Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The Castle Of Otranto As A Christmas Ghost Story, Conor Hilton

BYU English Symposium

The seasonal Christmas ghost story tradition pre-dates Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, but the narrative is filled with holes. Some place The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole within this narrative, striving to fill the gaps that exist. Despite the novel’s publication on Christmas Eve and note in the preface that it is part of the canon of the Church of St. Nicholas, the evidence is too thin to make a definitive claim that Otranto was written as a Christmas ghost story. In fact, examining newspaper archives from the eighteenth century surrounding the publication of Otranto, delving into …

Oz: A Reflection Of America, Monica D. Allen

BYU English Symposium

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum was one of America’s first fairy tales. As such America is embedded, as well as outright discussed, in the book. It is quite clear that around the turn of the century Baum saw the need for a change in America involving the economy and leadership, and noted that this change was beginning to take place. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz reflects this and in his book, Baum brings two conflicting ideas of what America was becoming—the Emerald City—and what he thought America should be like—the rest of Oz, specifically the Munchkin …

Pay No Attention To That Man: Government Crimes In The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz, Isaac Lyman

BYU English Symposium

L. Frank Baum's "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" demonstrates the deeper motivations behind his editorials on the treatment of Native Americans in the 19th century. Specifically, the principal kingdoms and rulers of the novel mistreat and endanger their constituents in the same way that 19th-century governments marginalized and oppressed the scarcest and weakest of their country's denizens. The Winged Monkeys of Oz exhibit the characteristics of a society of "noble savages," words Baum used to lament and encourage the extermination of the Native Americans, amid heated cultural concerns about the safety of white settlers after the Wounded Knee Massacre. The …

Baum's Dorothy And The Power Of Identity, Camille Pay

BYU English Symposium

L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz portrays a relationship between Dorothy as an individual and Oz as a whole; however, this relationship has been viewed by critics as solely political. Dorothy penetrated Oz deeper than political interference, though: she enabled those around her by helping them in personal ways. When Dorothy first entered Oz, she acted as a political catalyst, but throughout the story, she became a more intimate leader by enabling those around her. She made it possible for her companions to act, later helping them to be leaders themselves. Through Baum’s inclusion of Dorothy in The …

"That Lady, Sir, Is Her Own Mistress": Evelina's Condemnation Of Rape Culture, Rose Hadden

BYU English Symposium

Fanny Burney’s 18th Century novel Evelina is a canny critique of rape culture and the pervasive assumption of female consent. Evelina navigates a social world in which she nominally has the right to say no to anyone in any matter regarding her own body, but where that right is consistently undermined by social punishment, victim blaming, and deliberate ignorance. Earlier scholars have characterized Evelina’s compliance as a flaw in her character, a result of her lack of confidence and experience, but I contest that Burney’s text clearly absolves Evelina herself of all guilt. Burney instead condemns the society that would …

You Grow This Way: An Analysis Of Mother And Daughter Selves In Anne Sexton’S Poem “Little Girl, My Stringbean, My Lovely Woman", Kennerley Roper

BYU English Symposium

The maternal speaker in Anne Sexton's poem “Little Girl, My Stringbean, My Lovely Woman” speaks to her maturing daughter about the wonders of the female body by revising the literary tradition that already exists about the female body. What the speaker ultimately conveys to her daughter is the power the body has through the use of parallel body and earth imagery. However, the daughter is distanced from this notion through a contrasting image: the string bean. The speaker uses that distance to show the mixed images of entanglement and separation of mother and daughter in order to expound wisdom to …

Rhetorical Leadership: Intentionality And Communication, Katherine L. Neish

BYU English Symposium

This presentation aims to explore how intentionality factors into effective communication and the importance of this communication in the role of rhetorical leaders. Rhetorical leaders have an ethical responsibility to their followers to create a space in their conversations for constructive feedback, and rhetorical followers have an ethical responsibility to provide that feedback in a constructive manner. When both rhetorical leaders and rhetorical followers intentionally fulfill these responsibilities, they stand the best chance of being understood and furthering the pursuit of truth.

