August 10, 2005
Clark University Student from Windsor, Conn., using Anton Fellowship to study William Faulkner’s ‘The Sound and the Fury’
WORCESTER, Mass. - Michael R. LaFrancis of Windsor, Conn., is one of ten Clark University undergraduates who will pursue independent scholarly and creative activities this summer and during the upcoming academic year with support from the Anton Fellowship Program.
LaFrancis received an Anton Fellowship to conduct research at the University of Virginia library, where the largest collection of William Faulkner's documents is housed. He will examine Faulkner's writings prior to and during the production of "The Sound and the Fury." Michael's goal is to gain a greater understanding of Faulkner's generative process. He will also look for evidence to contend Faulkner's claim that "The Sound and the Fury" developed out of a single image he conceived and that all of his prior reading was irrelevant to the formation of the text. Michael is particularly interested in the relationship between Faulkner's text and his self-commentary about it. He plans to turn his research into his senior honors thesis.
LaFrancis’ faculty sponsor, English Professor Betsy Huang, felt he was a good candidate for the fellowship.
“What distinguished Michael from the rest of the pack in my Major American Writer's II course was his sophisticated writing and his fascination with texts typically considered ‘difficult,’” said Professor Huang. “To further explore the social and philosophical origins of Faulkner’s ‘The Sound and the Fury’ is, in my view, the perfect project for a budding literary scholar.”
LaFrancis is an English major and philosophy minor at Clark. He is a member of Clark's Class of 2006. LaFrancis is the son of Michael and B. Sharon LaFrancis. He is a 2002 graduate of Windsor High School.
This is the fifth year of the Anton Fellowship Program, which was created by a gift from Barbara ’56 and Thomas ’56 Anton to give undergraduates more opportunities to explore their intellectual interests. The fellowships range from $500 to $2,500. Recipients also become members of the Society of Anton Fellows, which meets with faculty mentors at special gatherings throughout the year to share their research experiences. The Anton Fellowship Program is directed by Professor Sharon Krefetz.
Krefetz said this year's fellows were “a terrific group of students.”
“They’re pursuing a wide range of topics for their projects and are traveling all over the world--from Africa to South America and Worcester to San Francisco--to do them,” she said. Krefetz said all of the students “have a genuine passion for their projects and a keen desire to share what they learn with each other and with the Clark community.”
Clark University is a private, co-educational liberal-arts research university with 2,000 undergraduate and 600 graduate students. Since its founding in 1887 as the first all-graduate school in New England, Clark has challenged convention with innovative programs such as the International Studies Stream, the Strassler Family Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies and the five-year BA/MA programs with the fifth year tuition-free for eligible students.
Angela M. Bazydlo
Associate Director of Media Relations
Clark University
Worcester, Mass.
phone: 508-793-7635
cell: 508-314-6140
www.clarku.edu
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