The annual English Honours Colloquium presents some of the best work of students graduating from the undergraduate Honours program in the Department of English.

 

Panel 1. Gender and Power (9:35-10:35)

Cassidy Serhienko

The Leading Lady: Nyneve’s Authority and Influence on the Chivalric World of Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur

Within the patriarchal system of chivalry, women typically function as objects of desire and guides aiding men on their heroic, identity-defining quests. Malory, however, gives women a key role in the maintenance of the chivalric code: Nyneve, “the Lady of the Lake,” influences chivalric identity and acts as an authority figure within Arthur’s kingdom while maintaining her independence outside of it.

Tia Hendricks

Anxieties of Transformation: John Lyly’s Gallathea

In his play Gallathea, Lyly challenges sixteenth-century anxieties about gender boundaries and social order by transitioning characters’ genders and damaging the hierarchal order between gods and men. The excessive use of transformation within the play reflects the viewer’s anxiety about the magic done on stage, as the audience may transform into the actor.

Rahul Edwin

“More Than Our Brother is Our Chastity”: Isabella’s Unwavering Decision in Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure

In Measure for Measure, the novitiate Isabella unequivocally rejects the indecent offer of the substitute Duke, Angelo, to save her brother’s life in exchange for her chastity. Although Isabella’s decision might confound some modern readers, analysis of the personal, spiritual, and socio-political constraints placed upon her helps us see how her stance is justified.

Ava McLean

“Pan Was not Herself Tonight”: Narrative Focalization and Identity in Edith Eaton’s “Its Wavering Image”

In this 1912 short story, Edith Eaton uses shifts in narration to detail the frustration that Pan, a woman of Chinese and white descent, experiences as white journalist Mark Carson tries to dictate her ethnic identity. Striking views of Pan’s and Mark’s thoughts throughout the narrative illustrate how Mark’s racism dooms the romance between them, spurring Pan to rebel against Mark’s confining view of her.

 

Break

 

Panel 2. Human Bodies, Human Hearts (10:50-11:50)

Myna Campbell

Crimes of Passion: Desire and Death in John Ford’s ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore

John Ford manifests his penchant for deconstructing relationships between emotional states and behaviour in his provocatively titled drama, ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore (c. 1630). Ford characterizes desire as having a “death drive” and encapsulates this in his depiction of the sordid affair between Giovanni and Annabella, a brother and sister.

Jen Slager

Memory and Death in Romeo and Juliet

Memory and death are important and complex themes in Romeo and Juliet, and come together in the form of the monuments that the lovers’ fathers pledge to build at the play’s conclusion. The fundamental drive behind these monuments, and Romeo and Juliet’s love for each other, is Fortune herself.

Jamen Willis

For Better, For Worse: Marriage and Disability in Harriet Parr’s “My Blind Sister”

Told through the perspective of the protagonist’s older sister, “My Blind Sister” (1856) follows Lettie as she copes with the loss of her sight and her sweetheart. This paper explores the representation of disability and its implications for marriage, revealing that blindness makes Lettie unmarriageable until her sight is restored.

Averi Markus

 “You Owe Me Your Life”: Caregiving and Exploitation in “Doctor Marigold’s Prescriptions” and Misery

This paper analyzes the caregiving deeds of Doctor Marigold in Charles Dickens’ “Doctor Marigold’s Prescriptions” (1865) and Annie Wilkes in Stephen King’s Misery (1987). Using caregiving theories from scholars Julia Rodas and Talia Schaffer, I argue that both characters reveal their self-serving motives for caregiving to the detriment of their beneficiaries.