“The Black Cat:” A Reflection Of Pre-Civil War Slavery, Hannah Walker

BYU English Symposium

In 1843, Edgar Allan Poe published “The Black Cat” amid one of the most foreboding ages in American history: the pre-Civil War era. Critics often attempt to make sense of the violent plot of Poe’s classic by pointing to flaws in the human psyche or supernatural undertones which pervade many of Poe’s other pieces. However, by recognizing distinct parallels between the Southern practice of slavery and symbolic plot points in “The Black Cat,” readers can unveil richer implications behind Poe’s dark tale. Specifically, “The Black Cat” functions as a racial allegory that depicts the injustices of slavery and, ultimately, shows …

What Of "Kubla Khan"?, Pablo I. Tapia

BYU English Symposium

Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem, "Kubla Khan," tends to avoid interpretation. Years of scholarship have approached the poem differently, and many critics have dismissed Coleridge's "Preface" to the poem, stating it is merely an explanation for the poem's incompleteness. This paper looks over several popular interpretations of the poem, but it attempts to establish that the "Preface has become part of the poem, not only for its description of the conditions the poem was written in, but also for Coleridge's process of creating poetry. Although some of the popular approaches shed light on bits and pieces of the poem, they fail …

American Masculinity As Presented By Walt Whitman, Corinn Pratt

BYU English Symposium

As a homosexual Romantic poet neither Walt Whitman nor his work would immediately come to mind as particularly masculine. However, through a brief historical look at what Whitman was learning about as well as a close reading at some of the text it is clear that Whitman paints a very masculine picture. Whitman uses the sexual act as a way to understand what it means to be a man with himself at the helm. Within “Children of Adam” is Whitman uses this ultimate fulfillment of gender relations to explore masculinity and ultimately paints himself as the embodiment of masculinity.

A View To Women’S Networks In The Arts In Portland: Building And Engaging An Audience For The Artist Rosemarie Beck, Jenna Barganski

Lyric Truth: Rosemarie Beck

Essay on building an audience for the Rosemarie Beck art exhibit and multidisciplinary symposium.

P-01 The Art Of French Mélodie: A Manual For Recital Preparation, Kristen Abraham

Honors Scholars & Undergraduate Research Poster Symposium Programs

I document my journey through the research, development and execution of a recital focused on French mélodie, a genre of art song classified by its intense lyricism and precision. Moving through three phases: thinking, doing and reflecting, I highlight the important processes required to transition seamlessly through each. While going through the project each step is documented in a journal to maintain the integrity of the process. My end goal is to present a “How To” manual with information on planning, preparing and ultimately presenting a recital to the public.

P-05 A Study In Red: The Codification And Practical Application Of A Copyediting Procedure, Nathan Berglund

Honors Scholars & Undergraduate Research Poster Symposium Programs

Editing is an integral part of publishing professional-level writing, but editing—specifically copyediting—can be very subjective, relying on the copyeditor’s best judgment. For novice editors such as myself, this responsibility can be intimidating. For this research project, I formulated and tested a step-by-step copyediting procedure aimed at alleviating these jitters. By reading copyediting guides and interviewing four active copyeditors, I developed a procedure. I then tested that procedure on Timothy Huck’s 115-page manuscript, The Lights of the Arno: A Novel. I conclude that even with a standardized editing methodology, editors will always need to rely on their subjective judgment.

P-12 The Role Of The Gift-Giving Spirit In Numbers 11, Jeanmark Kessler

Honors Scholars & Undergraduate Research Poster Symposium Programs

Current scholarship analyzes spiritual gifts predominantly from Acts 2, Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, and Ephesians 4. With the assumption that the Holy Spirit belongs to the Godhead and His actions are constant and persistent throughout Scripture, this study develops an Old Testament perspective on the Holy Spirit’s role as gift-giver. This exegetical research investigates Numbers 11:16-29 as the key passage, where the Holy Spirit bestows His gifts upon Israel’s leaders. In addition, the valid connections between Numbers 11 and 2 Kings 2 provide a broader and more consistent contextual interpretation of spiritual gifts within the Old Testament.

P-14 Discourse And Narrative: Creating Gender Control In Junot Diaz’S The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao, Charles Lee

Honors Scholars & Undergraduate Research Poster Symposium Programs

Junot Diaz’s Pulitzer-Prize-Winning 2007 novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao explores Dominican masculinity through narrator Yunior de Las Casas’s portrayal of protagonist Oscar de León’s family history. Yunior’s perceived virility shapes his understanding of masculinity, which he stresses through the novel’s plot and structure. This analysis considers how Yunior constructs Dominican masculinity through his narrative by marginalizing and emasculating passive characters such as Oscar. I argue that Yunior’s narrative closely links definitions of masculinity and power as he strives to dominate passive characters in order to assert his virility as the “best” method for being a Dominican man.

