Analytical Work
Parasocial Relationships and Fan Culture: Attacking Others in the Name of Taylor Swift
Visual Rhetoric and Nostalgia in Taylor Swift’s Cardigan Music Video
This visual analysis of Taylor Swift’s Cardigan music video explores how visual media creates meaning through nostalgia, symbolism, and atmosphere. I demonstrated my ability to write for a general audience without downplaying rhetorical theory. This piece also challenged me to analyze a moving image through writing, without the ability to simply show the music video.
Queering Desire: Jeanette Winterson’s Written on the Body
This literary analysis examines how Jeanette Winterson’s Written on the Body uses ambiguity to destroy heteronormative expectations of love, desire, and relationships. I made deliberate rhetorical choices to treat queerness and queer identity not as a marginal theme but instead as a central cultural lens through which Winterson’s novel finds its meaning. The analysis draws connections across Winterson’s body of work, situating Written on the Body within a broader conversation about queer identity in her early novels. This piece demonstrates my ability to identify the cultural stakes of a literary work and respond with inclusive and informed analysis.