History and Literature as a Cultural Spectrum

On By nicolehatfield99In Professor MeehanLeave a comment

Within new historical and cultural criticisms, a literary text “functions as a part of a continuum with other historical and cultural texts from the same period” (Tyson 285). Observing the historical and cultural context of a text bridges the gap between the literary and the real-world, thus making the text applicable to realistic and shared experiences. I feel that new historical and cultural criticism allows texts to give voices to those to the marginalized. Tyson defines this literary theory using the term discourse which is “a social language created by particular cultural conditions,” and this refers to the shared experiences of a culture and how a text can reflect those experiences. Discourse “draws attention to the role of language as the vehicle of ideology” and is dependent upon time period and situation because discourse is never a permanent state (Tyson 270). This idea makes me question the permanency of literature and to what extent can a text reference history while still being relevant to the current time period. Does new historical and cultural criticism limit the sustainability of a text or does it put the work on the reader to learn about historical context and periodization? To what extent does literature retain its relevance as time goes on? Is literature and history both cyclical entities and does literature always inherently evoke a historical and cultural reading because of its social implications such as publishing dates and popularity? In general, I think that cultural criticism seeks to define texts as social conversations and archives that do cultural work regardless of the time period.

Professor Rydel’s talk about new historicism and her own critical essay (dealing with the middle ages) demonstrated how both close reading and cultural criticism can form a strong argument. In addition, Professor Rydel drew a long timeline/flow chart of all the different versions and translations of a primary text. This visual aid helped me visualize how history, even book or publication history, is all connected to the text and how the audience interprets that text. 

In Le Thi Diem Thuy’s novel, The Gangster We Are All Looking For Thuy writes about the immigrant experience. Although the novel is set in 1978 when there was a great influx of Vietnamese immigrants to the United States, the novel is still relevant today for it transcends generations and can be applied to other cultural groups. In the following excerpt from her novel, Thuy uses new historicism and intersectionality to bridge the gap between figurative language/story and actual, social issues.  (Thuy pg 52):

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In the above excerpt, the boys jumping off of the railing and into the pool are apart of the narrator’s predominantly immigrant community. Whereas the landlord is a white America, the boys are of mixed race and make up a marginalized community. Prior to this passage, the neighborhood community is described as being filthy and full of mayhem and this usually the case for marginalized communities that are treated as the “other” in America. Due to systemic racism and the otherization of immigrants, this community is already separated from the rest of the state. The boys fly off of the second-floor railing and into the pool, and these striking images symbolize the immigrant’s dream to attain the “American dream,” or freedom. Despite their shortcomings, the boys find freedom in falling and crashing into the water. Throughout the novel, the water represents home and their journey to America; therefore, they metaphorically jump into a sense of belongingness and make this foreign country their home. However, the landlord is quick to say that they are “going to break your [their] necks!” and this represents how white America often tries to discourage the immigrant from succeeding. The boys literally fly over the landlord, thus reversing the power dynamic and alluding to the social tension between immigrants and white Americans. Cultural assimilation and the strangeness associated with a new land are all topics covered in this novel. While the novel does not give an explicit history of the immigrant’s experience or the racially-charged prejudices of the time, things like the author’s bio and basic plot points infer that this text is making a cultural critique. The very basic fact that this novel was published and circulated infers that it is historical and impactful. Therefore, even though Thuy uses magical realism, a child’s perspective, and a nonlinear narrative her story connects to a greater history of the immigrant’s experience. I believe that you cannot take the history or cultural context out of a novel or text. Like Professor Rydel’s paper, a story can always be analyzed on a micro (within the text) and macro (outside of the text) way, but I believe that a strong argument considers both of these things. 

Works Cited

Lê Thi Diem Thúy. The Gangster We Are All Looking For. Anchor Books, 2016.

Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today. 3rd ed., Routledge, 2015

 

In My Opinion: The Memoir as History

On By Becca KanaskieIn BeccaLeave a comment

In this week’s reading on new historicism, I found the keywords of discourse, interpretation, and self-positioning the most interesting in relation to the literary theory. In Lois Tyson’s Critical Theory Today, she explains that “new historicism views historical accounts as narratives, as stories, that are inevitably biased according to the point of view, conscious or unconscious, of those who write them” (271). If this statement is to be taken at full value, how can we, as humans, researchers, etc., legitimize retellings or accounts of anything that has happened in history? In thinking about this question further, the definition of a discourse as something created “by particular cultural conditions at a particular time and place” (270) that then illuminates some aspect of the human condition or experience partially legitimizes the understanding that new historicism regards history as a narrative instead of concrete facts, but I still wonder about the full impact a biased account can have on an audience. 

