Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Tolkien, Cline, And The Quest For A Silmaril, Tom Ue, James Munday

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

J. R. R. Tolkien has had a significant influence on American writer Ernest Cline. In Ready Player One (2011), the character Ogden Morrow invites Wade and his friends to his mansion, which is modelled after Rivendell from Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings films (2001- 03). Cline goes further in his sequel Ready Player Two (2021) by staging a part of Wade’s virtual quest on Arda I, the First Age of Middle Earth. In this paper, we focus on this episode and, in so doing, argue for Cline’s insights into how we approach fantasy. First, we attend to the …

Who’S His Daddy? Approaches To Merlin’S Father In Children’S And Ya Media, Michael Torregosa

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

In the 1130s, Geoffrey of Monmouth originated the character of Merlin, setting him upon the world stage as a wonder-working youth fathered (in the tradition of Greek and Latin authors of the past) by a daemon. However, later writers of the Middle Ages, beginning with Robert de Boron, reconceived Merlin within a more Christianized world, altering his heritage and transforming his sire into a demon from Hell. This shift from benign daemon to malevolent demon has impacted the representation of the wizard of Camelot for centuries. Contemporary fiction for the page as well as for the screen has adopted and …

"Shivering Trees": Horror Monstrosity In Selected Stories From Tolkien’S The Silmarillion, Elise Mckenna

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

In The Silmarillion, Tolkien used conventions of horror within the setting of Arda. To begin with, the entire world, which is monstrous, is in upheaval with mountains being raised and valley being delved, lanterns of light created, and huge beings walking the land. Then, these landscapes are torn down, the lights are smashed and go out, and new creatures of horror prowl the world. The differences between the portrayals of monstrosity on a grand scale border the grotesque and the sublime. Monstrous beings, Valar and Maiar, command the elements of earth, air, fire, water. They have pre-ordained roles that …

The Story, The Narrator And The Reader: Mediated Horror In C.S. Lewis’S Narniad, William Thompson

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

In her introduction to Reading in the Dark: Horror in Children’s Literature and Culture, Jessica R. McCort defines horror for children and young adults as a hybrid genre, one having its roots in both the gothic and the nineteenth-century fairy tale. She explains that the exploration of dark forces in children’s books is often not limited to those tropes traditionally associated with the horror genre for adults: “Think of the books that are considered children’s classics. The best of them contain dark forces of one kind or another, as well as internal battles between the light and the dark: …

Environmental Horror And Restoration: Tolkien And Today, Jessica Dickinson Goodman, Caitlin Rottler

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

J.R.R. Tolkien never forgot the felling of a willow tree that had overlooked the mill-pool in Sarehole, nor how his former climbing companion had been left to rot in the grass. His horror at that small environmental violence bleeds through his works, from poems like “From the many-willow’d margin of the immemorial Thames” (1913) to the Party Tree in The Hobbit (1937) to a letter to The Daily Telegraph in 1972 when he decried the modern “torture and murder of trees.” This presentation will draw on the excellent foundations laid by Dinah Hazell, as well as the father-son pair of …

Nature And Horror In Tolkien’S Legendarium, Julia Bowers

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

Tolkien incorporates horror in his legendarium through the twisting of the natural world in order to signal upcoming dangers to his characters. This creates a dichotomy between the idyllic natural world that represents good in his works and the twisted natural world that has been tampered with by evil. Most of the focus on Tolkien’s portrayal of nature looks at the conflict between nature and technology; the natural world of Middle-earth is portrayed as more complex than merely all nature being good. His natural settings take on an eerie tone to convey a sense of horror to the reader as …

Poster Session, Emma Beeler, Maddison Caldwell, Mackenzie Paul, Shirli Salihaj, Sara Lynn Sligh, Stephen Trest

Mississippi Undergraduate Honors Conference

Video provided is of MacKenzie Paul's presentation.

Abstracts

Humanities

Emma Beeler, Mississippi University for Women

Adultery and Fidelity in the Lais of Marie de France

Using both literary and historical analysis, I will examine contrasting depictions of adultery and fidelity within the lais written by 12th-century poet Marie de France. A lai is a type of narrative poem, ranging in length from 118 to 1184 lines. Many of Marie de France’s lais follow the literary trope known as courtly love; however, the reader is encouraged to sympathize with different characters depending on the lai. In some lais, the reader …

Charles Williams' P'O- L'U - The Cthulhu Connection, Eric Rauscher

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

This presentation delineates the connections between horrific elements in the work of H.P. Lovecraft and the situation of P’o-L’u from Charles Williams.

