Introduction

Hi! My name is Maria Mitina, but I go by Masha. I'm a senior at BASIS Scottsdale, and I am completing my AP research project. AP research is "an innovative program that equips students with the independent research, collaborative teamwork, and communication skills that increasingly valued by colleges" (College Board.) The aim of AP Research is to have students enter into an academic conversation that exists about a specific topic or issue.

For the past school year, I have been working on my research project on synesthesia. Synesthesia is a phenomenon in which senses mix. Essentially, when exposed to a certain stimuli, individuals will have a sense activated that is not the "normal" sense associated with the stimuli. For example, one synesthete will experience sound-to-color synesthesia, meaning that when listening to the music they will also see colors. There are other forms of synesthesia as well, like color-grapheme synesthesia, meaning synesthetes will see color when reading black and white text. Mainly, it is when an individual sees a certain grapheme, like the letter "a" as a certain color, like red. Interesting right? There are around 77 different types of synesthesia. If you want to find out if you have synesthesia, you can take this small quiz(link coming soon) .

My research is focused specifically on the portrayal of synesthesia in literature because there a lot of false perceptions on what synesthesia is, and very little exposure to the phenomen. Often times, the only exposure that people have to the phenomenon is through literature. In order for synesthesia to be properly perceived, the flaws in how it is portrayed must be identified.

Little research has been done on the portrayal of synesthesia in literature. However, Patricia Duffy, a synesthete who works for the UN Language and Communications Program, published a chapter in the Oxford Handbook for Synesthesia titled the “Synesthesia in Literature.” Duffy classified synesthesia into five roles in literature: accepted anomaly, romantic ideal, romantic pathology, synesthesia as indicative of pathology, and emotional completeness.

While research done on these portrayals has been helpful in understanding how the public views synesthetes, these categories have been rather general, instead of focused on a specific group or culture, or historically. Milton Albrecht said “literature reflects common cultural values” (Albrecht). Literature can often reveal how people viewed the culture of the time, and provide insight that isn’t shown through other historical documents. For example, The Great Gatsby portrayed how glamorous society in the 1920s was actually a facade covering up the many problems of the era. In this example, literature illuminated a different perspective on the time period. Literature can show many different hidden viewpoints, like the perceptions of synesthesia.

  This paper will focus on the late 19th and early 20th century. The world was experiencing an Industrial Revolution during this time, so everything was growing at a very rapid pace, and things were constantly changing. Since there was so much alteration occurring, this is a concentrated time period where changes in the community and cultural values can be seen. During the Industrial Revolution, there were obvious technological changes, like the boom of the railroad business. There were ideological changes, especially in Russia and America. In Russia it was from the Tsar to the Revolution, and in America it was from big business to big government. This paper will focus on these two countries due to these different shifts in ideology. Observing both countries will illuminate how synesthesia is affected by the culture.

In order to understand the shift in ideology, which could change the portrayal of synesthesia, the history of each country must be understood. Industrialization was becoming a huge part of Russian culture, but with industrialization emerged a larger middle class which in turn gave rise to a political environment, especially radical groups. Working conditions were harsh and wages were low. People became angry and started to revolt. The Tsar was handling the situation very poorly and in order to appease protests created the Duma, a democratic parliament (Carmichael).  Soon after, he dissolved the Duma. In 1914, Russia joined World War I, but the government proved to be incompetent so the people demanded to remove the Tsar (Fitzgerald). So began the Russian Revolution.

In America, industrialization was really marked with the creation of the transcontinental railroad. The railroad allowed for simple transportation of goods and people. This made life a lot easier, and as a result, there was more invention and industrialization. Something unique to America’s industrial revolution was a huge migration of people. Around 14 million immigrants moved to the US during this time. As a result of the rise of industry a few prominent business owners began to emerge, for example, Andrew Carnegie and John D Rockefeller. The nature of American’s work changed. They worked in factories doing a single job and never seeing the end product. They believed their work to be meaningless, and the working conditions were horrible, unsanitary, and dangerous. Workers would work for most of the day for little pay. Often times women would work because the wages weren’t enough to support a family, and even more often children would work. Over long working hours, safety concerns, and child labor law concerns, unions began to emerge, advocating for the rights of the individuals. They came together to revolt when railroad wages were cut. As a result of these huge business owners, people became unhappy and called for progressivism. The primary goal was to cut corruption of the US government. This continued until the beginning of World War I (“The Industrial Revolution…”).