Alyssa Rodriguez

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Alyssa Rodriguez Summer Scholars

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The Summer Scholars Program provides students in the School of Humanities and Sciences at Ithaca College with a full-time opportunity to engage in a research/scholarly/creative project during the summer with direct and ongoing mentorship by an H&S faculty member. This award is given to high-achieving students through a competitive proposal-based process. In 2016, 15 students received H&S Summer Scholar awards.

Alyssa Rodriguez

Scholar
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Graduation Date: May 2017

Academic programs: English major, with minors in Women's & Gender Studies and Writing for Film, Television, & Emerging Media

Faculty mentor: Professor Katharine Kittredge, English

The Death of Quirk: The Rise of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl

Project Summary

The term “manic pixie dream girl” was first coined in Nathan Rabin’s  article “The Bataan Death March of Whimsy Case File #1: Elizabethtown” in reference to Kirsten Dunst’s character in the 2004 film Elizabethtown. It is often applied to female characters who appear as love interests in media and seem to lack character depth or development, but rather exist solely for the male protagonist's benefit and pleasure. 

This project analyzes the trope of the manic pixie dream girl from an interdisciplinary, academic perspective, drawing from literary analysis, film analysis, and women's studies. Through the study of popular young adult literature and film, my goal with this project is to develop a unifying theory about the popularity of this trope.  
Author: Alyssa Rodriguez
Last modified: 4/26/2017 3:04 PM (EST)