By Alicia Ortiz Alba
This week’s creative piece is brought to you by the English Department’s annual senior colloquium. Every fall semester at RWU, English Literature majors are required to write and present their senior thesis to the public. Last semester’s theme focused on Literary Challenges versus the Literary Canon. Below is an example of a statement from one of our English Literature students, Sydney Lauer, where she talks about nineteenth-century women poets reclaiming their agency with the Sonnet. We hope you enjoy it!
“As She Fills Her Dreams: Nineteenth Century Women Poets Reclaiming Agency with the Sonnet”
Victorian women poets Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Christina Rossetti, and Amy Levy redefine our perceptions of the sonnet through molding and shaping its form to unveil personal struggles and social obstacles. Adapting a traditional male-form of poetry, these writers use the sonnet to amplify Victorian women writers’ voices over the male-centric society set out to silence them.
If you wish to check out more student statements, make sure to come back for next week’s post!