palaver e /p ‘læv r/e n. A talk, a discussion, a dialogue; (spec. in early use) a conference between African tribes-people and traders or travellers. v. To praise over-highly, flatter; to ca- jole. To persuade (a person) to do some- thing; to talk (a person) out of or into something; to win (a person) over with palaver. To hold a colloquy or conference; to parley or converse with. Masthead | Table of Contents | Spring 2013 Spring 2013 Founding Editors Note from the Editor 1 Zorya Vechernyaya 50 Sarah E. Bode Sarah E. Bode Zorya Utrennyaya 51 Ashley Hudson Zorya Unnamed 52 My Dear Reader 2 Remnants of a Mythology 53 Dr. Patricia Turrisi Heather Jo Divoky Executive Editor Staff Readers Dr. Patricia Turrisi Amanda Coffman Why I (Don’t) Write 5 Grasping Agency through the Role of the Vallie Lynn Watson Mother in The Awakening and The Scarlet Lauren Evans Letter 54 Contributing Editors Joel Finsel Setting Our Schools on Fire 11 Jamie L. Joyner Michelle Bliss Kitty Fiorentino Joel Randolph Finsel Ashley Hudson Emma Goodman Poetess Felicia Hemans: Challenging Courtney Johnson Greg Hankinson An Unlikely Alliance: Examining Narrative Socially Constructed Promotion of Dr. Alex Porco Katja Huru in Reality Television 16 Female Fragility in Dr. Michelle Scatton-Tessier Jamie Joyner Lauren B. Evans “The Homes of England” 60 Amy Schlag Diane Morgan Sadie E. Campbell Dr. Patricia Turrisi Renee Sloan A Peek Into the Pericardium: An Interview Rachel Smyer with Dylan Linehan 20 The Semiotics of “Wormhole Adventure Eco Chief Copy Editor Caitlin Ward Sarah E. Bode Tours” 68 Jamie Joyner Dr. Patricia Turrisi The Darkness of Midnight: Examining John Layout Editor Berendt’s Narrative as a Work of Southern An American History of Wilderness Copy Editors Sarah E. Bode Gothic Literature 26 Perception 76 Lauren Evans Renee L. Sloan Caleb Stewart Renee Sloan No Soliciting: Violence Against Sexual Fred Chappell’s Backsass: Commentary on Deviants in Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Space, Place, and a Culture in Transition 82 Mr. Hyde 32 Torchwood 88 JoAnna C. Wright Brian Caskey Cover Art: “Wild Oats” by Zachariah Weaver. Inside Sectional Art: “Enter Here To Palaver” by Dr. Patricia Turrisi. Motherly Love: Wes Craven’s Reassertion The Tree 89 of gender in the Scream trilogy 39 Death Transcends the Artist 90 Thanks: UNC Wilmington’s Graduate Liberal Studies for letting us call your program home. Dr. Pa- Casey Jordan Mills Gregory Hankinson tricia Turrisi for being the mother (not of the Craven-persuasion) Palaver needed. Our Staff Readers— thank you for expending your precious time and offering your expertise! Jamie Joyner and our other Like a Fish Out of Water 42 A Cup of Coffee 92 diligent Copy Editors for keeping their pluck during the period of “Picky Perfection.” Ashley Hud- Lori Joy Peterson Toni Whiteman son—this could never have been completed without your guidance and humanity. Robert Hoon for all your patience when we pestered you about legalities. And UNC Wilmington for creating a campus Food, Flowers, and Femininity: Masculine that encourages its students to explore and experiment, engage others, and for fostering our love for Dominance in “The Twelve Brothers” 43 academic enlightenment. Jessica Jacob A publication of UNC Wilmington’s Graduate Liberal Studies Program. Copyright © 2013 Palaver Note From the Editor | My Dear Reader | Sarah E. Bode Dr. Patricia Turrisi ulie Thompson Klein, who I’ve come to think of the Mother of Interdisciplinary, said that wish I could tell you that I had reached this moment deservedly after long arduous toil in bridging the gaps between disciplines should lead to a certain “unity of knowledge.” Pa- the editing room. However, though I may have conceived of something that would resem- Jlaver manifests such a unification of contributors with vast backgrounds, experiences, and Ible the first issue of Palaver, it’s Ashley Hudson, Sarah Bode, and the many students and ideologies. Without this amalgamation of knowledge, Palaver would not have morphed from faculty whose collaboration on reviewing, editing and producing the inaugural issue who are an idea to a reality. truly responsible. I’d like to thank them and say in addition that they are the team you want Palaver has been gestating for nine months, two semesters, nearly 36 weeks—sometimes to have! I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time when they came along. looming in my dreams, but usually it is a beacon on the horizon of my masters. I hold Palaver I’d like to tell you something about why the inaugural issue is so special. As a bona fide close to my heart because at its foundation it is devoted to exposing and fostering interdiscipli- lifetime member of the Professor Nerd Squad, one of whose primary ambitions include pro- narity through encouragement and the pursuit of always bettering yourself and your skills. I moting student excellence in written