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Commencement 2010
New grads on their time at Yale—and what’s next.
July/August 2010
Interviews by Cathy Shufro
Photographs ©Mark Ostow

Sophia Janowitz
Watertown, Massachusetts
Branford College
Literature

What are your career plans?

I am interested in going into the arts.

But you majored in literature.

I like to analyze things that I don’t necessarily make. I like to make art and theater, and I like to analyze film and literature.

Does studying the theory sometimes take away the pure joy of the film or the book?

I think that they’re separate. I think there’s a separate joy in coming to understand that doesn’t necessarily have to limit your appreciation of the thing. They’re often at odds with each other. Frequently, I will theoretically find something problematic, but I will still be moved by it. I don’t think they really take away from each other.

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In Their Own Words
(July/August 2010)

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