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The Impact of Titanic on Pop Culture and Art

Bailey Blount

Texas Tech University

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The Titanic has influenced many forms of literature and is remembered as a very important part of our history. The Titanic has not only been an inspiration for many of these publications, but several classic art pieces have been recorded from the film. The many different publications having reference to the Titanic have became very popular over time and serve as a memoir to those who passed away during the accident.

Edgette’s academic summary examined the literature published after the tragic event of the Titanic. The story of Titanic has become one of the most argued, recounted and discussed parts of history. The Titanic became the front cover of newspapers and magazines for quite some time and became part of the foundation for literature and pop culture. The tragedy attracted so much attention that the general public wanted to learn more about the story behind the Titanic.

The public desired to gather details and descriptions about the event. This led to the creation of popular books that could be written, published, distributed, and sold in a matter of a few months. (Edgette, 2006). These publications were made to entertain all ages of the population.

We usually remember those we have lost through different forms of physical monuments. Those who lost their lives from the tragedy of the Titanic are remembered through books, sheet music, poetry, and grave markers. (Edgette, 2006). One survivor,

Lawrence Beesley, wrote, “Many brave things were done that night but none more brave than by those few men playing minute after minute as the ship settled quietly lower and lower in the sea… the music they played serving alike as their own immortal requiem and their right to be recorded on the rolls of undying fame.” (Edgette, 2006, p. 139). Those lost will continue to live on and be remembered through popular literature and culture. THE IMPACT OF TITANIC ON POP CULTURE AND ART 3

This academic article by James Hurley, demonstrates how the film Titanic impacted forms of art. In the late 1990s, after ’s Titanic, a magazine called The Onion, referred to the Titanic as a metaphor. Cameron agreed then stated,

“you can interpret this film at a surface level, as a love story or you can interpret it at deeper levels—for its broader metaphorical levels.” (Hurley, 2001, p. 92). The author wants to focus on how “the Titanic allegorizes the effects of the transition into this new economic and mediatic regime on the aesthetic status of Hollywood cinema, and, more precisely, the allegorical staging in Cameron’s blockbuster of an institutional struggle to reconcile economic with cultural capital.” (Hurley, 2001, p. 93)

The Titanic has made a lasting effect on history, being referred to as a museum imagination. (Hurley, 2001). Both the movie and the ship serve as a museum because of the various pieces of art such as: Jack’s drawing of Rose and Rose’s collection of timeless paintings that are now held in some of the world’s greatest museums. (Hurley,

2001). In the film, Brock Lovett symbolizes the author of the film, James Cameron.

Lovett travels the ocean floor in search to find out more about the Titanic, just as

Cameron has researched and discovered information. At the end of the Titanic, Lovett speaks to Rose’s granddaughter and tells her he has thought of nothing but Titanic for three years, but never got it. (Hurley, 2001). Lovett then proclaims he understands the historical and human significance of the Titanic.

The last academic article by Peter Middleton and Tim Woods, explain the reasons behind publications that have developed from the Titanic. In James Cameron’s movie

Titanic, his goal was to create a feeling of ‘pastness’, so persuasive that audiences could experience not only the liner, but the past itself. (Middleton, Woods, 2001). He is able to THE IMPACT OF TITANIC ON POP CULTURE AND ART 4 reach the audience by traveling back in time with the help of an elderly woman named

Rose. Titanic creates textual memory by demonstrating fantasies, narratives, and pictures from the past. After the disaster in 1912, a collection of memoirs, poems, songs, ballads, films, and novels have been published about the story, showing how it has impacted history.

The Titanic was first remembered in Walter Lord’s, A Night to Remember (Lord,

1955). Lord thought of his publication as a collection of memories. As the ship hit the iceberg, the third class fought for survival as they climbed their way to the top of the ship. This compares to the way the third class is trying to improve their place in society.

Walter Lord stated, “A new age was dawning, and never since that night have third-class passengers been so philosophical.” (Middleton, Woods, 2001, p. 518). The Titanic was referred to as the twentieth century wake-up call.

After this event took place it would take time for someone to use the Titanic’s story, turn it into a publication, and really be able to romanticize it. Textual memory shows the importance between trauma and the time it takes to display it in a different milieu.

I have gathered that the Titanic has made an impact on literature and popular culture for many years. We are interested in these publications because they serve as a form of entertainment and a lesson in history. These books, films, and different works of art help us remember the passengers who were aboard and the struggles they encountered.

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References:

Edgette, J. J. (2006). RMS "Titanic": Memorialized in popular literature and culture.

Studies in the literary imagination, 39(1), 119-142.

Hurley, J. S. (2001). Titanic allegories: The blockbuster as art film. Strategies: Journal of

theory, culture & politics, 14(1), 91.

Middleton, P., & Woods, T. (2001). Textual memory: The making of the Titanic's literary

archive. Textual Practice, 15(3), 507-526.