As interpretation plays a huge part in new historicism, my additional question of how this literary theory can be applied to a memoir seems fairly straight-forward. After all, the memoir as a genre is inherently biased as the author and audience seem to share an understanding that the text is written from a specific perspective and only tells about certain events from the author’s perspective. In this way, looking at memoirs from a new historicism lens seems entirely appropriate: the narrative is universally understood to be a snapshot of a particular moment in time. I would like to further pursue in my application how Ehrlich’s personal narrative can be useful—even if it is not objective—and how the memoir’s subjectivity in general can open realms of interpretation that allow readers to understand the context in which the text was written. In my application of new historicism to Gretel Ehrlich’s memoir The Solace of Open Spaces, I will explore how the genre of the memoir can be seen as a form of self-positioning and how looking at Ehrlich’s interpretation of events may not be totally accurate, but it still a useful lens through which readers can view certain moments in history. 

Perhaps the most useful way to apply new historicism to Ehrlich’s memoir is to look at the chapter titled “To Live in Two Worlds: Crow Fair and a Sun Dance.” In this chapter, Ehrlich discusses several rituals, including a Native American religious ceremony called the Sun Dance. She starts her description with seemingly objective details: “Every man wore beaded moccasins, leaving legs and torsos bare. Their faces, chests, arms, and the palms of their hands were painted yellow” (108). In the next scene where the men start dancing, Ehrlich’s depiction is clearly more subjective, as she comments that “in the air so dry and with their juices squeezed out, [the men] looked weightless, their bodies thin and brittle as shells. It wasn’t the pain of the sacrifice they were making that counted but the emptiness to which they were surrendering themselves. It was an old ritual: separation, initiation, return” (112). With the genre of memoir as a whole, the text is acknowledged as being inherently biased, and yet accepted by the audience as such. In terms of self-positioning, I think it is unique that readers are aware that they are reading about experiences through the author’s lens, but that does not discredit the text itself. Much like new historicism argues, it is the reader’s interpretation of Ehrlich’s narrative that really matters. Because the reader knows the limitations out-right, there is room to balance Ehrlich’s objectivity when she talks about the body paint on the men with her interpretation of what the Sun Dance means in terms of Native American culture. We can still value Ehrlich’s outsider view of the Sun Dance because it gives us a glimpse into the historical culture of Wyoming in the 1980s, but reader’s must be aware that this is just one interpretation of the event from one person’s perspective. Therefore, one limitation of applying new historicism to the memoir is that the reader would have to do extra research to find out if Ehrlich’s narrative of Native American culture is accurate to this time period, because perhaps this biased content is not the best example of the culture of that time period. I think that this literary theory works when thinking about the memoir as a genre and the biases that are presented to the reader, but it lacks the concrete-ness needed to really construct an argument around the text. Perhaps attaching this theory to formalism, structuralism, and reader-response theory would help to construct an argument that looks at the subjective-ness of a text as being beneficial to convey authorial experiences while also imparting wisdom onto the reader. 

Ehrlich, Gretel. The Solace of Open Spaces. New York, Penguin, 1985.

Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today. 3rd ed., Routledge, 2015. 

Elevator Speech – Gender roles and power in Shakespeare

On By lausou17In LaurenLeave a comment

For my potential project, I want to look at Shakespeare’s plays and how men and women use power differently.  I know we haven’t looked at feminist theory yet, but its still something I want to use.  I have noticed in many of Shakespeare’s plays, men tend to show their power through their actions while women tend to show their power through words.  Like how in the Taming of the Shrew, Petruchio shows his power over Katherine by forcing her into marriage, but Katherine shows her power over Petruchio by mocking him.  Or how in Richard III, Queen Margaret, who is supposed to be a very powerful figure, has to show her power over Richard by verbally cursing him multiple times, while Richard just murders people.  My topic is the how gender in Shakespeare’s plays.  My question is how gender affects the way the characters show that power.  My response is that gender causes male and female characters to show power differently because of their gender.  A critical article that I could potentially look at is “Silence, Speech and Gender in Shakespeare’s Othello: A Presentist, Palestinian Perspective” by Bilal M.T. Hamamra.  It looks at the different ways that male and female characters speak in Shakespeare’s Othello and could really help me draw a distinction between the speech and actions of the characters in that specific play.

