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In English 400, Monster Studies, we delved into the creation and function of monsters. As embodiments of cultural anxieties, monsters help us to understand the unique cultural landscape in which they were formed and how we deal with our fears. As humans, we will never exist without monsters. They contain the most uninhibited parts of humanity which we will forever long to let loose.
This semester we focused on shapeshifters, specifically animal-human hybrids, to explore the transient nature of identity, the boundary between self and others, and what it means for a physical body to be truly monstrous. We find it important to study monsters because they provide insight into what cultures fear the most and what groups they marginalize and shun. Monsters will always guard the boundaries between what is accepted and taboo, simultaneously warning us to stay away and inviting us to the other side. 
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We would like to dedicate this website to our favorite monster hunter, Heather Hayton.

CAPSTONE PRESENTATION SCHEDULE

Tuesday, April 12 (Reading Day) – 1-3pm in Leak Room (Duke Hall)

 

 

1:00- 1:05        Opening / Introduction in Leak Room (Duke)

1:10- 2:05        Small Group Sessions (choose one):

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Group 1 – Duke 103

  • “Girlbossing too Close to the Sun: Grendel’s Dam as Embodied Transience” by Harper Reese

  • “Monsters Stand at the Border of Social Change” by Taron Lilly

  • “Color Palettes and Gender in Twilight and Underworld” by Sophie Gray

  • “Samite, Brocades, and Phrygian Silk: The Orientalism of Textiles in Marie de France’s Lais” by Alys Parker

  • “Out of the Bag with Your Tongue: ‘Puss-In-Boots’ as a Feminist Icon” by Jude Juarez-Perez

 

Group 2 – Duke 202

  • “Bloody Chambers and Bloody Symbols: How Angela Carter Uses Symbolism as Foreshadowing in Her Rendition of Bluebeard” by Angela Nelson

  •  “Menstruation in Angela Carter’s ‘Wolf Alice’: It’s a bloody shame” by Alesha Garcia

  • “Loyal Messenger” by Nastia Webber

  • “A Boy With A Cunt: Gender As A Story Inscribed On Flesh” by Emma English

  • “Charred Table, Food, and Murder” by Dylan Blowe

 

Group 3 – Duke 203

  • “‘Dry Spell’: The Horrors of Online Dating” by Saber Chadili

  • “Mothers In Literary Fantasy: The Subversion of Fairy Tale Mothers in ‘The Bloody Chamber’” by Kaya Simpson

  • “Hungry Ladies” by Maria Jose Guerrero Hernandez

  • “Useless Relics: the Destruction of Grendel’s Bloodline in Beowulf” by Iris Newlin

  • “A Changing World: Marxism and Allegory in ‘The Lady of the House of Love’” by Jenni Camhi

 

Group 4 – Duke 211

  • “The Supernumerary Nipple: The Gender of Monsters in Angela Carter’s ‘The Werewolf’” by Juliana Hubbard

  • “When What we Know is Challenged by How It Is” by Meghan Curley

  • “‘A Bag of Rice was her Advice’: Domesticity versus Agency in Soucouyant Narratives” by Maira Vandiver

  • “The Devourers in their true form: The Second Self and what it means” by Sierra McCollum

  • “The Red Choker in ‘The Bloody Chamber’: A connection to sexual oppression and empowerment” by Lideah Shivley

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2:05-2:10         Reconvene (with tea, coffee and cookies) in Leak Room 

2:10-2:45         Discussion / Q&A in Leak Room

2:45- 2:55        Wrap Up; Celebration of ENGL & CRWR Awards

“Sometimes human places create inhuman monsters.”

Stephen King, The Shining

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