Sponsored by the Graduate School, College of Arts
David Linton, ‘Identity Construction in London West End Revue Performance of the Early Twentieth Century’
Download 191.46 Kb.
|
David Linton, ‘Identity Construction in London West End Revue Performance of the Early Twentieth Century’ Keywords: theatre, music, C20th, social reform London West End revue constituted a particular response to mounting social, political and cultural insecurities over Britain’s status and position at the beginning of the twentieth century. Insecurities regarding Britain’s colonial rule, as exemplified in Ireland and elsewhere, were compounded by growing demands for social reform across the country — the call for women’s emancipation, the growth of the labour and the trade union movements, all created a climate of mounting disillusion. Revue correlated the immediacy of this uncertain world, through a fragmented vocabulary of performance inscribed with a bewildering variety of national, racial and gender identity constructions on stage. One result was the emergence of a London/national identity that displaced the romanticism of English musical comedy by combining a satirical listless detachment with a defiant sophistication that articulated a fading British hegemonic sensibility, a cultural expression of a fragile and changing social and political order. Experimenting with narrative and expressions of speech, movement, design and sound, they displayed ambivalent representations that reflected social and cultural negotiations of previously essentialised identities in the modern world. Panel 9 – The City and Rural Nostalgia Lakshmi Raajendran, ‘Identity Constructions and Negotiations in Multicultural Environments’ Keywords: urban environment, globalism, space Places today are characterised with unequal geographies that are political, economic, symbolic and cultural. Encountering these places involves greater challenges of negotiation of one’s identity which as a result undergoes a continuous process of adaptation and reconstruction. Scholars have explained this phenomenon emerging as an approach towards rethinking identity in terms of interconnectedness rather than counter-position, inclusion rather than exclusion (Massey and Jess 2005).Similar views also echoes from the concepts of global sense of place (Massey 1991) and multi-territoriality (Petcou 2002).In this context , the paper discusses the significant role of spatial design in identity constructions which embrace or contest the various approaches developed towards understanding identity in the context of impending effects of globalisation. Through case studies, this paper will explicate spatial manifestations of collective and personal identity negotiations of people in urban environments. The study will also highlight how spatial design accommodates constantly shifting meanings of identity of people and facilitate in deeper understanding of the complexity of identity constructions in an increasingly changing physical and experiential world. Sara Mahdizadeh, ‘(Re)constructing of Iranian identity by means of the historical gardens’ Keywords: gardens, outside space, Iran, national identity For more than 2500 years, Persian Gardens had encompassed distinct archetype and intangible values manifesting the culture and identity of the Iranian society and depicting their traditional way of seeing the nature. During the course of time, as a result of the intense change in the socio- political, and economical systems, many Iranian historical gardens have been neglected and/or destroyed, while a few still remain though their inherent values and social functions have been made impotent. This paper will set out to elaborate on the way in which the shifts in the perception and attitudes towards cultural heritage have transformed the values of Persian Gardens during the 21th century. The paper will discuss the intangible aspects of the relationships between people and historical gardens, how it affects and impacts the overall Iranian identity in the contemporary context. The inferences of this paper will substantiate the significance of conservation of both tangible and intangible values of Persian Gardens in (re)construction of the collective cultural identity of Iranian society and reinforce the national pride in 21th century Iran. Anneliese Hatton, ‘Portugalidade como dualidade – The “Janus-faced” nature of Portuguese National Identity’ Keywords: Portuguese national identity, Empire, rural nostalgia, postcolonialism Enigmatic and fateful she stares Out West, to the future of the past The staring face is Portugal. (Extract from Fernando Pessoa’s Message) Portuguese national identity has been in a state of crisis since the Revolution of 1974 and the subsequent loss of Empire. Since the Age of the Discoveries, the Portuguese have defined themselves in a dual fashion – either looking outward towards their colonies and a perceived hope of glory for the future, or looking inward towards an idyllic, rural Portugal of days gone by. However, the end of Empire completely overturned the colonial balance as “the margins of the nation displace the centre; the peoples of the periphery return to rewrite the history and fiction of the metropolis” (Bhabha), and as the modern world encroaches, the idyll of rural Portugal seems ever further away. This paper seeks to explore how the Portuguese attempt to redefine their national identity in the wake of the Revolution and how their “bipolar personality” (Barata) has evolved in the post-colonial world. Panel 10 – Gender, Sex and Performance Jennifer Cowe, ‘Love in a Changing Climate: Two Film Adaptations of Henry Miller’s “Quiet Days in Clichy”’ Keywords: film adaptations, Henry Miller, sexual