Lloyd Awarded Fraker Prize for Paper on Hawthorne's Women

Author: Andrea Gissing

The Alison Fraker Prize for 2002 was awarded to Alyssa Lloyd '02 last Wednesday for her essay on Nathaniel Hawthorne and his portrayal of women. Kate Spector '04 received an honorable mention for her play on abortion, "Next To You Me Her."

The Alison Fraker Prize is awarded annually for works on women's or gender issues produced for any Middlebury College course during the preceding calendar year.

"This year's entry pool was diverse, as always," said Associate Professor of French Paula Schwartz, one of the heads of the prize committee. "Work was submitted for everything from first-year seminars to advanced level courses."

Pieces considered had to be nominated by a professor and included long analytical papers, shorter essays, a film script, short plays and a video in Spanish.

In choosing the winning piece, the judges looked for many different qualities.

Form was as important as content, and judges paid attention to the innovative ways in which gender issues of varying complexity were communicated, especially in the creative pieces.

"We were looking for work that not only dealt with women and/or gender as subjects, but that integrated some measure of gender analysis as well," Schwartz said. "Alyssa's work impressed us for the sophistication of its analysis, both gender and literary. It was beautifully written and therefore accessible to readers in other fields who might not necessarily be familiar with the material."

Abernethy Professor of American Literature John McWilliams nominated Lloyd for the prize. "I am absolutely delighted that [she] has been chosen to receive the Fraker prize," he remarked. "I've received many student essays dealing with Hawthorne's complex and fascinating characterizations of women, but Alyssa placed Hawthorne within a very broad context of important texts about women [such as Simone De Beauvior], and the result was stunning."

Lloyd's winning entry was written for a Hawthorne seminar taught by McWilliams last spring. "Hawthorne has a really conflicted, sort of paradoxical conception of women," said Lloyd. "There's a really compelling struggle between the 'fair' and 'dark' maidens in Hawthorne's work."

She explained that her paper "was an attempt to figure out which of these two Hawthorne truly favored by investigating primary female examples in his short stories and novels.

"In the end, through Hawthorne's strivings toward the presentation of a dynamic and three-dimensional female character, I think the paper really highlighted the power of society in determining gender roles and ideals," she continued

Spector's play on abortion, "Next To You Me Her," received an honorable mention. "I was surprised to find out that I had won honorable mention," said Spector, "because I had found in the past that creative work is often considered slightly less 'important' than factual work. Also, as far as plays go, it was written non-naturalistically, which adds to its general ambiguity, and many people find that type of writing less accessible."

Spector's play was nominated by Dana Yeaton, visiting lecturer in theater. It was performed with the Short Attention Span Theater and directed by Seda Savas '05 this past Winter Term.

The prize was named for Alison Fraker, a former student at the College, who played an active role on campus for women's issues. She died in 1989 in a car accident shortly before her graduation. In her memory, her family endowed the College with both the Alison Fraker Prize and the Alison Fraker Reading Room, located on the first floor of Chellis House. The prize serves not only to highlight women in society but to raise awareness about gender issues in general.

"Not only is the prize a tribute to Miss Fraker, but it provides an opportunity for women and gender studies issues to be deeply considered and potentially rewarded and recognized. There are so many crucial ideas and issues in this field, and we can learn so much about ourselves and our world by honestly investigating them," said Lloyd

The prize, instead of being awarded in May with the other Middlebury Student Awards, is awarded in March so that it falls around International Women's Day, March 8.

In past years the award was presented at the annual student-sponsored International Women's Day dinner.