P-20 “The Story Which He Never Stops Telling Himself”: Autobiography, Narrative Community, And The Deconstruction Of Selfhood In Virginia Woolf’S The Waves, Melodie Roschman

Honors Scholars & Undergraduate Research Poster Symposium Programs

This paper examines narrative, biography, and selfhood in Virginia Woolf’s The Waves (1931). The novel, a “play-poem,” follows six friends’ monologues from childhood to death. I analyze aspiring writer Bernard from his childhood of telling stories about companions to his inability to narrate his autobiography, arguing that he fails because he has no self to narrate. Referencing Jacques Derrida’s Of Grammatology’s (1974) theory of the deconstructed self identifiable only in conversation, I argue that Bernard destroys his identity by silencing his friends and becoming the sole speaker; Woolf’s biographical theory thereby establishes the communal self, prefiguring tenets of postmodern …

P-28 Musical Borrowing In Las Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas: Piazzolla, Desyatnikov, Vivaldi, Wayanne Watson

Honors Scholars & Undergraduate Research Poster Symposium Programs

Leonid Desyatnikov arranged Astor Piazzolla’s Las Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas for violin and string orchestra, interspersing quotations from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons throughout the new work. My score-based analysis of the arrangement investigates Desyatnikov’s borrowing techniques by locating the Vivaldi quotations, examining Desyatnikov’s alterations to their original content and context, and determining whether the quotations’ identities are maintained or transformed. My research shows that, generally, Desyatnikov minimizes drastic alterations to content, but usually makes changes to context. Overall, this leads to transformation of the quotations’ identities. By examining these compositional procedures, my analysis provides a more nuanced exploration of musical dominance and …

A Painter And Her Poet: Rosemarie Beck And Marcia Nardi, Patricia A. Schechter

Lyric Truth: Rosemarie Beck

Presentation focuses on the relationship between Rosemarie Beck (1923-2003) and the poet Marcia Nardi (1901-1990).

Historicizing Subjectivities: Antigone, Rosemarie Beck And A Lesbian New Yorker, Jamie P. Ross

Lyric Truth: Rosemarie Beck

Presentation examines Rosemarie Beck's development, as a woman and artist as part of the larger social/body politic of the time. Her sense of self as an individual, her individual acts, whether or not she participated in consciousness raising sessions and equal rights marches, perhaps are not as important as her historicized experiences; the creation of her subjectivity.

"Lyric Truth" Exhibit Catalogue, Sue Taylor, Nora Beck, Prudence F. Roberts, Patricia A. Schechter, Namita Gupta Wiggers

Lyric Truth: Rosemarie Beck

Catalogue published in connection with the exhibition "Lyric Truth: Paintings, Drawings, and Embroideries by Rosemarie Beck".

Unsilencing The Voice Within: Expressive Writing As A Therapeutic Tool, Karla L. Sapp

National Youth Advocacy & Resilience Conference

Written words are a very powerful tool that is used to facilitate self-healing, awareness, and growth through the communication of one’s deepest thoughts, emotions, and desires. The purpose of this poster session is to provide mental health providers (community, school, criminal justice) with an overview of expressive writing, forms of expressive writing that can be utilized, and implications for professional practice with At-Risk Youth.

Beatles Song Analysis, Clarissa Hinshaw

2015 Honors Council of Illinois Region Student Symposium

This study employed several distinct disciplines in mathematics to isolate, examine, and optimize the various costs involved in managing a soup kitchen. “Soup Kitchen Statistics” is a mathematical model illustrating the inverse relationship between the ambient outside temperature and the homeless population of Joliet, IL. The use of calculus revealed key relationships among vital factors, the most important of which included the daily costs of operation as a function of meal attendance dependent on outside temperature. The study produced a realistic and logical mathematical model which enables management personnel at MorningStar Mission to forecast the needs of the kitchen simply …

Session B-3: Modern Germany: Social Responsibility & Environmental Sustainability, Rachel Sykora

Professional Learning Day

This session will present the political, social, and economic philosophies that have allowed modern Germany to emerge as a global leader in environmental sustainability. This subject raises numerous ethical questions with real-world applications that are of high interest to students in history, global studies, and human geography classrooms. Topics of discussion include the Deutsche Bank model of corporate responsibility, “green growth” economic initiatives, and the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). Participants will leave with practical classroom activities utilizing thought-based inquiry, primary source documents, and case study examples that help inspire classroom conversations beyond the traditional context of the Holocaust and World …

Session A-1: Interpreting Cold War Origins: Past, Present, Future, Lee Eysturlid

Professional Learning Day

This session will enable attendees to teach the origins of the Cold War for the United States (and world) along with the evolution of American opinion on the topic. This fragmentation of historical opinion (left, right, center) will help attendees see the many possibilities of the topic. Teachers will leave ready to teach the topic.

