Browsing by Author "John Kessel, Committee Member"

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The Evolution of Nancy Drew, Cultural Icon: Readers, Writers, and Fanfiction Authors
(2007-04-06) Merrill, Ashley; Mary Helen Thuente, Committee Chair; John Kessel, Committee Member; David M. Rieder, Committee Member
Nancy Drew is widely recognized as an influential American cultural icon. In this paper I make a detailed examination of Nancy's initial characterization as girl sleuth in the first ten books of the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories, published in the 1930s. I spend another chapter examining the initial volumes of later Nancy Drew series books, specifically the 1960s rewritten texts, the 1980s-90s Nancy Drew Files series, and the contemporary Girl Detective series. My penultimate chapter discusses Nancy Drew as realized in fanfiction, or stories written by readers and fans. My emphasis is on explaining Nancy's appeal as a cultural icon and the ways fanfiction authors reinvent and appropriate that icon for their own purposes in stories. To this end I cite fanfic writers and readers' response to why they read and write Nancy Drew fanfiction, and I analyze the content and function of a sample of stories written by Nancy Drew fans. I conclude that Nancy's appeal and the basis of her status as cultural icon is due to her unique nature as a figure frozen in transition between adolescence and adulthood, along with her more conventionally admirable traits. Her Everygirl appearance when removed from that unique matrix makes her extremely adaptable to readers for their own purposes, both within the context of fanfiction and without.
Three Deaths on the Lot and Other Stories
(2003-05-01) Taylor, Art; Wilton Barnhardt, Committee Member; John Kessel, Committee Member; Angela Davis-Gardner, Committee Chair
This collection of 10 short stories attempts a variety of styles, structures and sizes. Stories range from short shorts (such as "Souvenir," an exercise in exactly 100 words) to a novella-length triptych ("Three Deaths on the Lot"); from first-person narration ("Pictures of an Afternoon") to third-person close ("Here for You") to third-person omniscient ("Everyone Talks about the Weather"); and from fairy tale ("The Blanketing Snow") to murder mystery ("Murder on the Orient Express") to memoir ("Pointing the Finger") to more experimental forms ("Mrs. Marple and the Hit & Run"). The collection further recognizes various anxieties of influence, specifically in "Episodes from the Story of Evgeniy von Diderit," based on Anton Chekhov?s "The Lady with the Dog." While striving for variety, the collection also seeks some thematic continuity, whether through persistent ruminations on faith or love or betrayal, or through examinations of various degrees of guilt, or through explorations of the pleasures and perils of the imagination -- the imagination too often in conflict with itself.
Through My Grandmother's Eyes: A Blended History
(2006-10-31) Doi, Courtney Cleary; John Kessel, Committee Member; Elaine Orr, Committee Chair; Laura Severin, Committee Member
This memoir documents the physical and emotional journey I experienced during a trip to Berlin, Germany in December 2001. During our eight-day trip, my grandmother shared her family history with me, revealing for the first time intense personal memories about her life in Nazi Germany and in England during World War II. My grandmother was born in Berlin in 1925, the youngest of six children. Her mother, an ambassador's daughter, was from a Protestant family. Her father, a prominent lawyer and member of the appeals court, was Jewish. Between late-night confessionals at the hotel bar, my grandmother and I visited the two houses where she lived, the family plot at the old Jewish cemetery, and the country estate that we fought for in court. I celebrated my first Hanukah in a historical synagogue that was guarded by armed police. We saw Holocaust memorials, old synagogues and the former law offices of my great grandfather. The stories and tears exchanged on this journey forever changed our relationship and my perspective on family, faith and survival. While there have been many books by survivors, children of survivors, and Holocaust rescuers, there are few, if any accounts, from people who were not directly involved. Being two generations removed from this tragic history allows me a perspective from which to study how it has affected my family's interactions, life choices, and patterns of behavior. In addition, my memoir examines the relationship between grandmother and granddaughter, instead of the oft-explored mother/daughter relationship.