Thesis Honors Students' Works

Amanda Serpi ’26 (English and Government & Law Double Major and WGSS Minor)

Title: Beat Comparisons: An Inside Look Into the World of Sexism and Violence Against Women Reclaimed by Female Beats

Advisor: Professor Steven Belletto (English Department)

Committee Members: Professors Gabrielle Kelenyi (English Department) and Michael Feola (Government & Law Department)

Guiding Question: How do Beat women such as diane di Prima and Joyce Johnson respond to and critique the three main male beats, Kerouac, Ginsberg, and Burroughs, in how they discuss women throughout their works as well as address their erasure from the movement as a whole?

Description: This thesis will discuss the works Come And Join the Dance, Minor Characters, and Memoirs of a Beatnik by Joyce Johnson and Diane di Prima respectively, discussing how Johnson and di Prima formulate feminist critiques of their treatment by male Beats as well as their erasure from the movement in response to the texts On the Road, Howl, and Naked Lunch by Kerouac, Ginsburg, and Burroughs. These works demonstrate how the three male authors wrote about women in an overly sexualized manner, ignored them entirely, and portrayed them as caricatures. This fosters the misconception that the Beat Generation was made up solely of these three white male authors when in reality it boasted a high amount of diversity, sexuality, and forward thinking for the time period. In looking at the movement with these blinders, it creates a sense of erasure for those who are also responsible for shaping a literary legacy and building what we know about the Beats today in our studies. This is an issue within the Beat scholarship that is available to peruse now, in the sense that there is a significant amount of writing on Kerouac, Ginsberg, and Burroughs and less on other pivotal figures, such as Diane di Prima and Joyce Johnson, who were responsible for notable contributions and literary feats. In bringing in the works of di Prima and Johnson, I am planning to address the importance of looking at the male Beats from a feminist point of view and explore how di Prima and Johnson’s works were a response to the exclusion of women from the Beat movement, as well as a response to how these men were expressing their opinions in writing about women. Di Prima and Johnson were essentially talking back to the male Beat authors and calling out the oppression and exclusion of women as they saw it being written down.   

Kristen Vincent ’26 (English Major and Government & Law Minor) 

Title: Ways of Rhetoric, Ways of Life: Persuasion and Performance in the Language of Poetry and Courtroom Law

Advisor: Professor Christopher Phillips (English Department)

Committee Members: Professors Gabrielle Kelenyi (English Department), Megan Fernandes (English Department), and Bruce Murphy (Government & Law Department)

Guiding Question: how does rhetoric function as a shared mechanism of persuasion between poetry and law?

Description: Both poets and lawyers rely on language to shape perception, evoke emotion, and argue for truth, whether in the courtroom or on the page. Through a comparative rhetorical analysis, this research seeks to uncover how these disciplines converge through argumentation, performance, and audience engagement. This interdisciplinary approach shows how each practice uses language to evoke ethos, pathos, and logos. I aim to demonstrate that rhetorical awareness links poetry and law through persuasion, enhancing one’s understanding of language as a tool for justice, art, and human connection. Drawing on primary texts such as Layli Long Soldier’s Whereas, Amanda Gorman’s “The Hill We Climb,” Johnnie Cochran’s closing argument in the O.J. Simpson trial, and Theologis v. Weiler, the study will analyze rhetorical devices including repetition, syntax, humor, rhyme, and metaphor. The theoretical foundation will incorporate scholarly works by Owen Barfield, Kenneth Burke, S.W. DeLong, Louise Rosenblatt, and James Boyd White.