School of Graduate Studies Colorado State University
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
School of Graduate Studies Colorado State University - Pueblo 2200 Bonforte Boulevard Pueblo, CO 81001 719-549-2100 A MYTHOLOGICAL TITAN: POPULAR CULTURE‟S TRANSFORMATION OF TITANIC INTO A REPRESENTATIVE CHARACTER by Thomas Matthew Mattarocci ____________________ A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS IN ENGLISH COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY - PUEBLO Pueblo, Colorado, USA December 2013 Master‟s Committee: Advisor: Dr. Cindy Taylor Dr. Doug Eskew Dr. Tim McGettigan Mattarocci ii STATEMENT BY THE AUTHOR This thesis has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at Colorado State University - Pueblo and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under the rules of the library. Brief quotations from this thesis are allowable without special permission, provided accurate acknowledgement of the source is indicated. Requests for permission to use extended quotations or to reproduce the manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the English Graduate Program or the English Graduate Studies Coordinator when the proposed purpose is in the interest of scholarship. In all other instances, however, permission must be obtained from the author. Signed: __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ APPROVAL BY THESIS ADVISOR THIS THESIS HAS BEEN APPROVED ON THE DATE SHOWN BELOW: _________________________________________ ____________________ Dr. Cindy Taylor Date Committee Chair Associate Professor and Chair of English _________________________________________ ____________________ English Graduate Studies Coordinator Date Mattarocci iii A MYTHOLOGICAL TITAN: POPULAR CULTURE‟S TRANSFORMATION OF TITANIC INTO A REPRESENTATIVE CHARACTER Thomas M. Mattarocci The notion of the representative character has been examined by numerous academics, including S. Paige Baty, Robert Bellah, Richard Madsen, William Sullivan, Ann Swidler, and Steve Tipton. In their studies, the scholars assert that, through iconographic rememberings, these symbolic figures become elevated into global icons which represent the aspirations, values, and visions of the societies that interpret them. Sadly, all of these analyses limit the concept to people and fail to take into account that events and objects can also become representative characters. Furthermore, the reinterpretations which meld events and individuals into ideals dramatically impact cultural perceptions, with the various depictions crafted through reimages swaying how society comprehends and views the representative character. Through a cultural analysis of the Titanic tragedy, which conducts a wide reading of the varying illustrations of the ship through cultural artifacts produced over the course of one-hundred years, I contend that the Titanic mythos, due to its rapid development and steady endurance, proves a perfect means to expand the definition of the representative character and reveal how the iconographic reinventions at the heart of this notion influence understandings of historic events and figures. Approved by: _________________________________________ ____________________ Committee Chair Date _________________________________________ ____________________ Committee Member Date _________________________________________ ____________________ Committee Member Date _________________________________________ ____________________ English Graduate Studies Coordinator Date Mattarocci iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author wishes to thank Kenneth McKenzie in the university‟s Interlibrary Loan Department for locating numerous rare sources, Dr. Doug Eskew, Dr. Tim McGettigan, and Dr. Cindy Taylor for their diligent assistance, and Billy Herrington and Larry and Mary Mattarocci for their loving support. Mattarocci v TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page 1. Introduction……………………………………………………………………......1 2. From an Egyptian Queen to a Hollywood Starlet: The Nature of the Representative Character………………………………………4 3. Controversial Generals and Glorified Revolutions: Art‟s Impact on Our Perceptions of the Past………………………….