Descriptions of Senior Theses
by our 2000-2001 Graduates

Ten students completed a thesis for the English major in 2000-2001. The literature projects ranged from Native American fiction to Milton, and the creative projects incorporated poetry, short story, and non-fiction prose. With a foundation in literary theory from Ways of Reading and the skills of critical analysis learned in four years of study, our seniors worked their way through a year's worth of bibliographies and drafts (and braved their final presentations), producing the following theses:

• Suzie Black's thesis, "To Thrust all that Life Under Your Tongue!", studied the theme of suicide in the work of two twentieth-century, American women poets: Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath.
  
• Kim Fryda's creative thesis "Considering Identity Theme in the Writing of Blue" offered Kim's reflections on his writing of Blue, an extended prose poem (or painting in words, as Kim likes to say) that explored the range of associations readers have with color symbolism.
  
• Jocelyn Fuller's creative thesis, "A Life on Hold," centered on her short story set in a small Iowa town.
  
• Ken McQueen's thesis, "Gay Agenda and Thematic Interdependency in The Merchant of Venice" used Queer Theory to understanding the relationships among the characters in Shakespeare's play.
  
• Kelly Merklein's thesis, "Satan the Rhetorician, " used rhetorical theory to analyze Satan's powers of persuasion in Paradise Lost.
  
• Sam Renken's creative thesis, "Majic Memories Make Moderately Maniacal Moments More Massive Mang."was a collection of poems.
  
• Becky Schlake's thesis, "The Yellow Wallpaper: A Historical Legacy or a Modern Narrative? ", contextualized Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story against the medical treatment of women in the nineteenth century and today.
  
• Roya Smith's thesis, "The Spoken Word, The Written Way," analyzed the importance of oral culture in contemporary Native American fiction.
  
• Jeremy Straight's thesis, "The Translation of Literature to Film, and the Representation of Women in Film," analyzed the gender roles in a series of contemporary American films.
  
• Tom Teachout's creative thesis, "On Free Will, or You Don't Have To Read This If You Don't Want To," presented a series of character sketches, working between fiction and non-fiction prose.
  

Congratulations to our 2001 Graduates!

N W U Home

English Department Home

Back to Information for Majors and Minors