We are proud to announce that Beau Serrus, CLIC's Project Manager, has won the BAAHE 2024 Thesis Award for the best MA Thesis!
With the title "'Minute Puzzled Explorers': Children, Affect and Class in Katherine Mansfield's 'The Doll's House' and 'The Garden Party'", Serrus's thesis explores the figure of the child and representations of the working class in Mansfield's work through careful close readings, revealing an under-researched aspect of Mansfield's oeuvre.
While other scholars have typically focused on Mansfield's working-class characters as "insignificant figures or silent reflections of social struggles," Serrus argues that Mansfield, through the lens of the child and by using narrative techniques like silence and ellipsis, not only disrupts social barriers and offers a more positive portrayal of the working class but also grants children significance as conduits for affective connection beyond traditional class divisions. As Serrus writes: "Mansfield challenges romantic and sentimental depictions," instead revealing "that children’s curiosity and desire to explore the world allows them to form silent and affective ties with working-class characters."
Having received the award and presented her thesis to a full conference room on Friday 13 December 2024, Serrus will continue to develop her work on childhood in modernist literature in a PhD proposal. We at CLIC look forward to following and discussing her research in the years to come.
Congrats, Beau!