norms, pornography This paper examines two film adaptations of Henry Miller’s novel, ‘Quiet Days in Clichy,’ showing how both use the character of Miller, simultaneously as creator and protagonist, to represent sexual and individual liberation, whilst in fact misrepresenting Miller, as he becomes a conduit through which the film reflects the sexual discourse/confusion of the period in which it was made. The accessibility of Miller’s cultural notoriety has undermined the complexity of his work and literary legacy, however it has also allowed his ‘identity’ to be appropriated by many different people claiming to show the ‘authentic’ Miller, or to use Miller’s name or work to give an implied anti-establishment credibility to their own work. “Love in a Changing Climate” compares two adaptations of Miller’s novel, ‘Quiet Days in Clichy’ on film; firstly the soft-porn Danish version as an example of the calculated use of Miller’s name to promote sexual liberation, whilst in fact reflecting the confused nature of gender roles in the 1970. This paper compares it to the Claude Chabrol version filmed in 1990, which takes the character based on Miller and makes him a handsome 26-year-old rather than the 40-year-old that Miller was at the time of the incidents portrayed in the novel. This paper argues that this reflects the growing unease of paedophilia, as the main female character is only 15 years old when she enters into a sexual relationship with both lead male characters. Liz Renes, ‘“Surface even as the Reverse of the Soul”: John Singer Sargent and the Aesthetic Performance of Female Identity’ Keywords: John Singer Sargent, art history, female beauty, aestheticism When John Singer Sargent exhibited his portrait of Madame X in the 1884 Salon, audiences cried that she resembled a corpse. Indeed, the potash of chlorate mixture which she applied daily gave her skin a lavender tinge, which contrasted strikingly with the deep red henna of her hair. And yet Madame X’s skin, acting as her mask in the late Victorian social theatre, belied a deeper appreciation for the construction of beauty and identity exalted by the Aesthetic Movement. Baudelaire remarked upon this in his “In Praise of Cosmetics” from The Painter of Modern Life, stating that woman was “accomplishing a kind of duty when she devotes herself to appearing magical and supernatural…” by creating “an abstract unity in the colour and texture of the skin.” This paper will delve into the Aesthetic Movement’s ideas of constructed female beauty, as explored in the written works of Baudelaire, Wilde and Max Beerbohm, and exemplified by the high society portraits of John Singer Sargent. For Aestheticisim, identity was not always specifically linked to social class, race, or gender, but rather to the expression and creation of beauty in all its non-traditional forms. This revolutionary notion of the feminine persona will ultimately be contrasted against the more acceptable modes of contemporary femininity in order to highlight the Aesthetic process of identity de/reconstruction. Ery Shin, ‘Gertrude Stein’s Queer America’ Keywords: queer theory, class, Gertrude Stein, America, literature This paper examines class biases underlying The Making of Americans’ queer identity politics. Gertrude Stein’s otherwise progressive narrative consciousness reveals an underhanded bourgeois elitism that demands queerness be embraced only on the grounds that it’s a certain “strain of singularity.” Not necessarily one “well within the limits of conventional respectability a singularity that is, so to speak, well dressed and well set up,” but an as yet “unknown product.” This queerness is “neither crazy, sporty, faddish, or a fashion, or low class with distinction.” Thus, different varieties of queerness exist in different intensities for the narrator (not all of them sexual), but “poor queerness” lacks that unique refinement, that nobleness s/he associates with genuine singularity. A voice that chants of strange and compelling tomorrows remains just as embroiled in yesterday’s attitudes as many of the characters it recapitulates. Literature that interrogates the inevitability of certain orientations takes for granted its own slant against the poor, erecting new barriers as it breaches others. The Making of Americans eerily anticipates class divisions within contemporary LGBT circles in that regard, by assuming that the ideal queer America is still a tastefully discerning (white) middle-class one. Panel 11 – Creative Practices in Cinema Linda Hutcheson, ‘Identity Formation and the Distribution of Independent Cinema: The Case of Morag McKinnon’s Donkeys (2010)’ Keywords: independent cinema, marketing, narrative image This paper centres on the process of building an identity for a film prior to its theatrical release, what John Ellis (1982) termed the creation of its “narrative image” (30). When releasing a film, a distributor faces the daunting task of attempting to make their film stand out amongst the plethora of others on offer to their target audience. In the independent sector, this challenge is further heightened by the shoestring budget on which most independent distributors operate. Focusing on Morag McKinnon’s Donkeys (2010), a film whose theatrical release was handled by its production company Sigma Films after it failed to secure a distributor, this paper analyses the narrative image assembled for the film’s release. This is achieved firstly, through consideration of the marketing campaign devised by Sigma Films, and secondly, through analysis of the film’s reception in UK newspapers. Timothy Peacock, ‘Beyond Alps, Elephants and Vinegar: Hannibal Barca and the Evolution of the History Documentary’ Keywords: historical documentaries, Hannibal Barca Hannibal Barca’s name evokes images ranging from ancient warriors and elephants struggling across frozen Alps to crippling the Roman Republic using brilliant strategies in grand battles. The few twentieth century filmic and television depictions of Hannibal have typically drawn upon and reinforced these bold motifs in popular imagination. In the last 16 years, for the first time, there have been a plethora of major history documentaries about Hannibal, some presenting previously unknown facets of his character amidst increased popular interest. However, in revisiting established narratives, these purportedly ‘objective’ documentaries have themselves constructed multiplicities of new ‘Hannibals’ with their own subliminal and even overtly partisan biases. This paper demythologises some of the prominent, recurring features of these digital constructions of Hannibal’s identity, showing how the documentaries themselves assemble new identities through such areas as narrative emphasis, material selection, imagery, use of actors and CGI technology. By looking at this case study example of Hannibal, this paper seeks to provide a framework for re-examining the objective conceptualisation of the History Documentary, examining the presentation of History as a subject to a popular audience through visual media. Panel 12 – Modern Perspectives Rinni Amran, ‘Displacing and Re-placing the Human: the Aeroplane in Twentieth-Century Fiction’ Keywords: aeroplane, modernism, human, machine, literature This paper investigates the ways in which the invention of the aeroplane in the early twentieth century made an impact on literary fiction, focusing particularly on the works of H.G. Wells, Virginia Woolf, and William Faulkner. The aerial perspective afforded by the flying machine, its ability to permeate national boundaries and the boundary between earth and sky, and its liberation from the confines of gravity provided new ways of perceiving and portraying the relationship between the human and the material environment in terms of simultaneity, permeability, and fluidity. This paper argues that the aeroplane not only displaced the human physically through flight, but also ontologically from their Enlightenment-inherited position of centrality in relation to the world, dissolving the lines defining the human and the machine. It is within this displacement that the human becomes re-placed, hovering within boundaries and between states and places, thereby radicalizing human identity in the modern world. ‘Displacing and Re-placing the Human’ seeks to delineate the ways in which the writers incorporate the aeroplane into their aesthetics, taking into account contemporary redefinitions of technology, phenomenological and post-phenomenological approaches that reconceptualise the relationship between humans and nonhumans. Amy Bromley, ‘“Make a map, not a tracing”: W.G. Sebald’s Austerlitz as Rhizomatic Assemblage’ Keywords: Deleuze and Guattari, W.G. Sebald, literary theory, post/modernism In A Thousand Plateaus, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari write that ‘literature is an assemblage’. Their concept of rhizomatic writing posits heterogeneity, interconnectedness and multiple entryways into a text: ‘Any point of a rhizome can be connected to anything other, and must be.’ The rhizome is a network in constant flux, ‘defined solely by a circulation of states […] all manner of becomings’. The spatialized concept of the rhizome is a model for thinking about the book as a never-complete performative act, creating (and created by) lines of intersection: ‘a map, not a tracing’. This paper suggests the rhizome as a model for reading W.G. Sebald’s texts as assemblages. It will undertake a reading of their formal structures, arguing that in their generic instability and through the inserted photographic images, we encounter multiple entryways into and connections out from Sebald’s books. The texture created by images and generic multiplicity performs an ‘imperceptible rupture, not [a] signifying break’ in interconnected ‘lines of flight’. Using the model of the rhizome, this paper provides an analysis of the complex generic identity of Sebald’s texts, positing that their thematic concern with interconnectedness and continual construction/deconstruction of identity is written into their formal assemblage. Xiong Bingxue, ‘Merging Identities in the Works of Whistler’ Keywords: Whistler, impressionism, Ando Hiroshige, cultural cross-over, art history Whistler is one of the three leaders of American impressionism. As the artist himself holds, his own reputation comes more from what he has changed the British aesthetic values by introducing French impressionism. For the impressionist predecessors, he defines a new impressionist mode with his own style, while setting aestheticism as his utmost purpose. Nowadays, much more research focuses on the question of whether these oriental elements – Japan and China in particular – appearing frequently in his decorative and oil painting, are all tempered into an integrated creation. Whistler’s widened view and multiple personality, formed by his life experiences in several countries, are the source for unique characteristics of his works. Owning to his incisive understanding of the ukiyoe as well as a fanciful collection of Chinese porcelain, he can navigate both Western and Eastern art. As a master of merging multiple cultural identities, Whistler is still not profoundly reflected in China. This paper compares Whistler’ works with those of Ando Hiroshige, the great master of ukiyoe, and peruses some porcelains depicted, in order to have a closer look at artist’s inner world.
