through which one can analyze intergenerational trauma on an individual and communal level results in a blueprint towards a remedial process. The characters and their experiences in her novel are representative of a myriad of ways in which trauma is manifested. I have broken down the concept of intergenerational trauma into the idea that it can be seen as the state where one is both simultaneously “falling” and “fallen” at the same time. Used here, the term “falling” refers to the consistent, individual trauma that one is experiencing. On the other hand, the term “fallen” refers to the trauma that a community as a whole has experienced and internalized. This framework that I establish based off of Beloved is a launching point for the conversation surrounding the topic of remedial actions in relation to intergenerational trauma that resulted from slavery. Using it as a basis of knowledge allows one to truly gather the weight of the situation regarding trauma postbellum. Considering the current climate surrounding any meaningful dialogue, knowledge is one of the most important aspects. Along with the concepts of “falling”/”fallen,” I also coined the term productive memory, which refers to the act of confrontation as well as the remembering of intergenerational trauma. The use of productive memory is imperative in addressing the prior ideas presented regarding intergenerational trauma and the possible pathways to move forward.
ContributorsCampbell, Hugh Fitz (Author) / Soares, Rebecca (Thesis director) / Agruss, David (Committee member) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / Economics Program in CLAS (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-05
Description
Late life domestic violence is essentially synonymous with domestic violence except that it specifically refers to older adults. Although there are many similarities between younger victims and older victims, there are also distinct differences. Older victims have unique risk factors and barriers, including generational factors that stem from socialization. Unfortunately, society lacks awareness of late life domestic violence. This is reflected in current state statutes as well as the limited services provided to victims of domestic violence. For example, there are currently elder abuse or dependent abuse adult statutes in every state, yet there is no statute that specifically addresses late life domestic violence. When it comes to services, many programs are geared toward younger victims and staff is typically not trained to work with older victims, so older victims often do not get the resources they need. Yet about 1 in 10 women over the age of 50 experience abuse by an intimate partner. This is a prevalent issue needing more attention. To bring awareness and educate people on this topic, a user friendly website was created that will provide information on late life domestic violence, resources for victims, and ways to share the information with others. The website provides information that will educate people on this issue, and also promotes advocacy for older victims.
ContributorsGarcia, Brittany Nicole (Author) / Bonifas, Robin (Thesis director) / Dodge, Nancie (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Social Work (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Elektralite: A Novella is a creative project that documents the life and happenings of Lana Elektra, a young multi-million dollar heiress living in New York City. In the novella, Lana has found herself a little restless as a result of having so much money and time on her hands. Through trying to keep herself occupied, Lana meets a boy named Connor who attends college in the city. The two develop a dysfunctional relationship concerning emotions, money, and power. Connor begins to get incredibly comfortable with Lana's lifestyle, particularly the drug culture, while Lana begins to question her identity and the life created for her on account of her wealth and status. Both are forced to evaluate what they want in their lives and what lengths they are willing to go to in order to get it. Themes tackled within the novella include wealth, greed, identity, the nature of love, and the American Dream. Lana and Connor represent two opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of the American Dream, as one who was literally born in to the Dream and another who is working towards the Dream and desperately craves it. The characterization of Connor also comments on the nature of the American college system, and the debt that students accumulate in pursuit of an education. The novella is roughly 114 pages in length and has 8 chapters. The story is told in 3rd person perspective, mostly focusing on Lana but also spending some time on Connor's perspective as well.
ContributorsHeinrich, Shelby Nicole (Author) / Soares, Rebecca (Thesis director) / Garrison, Gary (Committee member) / Department of English (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
The purpose of this project was to discuss the physiological effects of isolation on the human body and how the body adapts. Through reviewing stories and studies of social and perceptual isolation, the adaptations of the human mind are detailed. This project explores the experiences of prisoners, sensory deprivation tanks, cave explorations, as well as studies involving monkeys and carpenter ants. The adaptations witnessed include hallucinations, increased mortality, anxiety, agitation, altered sense of time, delayed response, and lowered blood pressure. Knowing the factors surrounding the isolation experience is crucial to understand the presenting adaptation methods. These factors include duration, voluntary or involuntary participation, mental strength, and the restriction level of the isolation.
