Anna VanSeveren was born on December 22, 1998 in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Though she lived in Ashwaubenon for the first twenty years of her life, Anna and her family recently moved to West De Pere. In high school Anna’s passion for writing led to her finishing her first book by age 16, only to finish another book the following year. When she wasn’t writing, Anna was busy with the school band. A self-declared “band nerd,” Anna served as her high school’s band president and drum major her senior year while also making lifelong friends along the way. Anna was able to travel during this time with said friends to megacities like New York and also tropical paradises like Hawaii.
Anna was originally a student at St. Olaf College, but due to the overly competitive nature of the school’s music program and distance away from home, she decided to leave after one semester and transfer to St. Norbert College. Anna is now a Junior at SNC and is a double major in English Creative Writing and Communication with a minor in Music. Anna likes the two majors because she gets to continue her passion for writing while also learning vital communication skills and the ways media makes an impact on us all. Outside of her studies, Anna’s college activities include being a member of the Spectrum Alliance and Sigma Tau Delta Honor Society. She also is the head copy editor for the SNC Times while also writing for Graphos. After college, Anna plans to work either as an editor or in some other capacity at a publishing firm, but her biggest goal is to be paid to do what she loves and become an author.
This semester Anna took the English 305 class Literary Theory, a class that features a grueling workload and also a George MacDonald loving, profanity using, To Kill a Mockingbird refusing Professor. One of the biggest challenges Anna had with the class was her own self-doubt towards her writing. She would be convinced that she didn’t know what she’s doing with her paper before ever turning it in and looking at the professor’s comments, which were almost always positive. To counter this attitude, Anna would change her mindset before going into a paper. She would remind herself throughout the writing process that she does, in fact, know what she’s doing.
In English 305 Anna has written six papers, each from a different literary perspective, all of which you can find here in her portfolio. Her first work is titled: “A Final Act of Rebellion: The Paradox of the Sea in Chopin’s The Awakening.” It is a close reading essay that takes a look at Chopin’s use of the sea and how it plays into the main character Edna’s decision. After that, you will find her summary and analysis of Terry Eagleton’s Introduction: What is Literature? titled: “Social Ideology: How Social Groups Impact the Value of Literature” in which she summarizes Eagleton’s piece while also discussing the power social groups have in determining what is or isn’t considered literature.
In “Battle for Dominance: A Freudian Analysis of Kate Chopin’s ‘The Story of an Hour,’” Anna takes a psychoanalytic approach to Chopin’s short story by analyzing the id, ego, and superego of Louise Mallard. After that, you can check out her splendidly written gender studies essay: “Sensual Virtuosity: Exploring the Homoerotic Nature of Mademoiselle Reisz and Edna Pontellier’s Relationship in The Awakening” where Anna goes over the repressed sexual desires that Edna feels for Mademoiselle Reisz but is unable to act on due to the society she’s trapped in.
She shifts gears a little bit in her new historical essay where she discusses the historical issues around the 1800s sexist and patriarchal views towards women’s rights in “‘Why All This Talk About Women?’: The New Woman in Kate Chopin’s ‘The Story of an Hour.’” Lastly, she ended her portfolio and semester with: “‘Too Strong a Drink for Moral Babes:’ Reception Theory Applied to Kate Chopin’s The Awakening.” In the paper, Anna revisits The Awakening, this time from the perspective of a reader response theorist.
Anna may not have always enjoyed the chaotic English 305 ride but she can now say with relief that she’s off it, and as a result, now has an impressive portfolio to show for it. Anna VanSeveren is a name to remember in the literary world (unless of course she decides to use a pen name; in that case, you should probably remember that name as well) that has only just begun to show what she can do. Yes, I do think it is safe to say that Anna VanSeveren knows what she is doing.
-Jackson “Jack” Timmer