Keywords: television, comedy, Welsh national identity, devolution, postcolonialism In June 1997 the year Wales voted narrowly for a devolved government, the Welsh dramatist Ed Thomas declared in an interview for The Observer the following: Old Wales is dead. The Wales of stereotype, leeks, daffodils, look-you-now boyo rugby supporters singing Max Boyce songs in three-part harmony while phoning mam to tell her they’ll be home for tea and Welsh cakes has gone....So where does it leave us ? Free to make up, re-invent, redefine our own versions if necessary, because the Wales I know is bilingual, multicultural, pro-European, messed up screwed up and ludicrously represented in the British press... So old Wales is dead and new Wales is already a possibility, an eclectic self-defined Wales with attitude. This paper will argue however that despite Thomas’ own attempts to move away from ‘the Wales of stereotype’, through his involvement for example in the S4C series Caerdydd, which the Western Mail called: ‘a stylish, new drama about modern, urban Welsh-speakers living in a bilingual city’, there has been, overall since 1997, a renaissance in stubbornly traditional representations of the nation on screen set largely in post-industrial South Wales. In TV this impulse can be best analysed via a discussion that pits the more progressive principals of the Welsh Language channel S4C, against the more traditional sensibilities of English language providers. And via a discussion of the sit-coms; High Hopes (BBC Wales2002-2008) and Gavin and Stacey (BBC: 2007-2010), and the comedy-drama Stella (Sky 1: 2012/13), this paper establishes comedy as a signifier of a stubborn regional and working-class identity. Indicatively employing the theoretical frameworks offered by Brett Mills and Stephen Wagg on class and the British sit-com, as well as a raft of work on postcolonial studies from a Welsh perspective, this paper will scrutinize the tensions and the disjoint between the ‘high hopes’ for Wales made during the year of devolution, identified in the Ed Thomas quote, and the sort of popularist representations that have followed. What has followed, this paper argues, are not orientalised caricatures that slavishly reflect how the coloniser sees the Welsh, but more tellingly portraits of those of us that either lack the cultural capital or simply refuse to take part in this new ‘Wales with attitude’. And in the case of post-industrial South Wales, these are portraits defined by nostalgia (hiraeth) over progressive ‘go-getting’ and class and a staunch localism over a national culture imposed from above. Chris McMillan, ‘Broken Bond: Skyfall and the British Identity Crisis’ Keywords: James Bond, Britishness, Scottish independence, patriotism This paper argues that Skyfall (2012) and its preoccupation with Britain and Britishness has been influenced by and is a response to the current debate over the future of the British Union and the impending referendum on Scottish independence. Since James Bond’s conception, no character has been so inextricably linked with Britain and British identity. Simon Schama has remarked that, ‘James Bond was dreamed up as the British Empire was on its last legs’. With the release of Skyfall it is no longer the Empire but the Union which may be on its last legs. This paper argues that Skyfall’s overt patriotism has obscured its more contentious representations of Britain and British identity. Bond’s Scottish origins, both literary and cinematically, have made the spy’s nationality a contested site, consequently problematizing elements of the Bond films which concern Britain and Britishness. This conflict is conspicuous in Skyfall. At this significant period in British history when issues of identity are a topic of political and national dialogue, the release of the latest film – and perhaps the last film - starring Britain’s favourite spy, merits critical attention. Bond’s complex national identity is all the more fascinating in the current political context. Ana Moraes, ‘Institutional Identity and the Development of Funding Schemes at Scottish Screen’ Keywords: Scottish cinema, devolution, funding, national identity This paper investigates and evaluates the role of emerging cultural and media policies in post-devolutionary Scotland, followed by significant changes in UK-wide film policies. It looks at how this changes affected former national film agency, Scottish Screen, as the institutional responsible for nurturing and developing a national film industry and identity. The paper focuses particularly on the development of film funding schemes – from training and development to distribution, partnerships and mentorship – which often reflected a pre-conceived understanding of Scottish identity on screen. It sets out to investigate the aims and outcomes of such schemes, their planning and implementation processes in sight of the dominant political and creative industries discourses that had arisen after the Scottish devolution. Lastly, the paper analysis the rapid change in film policy in Scotland over the period immediately before the formation of Scottish Screen until its demise, arguing that to an extent the body reflected UK wide changes and responded to international trends. On the other hand, it strived to promote a Scottish specificity and fundamental role in fostering a national cultural identity. Panel 14 – A/politicised Religious Identities Aron Engberg, ‘Construction of Apolitical Identities Among Pro-Israeli Evangelicals in Contemporary Israel’ Keywords: Israel, Judaism, Christianity, religious identity, politics The context of contemporary Jerusalem is probably one of the most politicized contexts in the world. In a city with unclear borders, the social space is a zone marked by political contestation, and negotiation of political identities. Not only national but a wide array of international actors operates within this environment. The International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ) was established 1980 as a response to the move of the world’s embassies to Tel Aviv following the passing of the “Jerusalem Law”. Its founders were a group of evangelical Christians who understood the founding of the State of Israel, and its victory in the -67 war as clear signs that the 2nd Advent of Christ was near, and that true Christians should stand by Israel and “bless her”. Today the ICEJ is one of the most important pro-Israeli organizations, and claims to represent hundreds of millions of “Israel-loving” Christians globally. This paper deals with the identity formation of volunteers workers at the ICEJ, how they understand themselves as Christians, in this highly political context. Preliminary field work-based results suggest that the participants construct their identities along religious rather than political lines; their political activity at the embassy is understood as a “personal walk with God”, and to “stand with Israel” is understood as aligning oneself with God. The choice is not between two peoples or two political entities but rather between true Christianity – that understands Gods purposes with Israel – and the world. Such a recasting of the narrative requires us to think about the role of religious worldviews in interpreting political events, and ultimately about the politics of identity construction. Is the ICEJ incorrectly branded as “political”, or is it that the construction of “apolitical identities” in itself can be interpreted as a decisively political move? Andrew Grey, ‘Christian and LGBT: Reconciling Identities Through Comparison’ Keywords: LGBT, persecution, early church history, contemporary Christianity One of the arguments used with increasing regularity against homosexuality amongst more conservative Christians is that a Christian’s identity should be exactly that, whereas many LGBT people draw their identity from their sexuality, thus removing it from their religion. Undoubtedly one of the main questions to ask is whether both can be reconciled. Can a person identify as LGBT and Christian, without one displacing the other? The paper addresses these questions by comparing the formation of Christian identity in the early church with the formation of LGBT identity in the second half of the twentieth century, showing that they were formed in similar conditions – namely, an awareness of difference, the experience of being a persecuted minority and a tendency to identify as a collective, showing that Christians therefore have more in common with LGBT identities than might have at first been thought. It will at the same time attempt to argue that there are sufficient differences in the nature of these identities for conflict not to be necessary. Sources include the New Testament and analysis of early Christian identity formation by Judith Lieu. Defne Cizakca, ‘The Games We Play in Istanbul: Armenians and Turks on the Ottoman Stage’ Keywords: Armenian and Turkish identity politics, theatre, religious boundaries This paper investigates the development of Armenian and Turkish identity politics in Istanbul through a study of the city’s theatres. Prior to 19th century, Ottoman society was structured around religion. Armenians and Turks identified themselves as Ottomans, but distinguished themselves through their respective religions as Christians or Muslims. This faith-based discernment was disassembled in the 19th century with the rise of nationalism. Despite a new emphasis on ethnic identity, the period saw the introduction of European theatre to Istanbul as a joint project between Armenians and Turks. Agop Vartovyan began his career amongst Armenian actors, staging Armenian plays. He later gained a monopoly on Turkish plays from the Ottoman government and staged the first Turkish nationalist play, “Vatan Yahut Silistire”, in 1873. Vartovyan’s Gedikpasa theatre created a composite Armenian-Turkish artistic identity: it was performative, spatial and transitional. Vartovyan’s identity assemblage deserves scrutiny as it is in-between the empire and modernity, and in-between religious and nationalist paradigms. Through a study of Vartovyan’s and Gedikpasa Theatre’s history, this paper delineates the stages necessary in forming the last cultural collaboration between the Armenians and Turks of Istanbul. Panel 15 – Representational Politics: Disability, Class, Race Aretha Phiri and Maja Milatovic, ‘Dis(re)membering Bodies: Disability and Self-Constitution in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye and Octavia Butler’s Kindred’ Keywords: disability, race, class, gender, American literature Written against the backdrop of contemporary race, class and gender politics, Toni Morrison and Octavia Butler’s works frequently focus on black female subjectivity. Within this context, the body becomes a vehicle for exploring issues of identity, memory and self-constitution in the context of racism, sexism and other forms of oppression including coming to terms with historical trauma of slavery. In The Bluest Eye, Morrison suggests that the rape of the child, Pecola Breedlove, by her father, Cholly, is a corollary of an historically and systemically dis(en)abled blackness, which, in Pecola’s resultant insanity, ultimately manifests in black female, ‘disability’ – an inability to ‘see’, metaphysically, the black female self. Continuing Morrison’s ideas of selfhood is Octavia Butler’s Kindred which imagines a fantastical return to the slave past, leaving the contemporary protagonist Dana severely bruised, scarred and physically