Tag: Elevator Speech

Familial Trauma in Postcolonial Literature

On By Meg WalshIn MeganLeave a comment

For my SCE project, I will be looking at three primary texts: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel Purple Hibiscus, Mai Der Vang’s book of poems Afterland, and lê thi diem thúy’s novel The Gangster We are All Looking For. These texts differ in form, content, culture and country. Purple Hibiscus is a coming-of-age novel about a young girl, Kambili, living in an abusive Catholic household in postcolonial Nigeria. Afterland is a collection of poems about the Hmong people’s displacement from Laos after the Vietnam War, where there were attempts at colonization through the military. The Gangster We are All Looking For is the story of a young, unnamed Vietnamese immigrant whose family has fled to San Diego. Though these texts are in many ways dissimilar, each of them deals with postcolonial life and the aftereffects of colonialism. I am thinking about the way that each of these texts deals with family, either ancestral or living, and how familiar ties shape and define trauma. I want to look at the reality of hereditary trauma in postcolonial societies, and how family dynamics can be affected by this trauma. In my SCE, I aim to explore how colonial violence spans generations in order to show my audience the importance of heritage and trans-generational narratives.

I will be looking at critical perspectives of postcolonial theory, psychological theory surrounding family trauma, and literary criticism concerning these three texts. Postcolonial criticism will help me to shape my argument and my readings of these three texts. I will suggest that the motif of family in these texts is used to explain trans-generational trauma responses to past and current psychological effects of colonization. This is extremely important to understand not only the history of colonization, but the lasting psychological effects that are passed down in family dynamics. I argue that these effects are not created through genetics but through hereditary trauma, making it possible for children to take on the postcolonial trauma of their ancestors. These texts show this notion through the motif of the family, using metaphor, character, and imagery.

Keywords: Family, Trauma, Motif, Postcolonial

Provisional Works Cited:

Jacob, John. “Hmong American Identity in Literature.” Salem Press Encyclopedia of Literature, 2019.

Quan Manh Ha. “Conspiracy of Silence and New Subjectivity in Monkey Bridge and The Gangster We Are All Looking For.” Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement, 2013, p. 1.

Bhattcharjee, Partha, and Priyanka Tripathi. “Ethnic Tensions and Political Turmoil: Postcolonial Reading of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus.” Language in India, vol. 17, no. 3, Mar. 2017, p. 433.

Elevator Speech 2 – Cinderella and Gender Roles

On By lausou17In LaurenLeave a comment

My project has changed since the last post, so here is a new elevator speech. For my project, I want to use New Historical and Cultural theory to look at how multiple renditions of the Cinderella fairy tale reflect the gender roles of that time and how they have changed.  The Cinderella tale is very popular, appearing in many different cultures and having many popular retellings, to the point where it has become a standard story type.  Because this story is so popular, and because it is something that is told to our children literally from birth so many times that they have it memorized for the rest of their lives, I think there is an interesting connection between how Cinderella is portrayed and what we want her portrayal to teach the children who are absorbing this story.  My topic is the cultural impact of the Cinderella tale, my question is how does the portrayal of Cinderella reflect the gender roles of the culture that produced that particular tale, and my hypothesis is that they show the ideal girl to fit those roles and that they show the qualities that are valued in women at that particular time.  One of the sources I plan on using is Cinderella: A Folklore Casebook by Alan Dundes which is a collection of both different versions of the Cinderella tale from different cultures and essays analyzing them and how they relate to one another.  This will be a useful source for me because it will give me both tales to look at and comparisons between them, which will show me how the retelling have changed.  The specific versions I want to look at are the Charles Perrault, the Brothers Grimm, the Disney 1950’s animated film, and the Ella Enchanted film.

Dundes, Alan. Cinderella: a Folklore Casebook. Garland, 1982.

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: 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.

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.

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.

Elevator Speech: The Impact of Gretel Ehrlich’s Memoir

On By Becca KanaskieIn BeccaLeave a comment

I am looking at Gretel Ehrlich’s depictions and interactions with the West in her memoir The Solace of Open Spaces in order to analyze the ways in which she uses this platform to transform personal experiences into universal concepts so that my readers can better understand the function, purpose, and effect of memoirs as a genre in relation to the constructed connection between author and reader. 

X: The West in Gretel Ehrlich’s The Solace of Open Spaces Y: How can a personal anecdote become a universal concept?
Z: The personal connection/link between author and reader opens a door for communication, association, and interpretation

I think that applying a structuralist lens is appropriate here as it allows me to see how Ehrlich plays with the form of her experiences chronologically, but also gives me contrast to see how she breaks from that form and what the purpose would be. I also think that addressing reader response is essential because memoirs are meant to create a bond between author and reader, and the author is trying to convey a key message to the reader through personal stories and the effect on the reader is necessary to consider as it can determine how effective the author/memoir is. I could potentially use “Desire of the Middle Ground: Opposition, Dialectics, and Dialogic Context in Gretel Ehrlich’s The Solace of Open Spaces” by Bonney MacDonald for my project. Article located through the Washington College Library & Archives OneSearch. 

MacDonald, Bonney. “Desire of the Middle Ground: Opposition, Dialectics, and Dialogic Context in Gretel Ehrlich’s The Solace of Open Spaces.” Western American Literature, vol. 33, no. 2, 1998, pp. 126-148. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/43021814. Accessed 26 Sept. 2019.