Bilal M.T. Hamamra. “Silence, Speech and Gender in Shakespeare’s Othello: A Presentist, Palestinian Perspective.” International Journal of Comparative Literature and Translation Studies, no. 4, 2015, p. 1. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsdoj&AN=edsdoj.107b55b5158489cbcfbde6fd2f00246&site=eds-live.

Found with OneSearch from the Washington College Library and Academic Technology page.

Elevator Speech: Reader-Response Criticism applied to Paradise Lost

On By ndblake2In Nick, Professor MeehanLeave a comment

Throughout the epic poem Paradise Lost by John Milton, there are many instances in which the reader is presented with complex ideas that are soon after refuted, causing a joint empowerment and humiliation of the reader. It seems as though the text is written specifically to influence the reader to Milton’s opinions on power and free thinking while simultaneously giving readers the power to make their own conclusions about what Milton is presenting to them. I plan to argue in my seminar project that Milton’s awareness and intentional engagement with his reader throughout Paradise Lost adds to the effectiveness and success of the text. I want to incorporate reader-response criticism specifically into the project because I feel that my argument can be best supplemented using this criticism and I believe that it will help in the development of my SCE paper as well. Creating a connection between Paradise Lost and particular influences on the American Revolution using reader-response criticism will allow for a greater understanding of Milton’s political undertones in his writing and the subsequent possibility of influence from Paradise Lost into aspects of the American Revolution. Evidence will be drawn from Paradise Lost itself, as well as secondary sources that focus on the reader-response and interaction between Milton and his readers in Paradise Lost. Some key words I would like to incorporate into this project are reader experience, intention, affective stylistics, and resymbolization. By assessing the relationship between Milton an his readers in Paradise Lost, I can gain a better understanding of the text itself and how it could have influenced other writers and events.

Works Cited:
Fish, Stanley. “Surprised by Sin” – Stanley Fish | Harvard University Press, https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674857476
Milton, John. Paradise Lost. Oxford University Press, 2008.
Schulman, Lydia D. Paradise Lost and the Rise of the American Republic. Northeastern Univ. Press, 1992.

New Historicism and Cultural Criticism: Reconstructing Contexts

On By Professor MeehanIn Professor MeehanLeave a comment

In the first two weeks of our studies, New Criticism and variations of structuralism and deconstruction largely removed the author and the reader from our critical view. We had just the text. Over the last couple weeks we have slowly returned to the reader (reader response) and the author (psychoanalytic criticism). Now we turn, or perhaps return, to context. How do cultural and historical contexts of the texts we study, and of the people doing the studying, matter in literary interpretation and criticism?

We get a rich and complex exploration of that question in the critical example we are reading for Tuesday’s class, “The Classroom in the Canon: T. S. Eliot’s Modern English Literature Extension Course for Working People and The Sacred Wood.”

Their scholarship and book in progress, The Teaching Archive, has its own archive of materials [linked]. This example gives us a way to do some further thinking about a point made by Tyson, identified as “self-positioning”: “the inevitability of personal bias makes it imperative that new historicists be as ware of and as forthright as possible about their own psychological and ideological positions relative to the material they analyze so that their readers can have some idea of the human ‘lens’ through which they are viewing the historical issues at hand” (275).

As Kenneth Burke puts it, “Every way of seeing is a way of not seeing.” I see this problem of “self-positioning” as both a useful insight with regard to new historicism and cultural studies, and one of its constraints or limits. Critics need to qualify their vision regarding the lenses they are using. That’s a good thing, and can strengthen the argumentation and persuasion, to the extend that we critics thereby engage our readers in the work we do. We can be more deliberate in the lenses we use. The potential limit is that in the end we need and want our readers to see what we see. We can’t qualify things beyond recognition. We can’t proclaim our own interpretation invalid because it is not free of bias. Or, we can’t do that and expect our readers to be persuaded of our reading. Which, in the end, is the goal. That’s my bias, I recognize: all critical reading and writing are thoroughly rhetorical. The aim is not certainty or objectivity. It is persuasive plausibility.

I think Buurma and Heffernan achieve this, a persuasively plausible argument for rewriting and revaluing the “received idea of the Eliotic canon” by way of reconstructing and recovering the pedagogical and collaborative contexts of his essays collected in The Sacred Wood. As part of their argument, they are thinking and positioning their own scholarship in relation to the archive of teaching.

