Thesis Presentations- Extra Credit

I really enjoyed the thesis presentations. The first presentation was very interesting and I liked how she incorporated parts of her own heritage and upbringing with literature that she was interested in to make a presentation about one of the common books in the literary canon. I liked how she added real-life elements such as the Bran Castle to show that what she was writing about was not entirely fiction. Something that stood out to me about her talk on the castle is if it should be a museum or a literary amusement park. The diction there was very striking and I would’ve never thought of that. The second presentation was my favorite and I loved the aspects of pedagogy that were implemented into her research. I took Intro to American Indian Literature last semester so I had some background knowledge on indigenous practices and values. Her point that we can’t teach with strictly Western ideas or Indigenous ideas made me think about the ways I would want to structure my own classroom. I liked that she showed the benefits of both thought processes and how it was better and more effective to combine them. I thought it was very smart how she added a character biography chart and used Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein as an example. That has been one of my favorite books since I read it a few years ago and her approach to it made me think. I liked how she used the indigenous values of appreciation for the natural world to connect it to the mountainous setting of Frankenstein and the ways in which it applies to the Romantic period of literature. The third presentation made me think about the use of religion in literature and the ways it is used to shape our moral standing. I thought it was very thought-provoking to see how in the grand scheme of things, goodness is usually measured by piety and the question of how will benevolence be measured in the absence of religion. It was intriguing to also ask, who does this goodness get judged by? He finished by asking us to pursue analytical relationships with simple pleasures. The last thesis presentation talked about wrestling culture in the world of sports literature. A lot of my friends from home were wrestlers so I had some understanding about the toxic aspects of the wrestling world and how the athletes are forced to torture their bodies for the sport. I think that the list of the five overarching values of wrestling was very interesting and creative. The way he counteracted his own claims with that was intriguing since his five beliefs were ones that are deemed as the social norms of wrestling. He ended his presentation by asking to question the morality of what should be accepted in wrestling literature and to show more diverse stories. Showing different stories allows for the voices of athletes who may not always win and who do not use horrific strategies to be accepted in wrestling. I liked the way he used his own personal experiences and stories to shape his presentation, and was personable while showing tough subjects such as weight-cutting. The overall theme of literature vs. social change was striking to me because it shows the way all four presentations tackled pressing social problems. I really enjoyed all of the thesis presentations and found every one of them to be thought-provoking.