Delight In Horror’: Charles Williams And Russell Kirk On Hell And The Supernatural, Camilo Peralta

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

Charles Williams has always been one of the more overlooked members of the Inklings, and the continued neglect of his poetry and “supernatural thrillers” suggests that he is not likely to experience a dramatic increase in popularity anytime soon. Similarly, Russell Kirk is an American historian who will always be better known for writing The Conservative Mind in 1953 than for any of the dozens of short stories and novels he wrote, many of which deal with ghostly or supernatural themes. In fact, Kirk acknowledged Williams to be an important influence on his fiction; this influence is perhaps most evident …

White Shadows, Black Riders And Restless Wights: Undead Horror Monsters In The Fantasy Worlds Of J.R.R. Tolkien And George R.R. Martin, Franz Klug

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

The proposed essay aims at comparing J.R.R. Tolkien’s Nazgûl and barrow-wights with the white walkers (also known as “the Others”) and wights from George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire. To begin with, the folkloric/mythological templates for these sub-created monsters would be scrutinized. The introductory ascription of source material would be followed by an analysis of these creatures as horror monsters and gothic elements within the fantasy worlds of Tolkien and Martin. This analysis would also be linked to addressing the question of how the gothic/horror genre influenced the fantasy worlds of both authors, and as in …

Adoring The Head Of Alcasan: Posthuman Horror And Anticipatory Corpse In Lewis’S That Hideous Strength, Mark Brians

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

At the pinnacle of Lewis’ That Hideous Strength (2003) is the reanimation of the decapitated head of Francois Alcasan. The sheer biological persistence that is afforded to it by the biosynthetic technics of medicinal artifice, allows the head to be possessed by “macrobes”— maleficent spiritual beings imprisoned within the circle of the moon. The goal of this reanimation project is purportedly “the conquest of death […] to bring out of that cocoon of organic life […] the man who will not die, the artificial man, free from Nature. Nature is the ladder we have climbed up by, now we kick …

Oral Presentations: Humanities, Jacob Dunahue, Faith Langford, Kathryn Scharwath

Mississippi Undergraduate Honors Conference

Video is provided of Faith Langford's presentation.

The Overlooked Vampire: Might Macdonald’S Lilith Be Repopularized?, A. J. Prufrock

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

Lilith (1895) is George MacDonald’s premier work of symbolic fiction. W.H. Auden asserts that Lilith is “equal, if not superior, to the best of Poe." A cursory reading of the novel reveals much in Narnia can be traced directly to passages. Why has MacDonald’s Lilith received so little commentary and why is it picked up and then put down by even avid readers of fantasy? Universalist theology and chauvinism have been blamed, but literary style is unarguably the main stumbling block. C.S. Lewis, who says of MacDonald, “I fancy I have never written a book in which I did not …

Tolkien As A Folk Horror Author, Monica Sanz

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

Folk Horror, although being identified as a cinematographic genre quite recently, sinks its roots in an undeniable tradition of English writers who used English rural landscapes, ancient beliefs and culturally differentiated communities as humus for their prose and poetry. From the literary tradition of the 8th Century on, creatures and beliefs belonging to dark times have left their mark on our literature, traditions and folklore. Tolkien, as a philologist, was well aware of the hints and bits of these almost unknown legends and creatures left in our language, in the form of loose words, etymologies and fragmentary texts. In this …

Online Midwinter Seminar (Oms) #1 Report, Ben Dressler

Student Research

A report on the Mythopoeic Society's first annual Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS) by Ben Dressler.

Online Midwinter Seminar (Oms) #1 Report, Victoria Gaydosik

Faculty Articles & Research

A report on the Mythopoeic Society's first annual Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS) by Victoria Gaydosik.

