Department of English

“Millennial Literature” is a new term in the critical literary space, which has described a slate of literary fiction works written by Millennial authors, featuring Millennial protagonists and themes. The present debate has to do with defining not only what this genre is, but what it means as an indicator of the contemporary zeitgeist. This paper intervenes in the standard narrative, that Millennial Literature is just a 21st-century recycling of typical literature by young people, who are often disillusioned, dreadful, and existential. Rather, my thesis argues that Millennial Novels are distinct for their latent conservatism. These novels criticize neoliberal feminist modernity for its dreadful, depressing lifestyle. Protagonists often feel bad about their lives working in sought-after white collar jobs, and then feel bad for feeling bad, knowing that under late stage capitalism, life could be worse. Instead of proposing a more radical alternative to the corporate work life, late stage capitalism, and environmental collapse which pervades the dread of these novels, the books support conservative values as a means of making meaning in a meaningless time. Millennial Novels are populated by stories about traditional religious practice, family values, and motherhood. In response to the question “What Now?” that Millennial protagonists ask themselves upon entering adulthood, many embark on plots fixated on the creation of families, children, and patriarchal modes of existence.

This thesis argues that the memoirs Object Lessons (1995) by Eavan Boland and A Ghost in the Throat (2020) by Doireann Ní Ghríofa epitomize how the memoir genre may record cultural memory as well as personal memory. Irish poets Boland and Ní Ghríofa highlight the ways in which the past permeates the present in depicting the repetitions and resonances between the lives of cultural predecessors, specifically the Irish women that came before them, and their own. They identify with these women on the basis of shared gender and national identity and construct attachments to these women through sparse or general historical records, oral storytelling, and personal writing and bolster them through fictionalization informed by their own experiences as Irish women writers. Boland and Ní Ghríofa predicate these relationships on the long-lasting, often traumatic reckoning between Irish conceptions of gender and nation. The relationship between these poets and their cultural ancestors is one grounded in postmemory, an understanding of cultural trauma as an inheritable, affective knowledge, passed through storytelling, that can be felt nearly as deeply as one’s own memories. Both of these memoirs probe the convergences and conflicts between women, literature, and history in Ireland, and, as Boland and Ní Ghríofa reach back into the past to make sense of their present moment, each sketches the Irish woman as uniquely positioned to reshape visions of the past by writing of the lived experience of themselves and their forebears.

At first glance, the concept of a sadomasochistic relationship seems to be relatively modern as its presence often co-exists with the practice of BDSM (Bondage, Discipline/Domination, Sadism/Submission, Masochism) in the 21st century. However, as this thesis argues, the nineteenth-century roots of the term demonstrate that the practice of sadomasochism is not only apparent in Victorian fiction but central to its discussions of power. By examining Charlotte Bronte’s novel Jane Eyre, this thesis will explore the ways in which different characters in the novel gesture towards performing sadism, masochism, and sadomasochism in their relationships. The analysis of these practices will take place through a psychological lens, thus reflecting on how sadomasochism occurs in Jane Eyre as a psychological exchange of power instead of a sexual one. Furthermore, by looking at different institutions in Jane’s life, including Gateshead, Lowood School, Thornfield Hall, Moor House, and Ferndean Manor, I will investigate how they helped her come to terms with suffering, find pleasure in pain, and develop sadomasochistic desires.

My thesis project is a video game.

The matter of how much George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series drew from William Shakespeare’s First Tetralogy of History is a debate among critics and academic scholars. George R.R. Martin defends the darkness of his work with the claim of historical accuracy, particularly concerning the Wars of the Roses. What becomes overlooked is the influence of William Shakespeare’s Henry VI (Parts I, II, and III) and Richard III in the perception of the Wars of the Roses. A few critics accuse Shakespeare’s First Tetralogy of History of diminishing historical complexities to promote what is known as the Tudor myth. The Tudor myth is a form of realist mythography that takes historical figures and makes evil of them by painting them as larger than humans. They achieve this by generating discourses on supernatural creatures. The Tudor chroniclers then attach these discourses to historical figures like Richard III and Margaret of Anjou. Thus, academics often accuse Martin’s, A Song of Ice and Fire series of promoting a form of historical mythography. My thesis examines this reductionist framing of William Shakespeare and George R.R. Martin, specifically regarding Richard III and Margaret of Anjou and their parallels to Tyrion and Cersei Lannister. Despite the Tudor influence, Shakespeare and George R.R. Martin demonstrate how families and dynasties become forums for creating power. The construction of these powerful systematic forums ends up breaking people. My thesis will look at some of these characters who end up on the sidelines rife with anger due to the stark ethical schema of evil forced upon them.

Evergreen is a collection of poems about many things: mothers, Korean women, tragic love, and trees, both evergreen and not. It traces a line through the women, real and imagined, who have shaped my family, and whom I deeply desire to know, because their lives have led me to where I am now. May these voices of dancers, musicians, court ladies, and others be a way to remember my ancestors, and more deeply and fully know myself.

