Panel Name

Literary Treatments of Sexuality and Madness

Location

Lecture Center 3A

Start Date

3-5-2019 4:15 PM

End Date

3-5-2019 5:00 PM

Presentation Type

Oral Presentation

Academic Major

English

Abstract

I explore the female bildungsroman expressed as a Counter Bildungsroman, the coming of age through a singular sexual event, coupled with a “a fall” and the Contra Bildungsroman, a more complex entrance into womanhood that reconfigures the female coming of age as rebirth instead of a fall. The first chapter, The Counter Bildungsroman, exposes how the Counter Bildungsroman’s coming of age scenario portrays the problematic expression of sexuality (or lack thereof) and entrance into womanhood in the film Labyrinth and the poem “Goblin Market.” Symbols emerge as supplements for the denied sexuality: the consumption of fruit and the labyrinth.

The second chapter, the Contra Bildungsroman, focuses on the second, and often more modern, form of female bildungsroman, including the 2017 novel The Burning Girl by Claire Messud and the 2018 memoir Educated by Tara Westover, through its protagonists Julia and Tara, as they come of age through sisterhood and knowledge, allowing for alternate and more complex entrances into womanhood. Through the mythological figures of Persephone, Eve and Ariadne, the heroines of the female bildungsroman can be analyzed, and the perceptions of femininity as a whole examined.

Select Where This Work Originated From

Departmental Honors Thesis

First Faculty Advisor

Mary Valentis

First Advisor Email

mbvbooks@aol.com

First Advisor Department

English

Second Faculty Advisor

Rae Muhlstock

Second Faculty Advisor Email

rmuhlstock@albany.edu

The work you will be presenting can best be described as

Finished or mostly finished by conference date

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May 3rd, 4:15 PM May 3rd, 5:00 PM

“Queen of the Underworld and Mistress of the Labyrinth;” An Exploration and Critique of Females in the Bildungsroman

Lecture Center 3A

I explore the female bildungsroman expressed as a Counter Bildungsroman, the coming of age through a singular sexual event, coupled with a “a fall” and the Contra Bildungsroman, a more complex entrance into womanhood that reconfigures the female coming of age as rebirth instead of a fall. The first chapter, The Counter Bildungsroman, exposes how the Counter Bildungsroman’s coming of age scenario portrays the problematic expression of sexuality (or lack thereof) and entrance into womanhood in the film Labyrinth and the poem “Goblin Market.” Symbols emerge as supplements for the denied sexuality: the consumption of fruit and the labyrinth.

The second chapter, the Contra Bildungsroman, focuses on the second, and often more modern, form of female bildungsroman, including the 2017 novel The Burning Girl by Claire Messud and the 2018 memoir Educated by Tara Westover, through its protagonists Julia and Tara, as they come of age through sisterhood and knowledge, allowing for alternate and more complex entrances into womanhood. Through the mythological figures of Persephone, Eve and Ariadne, the heroines of the female bildungsroman can be analyzed, and the perceptions of femininity as a whole examined.