Meredith Jeffers (AS ’15) worked with her advisor, Prof. Chris Forster, to complete her Capstone, Exposing Narrative Ideologies of Victimhood in Emma Donaghue’s Room and Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl.

Meredith’s project examines the interesting narrative perspectives of Room and Gone Girl to understand the ways that these novels deconstruct mass media narratives of violence to reveal ideas about gender. Her Capstone takes a turn toward comedy when her conclusion looks at Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt in a brief coda. In this sitcom about a woman who readjusts to life after fifteen years of captivity in a bunker, comedy becomes a device to emphasize resilience after violence.

The best advice Meredith received came from her advisor:

The greatest advice I received in the past two years, and the advice I’d like to pass along to future students, came from my thesis advisor, Chris Forster, after I lamented about being so stuck and in my head that I thought I’d never finish: Just write the thing.