Danielle is a novella that explores the intense connection between a high school senior, Juno, and her teacher, Danielle Ohara, at a competitive Silicon Valley high school. Though their relationship remains an unconsummated friendship, their intimacy sends waves through their lives and the lives of those around them. Juno begins her senior year as an unknown nerd, but through her relationship with Danielle she gains admirers, popularity, and a profound connection unlike any she’s experienced before. Danielle’s identity as a lesbian also raises new questions of sexuality for Juno. However, the two are torn apart when other perspectives—a student who voices her disapproval of teacher-student friendships in the school newspaper, and another teacher who has a sexual relationship with his former student—force them to confront the appearance and impact of their dynamic. This novella takes place in 2018, after the MeToo movement had shone a light on the problematic nature of unequal power dynamics in sexual relationships. In this era, teacher-student relationships were widely viewed as problematic, even when the age of consent was not an issue; however, the boundaries of unconsummated relationships were and are still being negotiated. In top high schools where parents pay high tuition or property taxes to give their children an elite education, academic pressure often pushes vulnerable students to their teachers for comfort and validation. Danielle explores the boundaries of what is and is not appropriate at one of these high schools through Juno’s experiences with Danielle in her senior year.

Taylor Swift has secured her place as one of the most dominant stars in pop music by maintaining a diverse fanbase. I argue that she has achieved this diversity by constructing a neutral star image that is widely palatable and refrains from repelling certain demographics. Numerous things help form a star image, and Swift has particularly cultivated a neutral image across her music, Instagram, Twitter, and Tumblr accounts, Netflix specials and documentary, interviews, and her apparent refusal to feud with other celebrities. This cultivated neutrality results in Swift’s star image being more complex and contradictory than her peers in pop music. Traditionally, people would not think of neutrality and complexity as interrelated. The Oxford English Dictionary defines neutrality as “an intermediate state or condition, not clearly one thing or another; a neutral position, middle ground,” and complex as “consisting of or comprehending various parts united or connected together; formed by combination of different elements; composite, compound. Said of things, ideas, etc.” Yet, Swift’s neutrality ironically makes her star image particularly multifaceted. These techniques contribute to Swift’s pop presence as an anomaly: unlike her peers, Swift’s neutral persona has allowed fans across the political spectrum to embrace her. I will look at her alt-right fandom and her young, queer fandom to compare and contrast their attraction to her. In this thesis, I will explore the sociopolitical complexity of star texts and the increased ambiguity that Swift’s strategies of neutrality have brought to her star image.

Summer’s Dawn is a fantasy novella set in the fictional world of Lothrium, which is modeled after Late Medieval England. The novel follows the protagonist, Quinten Wesker, a wine merchant from a once prominent house whose fortunes have so diminished that now their greatest asset is a single rickety wagon, which Quinten uses to travel through the bandit ridden forest of Hilgard. With him are two escorts: Draven, a quiet, yet fierce guard hailing from the icy northern tip of Lothrium, called the Frost; and Percy, a fiery youth sent by Quinten’s potential business partner at the Alwyn Estate. But along the way, Draven proves himself to be a dark force that threatens Quinten’s life. Summer’s Dawn is a low fantasy novella, as it takes place in an ordinary world where magical forces are minimal–yet they do intrude at times, often to disastrous results. The novella explores the themes of heroism and redemption in the face of overwhelming adversity, as they are navigated by a psychologically atypical protagonist.

This thesis analyzes the 2015 novel A Little Life’s numerous connections to melodrama, drawing links between Hanya Yanagihara’s writing and historical characteristics of the melodramatic mode. Beyond a basic conception of melodrama as exaggerated and over-the-top, there lies a complex history dating back hundreds of years. Yanagihara does not, however, simply provide an overview of melodrama’s past in A Little Life ; she also looks forward into melodrama’s future. The central argument of this thesis concerns our traumatized main character, Jude: what if we dare read his repeated self-harm as a kind of art that pushes the limits of melodrama to the body? Backed by close readings of Jude’s cutting, I will propose that his daily private acts of masochism can and should be read through the lens of artistic creation, as he navigates an aesthetic realm defined by both immense pain and utopian possibility. I will suggest Yanagihara queers melodrama by imagining Jude’s cutting—an act of intense feeling he deliberately performs without an audience—as an anti-theatrical, yet melodramatic art form. In making this argument, I will touch upon multiple facets of art history ranging from the body-art movement of the 1960s and 70s, to the earlier history of the modernist closet drama originating in the 19^th century. By theorizing Jude’s self-injury as art, we allow for the queer possibility of a nonnormative, audienceless melodrama that ultimately allows Jude to glimpse a utopian world where he is no longer afflicted by his childhood trauma.