Wide Angle a Journal of Literature and Film
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Wide Angle a journal of literature and film Volume 7, Issue 1 Fall 2017 Published by Department of English Samford University 2 Mission Statement Literature and film continually reimagine an ever-changing world, and through our research we discover our relationships to those art forms and the cultures they manifest. Publishing one issue each semester, Wide Angle serves as a conduit for the expression and critique of that imagination. A joint publication between English majors and faculty, the journal embodies the interdisciplinary nature of the Department of English at Samford University. It provides a venue for undergraduate research, an opportunity for English majors to gain experience in the business of editing and publishing, and a forum for all students, faculty, and staff to publish their best work. As a wide-angle lens captures a broad field of vision, this journal expands its focus to include critical and creative works, namely academic essays, book and film reviews, and commentaries, as well as original poetry, short fiction and non-fiction, and screenplays. Editorial Staff 2017-‘18 Managing Editor……………………….Lauren Morris Assistant Managing Editor…………….Casey Cunningham Literature Editor………………….........Emily Youree Film Editor……………………….........Benjamin Crabtree Co-Creative Writing Editor……………Regan Green Co-Creative Writing Editor……………Hannah Warrick General Editor…………………………Dr. Geoffrey A. Wright Copyright © 2017 Wide Angle, Samford University. All rights reserved. Wide Angle 7.1 3 Contents Literature “The Difference Between Nation and Nations: Pratchett’s Idealization of Anderson’s Theories” Claire Davis…………………………………………………………………………………… 7 “Who is the Real Monster?: An Analysis of Mary Shelley’s Discussion of Human Nature and a Prejudiced Community” Keely Smith…………………………………………………………………………………… 17 “Roots of Modernism: A Review of Modernism and Naturalism in British and Irish Fiction, 1880-1930” Tim J. Sutton, PhD…………………………………………………………………………… 30 Film “‘What Makes a Man?’: An Exploration of Gender in the Coens' Neo-Noir Films” Annie Brown…………………………………………………………………………………… 35 “‘That’s Just Your Opinion, Man’: Authenticity, Expectation, and the Music of The Big Lebowski and O Brother, Where Art Thou?” Mack Sexton………………………………………………………………………………… 46 Creative Writing “Because I could not stop the Lead” Bradyn Debysingh…………………………………………………………………………… 57 “St. John, Still a Boy” Bryan Johnson, PhD…………………………………………………………………………… 58 “Evelynn, Age Eleven” Madeline Perkins……………………………………………………………………………… 59 “God Circa 1955” Margaret Schultz……………………………………………………………………………… 65 Wide Angle 7.1 4 “Italy in the Offseason” Margaret Schultz……………………………………………………………………………… 66 “Every Woman Needs a Purse” Julie Steward, PhD……………………………………………………………………………… 67 “Like a Couple of Punch-Drunk Persephones” Julie Steward, PhD………………………………………………………………………………68 “Brothers” Elizabeth Sturgeon…………………………………………………………………………… 70 Special Series: The Humanities in/and Society “The Importance of Being Erudite” Isabel Azar……………………………………………………………………………………… 72 “A Citadel Defending” Sydney Berry…………………………………………………………………………………… 75 “The Humanities: A Necessary Spill” Kassidy Blevins………………………………………………………………………………… 78 “Freedom (?) of Speech: The Humanities as First Responder” Bailey Bridgeman……………………………………………………………………………… 82 “The Ethics of Reading a Film” Ben Crabtree…………………………………………………………………………………… 86 “Ethics, the Humanities, and the Power of Many Stories” Casey Cunningham…………………………………………………………………………… 90 “Good Reading and Good Jobs” Courtney Daniel………………………………………………………………………………… 94 “Sympathy and Trayvon” Nyeedra Davis………………………………………………………………………………… 98 Wide Angle 7.1 5 “Evaluating Values” Jacob Foncea……………………………………………………………………………… 101 “How a Degree in English Prepares Students for a Job in the Professional Business World” Amy Haupt………………………………………………………………………………… 105 “Inside the Humanities: Reading the Coens’ Inside Llewyn Davis for the Macro and the Micro” Katie Bryn Hubbard………………………………………………………………………… 108 “Slow Reading in Public Life” Ryan Lally…………………………………………………………………………………… 112 “Defenders of Humanity” Hannah Lee…………………………………………………………………………………… 117 “Harnessing the Power of Language and Empathy: A Responsibility of the Humanities” Lauren Morris………………………………………………………………………………… 120 “The Humanities and Education” Angela Napolitano…………………………………………………………………………… 124 “Humans in the Humanities: Stuck in the Past, or Worth the Pursuit?” Madeline Perkins……………………………………………………………………………… 127 “The Value of the Humanities” Emily Van Dyke……………………………………………………………………………. 131 From the Editors’ Desks “1967: A Reflection on Cinema’s Turning Point Fifty Years Later” Ben Crabtree……………………………………………………………………………… 135 “My Least Favorite Question: Or, Why I Don’t Have a ‘Favorite Book’” Casey Cunningham………………………………………………………………………… 140 “Not Your Mother’s Meursault” Regan Green………………………………………………………………………………… 145 “(You Should) Read Film, Too: A Response to the Alleged Hierarchy of Art” Lauren Morris……………………………………………………………………………. 150 Wide Angle 7.1 6 “What is L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E Poetry Other than a Headache?” Hannah Warrick…………………………………………………………………………. 155 “‘The Sound of the Koto’ and Why We Should Listen to It” Emily Youree……………………………………………………………………………. 160 Contributors……………………………………………………………………………. 165 Wide Angle 7.1 7 Essay Claire Davis The Difference Between Nation and Nations: Pratchett’s Idealization of Anderson’s Theories he question of the relatability of a community and the importance of a shared identity grows with the increasing individuality of the postmodern world, and it is a Tquestion that Benedict Anderson is willing to answer in his book Imagined Communities. In the first few chapters, he outlines his own definition of the modern nation as “an imagined political community—and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign” (7). Anderson claims that a nation “is imagined because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion” (7). Nevertheless, that imagined community can stretch only so far—Anderson also stipulates that every nation has its limits, arguing that “no nation imagines itself coterminous with mankind” (8). Finally, the idea of the nation must govern the actions of all its participants as an overarching moral and social guide (8). This, Anderson says, stems from the shift in power from the Church to the State during the Enlightenment; without powerful religious ties to connect citizens, nationalism stepped in to serve as a belief system for all to follow (8). Nationalism became the new religion, and just as members of a religion feel connected through their mutual beliefs and condemnation of those outside their ranks, the members of a contemporary nation center their actions and community around their beliefs. Wide Angle 7.1 8 Implicit in his argument and his perspective is also the growing need of an individual to identify with a nation, as the nation becomes a model of power and voice across the world. Without a nation to provide comradeship and identity, an individual has no voice in the global theater and is silenced, as well as cut off, from any idea of an eternal legacy. Anderson’s theories about nationalism can help answer some of the questions that popular novelist Terry Pratchett poses in his works. In Pratchett’s novel Nation, which takes place in a slightly altered Victorian world, he asks his characters (Mau, a Great Southern Pelagic Islander on the verge of adulthood, and Ermintrude “Daphne” Fanshaw, the daughter of a minor English lord) what it means to construct a nation while reflecting the nature of a community in the wake of disaster. After a tsunami wave floods several islands, wipes out all of Mau’s tribe (called the Nation), and pushes Daphne’s ship onto the island, both children must figure out how to act according to their traditions and the choices laid before them as part of the new Nation, which grows as survivors from other tribes slowly make their way to the island. In this essay, I will prove that Nation defies Anderson’s claim that nations are inherently politically skewed and flawed through the Nation’s reestablishment as a utopic scientific community, rather than as a political one. While Anderson’s theories of the advent of nationalism involve historical events, the gradual spread of empirical knowledge, and decline of religion, Pratchett accelerates the action through the natural disasters of plague and storm. Pratchett’s work, then, is concerned more with what type of nation is made from the ground up rather than how a nation shifts over time into an entirely different society. The question then becomes whether Mau’s new Nation fits Anderson’s model for modern nations or whether he simply rearranges the pieces he was given into a slightly more suitable tribe than before. To answer this question, Pratchett shows two visions of the Nation: the tribe before the tsunami and the society formed after the tsunami as the people pick Wide Angle 7.1 9 themselves up from the wreckage. As Pratchett compares each iteration of the Nation to the others and shows the changes and progress Mau makes in his leadership, Anderson’s theory of the shift towards nationalism comes into play. This shift exposes the already apparent inner turmoil of Mau as he struggles with his faith in Imo (the creator), in the wisdom of his ancestors, and in other people as the first stragglers approach the island, bringing their own ideas of the role of a nation to