English students present among CSU peers

Twelve students from Eastern Connecticut State University's Department of English showcased their literary research at the Connecticut State University (CSU) Undergraduate English Conference on Nov. 1. The event was held at Central Connecticut State University and allowed undergraduates to share their scholarly and creative projects, developed under the mentorship of faculty members Allison Speicher, Susan DeRosa and Ken McNeil.

Sophomore Shannon Carbonell presented her research titled "Hell for Children: 'Dante's Divine Comedy' in 'Over the Garden Wall,'" exploring how classical literature influences children's media. According to her, she started her research during Eastern's Summer Research Institute and expanded on intertextuality within pop culture.

"I contend that 'Dante's Divine Comedy' is an inspiration for the Cartoon Network miniseries 'Over the Garden Wall,' a truly unlikely place to find classical literature references," said Carbonell. "The plot lines, character structures and imagery pulled from 'The Inferno' are used to delineate the fictional place of the Unknown."

Senior Margaret Rousseau's presentation titled "Anne's Canada: a Post-Colonial Re-Examination of 'Anne of Green Gables'" offered a post-colonial perspective on Anne of Green Gables and an analyzation of the Netflix adaptation "Anne with an E" as a modern reinterpretation. Rousseau said that this presentation was a condensed version of her senior capstone project and reflected a spreading interest in post-colonial subject matter.

"My presentation was part of a larger panel of other ECSU students focusing on intertextuality, adaptation and allusion," said Rousseau. "A few of my classmates from my senior seminar class also presented on post-colonial literature in a different panel that had students from Eastern as well as the other CSU schools, demonstrating the growing interest in English in this subject area."

Senior Joy Grillo's presentation "What's the Story? Memoirs from Willimantic" was part of a larger memoir project of hers that delves into the intricacies of familial relationships.

"Familial relationships are complicated and difficult to navigate," said Grillo. "Working through these complexities in memoir writing allows me to explore and uncover certain truths from my adolescent and teenage years within a chaotic household."

Sophomore Olivia Melillo examined trauma and narrative perspective in her project "Reading Trauma: the Child Narrator Speaks the Unspeakable." Through the book "Room" by Emma Donaghue, she explained how child narrators in literature serve as vessels for authors to talk about controversial topics in their writing.

"I want to look into the psychological aspects of what was going on in the book 'Room' as well as what strategies the author used to tell the story through the child narrator and how is it effective to readers," said Melillo. "There are a lot of novels written for adults from the perspective of the child which made me want to learn more about why the child narrator in literature allows authors to talk about the unspeakable or hard topics in their writing."

Junior Taylor Thompson presented her honors thesis "Unrooted from Reality: 9/11 in Children's Literature." Having personal connections to the tragedy, Thompson examined the lack of sensitivity and accuracy in contemporary children's literature on the topic.

"I chose this topic because my life has been thoroughly shaped by 9/11 - my father is in the Army and served two deployments in Afghanistan and my boyfriend's father was a first responder for 9/11," said Thompson. "The contemporary child has no pre-9/11 experience; the literature needs to adjust accordingly to fit the needs and knowledge of the current children."