Graduate English Association New Voices Conference 2008

Hypatia of Alexandria

Cara Minardi — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 12:28:32 PDT

So I asked myself, what does it mean that there is not a single woman of note engaged in philosophy or rhetoric for more than 1500 years? The obvious answer until now has been that women during this era were oppressed and the lack of primary materials by ancient women is an indication of the reality of their oppression. In addition, feminist historiography is especially painstaking work and requires an enormous amount of time, knowledge, and/or motivation. Then, of course, even when historical women are recovered, scholars of historical rhetoric can resist newly recovered figures as meriting canonical status within their own historical period, insisting that women recovered in our age are a product of contemporary rhetoric. These problems serve to constrain the material reality under which all scholars of historical rhetoric must function and produce their scholarship. But, there are other problems too, problems we don‟t directly discuss.

Diction and Social Strata in Charles Chesnutt's "The Wife of Youth"

Mark Benedict — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 12:28:31 PDT

Since Charles Chesnutt was on both the color and caste lines, his linguistic precision reflects a variety of cultural aspects. In “The wife of his Youth,” one can explore the caste differences between Mr. Ryder and Liza Jane through Chesnutt‟s choice of diction. The opening of the story postpones the plot to introduce and characterize Mr. Ryder in the context of the Blue Veins Society. Once established as a Blue Vein, Mr. Ryder necessarily exhibits a more varied and more studied diction than Liza Jane. This disparity becomes a condemnation of the seeking after upward mobility at the cost of relationships and core values. Since both characters tell the same story, Chesnutt provides a close comparison of their dictions and presents not only Liza Jane‟s story as more truthful but uses her qualities to revalue the Blue Vein Society. Diction plays a central role in the portrayal of different social castes. Cynthia Lehman examines several of Chesnutt‟s stories to analyze the social and political dimensions. She explains, “On the subject of language, as has been stated before, Charles Chestnutt‟s [sic] vocabulary was reflective of an attitude of White Americans that he wished to have portrayed in the novel to exhibit social realism,” (1996, p. 282). This attitude becomes apparent in most of Chesnutt‟s stories through the differences between Uncle Julius and the narrator. Nevertheless, in the case of “The Wife of his Youth,” Chesnutt juxtaposes the dictions of two central characters, Mr. Ryder and Liza Jane. Most simply, diction or lexical choice pertains to word choice including vocabulary and syntax (Harmon, 2009, p. 161). Readers understand aspects of Ryder‟s character through his word choice. On the other hand, Liza Jane‟s diction remains relatively undeveloped due to social restrictions based on her skin tone and temporal restrictions based on her years spent in a dedicated search for her husband.

Unmasking the Mask: Analyzing Caste Variations in the Lexicon of Charles W. Chesnutt

Jeanne Bohannon — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 12:28:30 PDT

Charles Waddell Chesnutt (1997) once wrote: “Speaking of dialect, it is almost a despairing task to write it.” His supposed frustration with the treatment of dialect, specifically the black plantation dialect of the 19th century, presents a view of Chesnutt‟s own treatment of written dialect in regards to lexical choices he made in his fiction. Within the constructs of 19th century America, Chesnutt‟s ability to employ black dialect as a metaphor for social change contrasts with his ambivalence in using traditional diction as a weapon to affect this transition. Many critics have postulated that the historical context of Chesnutt‟s time relegated him to the realm of Plantation Fiction, that is, a genre of framed narratives that glorified the pre-Civil War South and its fractured cultural values. Other critics herald Chesnutt as the founder of African-American fiction, arguing that he was forced by societal context to accomplish this goal through non-offensive lexical choices that nonetheless proved effective in creating an African-American opposition to a lesser caste status. My study examines how Chesnutt not only operated within a sphere of literary racism, but that he further used his alleged “place” within this system to create a body of dialectal diction that actually subverted 19th century white values and stereotypes, even while he maintained his marketability to his predominately white readers. His juxtaposition of white and black dialects and lexical choices provide a framework for the very real cultural metaphor of white man as master and black man as servant.

"We are all God's Madmen": The Orchestration of Gazing in Bram Stoker's Dracula

Diana E. Sullivan — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 12:28:29 PDT

To perceive how Dracula can perform his puppeteer act, it is helpful to seek answers to several questions: Who is the subject of the cinematic gaze? Who is its object? Who is experiencing pleasure? How is this pleasure achieved? What are the pleasures and consequences of gazing? Of sexual performance? These questions comprise one overarching idea: control. Who is in control? Who is being controlled? Dracula controls the other characters, narcissistically creating a blasphemous cadre of figures who worship his intellectual power and sexuality. Because they both deal in violence and control, sadism and masochism both subvert and pervert traditional gender roles. Therefore, the practices of sadism and masochism, more commonly referred to in tandem as sadomasochism, inform the portrayal of gender in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. In this film, the bachelor machine as described by Constance Penley works in conjunction with sadomasochism both to lead women astray and to discipline them for their transgression. Dracula uses men and women differently; therefore, their exploitation should be examined separately. Sadeian sexuality informs the portrayal of female characters, masochistic sexuality the portrayal of males.