Why am I persuaded? What am I not entirely seeing? Perspectives from new historicism can help me answer both questions, and that will enable me to strengthen my argument, even as it keeps me from providing final and certain answers.

As I look to the seminar projects (and elevator pitches) you have begun to entertain, I wonder what role history and culture have played thus far in your studies in English, and what you might do differently, or additionally, with a better grasp on these critical concepts from new historicism and cultural criticism. Are you interested in a new historical lens? What will that enable you to see? What will it keep you from seeing?

Celebrated Writing Groups: The Genius of Eliciting Reader Response

On By jsmith26washcollIn JacquelynLeave a comment

Writing groups have existed throughout written history. From Plato’s Symposium to the Brontë sisters to Benjamin Franklin’s Junto, it’s a familiar model. A group of people with aspirations to write get together, share their writing (and often wine), critique one another’s work, and help each other hone their craft.

Some writing groups through history have enjoyed a great deal of success compared to others. There were other groups of writers working together in the same period as many of the writing groups we’re most familiar with. Why did they not experience the same lasting success? What made the Brontë sisters so successful? What did their triad possess that other writing groups in their time did not? What was it that has scholars and the general public still consuming their literature?

Perhaps it is a spark of genius that elevates some writing groups while others receive no wide acclaim, and that genius is to elicit a response from the reader that is potent enough for their work to survive long after the works of their peers.  Aspiring writers who do not possess the gift of working with themes and characters that resonate with their readers may become serviceable writers, but their writing does not capture the imagination and hearts of the readers. Texts that strike a chord with the reading public are lasting and celebrated because of the way readers connect with them.

The book, “Writing Groups: History, Theory, and Implications” by Anne Ruggles Gere looks at writing groups throughout history and their evolution into social groups that democratized scholarship in all sorts of communities. It is a very interesting starting point to look at the mechanics of writing groups and the theories behind their function.

Works Cited

Gere, Anne Ruggles. Writing Groups: History, Theory, and Implications. Published for the Conference on College Composition and Communication Southern Illinois University Press, 1987.

Ableism in Focus: Disabling and Disembodying Ways of Knowing

On By JustinNashIn JustinLeave a comment

X: Epistemological structures (ocularcentrism, phonocentrism) and ableism.

Y: The most basic tenet of ocularcentrism is the idea that “seeing is believing,” the best way we can know something is by seeing it firsthand. Phonocentrism works slightly differently, prioritizing sound and speech over image and text. Phonocentrism further posits that written text is subpar as a method of acquiring knowledge as it is derived from and tries, but ultimately fails, to replicate speech. For the able-bodied, a person may prefer one method over another, but both are likely to appear valid. What happens, however, when someone doesn’t have the privilege of sight or hearing? Are those people then unable to know? Does their knowledge become secondary?

Z: Looking at structural ableism, deconstruction, and theories of disability I plan to address the inherent ableism of prioritizing the Aristotelian senses, particularly of placing one sense above all others. Through analysis of Deaf poet Meg Day’s collection Last Psalm at Sea Leveland Helen Oyeyemi’s surrealist short fiction found in What is Not Yours is Not Yours, I hope to further expose ableist structures in literature and propose a system of knowing that is inclusive of those without the privilege of being able-bodied.

 

A secondary text I may use is Brian Stonehill’s “The Debate over ‘Ocularcentrism’,” a critical review of Jonathan Crary’s 1990 study on the history of sight as it relates to thought in the 19thcentury.

Brian Stonehill, The Debate over “Ocularcentrism”, Journal of Communication, Volume 45, Issue 1, March 1995, Pages 147–152, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.1995.tb00720.x

Elevator Speech: Transition from Polytheism to Monotheism

On By smundorfIn SpenceLeave a comment

X: The subject I would like to look further into is the Torah or more specifically the story of Moses. This would be across all books that tell his story rather than limiting myself to any specific book as they would be an incomplete section of a larger story. The subject within the Torah I would like to explore is God’s characteristics as a deity. There is often the pointed-out difference between God in the Torah and God as depicted in later Christian texts. The two almost seem to be entirely different Gods based on their temperament toward humans and even those they claim as their people. The God of the Torah has many violent tendencies, not only toward enemies of his people but on many occasions toward his own people. He is often known for smiting and punishing those who have done wrong and constantly reminds the Israelites of his power to perform such violence. The later Christian depiction of God in comparison is far more forgiving and known less for his violent deeds on humanity. He is often considered a symbol of peace even when religion can be taken to extremes.

