Abstract:
This thesis is a novella that imagines the inner and outer turmoil that would result
from a society without reflections—a country where all specular materials are banned and
where young people don’t know what their own faces look like. Blending dystopian,
psychological, and folkloric elements, the novella draws on two classic narratives about
mirrors—Alfred Lord Tennyson’s “The Lady of Shalott” and the Grimms’ “Little Snow-
White”—to pose a what-if scenario that takes current trends in mirror dependence and
“mirror fasting” and inflates them to extremes, providing a new lens for understanding
the mental and societal ramifications of physical ideals.