A Prolific Writer in and "outside" the Classroom: Blogs v. In-class Essays

Jeremy Godfrey — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 12:28:28 PDT

The following article is a case study of Lydia, an eleventh-grade blogger. I observed her writing in Honor’s English class, and I obtained samples of her previous essays. I wanted to see if there is a pattern in the writing style of her blogs and her inclass essays. I found that blogging may influence her language, but the format of her inclass writing tends to be dictated by teachers. However, in her blogs, the author appears more open with format and style. The seemingly relaxed and informal nature of blogs may give way to deep connections between the text and her audience somewhat disparate from the standard in-class essay.

The Butler and the Minstrel: Profession, Performance and Identity

Agnel Barron — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 12:28:28 PDT

Both of the novels, The Remains of the Day and Dancing in the Dark, focus on the lives of their anachronistic main characters whose obsession with their professions dominates their lives to the point where it corrodes their identity and selfhood. Both novels position their protagonists in a time of transition and show their struggle to come to terms with the new realities which they face. Set in the decades of the 1930s, 40s and 50s, in a manor in the English countryside, Remains, written by Kazuo Ishiguro, depicts the protagonist‟s, Stevens, attempt to come to terms with profound changes in his life. Written by Caryl Phillips, Dancing is set in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century in the United States. Most of the action takes place in Harlem and depicts the entertainment careers of Bert Williams and his partner, George Walker. These performers attempt to escape the tradition of minstrelsy which was the only theatrical role available to blacks at the time. However, once they become successful, they find themselves enshrined in this role which they find racially and personally demeaning.

The Epic Fantasy Life of Molly Bloom: A Psychoanalytic Reading of Unconscious Desire in the Penelope Episode of James Joyce's Ulyssess

Brett Thomas Griffin — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 12:28:27 PDT

Despite often being mislabeled as a 'stream-of-consciousness' narrative, recent archival discoveries and theoretical examinations have revealed the Penelope episode of James Joyce's Ulysses to be as scrupulously arranged as the rest of the novel. Over the course of the day, Leopold Bloom's fantasies recast the Odyssean homecoming as a modern epic. But they represent only half of the story, only half of the conflicted desires that have sundered the Bloom's marriage bed. I propose that the unconscious desires that speak through the fantasy life of Molly Bloom engage in the same Odyssean process of reclaiming and rebuilding the home visible in the fantasies of her husband, and that the telos of this epic restoration centers, for Molly as well as Leopold, on the same fantastic subject: Stephen qua Rudy.

New Voices Conference 2008 program

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 12:28:26 PDT

New Voices Conference 2008 brochure

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 12:28:25 PDT

The 2008 New Voices Conference provides a space for exploring the current transitioning evident in the disciplines. A transitional moment is one of reflexivity, confusion, evaluation, clumsiness, an embracing of the new, and a questioning of the foundations and traditions—epistemological, ontological, professional, political, artistic—that support our current state of being. We often transition through traditions by expanding and building on our foundations, but when we question those foundations, the traditions themselves become sites of transitioning.

"...and Poldy not Irish enough...": Nationalism and Ideology in James Joyce's Ulyssess

Laura Barberan Reinares — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 12:28:24 PDT

Following Louis Althusser‘s and Slavoj Zizek‘s analyses of ideology, then, I want to explore the representations of Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom in terms of their response to the hegemonic discourses espoused by Catholicism and Nationalism (both linked to Empire). With this intention, I will concentrate on Episode Ten, ―"The Wandering Rocks,"since from the characters‘ actions and conversations as they intersect in the streets of Dublin we can extrapolate the ideological narratives in which Ireland was immersed at the time. I suggest that the personal struggle for ideological liberation Joyce initiated with Stephen Dedalus in A Portrait necessarily led to the development of Leopold Bloom because, by the beginning of Ulysses, it is apparent that Stephen is still too susceptible to the Roman Catholic ideology of his formative years. Even though the young Dedalus fights to overcome his limitations, precisely because of his upbringing he cannot rise above the principles inculcated by his family and his Jesuit education. Stephen thus becomes too partial a figure for Joyce‘s project, so a character like the Jewish salesman emerges as the main protagonist of this odyssey. Bloom‘s ―"multiplicity" visibly sets him apart from the ―"real" Irish men in Ulysses. At the same time, because of his plurality, Bloom manages to free himself from the artificial binary-pattern mentality that fixes the other male characters inside an ideology that can only perpetuate imperial exploitation.