DISCLAIMER: Due to the unexpected COVID-19 pandemic, the attached podcast is a draft recording in lieu of the final recording
DISCLAIMER: Due to the unexpected COVID-19 pandemic, the attached podcast is a draft recording in lieu of the final recording
ContributorsSidhu, Nimrit (Co-author) / Deacon, Hannah (Co-author) / Hyatt, JP (Thesis director) / Kingsbury, Jeffrey (Committee member) / School of Social Work (Contributor) / College of Health Solutions (Contributor) / Arizona State University. College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
This literary analysis thesis determines the relationship between twin characterization in Victorian novels and contemporary literature. Using Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-glass as foundational works for twin characterization with the Freudian definition of doubles as uncanny, this thesis analyzes the following twin tropes: the trickster twins, twins separated into binaries of “good” or “whole” and “damaged” or “evil,” male twins where one dies and the other marries the woman they both love, and female twins associated with shared supernatural appearance and abilities. These tropes are identified in Victorian works including Sarah Grand’s The Heavenly Twins and Wilkie Collins’ Poor Miss Finch, then demonstrated in contemporary sources including Ian McEwan’s novel Atonement, Kim Edwards’s novel The Memory-Keeper’s Daughter, J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, and Stanley Kubrick’s film The Shining. Ultimately, this thesis analyzes these tropes of twin characterization in 19th-century and contemporary literature from a variety of genres to demonstrate how the fin de siècle fears of cultural degradation, explored through duality using the vehicle of twin characters, remain as pervasive influences in today’s literature with similar concerns about individual identity.
ContributorsKnighton, Makenna Nicole (Author) / Soares, Rebecca (Thesis director) / Farmer, Steve (Committee member) / Department of English (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-12
DescriptionA collection of chronological, interconnected short stories following the lives and changes of a family throughout the 20th century, connected through the generations by unifying objects carried in from story to story.
ContributorsGilboa, Inbal (Author) / Bell, Matt (Thesis director) / Soares, Rebecca (Committee member) / Department of English (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
In my experience as a reader, depictions of depression or suicidal ideation in fiction are most often conveyed through social realism or otherwise realistically grounded writing. This makes sense given the subject matter, as one would intuitively think to depict mental or emotional trauma in a very sobering way, but I felt that one could merge the topic with a more absurdist, magical realist-inspired style while staying reverent to the emotional experience. I also find that stories that approach their subtext too seriously can stray very easily into plain didacticism, as opposed to a work that tries to entertain first. I concluded that conveying the experience of isolation and depression through metaphor would be the most emotionally rewarding or enlightening experience for the reader. The central premise of the story is, to me, a metaphor; a young man isolated from society, and haunted by past experiences, who comes to be literally haunted by ghosts with similar experiences. From that starting point I wanted to explore the perspectives of several of the ghosts in a multiple-protagonist format, structuring the present-day storyline around the flashbacks of three of the ghosts. I wanted each of the ghosts' backstories to present a kind of variation on the larger cultural "depression narrative", with some of them perhaps being more recognizable cultural symbols (such as Kryz in the role of the traumatized former soldier), but all being shown in specific, idiosyncratic ways. The content of each ghost's storyline came, again, from thinking of ways to metaphorically represent their particular emotional issues; Sarah, for example, literally has no shadow in a world of people with shadows, while Kryz's job on a film set full of artifice may mirror the artificiality that he sees in everyday interaction. These flashbacks making up the bulk of the narrative puts the ostensible lead character, Officer, in a backseat-narrator position a la Nick in The Great Gatsby, with the ghosts' experiences also working to inform his emotional status. I feel that the form of a work of fiction should reflect the nature of its content in some way, and given that my subject matter is mental illness, it made sense to me to arrange the various stories in a fragmented fashion, taking inspiration from authors like Thomas Pynchon and Irvine Welsh, as well as the non-fiction book A Brief Introduction to Madness. Finally, I wanted to convey a sense of absurdity in the events of the story, again taking influence from these authors. In my experience and observation, depression and mania are often responses to a world that makes little sense, from people unable to cope with the reality around them. I feel this goes hand-in-hand with an absurdist view of the world, and hopefully the unrealistic details of these stories, and the way character treat them as normal, should convey a sense of bafflement for the reader.
