Excellence in English Undergraduate Research: Student Profile
Erica Haugtvedt, a third-year English and Psychology major, recently learned her first academic article has been accepted for publication in the journal MELUS, published by the Society of Multi-ethnic Literature in the United States. The article, "Abandoned in America: Identity Dissonance and Ethnic Presentationism in O.E Rølvaag's Giants in the Earth," has been in the works for a year now, and grew out of two independent studies with Professor Frederick Aldama.
Aldama, Professor of English and Comparative Studies, praised Haugtvedt for her deft employment of "critical race theory, narratology and cognitive approaches to literature and culture [that] push to critical extremes an analysis of Giants of the Earth," and called her work "phenomenal."
It was Aldama who fostered Haugtvedt's curiosity in cognitive theory in the first place. "I took a freshman seminar with Dr. Aldama called 'Your Brain on Fiction.' It was about linguistics, cognitive theory, and how these relate to English, fiction, movies. How fiction affects us cognitively—how we process it in our brains. I asked Dr. Aldama if I could pursue independent study with him," recalls Haugtvedt. "He gave me a huge reading list of all kinds of articles in literary theory. After I finished all those, he said, okay, write a paper."
Haugtvedt's response went beyond what was expected. "He probably had an eight-page paper in mind, but I was interested in finding out about Norwegian-American ethnic identity and how it's constructed. I found Rølvaag's Giants in the Earth myself—it's a pretty canonical book that's fallen out of fashion since the 1970s. I read that and tried to figure out what I could write about. Eventually I settled on identity dissonance."
"Cognitive theory hasn't really been applied to Rølvaag before—that's the new part of this paper," said Haugtvedt. "Rølvaag wants a return to an old-world identity. He uses his main character Beret to advocate for that old world ethnic identity. But this turns into an identity dissonance in America because there's no way for her to act out an Old World Norwegian identity on the Great Plains—she's totally cut off from her cultural practice. So Beret goes insane—it's actually a really depressing book." Beret recovers enough from her insanity to survive.
"When I say Beret survives," Haugtvedt continues. "I mean that she lives after [her husband] Per Hansa and realizes all the grand dreams he set out. He may have subscribed to a more typical version of the American dream, but it's Beret who realizes the materiality of that dream. She harvests the crops, builds the barn and sees their homestead flourish. Per Hansa languished alone, dying facing westward while Beret continues to orient herself eastward and thrives."
The resulting paper went through numerous drafts before its submission and acceptance by MELUS. Haugtvedt credits Aldama with motivating her to pursue her academic interests. "Professor Aldama has been a terrific advisor and mentor for me throughout my undergraduate career. I wouldn't have been able to complete this article if he hadn't insisted that I was capable. His encouragement was absolutely indispensable. He has gone out of his way repeatedly to help me—not only in my research, but in encouraging me to take challenging courses and guiding me in my search for a graduate school. Professor Aldama is the kind of committed and passionate professor and mentor that every student wishes for."