Y: The question about this subject is “How was the early depiction of God in the Torah influenced by characteristics of Gods from other neighboring religions, especially those of Egypt, in the transition from polytheism to monotheism.

Z: This would help to explain the wide range of characteristics God takes on throughout the Bible as a whole and show the progression of his traits. This question would help to show the transition from Gods with more human-like qualities and faults to the often angelic or heavenly depictions that are present in modern day. This would over course be looking at religion in a strictly literary sense and not taking into account the beliefs behind such texts.

Work Cited

Coogan, Michael David, et al., editors. The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha. Fifth ed., Oxford University Press, 2018.

DID the Butler Do It? A New Critical Look at Two Underrated Servants

On By sabowdenwritesIn SarahLeave a comment

[There is a spoiler for And Then There Were None in this pitch.  No, I don’t reveal the killer’s identity.  If you haven’t read it, you should!]

A person doesn’t need an English degree to see the exploration of the universal themes of justice and punishment in Agatha Christie’s 1939 novel And Then There Were None.  Interestingly, few scholarly articles exist on the novel.  There are arguments aplenty on if U. N. Owen is justified or even interested in justice when s/he murders ten people, each of whom is accused of getting away with murder.  But nearly all these readers’ opinions are based on the assumption that all ten people are guilty of murder, which drains the book of some ambiguity. In fact, only eight characters are confirmed guilty through thoughts, flashbacks, or confessions.  The two that aren’t also happen to be, some say, the most minor, whose thoughts are never revealed: Thomas and Ethel Rogers, the butler and cook. Christie has been criticized for her underdeveloped domestic worker characters such as these two. But a New Critical lens reveals the paradox that the most “minor” characters are actually the most important.  The Rogerses’ so-called underdevelopment makes them ripe for a range of interpretations, and their opaqueness is not classist ignorance on Christie’s part, but an unsolved mystery within a (solved) mystery. Because we know so little about them and we never hear their thoughts, we never know if they’re guilty or innocent. In fact, unlike every other character, there’s no conclusive evidence they committed the murder they’re accused of.  This adds a dose of ambiguity that severely disrupts, if not completely overthrows, U. N. Owen’s master plan for “justice.”  

Potential Source: 

Vurmay, M. Ayça.  “Detection or Endless Deferral/Absence in Detective Fiction: Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None.”  DCTF Dergisi, 57.2, 2017, pp. 1127-1150.  

What Trauma is She Failing to Repress?

On By daylaowIn Professor MeehanLeave a comment

Christine de Pizan takes on an argumentative tone in her works, a good deal of them condemning male scholars before her for their portrayal of women in their writing. She is very straightforward with her arguments in each work, boldly confronting them for their misogynistic characterization of women and toxic portrayals of masculinity. However, in Le Livre de la Cité des Dames (The Book of the City of Ladies), Christine chooses to lay out her argument very differently, instead constructing 3 divine female figures to make her arguments for her, providing strong counterclaims to common misogynistic presumptions using textual evidence. 

Something that sticks out to me about this work is the way in which the seventh section, in which Christine herself asks Lady Justice if women were meant to practice law, citing the writing of multiple male scholars on the subject not even 5 years preceding this novel. Unlike in recent sections, the angel does not give any evidence as to why this sentiment is inaccurate but instead gives an answer that she defends using strategic essentialism This answer gave a major shift in tone, as the argument is less assertive and straightforward. This made me question why this sudden change in attitude was included, and specifically what Christine was going through/what prior events were on her mind as she wrote it. 

I am interested in exploring this subject using psychoanalytic criticism, to figure out if the seventh section of The Book of the City of Ladies is the manifestation of Christine’s internalized misogyny reflected onto text or if this specific choice was made in response to a specific trauma, or both. I would also like to use reader response theory in my analysis of this topic to explore how her use of affective stylistics influences the message she sends. 

Representation Versus Activism in Young Adult Literature

On By nnoce2In Nicole N.Leave a comment

I am looking at young adult literature that addresses topics that are often seen as taboo or censored in order to analyze the depiction of these events that readers could potentially be facing in their own lives so that my readers can better understand where the line between representation and activism in young adult literature falls.

X: Young adult literature that addresses topics that are often seen as taboo or censored.