expression (because we’re made that way as much as know that as a student, having a driving force or opportunity outside of a course requirement that written expression makes the professional world go ‘round), I wanted to showcase the (like having the chance to submit to a journal or to present at a conference) helps my own kind of reflective creative interdisciplinary work that is valued in the UNCW Graduate Liber- writing. By carving out a home for Palaver at UNCW, I hope to see students’ writing here on al Studies Program. Sharing this wealth of talent with audiences beyond our classrooms is as our campus and campuses all-round the nation blossom. gratifying a task as any PN Squad member could desire. This issue proved to happen in conjunction with a whole lot of hard work and a smidgen The second reason this issue is special that I’m excited to tell you about is the transforma- of serendipity. As being our first issue, we didn’t want to limit ourselves to just one theme, tion that occurs when a writer becomes an author. When students are called upon to put their and when we were choosing submissions to accept, we did so without the restrictions a theme work out there for the public, something magical happens—their ideas take on urgency and might impose. But upon a closer, holistic look, a meandering myriad of themes emerged. their words take on the power to persuade. The magic cuts right through the hemming, haw- Issue 1 embarks with an engaging personal essay from Vallie Lynn Watson titled “Why I ing and safely noncommittal word detritus that has a tendency to appear in student writing (Don’t) Write.” Then the notion of reality is challenged with a proposal of setting traditional that never sees a reader beyond an instructor. To the authors and artists whose work appears perceptions of our nation’s classrooms on fire, perhaps sparking our posterity to get up off in this issue—submitting your work to a gauntlet of reviewers and editors requires courage as the couch (and stop watching that humdrum reality TV). Lauren B. Evans then jumps onto well as ability. Bravo! the soapbox and advocates that reality television isn’t so humdrum and could be perhaps The final reason this issue is special is that it is a profoundly original venue: an academic an interesting addition to curriculum regarding cultural studies. Singer/songwriter Dylan journal whose objective is to present treatments of issues and topics that integrate two or more Linehan brings out an ethereal sensibility in her interview about her debut album Pericardium. methods of scholarship usually reserved for single discipline research or artistic production. We then fall into a murderous rant, exposing gender definitions and constructions—including Palaver’s interdisciplinary scholarship does not take the form of serially identified disciplinary topics of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and approaches, one analysis following the other. Rather, the topics considered here are ones that the cult-classic Scream-trilogy. Authors explore gender and gender definitions with literary cry out to be studied anew, or more to the point, they that cannot be grasped adequately in any criticisms of The Awakening, The Scarlet Letter, and Grimms’ “The Twelve Brothers.” Heather other way but through comparative lenses and lights. I feel rather daring in saying that Pala- Divoky, the sumptuously colorful artist, reflects on her ancestry with stain-glass illustrations ver is a means of thinking globally. But in fact, issues that affect people deeply are not usually of the Slavic Zoryas. The theme of place is launched by a look into the poetess Felicia Hemans simple enough to “belong” to this or that single area of academic study. “Thinking globally” and how England’s gender biases influenced her poetry. A wonky wormhole cartoon by Dr. has this meaning on top of its popular connotation of looking at how different nations inter- Patricia Turrisi then sucks us even further into place. Place is carried through with an explo- pret human events—global thinking takes on relationships, between phenomena of all kinds ration of the history and current trends regarding American wilderness, “Torchwood”—an and methods of scrutinizing phenomena of all kinds, whatever the phenomena themselves original eco-poem by Brian Caskey, and a chilling representation of the Tree of Life by artist demand in order to be known better. Greg Hankinson. We wrap this issue with a piece that I know many of our readers will hold The danger of the interdisciplinary approaches we’ve invited here is that once you crack close—coffee. Author and photographer Toni Whiteman discusses coffee, its history, its social open the door to exploring the relationships between things and ways of knowing them, it’s constructs, and our fancy with the object of coffee and the coffee cup itself in her essay and very difficult to keep it shut.