The Writing Anthology Edited by Hannah Marcum and K.E. Daft Advisor Joshua Dolezal A Publication of the English Department and the Art Department Central College Pella, Iowa 2017 Dear Readers, Welcome to the 37th edition of The Writing Anthology. It is our delight to share this year’s publication with you. After reviewing submissions representing a wide variety of disciplines, we selected the following eleven pieces to be featured in the anthology. The rigor of this selection process proves the continuing excellence of student writing at Central College. We offer our sincerest congratulations to the published student authors: you should be proud of your exemplary work. While the goals of specific disciplines are easy to spot in this diverse blend of essays, we hope you will also take notice of the recurring themes that connect them. Gretchen, in the first essay of this anthology, looks at the “future of the past” and considers a great tragedy in light of the creation it has engendered. The title of the final essay, “Rebirth,” encapsulates our overarching message. The rest of the authors take on the monumental task of creating a new way of looking at a subject, be it a landscape, a piece of art, or our own humanity. Creation and innovation are presented in the pieces you are about to read as valid, significant responses to destruction and decay. This anthology encompasses the cycle of life. Each year, The John Allen Award is granted to the individual exhibiting the highest quality of student writing. We are pleased to announce that Sydney Embray will receive the honor this year. Sydney’s masterly essay “And Here Our Troubles Began: An American Reaction to 9/11 in Comix” is a perceptive analysis of Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel In the Shadow of No Towers. She weaves together critical race theory, political commentary, and nuanced artistic investigation to form an incisive portrait of Spiegelman’s unique response to the personal and national tragedy of September 11, 2001. We offer our thanks to the tireless professors who inspired and shaped these essays for going the extra mile by submitting them to The Writing Anthology. Your dedication to your students’ success is commendable. Thanks also to Professor Mat Kelly for his discerning eye and to all of the featured student artists for their outstanding contributions. We would particularly like to recognize Kayla Foster for providing this year’s cover art. Finally, our thanks to Steffanie Bonnstetter in Central College Communications for her expertise. Most importantly, we acknowledge our faculty advisors, Dr. Joshua Doležal and Dr. Elena Vishnevskaya, who have been insightful guides throughout the publication process. Dr. Doležal inherited his role as lead advisor for this edition from Dr. Walter Cannon, who founded The Writing Anthology in 1981 and remained involved with the publication until his retirement last year. One final thank you to all—past, present, and future— who have made this anthology possible. Without further ado, we present the 2017 Writing Anthology. Hannah Marcum ‘18 K.E. Daft ‘19 2 Table of Contents A Note from the Editors .............................2 Representation of the Holocaust through the Memorial to the The Judgement of “Penelope”: Murdered Jews of Europe ...........................4 A Day in the Life of Molly Bloom ..........32 Gretchen Kistenmacher Lindsey Greer Ibuprofen Synthesis ....................................11 A Measured Response: Staging the McKenna Kilburg & Rachel Tyler Ambiguity in Measure for Measure ...............46 Hannah Marcum Madness in (Stage)craft ..............................15 K.E. Daft And Here Our Troubles Began: An American Reaction Nutrition and Neurology ...........................19 to 9/11 in Comix ........................................51 Andrea Arthofer Sydney Embray Recipient of the John Allen Award An Identity in the Seams ...........................23 Kayleigh Rohr Searching for the Beginning ......................61 Josie Youel Legal and Cultural Contexts of Gay Rights in India ................................28 Rebirth ..........................................................66 Duncan Brumwell Zach Moss 3 Representation of the Holocaust through the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe LAS-410: The Future Gretchen Kistenmacher of the Past Gretchen’s paper on the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin The horrific and impressed me because of its clear, organized writing, thorough and objec- tive approach to the topic and effective appeal to and integration of scholarly inconceivable events of the sources. A unique feature of Gretchen’s paper was the incorporation of per- Holocaust are engraved in sonal photographs from her visit to the Memorial. I like the idea that her lived experience informs her writing without being the focus of the piece. Germany’s past. The mass -Kathy Korcheck murder of more than 6 million Jews tarnished every before the law for all people monument celebrates life while