…………10 4. Why Titanic?..........................................................................................................24 5. The Mythology of a Titan………………………………………………………..31 6. From Instant Books to Blockbuster Epics: Titanic in Popular Culture……………………………………………………….41 7. A Deathless Titan: The Representative Character of Titanic…………………..109 Works Cited…………………………………………………………………………………….117 Mattarocci 1 Chapter I Introduction It is an image widely recognized: Titanic‟s sinking stern, every light aboard glimmering brilliantly in the darkened night, towering 150 feet above the glassy sea.1 A century after the scene occurred, it is still perfectly preserved in literature and film. In fact, as Steven Biel attests in Down with the Old Canoe, this occurrence has assumed such a mammoth resonance in popular culture that its story is universally known (7-8). Indeed, interest in the ship has failed to wane during the course of her one-hundred-year history, with her tragedy perpetually retold in countless films, novels, poems, and songs.2 Likewise, over the century, the disaster has been removed from the confines of an historical event and fashioned into a symbolic image. As a result, Titanic has come to signify more than just a massive steamer which sank in 1912. As Biel stresses, from the moment her fantail disappeared beneath the sea, Titanic was transformed into an object of cultural significance, which society has shaped into a means to examine and critique contemporary issues of class, commerce, gender, politics, race, technology, and theology (8). Biel is not alone in his stance. As early as 1990, scholars such as Stephanie Barczewski, Paul Heyer, Richard Howells, Linda Maria Koldau, and Ann Larabee have discussed the mythos encompassing Titanic. In 1 Recently, this image has been contested by several scientists. In 2005, naval architect Roger Long, scrutinizing details from the wreck, arrived at the conclusion that, structurally, Titanic‟s hull would have been incapable of raising forty-five degrees into the air. Rather, Long proposes that Titanic‟s stern rose roughly eleven degrees before breaking apart (Matsen 220-27). Shortly following the release of Long‟s theory, naval architect William Garzke arrived at the same conclusion, asserting that Titanic‟s stern only rose fifteen to twenty degrees into the air before breaking up (Deitz 27). In fact, Jennifer Hooper-McCarty and Tim Foecke, engineers in Material Science, concur with Garzke and Long, claiming the image recounted by survivors of Titanic‟s stern reaching a forty-five degree angle was merely the product of optical illusions produced by the individuals‟ positions in relation to the ship (183). 2 It is rumored that, according to the Library of Congress, there are three subjects written about more than any other: Jesus Christ, the American Civil War, and Titanic (Biel 234). Although the rumor is an obvious exaggeration, Eugene Rasor‟s annotated bibliography on Titanic reveals that there may be a thin truth in its assertion. Published in 2001, Rasor‟s text catalogs an exhaustive 930 entries, including thirty-two poems, twenty-nine accounts by survivors, and over a dozen staged dramas, films, and musicals (6). Mattarocci 2 accordance with Biel, these individuals attest that, through drama, literature, and music, Titanic has been forged into a mythological construct which undergoes various cultural incarnations of meaning and significance. What these scholars neglect to mention, though, is that, through these incarnations, society has altered Titanic into a representative character. In fact, popular culture has, through its depictions of the tragedy, played a major role in this symbolic transformation. Building upon the scholarship of S. Paige Baty, Robert Bellah, Richard Madsen, William Sullivan, Ann Swidler, and Steven Tipton, all of whom discuss the notion of the representative character, I shall reveal how this perpetual retelling and reimaging of Titanic‟s tale has elevated the disaster to the iconic state of a representative character. However, unlike these scholars, who limit representative characters to humans, I contend that this concept can be applied on a larger scale to include other elements besides people, specifically historic events. Likewise, expounding on the scholarship of Richard Ammon, Ellie Barksdale, Donald Gallo, Robert Toplin, Michael Tunnell, and Trenia Walker, who explore the impact of historical fiction and film on the public‟s perceptions of the past, I maintain that not only has popular culture altered Titanic into a symbolic figure, but this representation has had a direct effect upon how society perceives and understands the tragedy. Beginning, in chapter two, with an examination of the representative character, we shall witness how various artists and authors, including George Bernard Shaw and Manson Locke Weems, have, through their imaginative depictions of historic figures such as Cleopatra and George Washington, molded these individuals into cultural icons. Building upon this notion, chapter three explores how these academic and artistic reinterpretations have altered society‟s perceptions of not only historic individuals, but historic events as well, including the American and French Revolutions. Having established the scholarly groundwork for the limited definition Mattarocci 3 of the representative character,