disabled as she loses her arm on her final trip to antebellum Maryland. ‘Dis(re)membering Bodies’ explores the complex connections between African American identity, selfhood and disability by examining the differently configured or disabled body and its interrelation to the constitution of black subjectivity in The Bluest Eye and Kindred. The disabled body, connected to memory and selfhood, echoes, while attempting to fill, historical gaps and silences at the same time that it challenges historically reductive readings. This paper argues, however, that rather than illustrate incompleteness, this representation of the body restructures the discourse around it to allow for alternative subjective interpretations and possibilities. Shannon Reed, ‘“You Can Write Us”’ (practice-led research paper) Keywords: writing, representation, ethics, race, disability, class, identity formation Over the course of Shannon Reed’s four years teaching at a Brooklyn high school, questions about identity often arose. How could Reed, a disabled white woman raised in privilege, help her African- and Caribbean-American students construct meaningful identities? A chance conversation with a student, who told her, “You can write us,” gave Reed the answer: she would write them – not about them, but them – as best as she could. This began her quest to be a participant observer trying to capture the divergent identities of her students in writing and verbal performance. Focusing on the events surrounding the death of one of her students in a gang-related shooting, Reed used qualitative research methods to gather information for this project. This presentation and performance will include an excerpt from the resultant manuscript. It’s in the voice of Dante, a young Caribbean-American woman who looks back on the incident through the lens of her first semester of college, noticing how her identity has changed along with her circumstances. The presentation will then consider several questions that drive Reed’s writing of the work: How should one balance the demands on identity given to these characters by the nature and needs of fiction? How do ethnographic research methods affect artistic choices? What does it mean to “borrow” the identity of a former student? Anna-Leena Lähde, ‘A Chinaman’s Chance: A Postcolonial Analysis of the development of Chinese Characters and Stereotypes in North-American Popular Literature’ Keywords: postcolonialism, China, representation, race, American literature This paper studies the development and depiction of Chinese fictional characters in United States’ popular literature. The depiction of Chinese characters has evolved from an inscrutable fool into a monstrous supervillain and, finally, a wily detective during the course of a hundred years. The hypothesis of the dissertation is that depiction and development of Chinese characters and stereotypes in United States’ popular literature have been shaped by historical events in the United States and China, such as the California Gold Rush, the Boxer Rebellion and the II World War. The characters discussed are John Chinaman, Fu-Manchu and Charlie Chan. The primary sources consist of poems, songs, novels and short stories, as well as illustrations. The paper constitutes a multidisciplinary study that utilizes both literary studies and general history to analyze and discuss the primary literary source material. The methods used in the dissertation are close readings of the primary sources, textual and literary analysis that considers both the relationship of genre and audience as well as the historical framework of the era. ‘A Chinaman’s Chance’ draws a line between history and fiction, while examining how reality and fiction both create and recreate depictions and identities of Chinese characters. Panel 16 – Alternative Identities: Gamers, Clones and Avatars Garfield Benjamin, ‘Hyper-Bodies of the objet a-vater: the assemblage of the digital self’ Keywords: avatars, internet, Second Life, Deleuze, Žižek The use of avatars in the mediation of virtual environments raises key questions concerning the construction of identity in digital media. Furthermore, the analysis of the relation between the individual subject and its manifestation within the digital realm reveals the underlying structures of assemblage in both the physical and digital self. With a transfinite array of possible constructions, the digital subject is constrained in their identity only by their access to technology and their own subjective presuppositions about the nature of their identity. Beyond the visual manifestation of the individual there lies a range of semantic and interactive tools available for the expression of digital identity. Taking Second Life as an example – both the medium and its art practice – this paper will use the work of Deleuze and Žižek to look beneath the surface constructions of embodiment towards the hyper-textual assemblage of the digital avatar and its relation to subjectivity. In reassessing this construction of identity, beyond the image on the interface screen, the constituent elements of the avatar, and even the bodied form of the avatar itself, will be revealed to be a lost or partial objectification of subjectivity, suggesting interesting ramifications for the fundamental assemblage of any identity. Anthony Reynolds, ‘Game Characters: 'Gamers', Cultural Memory, Identity and Social Practice’ Keywords: gaming, cultural memory, Scotland, qualitative and quantitative methods This paper emerges out of an ongoing project into the cultural memory of self-identified gamers in Scotland and the UK. Using original, respondent-based social research, this project offers an analysis of the historic and contemporary experience of gaming, while also examining