ContributorsWaller, Evan James (Author) / Soares, Rebecca (Thesis director) / Suk, Mina (Committee member) / Department of English (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-12
Description
Paraprosdokian is a collection of stories about all different types of lives in Phoenix, AZ. There are several stories that work together, involving lonely teenagers at punk house shows, while the rest standalone: the eclectic interactions of a waiter at a 24-hour diner, a blind fair ride operator with a propensity for accidental murder, a hapless son of a clumsy dental assistant, a literary scholar stuck in an addiction to both Kafka and pornography, a kid who learns that writing is not a formula, and a high school death that nobody cares about. Some pieces unfold parts of 21st century culture that have been knotted in ambivalence, like how men raised on pornography reconcile with intimacy, while others are as simple as trying to encapsulate the experience of growing up in what is often perceived as an artless suburbia. The project aims at mixing prose with photography to create, as Ben Lerner describes it, “a constellation of language and image”—a complete artistic product. Using the work of a local Arizona photographer, the collection complicates a reader’s elementary notion of a “picture book” by forcing the reader to view photographs beyond exposition or symbolism. The title of the collection comes from a term used in comedic rhetoric that refers to a figure of speech in which the latter part of a statement or phrase reorients one’s understanding of the whole. Under this definition, the collection seeks to amend its author and reader’s orientation to Phoenix in a quest for empathy, giving pathetic characters a chance to speak without ever sacrificing a touch of humorous joy.
ContributorsFritz, Chandler Harrison (Author) / Soares, Rebecca (Thesis director) / Farmer, Steve (Committee member) / Department of English (Contributor) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
This thesis examines statements made about immigration and mental health in Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henriquez. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie follows a young Nigerian immigrant as she navigates her move to the U.S. and explores the meaning of belonging and identity in the U.S. and Nigeria. Henriquez’s The Book of Unknown Americans is about a Mexican family that immigrates to Delaware in order to secure better treatment for their daughter and touches on the nuances of the Latinx immigrant identity in the U.S. Both of these texts feature the lack of resources and support available for immigrants of color which eventually lead the characters to return to their country of origin. This thesis posits that Adichie and Henriquez are both suggesting in their respective works that the U.S. fails to ensure the success and well-being of immigrants which leads to a deterioration of mental health and feelings of not belonging. A Portrait of Neglect considers the real life implications of Adichie’s and Henriquez’s ideas and the impact of their representations of immigration and mental health.
ContributorsJaiswal, Shivani (Author) / Soares, Rebecca (Thesis director) / Agruss, David (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor) / School of Social Work (Contributor)
Created2021-12
Description
Every year, Mr. Chapman takes a group of high school students on a bear-sighting trip called “Ex-bear-dition.” The story picks up at their arrival to Montana where the students learn about bears and quarrel with one another. When it’s time to take the long-anticipated, killer hike at Glacier National Park, the students find themselves in situations that require them to put their wilderness survival skills to the test. Peggy, one of the teaching assistants, and Nathan, one of the students, take a tumble in the snow, unable to return to the group. Mr. Chapman also finds himself incapable of hiking out, so the group must split again to go get help. Keller, the other teaching assistant, must lead a small assembly back to the trailhead, while Mr. Chapman’s remaining students, and Nathan and Peggy must weather their camps. This novella is a series of narratives and found materials.
ContributorsRudolph, Chloe (Author) / Soares, Rebecca (Thesis director) / Farmer, Steve (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor) / The Sidney Poitier New American Film School (Contributor)
Created2022-05