Presentation Title
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
“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.