the cultural and social history of gaming – specifically, the gaming lives of those who choose to self-identify and socially define themselves as ‘gamers’. It conducts an investigation into the lifestyles and personal histories of participants – game users for whom devoted and long term game use has been a part of their everyday life up to the present – and in doing so will consider evaluative methods for examining gaming cultures. A picture has emerged from the research which suggests that self-identified gamers develop a particularly strong sense of cultural identity based on gaming literacies, tastes and preferences, and an especially notable alignment of social and cultural practices. ‘Game Characters’ will explore how, for the self-identified ‘gamer’, the cultural practice of gaming can also play a particularly significant role in personal development and social experience. This frequently influences relationship formation, career trajectories in digital media (particularly amongst Scottish respondents), and in many cases contributes considerably to experiences of social rejection and inclusion. Liza Futerman, ‘Cloning and the Visual Formation of Identity in Doctor Who and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein’ Keywords: cloning, popular culture, science fiction, television In Cloning Terror: The War of Images, 9/11 to the Present (2011), W. J. T. Mitchell points to the prevalence of the theme of cloning in popular culture since the early 1990s. This paper examines the concept of the clone in Kenneth Branagh’s Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein (1994) and in two consecutive episodes of British science fiction television series Doctor Who “The Rebel Flesh” and “The Almost People” (2011). By comparing the two visual narratives, this paper illuminates the ways in which the clone materializes the process of identity formation, while at the same time the clone’s presence in both visual narratives dramatizes the incoherence of a unique and unambiguous identity. This paradox that surrounds the clone’s identity evokes Linda Hutcheon's definition of parody as a postmodern form that "paradoxically both incorporates and challenges that which it parodies” (Hutcheon 1988, 251). In light of Hutcheon’s insight, this paper argues that the clones in both visual texts do not merely threaten the identity of their human counterparts but rather parody the notion of a coherent identity, by both incorporating and challenging it. Panel 17 – Scotland: Burns and Bagpipes? Jonathan Henderson, ‘“To see ourselves as others see us”: Robert Burns and Persona Construction’ Keywords: Robert Burns, Scots language, linguistic identity Murray Pittock (2012) argues that “[w]e must stop reading Burns through glossaries and start reading him through dictionaries, thesauruses and histories in an attempt to ensure that none of Burns’s “many [18th-century] voices”, both Scots and English, are not lost to modern readers. An examination of Burns’s correspondence illustrates that the “many voices” change greatly depending who he is writing to. It appears that Burns constructs personas to suit particular situations and conversations. The Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary (2009) enables for the first time new research methodologies that help us realise the call laid out by Pittock and extrapolate further by analysing how Burns’s language use enables him to construct his altering personas. By isolating the language characteristics and comparing them to other areas of discourse, evidence can be presented that shows how, and to what ends, Burns’s personas are constructed. The paper examines correspondence with George Thomson on issues of Scottish songs, and Burns’s ‘Address of the Scotch Distillers, To the Right Hon. William Pitt’, among others, in order to establish the ways in which Burns constructed his own identities through the language that he selected. Vivien Williams, ‘“All the bagpipes in the world are here, and they fill heaven and earth”: the bagpipe and the Romantic construction of Scottish identity’ Keywords: bagpipes, Scottish national identity, Romanticism The bagpipe is, worldwide, a recognisable landmark of Scottishness. During the Jacobite risings, nevertheless, the instrument acquired very negative connotations. Being one of Scotland’s most colourful cultural signifiers, it constituted a means for anti-Jacobite propaganda to vilify the Scot and Highlander. Religious and even political connotations emerged in literature and satire, of which the bagpipe was a protagonist. Although these concepts proved hard to root out, gradually by the end of the eighteenth century – after the 1745 rebellion had put an end to the ‘Jacobite threat’ and the Ossianic fragments had presented Scotland as a quintessentially Romantic nation – the bagpipe began to be viewed quite differently. No longer the ‘voice of the enemy’, its sound evoked tradition, long-lost values, contact with nature. Although its burdensome historicity and Jacobite past never vanished, these notions were toned down to a memory; a fanciful, kitsch form of artistic and literary imagination. Authors such as John Wilson, Sir Walter Scott and William Wordsworth, and artists such as David Wilkie, John Knox and Edwin Landseer, show the reader and viewer a romanticised version of the instrument: the result of a Romantic construction of Scottish national identity. Meghan McAvoy, ‘“The Question of what the Past Amounted to Can Lie About The Grass”: Nation-Building and Demolition in Andrew O’Hagan’s Our Fathers’ Keywords: literature, Scottish nationalism, industrialism Our Fathers – Andrew O’Hagan’s first novel – deals with forms of nationalism and cultural nationalism in a post-industrial Scotland. The novel