1925 Mary Dennie

Queen of the Quill 1925-1926

Very Chicago : Mary Borden and the Art of Fiction

Peer reviewed

On the Edge of the World: Trauma and Twinship Selfobject Needs in Mrs. Dalloway

Alienation and aloneness appear as common themes in the experience of those impacted by trauma. Self psychology theorists, including contemporary proponents of intersubjectivity theory, have also discussed the ways in which alienation and disconnection from others permeate the experience of post-traumatic stress disorder. This discussion has highlighted the importance and centrality of twinship selfobject needs in providing a relational home for the emotional pain associated with trauma. These phenomena are especially apparent when one encounters the experiences of those combat veterans who have attempted to readjust to society upon returning home from military service. Using self psychology and intersubjectivity theory, this paper explores the ways that fiction, specifically Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, can illuminate the ways that trauma negatively impacts twinship selfobject needs in combat veterans. In examining the character of Septimus Smith, this paper illustrates the estrangement, singularity, and alienation associated with post-traumatic stress, and how this state of being can collude with societal misunderstanding and repression to shatter the self's sense of belongingness with and connection to others.

Mary, Quite Contrary: The Novels of Mary Davys, 1700-1727

As a relatively unknown author, Mary Davys (1674-1732) has garnered scant scholarly attention and little admiration for her work. Those who have written on Davys’s prose fiction most often mention the last three texts she published, Familiar Letters betwixt a Gentleman and a Lady (1716), The Reform’d Coquet (1724), and The Accomplish’d Rake (1727), yet rare mention is made of her first three novels. Moreover, of her later novels, many scholars read them as socially conservative and as representations of Davys’s support of and belief in patriarchy. My project disproves the long-standing and generally agreed upon conceptions regarding Davys’s writings and demonstrates the significance of her life’s work to studies of the novel. By investigating contemporary cultural issues, discussing the popular genres and modes of early eighteenth-century England, and comparing and contrasting Davys’s fiction to other authors’, I explore the myriad ways in which Davys experimented with the formal properties of the novel. Also, by closely examining each novel independently, I foreground Davys’s willingness to engage with charged contemporary topics such as rape, suicide, the laws surrounding inheritance, and male privilege. Not only does she engage with these topics; there is a discernable voice of protest imbedded in the narratives. At times, the techniques Davys employed and the plots she created in her work obscured her social concerns, yet with close reading, subversion also surfaces as one of Davys’s methods. An analysis of Davys’s experimentations with prose fiction and form illuminates the ways in which those innovations allowed Davys to criticize the culture in which she lived. Furthermore, an investigation of the whole of Davys’s work and the totality of her novels—looking at both form and content—exemplifies the importance of Davys for students of feminist thought and the development of the novel.

Identiy : an exploration of the exhibition "There's something about Mary"

"The exhibition "There's Something About Mary," held at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in September 2009, invited sixteen contemporary artists to interpret the image of Mary Magdalene. Despite great variety oftreatment, an overarching theme of identity-personal and collective-emerges from the artworks. The artists reference Mary Magdalene's many identities, creating a broader dialogue with both the history of art and issues of the contemporary world"

Sex, sin and salvation : a case study of the narrative pictorial cycle of Saint Mary the Egyptian at Bourges Cathedral

This paper studies the narrative stained glass cycle of the Life of Saint Mary the Egyptian at Bourges Cathedral within the context of prevailing—and often conflicting--civil and ecclesiastical attitudes toward sex, sexual sin, and prostitution in early thirteenth century France. Although the Church maintained that sexual sin was mortal sin, civil records suggest the public was skeptical. Through the example of a penitent harlot, this window, both structurally and in thematic content, attempts to map a doctrinally appropriate path from sexual sin to purity of spirit—and salvation—through complete submission to the Church and its clergy.