2015 Making Literature Conference, Scott Russell Sanders, Angela Shannon, Jessie Van Eerden, Miho Nonaka

Making Literature Conference

Keynote Speakers: Scott Russell Sanders, Angela Shannon, Jessie van Eerden, Miho Nonaka

Keynote Address: "Translating Endo Shusaku's Silence: Literature of Faith and Human Weakness," Miho Nonaka

Keynote Reading: "Reading & Craft Talk: The Midrashic Impulse," Jessie van Eerden

Keynote Address: "Pictures into Words," Scott Russell Sanders

University Scholar Series: Alison Mckee, Alison L. Mckee

University Scholar Series

The Woman’s Film of the 1940s: Gender, Narrative, and History

On February 25, 2015, Dr. Alison L. McKee spoke in the University Scholar Series hosted by Provost Andy Feinstein at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library. Dr. McKee discussed her recent book, The Woman’s Film of the 1940s: Gender, Narrative, and History, which addresses the terrain between official public histories and private experiences of love, desire, and loss against the backdrop of World War II. McKee is an Associate Professor in the Department of Television, Radio, Film, and Theatre Arts at SJSU. She specializes in film history, theory …

Digital Demonstrations: Examinations Of Protests And Politics In Cory Doctorow’S Young Adult Fiction, Jacob Brown

Ray Browne Conference on Cultural and Critical Studies (2015-2021)

Within this paper, I intend to examine the manner by which author and blogger Cory Doctorow utilizes complex themes of digital labor exploitation and intellectual property law within his young adult fiction in order to bring about positive social change, with particular attention paid to the 2008 novel Little Brother and its 2013 sequel Homeland, the 2010 novel For the Win, the 2012 novel Pirate Cinema, and 2014’s In Real Life, a graphic novel written by Doctorow and illustrated by Jen Wang. Throughout Doctorow’s realistic depictions of slightly-fictionalized versions of contemporary life and embellishments of near-future …

Emerging Feminist Voices On Media And Representation, Diana Depasquale, Cassie Tenorio, Alyssa Wells, Savannah Fulmer

Ray Browne Conference on Cultural and Critical Studies (2015-2021)

The work featured in this panel is from students in WS2000, Introduction to Women's Studies. I created an assignment called "Choose Your Own Adventure." These projects include: an examination gender in film, and a revised version of the Bechdel Test, sexism and misogyny in gaming culture expressed through a series of comics, a painting on canvas using a variety of materials and techniques representing the control of women's reproductive rights and the damage done to female bodies by patriarchal language and rhetoric, and an analysis of womanism, scripture and Alice Walker's The Color Purple.

Each student engaged with issues related …

The Transnational Rhetoric In Cabeza De Vaca’S La Relacion, Bincy Abdul Samad

Ray Browne Conference on Cultural and Critical Studies (2015-2021)

Abstract on La Relacion by Cabeza de Vaca

Identity is an important concept in postcolonial literature, especially when one’s identity is achieved rather than inherent. It is interesting to pursue how Cabeza de Vaca, the protagonist of La Relacion undergoes a transformation from his initial identity as a Spanish colonizer to a transnational hybrid, the Spanish-American. Despite multiple critics’ argument that La Relacion is “a discourse of failure” that “subverts the established order,” my paper rereads the narrative as a transnationally successful rhetoric by incorporating multiculturalism and hybridity. Thus Cabeza de Vaca becomes a hero if we accept his story …

Another Country: When Your Nation Doesn’T Consider You To Be A Citizen, William B. Daniels Ii

Ray Browne Conference on Cultural and Critical Studies (2015-2021)

I plan to show how the characters in Another Country uncover the inherently racist and homophobic requirements for citizenship in a nation. The novel Another Country by African American author James Baldwin (1924-1987) exposes the fallible nature of hetero-normative and racial ideals that narrowly define a model citizen of a nation-state. The queer interracial relationships in the novel, particularly between the main character Rufus and his lover Eric, transgress the boundaries of nation, race, and sexuality, thus revealing the illusionary nature of categorizations that are defined and applied by nation-state apparatuses in order to discriminate and maintain uniformity. In addition …