Y: How are these events that some of the readers could potentially be facing being depicted in these novels?

Z: There is a point at which representation in a text shifts to become activism.

I am considering specifically focusing on young adult novels that address school shootings. The two novels that I am considering using are Underwater by Marisa Reichardt and Finding Jake by Bryon Reardon.  A secondary source that could be useful is “Cinderella’s Stepsisters, Traumatic Memory, and Young People’s Writing” by Adrienne Kertzer, found using Washington College’s Library and Archives OneSearch.

I will be using a combination of reader-response theory and psychoanalytical theory. Using psychoanalytical theory, I can analyze the ways in which the characters in the text cope with their trauma. Making a distinction between the author as activist and the reader as being inspired to engage in activism, reader response theory could be beneficial in analyzing where a text falls between representation and activism. Specifically, I can use affective stylistics to further look at how the reader responds to how the text is written.

Works Cited

Kertzer, Adrienne. “Cinderella’s Stepsisters, Traumatic Memory , and Young People’s Writing.” Lion & the Unicorn, vol. 40, no. 1, Jan. 2016, pp. 1–21. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1353/uni.2016.0004.

Reardon, Bryan. Finding Jake. Turtleback Books, 2015.

Reichardt, Marisa. Underwater. Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 2016.

Keats and the Poems You Haven’t Heard Of

On By vaxjonesIn VaxLeave a comment

I am interested in examining John Keats’ lesser known poetry, including but not limited to “Two or Three,” in order to gain insight in to why the literary discourse around such a popular poet is silent about them, and then to determine if these poems are worthy of the attention and consideration that Keats’ odes are. These “lesser” poems contain a picture of Keats, as a person and a writer, that could be valuable when examining all of his work. Furthermore, it is my suspicion that Keats’ earlier, less technical, more playful works will be important on their own, at least because they will show how Keats developed into the writer he was at the end of his life. There is also, in my opinion, merit in frivolous content so long as it is not entirely devoid of meaning.

In terms of relevant critical theory, structuralism could be used in the comparisons to his entire canon. There will need to be some biography and history involved. Psychoanalytic criticism is the only one that has directly addressed the author and social context so far, but perhaps there is something that we have not discussed yet that brings in the author more directly.

The pre-existing articles on Keats discuss why he was underappreciated in his time: critics hated him. This is detailed in my secondary source. This could be a possible explanation as to why these poems have not been examined as frequently as the odes, which is the first component of my research in this project.

Secondary Source

Rovee, Christopher. “Trashing Keats.” ELH, vol. 75, no. 4, 2008, pp. 993–1022. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/27654645.

Elevator Speech: Exploring Queer Erasure through Poetry

On By mackenziebradyresponsesIn MacKenzieLeave a comment

Chase Berggrun’s poetry book, R E D, is an erasure of Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula. According to Berggrun’s website, “R E D excavates from Bram Stoker’s Dracula, through the process of erasure, an original narrative of violence, sexual abuse, power dynamics, vengeance, and feminist rage, and wrestles with the complexities of gender, transition, and monsterhood.”

I am interested in looking at the way Berggrun deconstructs Stoker’s text not only to create erasure poems, but to completely flip the narrative on its head to explore ideas of gender using queer theory. By applying deconstruction to the Dracula through R E D, and applying queer theory to R E D directly, I will explore how queer voices have been historically erased, and Berggrun uses literal erasure to begin to give them back some of their power.

X: Exploration of gender in R E D by Chase Berggrun.

Y: How have queer voices been historically erased? In what ways are they fighting back against that?

Z: By pushing back on these traditional and exclusionary structures, queer voices are able to reclaim their stories in the very ones that cut them out in the first place.

As a preliminary secondary source, I may look at “Out of Time: Queer Temporality and Eugenic Monstrosity” by Thomas Stuart. “Out of Time” explores Dracula and how the titular character “stand[s] in opposition to the progress- and procreation-oriented culture of fin-de-siècle England. This paper examines the Gothic queerness of stopped time, arguing that a subtle figuration of these characters as trans- underlies their radical break from a contemporary eugenic logic. A trans- impulse in these texts—one that encompasses taxonomic, temporal, and gender boundaries—initially marks the monstrous body but ultimately engulfs the English subject,” according to the article’s abstract.

Works Cited:

Berggrun, Chase. “Home: Chase Berggrun.” Website, 2017, http://www.chaseberggrun.com/.

