The Myth of the Student Hero and the “Dreaded Lit Review”

"The Creature"

Similar to some of the other comics, Renee Samuelson's comic presents the "lit review" as a living creature, one who taunts the student. In addition to the lit review's scolding rebuke to Renee ("You'll never be able to conquer me!"), the lit review is represented as Renee's enemy, a treacherous villainous figure emitting the villainous evil laugh ("Muahahahah!"). Students may represent the literature review as some sort of monster with whom the student battles. In Sean Baker's comic, the monster appears in a dream.

The representation of the literature review as a "monster" is consistent with the idea that a divine enemy should have an "extraordinary appearance" (Burke, p. 383). And the divinity of the monster is consistent with the definition of a monster as a "divine portent of misfortune" (Guralnik, p. 922). By having the monster appear in a dream, several things may be suggested. First, it suggests that the "lit review monster" is not limited to the student's conscious life; rather, the monster can follow the student into their dreams. Additionally, however, because the student eventually wakes up, the monster escapes and is thus able to continue to plague the student (Cohen, 1996 p. 4).

This page has paths:

This page references: