Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Revolutionaries In Space? A Counter-Review Of Interstellar, Bryant William Sculos

Class, Race and Corporate Power

Should the radical Left interpret the Nolans' Interstellar as a tribute to (neo)liberal expansionism or should we view it as a cautionary tale about a future that is just around the corner, which won't be solved by worm holes or time travel? This review takes the latter position against the recent Jacobin review, which argues the former. Here, I show that Interstellar can be productively reinterpreted as a film about a series of things that will NOT save us from our-late-capitalist-selves.

Media Representations Of Perpetrators: Case Study Of South Africa’S Eugene De Kock, Emily H. Freilich

ehf02014@pomona.edu

This paper examines the importance and practices of media portrayal of perpetrators in human rights atrocities. Specifically, it investigates the media portrayal of Eugene de Kock, the commander of the Vlakplaas death squad in South Africa and one of the most notorious perpetrators of the South African apartheid. The paper first introduces the debates and moral dilemmas surrounding the media portrayal of perpetrators. It then examines the how news media and books represented Eugene de Kock and his Amnesty Committee trial and analyses how those portrayals help or hinder the transitional justice process in South Africa. The media surrounding de …

The Lost Row, Roman Buetel

Honors Projects

Set in 2032, The Lost Row chronicles the pre-dystopian city of Fostoria, where three citizens have taken it upon themselves to combat crime.

Making Fun Of Franco: Representations And Caricatures Of Spanish Fascism In The Films El Espiritú De La Colmena, Cría Cueros And El Laberinto Del Fauno, Elizabeth Pruchnicki

Honors Capstone Projects - All

The end of the Spanish Civil War marked the beginning of Francisco Franco’s dictatorship, which lasted more than 35 years. Throughout this time, he systemized terror, executing more than 100,000 republican sympathizers in the first few years of his regime and marginalizing the remainder of the population. Therefore, the Fascist Era lasting from 1940-1975 is one plagued with strained relationships, ambiguous loyalties and distant relatives. The films El espiritú de la colmena by Victor Erice, Cría cuervos by Carlos Saura and El laberinto del fauno by Guillermo del Toro’s illustrate these kinds of challenges, from the point …

Digital Prometheus: Wikileaks, The State-Network Dichotomy And The Antinomies Of Academic Reason, Athina Karatzogianni, Andy Robinson

Athina Karatzogianni

"If You Have No Men, You Have No War!”: A Critical Overview Of Edgar Selwyn's Men Must Fight (1933), Ryan R. Copping

Cinesthesia

ABSTRACT: Edgar Selwyn’s Men Must Fight (1933) is an obscure yet culturally relevant science fiction drama. An atypical film from its era, the movie has an unusual subject for a Classical Hollywood film- gender socialization. The film didactically argues that wars are inevitable because men are inherently violent, and that, conversely, world peace world occur if women were in power, a possibility that appears to be regrettably impossible. It is also remarkably prescient in predicting that World War II would begin in 1940, only one year off from the German invasion of Poland. This paper combines a close content analysis …

Moral Anxiety, Mortal Terror: Considering Spielberg, Post-9/11, Jake T. Bart

Cinesthesia

In the wake of 9/11, a defining moment in the young 21st century, Spielberg’s thematic concerns undergo a marked evolution. As film historian Joseph McBride noted, “(n)o other American artist confronted the key events of the first decade of the century with such sustained and ambitious treatment” (450). Together, Spielberg’s War of the Worlds (2005), Munich (2005), and Minority Report (2002) create an informal trilogy, each exploring a different facet of American shock and anxiety in the War on Terror era.

An Apartment Of One’S Own: Personal Initiative And Private Ownership In Frances Ha, Anna Bowles

Cinesthesia

In “Ideology, Genre, Auteur,” Robin Wood says that by approaching film through the framework of ideological theory, we can become sensitized to “the opposing pulls, the tensions, of one’s world (593).” Even in a film that is not explicitly political, these tensions can find expression. In Frances Ha (Baumbach 2012), a young woman struggles to chase her dream while also staying afloat in the harsh landscape of New York City. Until near the end of the film, it seems that Frances might float forever. The supports that Americans used to take for granted are no longer apparent. Having lost her …

The Zone: James, Tarkovsky, And Understanding Reality, Travis Wheeler

Cinesthesia

Using the philosophy of William James as comparison, this essay attempts to understand Andrei Tarkovsky's view of reality and the strategies his characters use to experience it.

Yaari With Angrez: Whiteness For A New Bollywood Hero, Teresa Hubel

Department of English Publications

This chapter comments on the relative insignificance of whiteness to Hindi film narratives, with white characters turning up, when they do, often as peripheral figures to create the effect of historical accuracy. It argues that in Hindi cinema, whiteness cannot function as it does in the West, where the legacy of imperialism has made it an unmarked category, whose invisibility allows it to function as a norm against which the aberration of racial others may be measured. In Indian films, whiteness is marked; and it is, increasingly, markedly white—to be resisted, or desired, or dismissed.

Sensuality, Camels, And Islam: Disney Music And American Perception Of The Middle Eastern Experience, Laura Schildbach

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

In a world that is constantly changing and becoming more open to diversity and equality, filmmakers are faced with the challenge of presenting films and characters that embrace the ever-evolving world around us. In particular, Disney has been presented with this challenge; as a cinema powerhouse with an audience primarily made up of children, there is a perception that Disney has a moral responsibility to present accurate and unbiased representations of all cultures. This paper will analyze how Disney musically represents the Middle East in two Disney feature films, Aladdin and Prince of Persia, and how the musical choices affect …

Iranian Nuclear Proliferation And Sanctions, Bailey Nicole Burlingame

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

This project will involve the current problem of nuclear development in the nation of Iran. The question involved in the election studies was, “Should we try to stop Iranian Nuclear Development by increasing sanctions, yes or no?” According to the US Department of State website, they are attempting to increase these sanctions against individuals or cooperations who can be proven to have provided aid, information, or mechanical aspects to assist the goal of Iranian nuclear proliferation. The website provides identifying information for the individuals involved. The answer to this question I believe will be determined the amount of news information …

Mdocs Newsletter-2014-12-09, 1.6, Jordana Dym, Lisa Fierstein, Jennifer Hoffer

MDOCS Publications

No abstract provided.

Viral Hollywood: How Social Media & Other Emerging Technologies Have Molded The Modern Moviegoing Landscape, Benjamin P. Conniff

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

There’s no denying that the rise of the internet has brought about change in the Hollywood landscape. Fans now use social media, like Facebook and Twitter, to share word-of-mouth about movies both good and bad. In a sense, anyone can use these new “spreadable media” to be a critic. I myself took it one step further and started my own film review blog. I was even published in the College Heights Herald student newspaper for over a year! In gauging my audience’s tastes in social media usage and in film, I have uncovered the fact that the hot-button marketing issues …

Binoculars: Management Strategies In Film, Kamryn Fall

Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies

No abstract provided.

Weeb-Con, Rachel Williams

Senior Honors Theses

One of the most important parts in the development stage of filmmaking is writing a screenplay. Weeb‐Con is a thirty‐two‐page action comedy screenplay. After an anime convention in Galveston, Texas, is forcefully taken over by armed robbers in creepy, badlymade fursuits, it is up to Dolores “Dolly” Lopez, a Lolita who must lead the convention attendees ‐ including her family and her fat pitbull Butterball ‐ and make them band together. Dolly is something of a perfectionist loner; but, with the help of her new friends Seymour, a cowardly nerd, and Boyd, a stoner who is smarter than he looks, …

Orenda, Lauren Reeks

Senior Honors Theses

The following work is a feature length screenplay about Anna Morris, an 18-year-old girl who finds herself faced with a moral dilemma when her estranged father, Robert, contacts her on her 18th birthday. When she learns about Robert’s past involvement in an online child pornography ring Anna must decide if she can forgive him, or -- more importantly -- if he is worthy of forgiveness. However, as the story unfolds we find that it is not just Anna who needs to forgive. This story approaches issues of repentance, growth, and the journey into adulthood as Anna takes on each new …

Matière Grise De Kivu Ruhorahoza : Un Nouveau Discours Filmique Pour Le Rwanda?, Charles J. Sugnet

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

Films like Hotel Rwanda, Sometimes in April, and Shooting Dogs have codified certain ways of representing the 1994 Rwandan genocide, with realist aesthetics, epic sweep, and aspirations to historical authenticity. A young Rwandan director, Kivu Ruhorahoza, has won two major prizes at the Tribeca Festival for his 2011 feature Grey Matter, a breakthrough film that is different from its predecessors in almost every respect. Ruhorahoza’s film is intimate, cosmopolitan, metaphorical, and avant-garde; it requires some effort to understand, yet it is extremely moving. On the 20th Anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda, it offers new ways of understanding the consequences …

Tiget Heart : A Short Story, Wai Yin, Catriona O'Neil

Artists-in-Residence Programme : Exhibition Catalogues

As an illustrator, Cat O'Neil's work resolves around telling stories through metaphorical imagery. Tiger Heart is an exhibition of one of these stories, which centres on the topic of street harassment.

[More Information about the exhibition with supplementary video]

All the works shown in this book is under the copyright of Cat O'Neil. Do not copy or reproduce the work without prior consent (except for review purpose).

Introduction To New Work In Ecocriticism, Simon C. Estok, Murali Sivaramakrishnan

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

No abstract provided.

Rediscovering Local Environmentalism In Taiwan, Peter I-Min Huang

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Rediscovering Local Environmentalism in Taiwan" Peter I-min Huang challenges the domination of "the global" and the marginalization of "the local." Huang argues that by the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century globalism seemed to have toppled localism in ecocriticism debates. Ecocritics embraced enthusiastically such concepts as Ursula K. Heise's "eco-cosmopolitanism" and the arguments associated with it that spoke for global forms of environmental thinking and practice. Yet, arguments for "the local" persist in part because of Heise's constructive criticisms of it. Focusing on local environmental movements in Taiwan, Huang identifies and discusses scholarly work …

Monsters In Common: Identity And Community In Postapocalyptic Science Fiction After 9/11, Jeremy J. Burns

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the aftermath 11 September, 2001, postapocalyptic science fiction has offered a way to make sense of the events of that day, as well as the years of social, cultural and political upheaval that have followed. In many ways, 9/11 began immediately to take on apocalyptic significance in the American national narrative, seemingly marking the end of one period and the beginning of another, entirely different one. To think of 9/11 as a kind of apocalyptic break with the past, however, does not tell the whole story. Moreover, such thinking denies key historical linkages between the American response to 9/11 …

Ecocriticism And Persian And Greek Myths About The Origin Of Fire, Massih Zekavat

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Ecocriticism and Persian and Greek Myths about the Origin of Fire" Massih Zekavat argues that some contemporary ecological biases are rooted in ancient thought. Further, Zekavat argues that the study of mythology is relevant to the understanding of culture and ecology thus assisting ecocriticism. The investigation of man/woman, culture/nature, and human/nature binary oppositions conveys that Greek and Persian myths are mostly anthropocentric and androcentric. Zekavat postulates that one way to revise contemporary ecological conceptions is to study myths to shed light on the mind and context of their creators and believers, their representation of natural phenomena, and …

Ecocriticism And National Image In 舌尖上的中国 (A Bite Of China), Mingwen Xiao

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Ecocriticism and National Image in 舌尖上的中国 (A Bite of China)" Mingwen Xiao examines the multi-faceted contents of the popular 2012 television series. Instead of exhibiting delicacies made by professional chefs in luxury restaurants, A Bite of China displays local food and dishes made by ordinary people. By focus on every-day food preparation, the show constructs a performance where class, ethnicity, gender, age, and other social markers are blurred and the geographically and ethnically diverse ways of food preparation and consumption appear as a cohesive Chinese culinary identity. Xiao argues that A Bite of China plays a role …

La Brigada Ramona Parra; Muralismo Y Cambio Social En Chile / La Brigada Ramona Parra ; Muralismo And Social Change In Chile, Sarah Baumann

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Mi motivación para esta proyecto era mi interés en el poder de murales en Chile, y los cambias sociales que arte callejero pueden iniciar. Arte callejero he tenido un efecto muy grande en la historia y políticos de Chile. Yo quería descubrir más sobre esta historia, y también cómo los organizaciones que hacen murales, cómo la Brigada de Ramona Parra, funciona hoy. Para mi proyecto, yo usé entrevista, guías de arte callejero, observaciones en escuelas de Bellas Artes, y un exposición de murales. En mis resultas, yo encontré que la Brigada de Ramona Parra ha cambiado la escena política en …

“He Venido A Servir A Mi Gente” El Liceo Guacolda Y La Educación Intercultural En Chile / "I Have Come To Serve My People " The Liceo Guacolda And Intercultural Education In Chile, Jake Highleyman

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The concept of intercultural education is present in many countries worldwide: it’s the idea of learning through the lenses of more than one culture, not just the Western or dominant one. In Chile, intercultural education is most commonly associated with the mapuche, the largest indigenous group in Chile. Since 1993, Chile has had a federal Bilingual Intercultural Education program (EIB). However, almost all of the implementation is left up to individual schools. The schools that do apply the program at a high school level only do so in an elective-based manner. That is, only students who elect to take a …

Japanese Poetry And Nature In Borson's Short Journey Upriver Toward Ōishida, Shoshannah Ganz

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Japanese Poetry and Nature in Borson's Short Journey Upriver Toward Ōishida" Shoshannah Ganz shows how the limited focus of research on Roo Borson oversimplifies the poetry and ignores the tradition that Borson is aligning her work with both in form and content: classical Chinese and Japanese poetry and their perspectives on nature. Further, Ganz explores the ways in which Borson's poetry overcomes intuitively the binaries of East/West, human/non-human, and the further binaries within the human/non-human created through representational language. Ganz contextualizes Borson's work within the master/disciple lineage of Chinese and Japanese tradition and explores how Borson …

The Systemic Approach, Biosemiotic Theory, And Ecocide In Australia, Iris Ralph

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "The Systemic Approach, Biosemiotic Theory, and Ecocide in Australia" Iris Ralph summarizes an argument in defense of disciplinarity ("openness from closure") that Cary Wolfe makes in What is Posthumanism? She also comments on an implicit argument that Wendy Wheeler makes in The Whole Creature: Complexity, Biosemiotics and the Evolution of Culture. As Ralph argues, Wheeler's implicit claim is that biosemiotic language, which humans share with other biological beings, connects human animals and nonhuman animals on moral and affective grounds. Ralph summarizes Wolfe's defense of disciplinarity that literary and cultural studies scholars who engage with the "question …

Jean-Luc Godard And Francois Truffaut: The Influence Of Hollywood, Modernization And Radical Politics On Their Films And Friendship, Caroline Glenn

All Theses

During the late 1950's the French film industry's hard-won financial stability during the Occupation and liberation years had all but disappeared. Combined with the dwindling, unpredictable nature of French audiences, the multi-star, literary adaptation dramas French studios produced were no longer reliable. In response to these dilemmas a transformation took place in French cinema. Known as the nouvelle vague (or French New Wave), the movement was largely, but not completely, a reaction to France's declining film industry. The nation as a whole was undergoing significant change and growth during the 1950s. From the Algerian conflict, the Fourth Republic's collapse and …

What Adds Up To Being: The Work Of Tanna Burchinal, Tanna L. Burchinal

All Theses

My practice takes form around embodied experience. I affect signifiers of the human body within the ordered grid, the scientific text, and the logic of the machine, to highlight the interdependencies of physical bodies and those social constructs that produce and influence identity. We are a part of these constructs that both extend and limit; we are enacting and interacting with them. I do not aim to eradicate these structures of power (without them, our identities are in chaos). Instead, I point out the pitfalls of these constructs that are perceived as unchanging, by making interaction and experience integral to …