Understanding The Influence Of Place On Festival Making And Artistic Production In The Local Urban Festival Context, Danielle Lynch, Bernadette Quinn Dr

Articles

Recent decades have seen a dramatic increase in research output on arts festivals and cultural events, and a growing focus on the role festivals play in negotiating and constructing meanings of place. However, little attention has been paid to how place shapes the process of festival making and artistic production. This paper attempts to address this shortcoming by examining the extent to which place matters to the production of festival activity and asks: how does place influence festival making and artistic production in a local arts festival context? The study is part of ongoing qualitative research into the Five Lamps …

The 2022 Classroom Project: Land Of Ours, Otterbein Theatre And Dance Department

2021-2022 Season Production

LAND OF OURS is a brand-new play devised in rehearsal by an ensemble of Otterbein University actors, designers, stage managers, and directors. The play explores the centrality of travel and journeying to human experience. Drawing on the ensemble's personal experiences, stories of mythical travel from legend and folklore, and travel explorations invented in rehearsal, LAND OF OURS is a theatrical journey that will transport you beyond the theater walls to a destination of the imagination.

Kimberly Ann Coney

African American Funeral Programs

No abstract provided.

Maggie Mary "Louise" Hagins

African American Funeral Programs

Interment: Parrish Grove Baptist Church Cemetery

Online Midwinter Seminar (Oms) #1 Report, Phillip Fitzsimmons

Faculty Articles & Research

A report on the Mythopoeic Society's first annual Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS) by Phillip Fitzsimmons.

Young Artists Competition, Andrews University

Concerts and Event Programs 2021-2022

Performing together with the Andrews University Symphony Orchestra (AUSO), the 2022 Young Artist Concert will feature student soloists Betania Cañas (flute), Benie Safari Dushime (soprano), Andrew Pak (piano), Grant Steinweg (cellist and composer), and Shania Watts (viola). All soloists were selected as winners at the AU Department of Music's Young Artist Competition.

A Father’S Death: The Therapeutic Power Of Autoethnography, Dwayne Custer

The Qualitative Report

Autoethnography is a transformative qualitative research method that has the power to heal self and society after traumatic events (personal and collective). It is a bridge between the subjective inner world of spirit and memory with the outer world of objectivity and culture. Autoethnography is a powerful tool for manifesting change in the world. In this paper, I will address autoethnography as a transformative methodology in relationship to my father’s death when I was a young child, demonstrate the therapeutic aspects of personal narrative, and quickly address some of the ethical challenges with the process.

Mr. Eugene Johnson

African American Funeral Programs

Mr_Eugene_Johnson.pdf - Funeral program for Mr. Eugene Johnson

Leroy Anthony Berry, Sr.

African American Funeral Programs

No abstract provided.

Gus Hornes Wiggins

African American Funeral Programs

Gus_Hornes_Wiggins.pdf - Funeral program for Gus Hornes Wiggins

Karey Lamara Small

African American Funeral Programs

No abstract provided.

Code Of Conduct, Victoria Gaydosik

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

As a virtual event, the Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS) does not have most of the traditional features of a scholarly or fannish convention: no consuite, no hotel rooms, no banquet, no Golfimbul tournament. We have paper presentations and discussions of ideas, and so we want those presentations and discussions to be stimulating, enjoyable, and memorable—in a good way.

The Process Of Settling Muslims In China During The Ming Dynasty, Odiljon Ernazarov Phd

The Light of Islam

The article presents information about sociopolitical, economic, and cultural conditions of China in the XIV-XVI centuries, the spread of Islam in China and its adaptation to the local environment, the participation of Muslim nations in the social, economic, cultural life, and educational process of the country. During this period, the status of Muslims as a “community migrating from Central Asia” changed to the name of an “ethnic minority” firmly established in China. In the reign of the Ming Dynasty, the Hui Muslim population in Shanghai and Gansu increased even more. The Ming emperors granted Muslims certain religious, political, economic, and …

Influence Of Subjective Determinants On Personal Formation, Mahmud Majitov

The Light of Islam

The article provides a structural and functional analysis of the social essence of an individual, the patterns of its formation, the problems of relationships between society and the individual, reveals the features of its development. Social and negative aspects of modern social development, the development of science and technology, the growth of a person’s intellectual potential increase attention to the problem of personality. Complex developments, dramatic changes in the relationship between man, society, and nature, in turn, indicate the need for social research in this regard. It is necessary to study the dialectical relations between postmodern society and the individual, …