aspect of what it meant and to resist all forms of a memorial commemorates to be German and put the dictatorships and regimes death or loss (Doss 7). In country on a long road to based on violence” (Chin). In recent years, there has been recovery. The Holocaust left this paper, I will analyze how an expansion in memorials. behind a void and a culture well the memorial achieved This is a result of “a highly of guilt. In an attempt to fill these intentions and the successful public art industry this absence and generate controversies surrounding and increased expectations a positive national identity, the memorial in order to of rights and representation Germany commissioned a demonstrate how the memorial of diversity” (Doss 9). Lisa Memorial to the Murdered has allowed Germany to Mahlum argues that “physical Jews of Europe located in overcome guilt and to generate structures engage visitors Berlin, Germany. The German a positive national identity for in the present, connect them Parliament intended: “To modern Germany. with the historical truths of honor the murdered victims, First and foremost, it the past, and instill a memory keep alive the memory of… is important to identify the of the Holocaust in the future” inconceivable events in difference between a memorial (281). The aim of a memorial German history and admonish and monument and to define is to strike a balance between all future generations never the fundamental function of the horrors of the past, engage again to violate human rights, a memorial. Both a memorial visitors in the context of the to defend the democratic and a monument are designed present, and inspire memory constitutional state at all to recognize and preserve for the future. times, to secure equality memories. However, a Commemoration 4 through a permanent scale of the horror of the with sharp lines. Marian structure allows the past Holocaust is such that Marzynski, a Holocaust and present to co-exist an attempt to represent survivor, suggests that the in a social relationship. it by traditional means is slabs resemble architecture However, creating an accurate inevitably inadequate” (qtd. of the Hitler regime. The representation of the past in in Mahlum 282). The lack of slabs plunge out of the the present is much easier said representation and symbolism ground vertically. A wavelike than done. The problem is of this memorial makes it appearance is achieved by the that any past can be distorted much different than most uneven ground and varied by the context of heights of the slab the present. The blocks. Around the act of “claiming a perimeter of the particular history concrete field, the as a method slabs are very low of persuasion to the ground, but modifies the as one walks down art of memory” the narrow alleys (Grenzer 96). between the slabs, Memorials towards the center possess enormous of the memorial, influence and the slabs reach power over a height higher Interior view of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe collective (Photograph by Gretchen Kistenmacher) than one’s head. memory. Commemorating the Designing the memorials, which tend to give six million Jewish victims Memorial to the Murdered the viewer a strong sense of collectively in this way Jews of Europe was no easy identification. The absence of allows for a highly personal task. It took 17 years of “symbolism reduces it to pure experience and interpretation debate before the memorial presence” (Marzynski). This of memorialization. Nothing was finally opened in May memorial is not about what is is suggested to the viewer. of 2005 (Chin). Designer seen but instead what is felt Eisenman’s original design Peter Eisenman constructed by the viewer. was just that detailed an abstract memorial which Evoking a ‘feeling’ at above; however, many felt avoided all symbolism with the site was achieved by the that German Holocaust the intention of allowing grand scale of the memorial. education was needed at the the visitors to create It consists of 2711 concrete site. Marzynski argues, “art their own interpretation slabs, or stelae, arranged in cannot express the content from the absence of the a grid pattern over 4.7 acres of the Holocaust, education structure. According to (Brody). The concrete slabs is needed.” As a result, the Eisenman, “enormity and are rectangular in shape design was altered to include 5 an underground information concrete above it and breaks progress” (Grenzer 98). The center located below the it down to the level of the mere physical presence of the concrete slab field. In order individual victim,” acting as memorial is an indication that to preserve the aesthetic a link between the abstract Germany has chosen to deal of Eisenman’s design, the architecture and personal with its past and acknowledge entrance is simply a staircase narratives of Jewish victims its role as perpetrator. In going down with minimal (Chin). addition, the field of stelae is signage, not immediately The reality of the located at the political center visible to a passer-by.