Gender. Race. Queerness. The nature of truth. The recesses of the human mind. The meaning of life — and death. Literature and film not only reflect, but also actively shape these ideas in our societies. The stakes our high, as recent events have led us to understand even more deeply.

2021 was another year of the world seemingly gone off the rails, and many of us felt the urge to give up trying to make sense of it all. However, literature often flourishes in barren land, and good scholarship in comparative literature strives against resignation. It continually seeks to draw connections, to think deeper, to probe and critique the ideas that surround us.

We are extremely proud to present eleven examples of such scholarship written by students in UMass Comparative Literature undergraduate courses in 2021. While the campus community as a whole struggled through a second year of the pandemic, these students rose to the challenge of producing outstanding work. We are hopeful that they will continue to enrich themselves and the world around them by means of their intellectual curiosity, critical thought, and excellent writing.

The editors

Juan Carlos Cabrera Pons, Gennifer Dorgan, Vika Mujumdar, and Meenakshi Nair