Plato’s Psychological Manifestations of Madness: A Case for a Parallel between Philosophical and Tyrannical Souls in The Republic

This article was published in the Spring 2013 issue of the Journal of Undergraduate Researc

The Last Puritans: Confessional Poetics in the New England Gothic

This paper proposes that the confessional mode has a place within the evolving genre of the New England Gothic, an assertion that within the scope of this project focuses primarily on the work of Anne Sexton as an example of the convergence of the New England confessional poets and the New England Gothic. Moving from Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter to Anne Sexton’s poem “The Double Image,” this paper evaluates the status of hereditary guilt, secrets, social critique, and madness within the framework of the New England Gothic and in doing so, situates the confessional mode within that framework. It combines religious, historical, feminist, and psychological methodologies to define the New England Gothic and bring The Scarlet Letter and “The Double Image” in conversation with one another. Combining elements from texts by Ringel, Mogart, Carruth, and Dreyer, this project seeks to present a more comprehensive definition of the New England Gothic, one which has room for and is elevated by the confessional mode

Religion, Art and Myth-Making: The Halo as an Aesthetic Expression of Ultimate Reality

In recent years there has been an increased interest in questions concerning religion and faith. There have been bestselling books by authors of the so called new-atheist movement, Dawikns, Dennite, Haris and Hitchens, as well as numerous responses given attempting to refute the attacks made on traditional views of religion and faith. Moreover, since September 11th 2001 there has been a heightened awareness of the gulf separating believers and non-believers. Yet, the problem at the heart of this debate often seems to become an inquiry into whether or not religion is good for society rather than a question of the existence of God. This indicates that there may be a new way to look at the question, what is religion? Perhaps we should begin to think of religion as a social thus natural phenomenon; in doing so religion can be understood in aesthetic terms. If it is the case that religion is essentially born from shared relations within a social framework, much in the same mode as aesthetics, then the gulf between believers and non-believers is illusory. Better understanding the dualistic quality of human relationships will likely serve to find common ground within religious dialogues; this involves seeing how both religion and art are modes of myth-making. Historically the aesthetic symbol of the halo has been used by many religions and aesthetic traditions as an expression of enlightenment or reason. Therefore, the halo servers as a fossil of human experience. The intent of this paper is to examine this position through the symbol of the halo and how it has evolved in the Mithraic, Christian and Buddhist traditions