 

Potential sources (primary and secondary):

Berggrun, Chase. R E D. Birds, LLC, 2018.

Stuart, Thomas M. “Out of Time: Queer Temporality and Eugenic Monstrosity.” Victorian Studies, vol. 60, no. 2, Winter 2018, pp. 218–227. EBSCOhost, doi:10.2979/victorianstudies.60.2.07.

Tarner, Margaret, and Bram Stoker. Dracula. Macmillan Heinemann, 2005.

 

Satire in Environmental Art and Surrealist Literature

On By nicolehatfield99In Professor MeehanLeave a comment

I am looking at how irony and satire links the environmental movement to modern feminist, surrealism, and post-modern texts. I am specifically interested in how the idyllic contrasts with the realistic in the environmental movement, thus creating a complex binary between real and surreal concepts. I would like to argue that like nature itself, literature uses the binary of idyllic/realistic in order to create some greater truth that reveals the messiness of the human experience. Using a modern lens, one can read romanticized visions of nature as self-indulgent and unrealistic, and this category of environmental literature works against the notion that art can enact policy or social change. Does some environmental art exist just for art’s sake? Or is it pushing a specific political or social agenda to actually better the environment and correct environmental injustices? Common themes I am interested in: how the female body is romanticized as being an ecofeminist symbol, while it is much more than simply a natural symbol; how art can function as both a social critique and as a beautiful entity; how all meaning is derived from an ironic outlook on life—making meaning through satire. I will use a deconstructive and psychoanalytical lens.

X: Irony and satire in environmental art

Y: How does the environmental movement create tension between the realistic and idealistic? How does this binary result in a meaningful critique of society and its representation of nature/the female body? 

Z: Through irony/satire, one is able to address the shortcomings of all humans and accept the greatness and vastness of nature in order to create a sustainable reading experience where the environmental movement is both critiqued and lifted. In creating tension/irony around environmental art, it forces people to question the social implications real-life environmental injustices have (systemic racism etc). This “care for the earth, care for the self” mentality (permaculture) ultimately leads to social change (or it at least raises questions around social issues) 

Other interests: creating satirical collages (visual art) to accompany my project

Possible primary texts:

Angela Carter: The Magic Toyshop

Sisters of the Earth (anthology) 

Pleasures of Nature (anthology)

Secondary Source:

Szerszynski, Bronislaw.  (2007) “The Post-Ecologist Condition: Irony As Symptom and Cure.” Environmental Politics, vol. 16, no. 2, 2007, pp. 337-355, DOI: 10.1080/09644010701211965

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/09644010701211965?needAccess=true

 

Anna Karenina as Modern Heroine: an Elevator Speech

On By Meg WalshIn MeganLeave a comment

I am looking at Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, a novel which has recently inspired many visual adaptations: several films and even a comic book. However, Anna Karenina has had few contemporary retellings in novels- at least, few that are obvious about their connection. I am thinking about the way Anna Karenina has helped shape a modern “Chick Lit” genre, to help me understand how contemporary female authors respond to and rework the trope of the adulterous woman that Anna Karenina popularized. This trope in “Chick Lit” is reclaimed by (typically) white female authors in order to create a feminist narrative, but not one that is necessarily intersectional.

Using feminist critical theory, it can be conceived that Tolstoy’s “othering” of Anna Karenina, an adulterous woman, is only justified by her suicide. She is punished for her deviation from societal norms with a tragic demise. The modern reworking of this trope often includes a happy ending for the “Anna Karenina”-esque heroine, typically a sexually liberated white heterosexual woman. However, her status as an “other” feels ingenuine, given the nature of modern feminism; thus, her happy ending does not come as a surprise, nor is it particularly empowering for a diverse audience.

I will be looking at feminist criticisms of Anna Karenina, for example, “Women, Character, and Society in Tolstoy’s ‘Anna Karenina’ by Gayle Greene. I will also be focusing on modern works which borrow extensively from the tropes Anna Karenina inspired, analyzing the way contemporary feminist writers subvert the narrative of the “othered” adulteress, and how they miss the mark. The “Chick Lit” books that I will be looking at alongside Anna Karenina include Bridget Jones’ Diary, Sex in the City, among others.

Critical article: Greene, Gayle. “Women, Character, and Society in Tolstoy’s ‘Anna Karenina.’” Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, vol. 2, no. 1, 1977, pp. 106–125. 

Located on Jstor.