evokes questions as to what form radicalism and political engagement take in contemporary Scotland, when the ideals of the Red Clydesiders and Scotland’s post-war generation have either failed or been forgotten. This paper examines O’Hagan’s critique of nationalist attitudes to political and cultural traditions through his protagonist James Bawn, whose formative years are influenced by two left-nationalist figures: his grandfather Hugh, a housing planner whose socialist ideals inform his nation-building practice, and cultural-nationalist English teacher Mr Buie, whose narrow and chauvinistic form of traditionalism leads James to question his own relationship to the national past. This paper argues that James Bawn represents an alternative to the nationalisms posed by Hugh’s idealist utopianism and Buie’s chauvinism. O’Hagan points towards the formation of an identity that is aware of the nation’s culture, defends attempts to engage in the public sphere with a progressive agenda, and furthers such a progressive agenda in its reshaping of the national landscape. Thus Our Fathers posits a mode of nation-building that does not fetishize the national past, nor resists change. Panel 18 – Identity Formation After 9/11 Katarzyna Mika, ‘A Shattered State? Patriotism and National Identity in Poetic Responses to 9/11’ Keywords: poetry, 9/11, patriotism, national identity The paper examines the ways in which poetic responses to September 11 explore and challenge the concepts of patriotism, national identity and unity. It emphasises poetic diversity, analysing how the chosen works respond to the government’s interpretation of the event and its impact on the redefinition of the sense of belonging to the national collective. Focusing on material which has received very little, or no, critical attention up until now, ‘A Shattered State?’ exposes the ways in which poems from two anthologies and one collection employ those complex notions in order to create or challenge a certain vision of the national collective. The paper will analyse works from: 9/11 Remembered, edited by Daveda Gruber; An Eye for an Eye Makes the Whole World Blind, edited by Allen Cohen and Clive Matson; and 9/11/2001, by Johana Smith. Gruber’s and Smith’s works seem to define patriotism as an opposition to heterogeneity and support for strategic heterogeneity whereas An Eye for An Eye challenges such definitions of national identity. The attacks do not contribute to the creation of one uniting national narrative but elicit numerous distinct and discordant responses and memories of them. Rebecca V. L. Hounsom, ‘Shifting Religious Identity in a post 9/11 World’ Keywords: Islam, Christianity, Judaism, 9/11 A study conducted by Dr. Lori Peek into the religious identities of Muslim American students after 9/11 indicated how a political crises can prompt a shift in identity salience, in how the idea that one form of identity can become more important than others at a certain time (Jackson 2010, p. 634). This paper will discuss how the role of religious identity has shifted in a post 9/11 world. It will trace how religious identity can develop through a major political event such as the September 11th terrorist attacks and include in what ways both religious identity and the event itself have been connected to each other. Some examples explored will be: in what sense was religious identity used as form of reflection in the immediate aftermath of the event; how the misidentification of religious identity or religious bias was used to promote intolerance and hatred towards religious groups (such as hate crimes committed in the days following 9/11 against religious minorities) and any recent occurrences of how religious identity can or has been denied for fear of hostile or violent behaviour. Using Peek’s study as the foundation, this paper will address these points with respect to all religions such as Christianity, Islam and Judaism in relation to religious identity and 9/11.
Keywords: literature, religion, fundamentalism, Pakistani identity, empathy, media This paper will analyse the way in which three recent Anglophone Pakistani novels (Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie [2009], The Wasted Vigil by Nadeem Aslam [2008] and The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsim Hamid [2008]) engage with the notion of ‘fundamentalism’ in the context of the war on terror. All three texts negotiate a careful balance in their approach to the theme, attempting to combat fundamentalist thought while simultaneously striving to undercut its perceived connections to Pakistani identity. The paper will argue that the novels attempt to expand their readers’ understandings of the term, prompting them to think about situations in which they might themselves be tempted to resort to ‘fundamentalist’ thinking, whether religious or otherwise. The texts do this by generating a kind of non-moralistic empathy with characters who, in one way or another, are perceived by others to enact a ‘fundamentalist’ identity. Through these characters, the novels offer a vision for Pakistani national identity that is detached from religious fundamentalism, while also providing an understanding of the term that is more sophisticated than that perpetuated through global media stereotypes. Directory: 2013 2013 -> Annual InStructional unit plan 2013 -> The Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine 2013 -> #1 a lifesafer of virginia inc 2013 -> Name(s): your name here team or Group #(if applicable): Professor’s name 2013 -> Alcott Local School Council (lcs) Meeting Minutes 2013 -> Table Of Contents introduction 2 2013 -> Supplemental demographic information 2013 -> 【Education&Working Experience】 Download 191.46 Kb. Share with your friends:
|