Tennessee Tech University
Symposium of English
Studies
Pandora’s Box: Opening the Boundaries
March 21, 2009
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The Graduate Organization for Students in the Humanities
(G.O.S.H.)
at Tennessee Tech University invites you to participate in this year’s
Symposium of English Studies
Pandora’s Box: Opening the Boundaries
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments…………………………………………3
Schedule and Room Guide…………………………………4
Abstracts……………………………………………………5
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Acknowledgments
The planning committee for the Tennessee Tech University Symposium of English Studies would
like to thank the following people and organizations: Kurt Eisen, Chandra Elkins, Linda Null, Tom
Saya, Margaret Johnson, Bill Fisk, Robert Cloutier, Shirley Laird, and Scott Christen for chairing
panels and speaking; the University Bookstore for its donation of folders; Sonic for its donation of
ice; Ms. Linda Fisk and Ms. Amy Foster in the English office; and the Department of English and
Communications and the Office of Graduate Studies for their financial support.
Finally, we would like to extend special thanks to Dr. Amy H. Sturgis for her keynote address and
Dr. Heidemarie Weidner for her professional development workshop.
The Planning Committee:
Morgan Abt
Morgan Oldacre
Elizabeth Robinson
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Sarah Seitzinger
Schedule and Room Guide
8:00-8:45
Registration (Henderson Hall 10)
8:45-8:55
Welcoming Remarks (Henderson Hall 205) – Dr. Kurt Eisen
9:00-10:20 Session One
™ Opening the Literature Classroom (Henderson Hall 316) Chandra Elkins
™ Cults of Womanhood (Henderson Hall 305) Linda Null
™ Poet’s Muse (Henderson Hall 10) Tom Saya
10:30-11:15 Keynote Address (Henderson Hall 205)
Dr. Amy H. Sturgis, Belmont University
“Opening the Boundaries between High and Low Text”
11:15-12:15 Lunch (Roaden University Center – Dining Commons)
12:15-1:15 Professional Development Workshop (Henderson Hall 205)
Dr. Heidemarie Weidner, Tennessee Technological University
“Interviewing Effectively Gets You the Job!”
1:30-2:50
Session Two
™ Opening the Composition Classroom (Henderson Hall 305) Margaret
Johnson
™ Regionalism & the American Experience (Henderson Hall 316) Bill
Fisk
™ The Lore of Yore (Henderson Hall 308) Robert Cloutier
™ Literature and the Silver Screen (Henderson Hall 10) Shirley Laird
3:00-4:20
Session Three
™ Opening the Classroom with Technology (Henderson Hall 305)
Elizabeth Robinson
™ Pushing the Boundaries of Good and Evil (Henderson Hall 10)
Scott Christen
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Abstracts
Session One (9:00-10:20)
Opening the Literature Classroom: Session Chair - Chandra Elkins (316)
Manga: The Reading Revolution
Sarah Bryant, Middle Tennessee State University
For many years, the American education system has been searching for ways to get students to read. Special
classes, official programs, etc. that encourage reading have been created by educators as a result of this.
Much to many people’s surprise, however, it is none of these that have sparked the latest reading revolution
but instead the growing popularity of graphic novels, especially Japanese manga. The massive influx of
reading that the manga market has caused and the rapid rate at which this has happened were not expected.
Americans of all ages—those who enjoy reading and those who hate it—are literally flocking to bookstores,
libraries, conventions, and the Internet in order to get their hands on these translations of Japanese graphic
novels. Unfortunately, while there are numerous avid supporters of this wide-spread reading “explosion,”
there are still many who have chosen to reject the “manga boom.” What these people do not—or refuse to—
realize is that the manga revolution has provided Americans with an opportunity to help their children learn
to love reading. It is by taking advantage of manga that people, especially the education system, can
transform this powerful reading revolution into an effective, permanent tool to help children read.
55 Words: How NPR Helps Teach Literature in Freshman Comp
Taylor Emery, Austin Peay State University
At Austin Peay State University, our freshman composition classes are divided into two semesters. In the
first semester, students hone the writing process by reading and writing expository essays. The second
semester shifts the focus to writing about literature by looking at the three genres: fiction, poetry, and drama.
The students read from various works and then write in either reader-response essays or respond using
critical, secondary source materials, much to the chagrin of many students who come to class with the
mistaken idea that they are a creative writing class. For a while, I had no reasonable response to the first day
disappointments students felt when they discovered their mistakes. That is where National Public Radio
(NPR) again came to my rescue.
Many instructors have discussed how they incorporate NPR’s “This I Believe” essays into their freshman
classes, and I, too, have used and continue to use “This I Believe” in my first semester classes. However, this
essay will not work in my second semester courses due to the requirements, and I needed something that
would stimulate the students while reinforcing their understanding of the elements of literature. That is when
I discovered “The 55 Word Short Story.”
A Fresh Look at To Kill a Mockingbird
Julia Watts, South College
Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is often considered an accessible novel that introduces middle-school
students to the experience of reading serious literature, and it certainly succeeds on this count. However, a
college-level reading of the novel also reaps great rewards for students in introductory-level literature
courses. To Kill a Mockingbird obviously generates provocative discussions in regard to its depiction of
racial and social class boundaries in a Depression-era southern town, but an equally worthwhile approach to
teaching the novel in a college classroom is a close analysis of Lee’s craft. Leading students in a close study
of Lee’s language choices can not only deepen their skills in literary interpretation, but can also improve
their writing by familiarizing them with the tools and choices they have at their disposal. By studying
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different passages in the novel, students can learn how to use writing to establish a sense of place, how to use
dialogue effectively, how to recognize the relationship between language and power, and how to use humor
to make a serious point. Most importantly, To Kill a Mockingbird demonstrates the sense to which all
writers, whether students or professionals, should aspire: a true sense of purpose.
Cults of Womanhood: Session Chair – Linda Null (305)
Hawthorne's Dynamic Woman
Tiffany Huddleston, Tennessee Tech University
Nathaniel Hawthorne created many iconic female characters, but these characters never branched outside of
their symbolic personas. Many of his male characters were equally iconic, although most possessed than
Hawthorne's women. It wasn't until he created Hester Prynne in his novel The Scarlet Letter that he created a
female character of depth. Hester represents the only character in the novel to have any character of her
own. While all of the characters around her stand for something, Hester stands only for herself. Throughout
her ordeals as a downtrodden outcast, she attempts to save the men in her life from themselves. These men,
however, cannot be saved. They sink deeper into themselves. Only Hester survives. In his other works,
Hawthorne forms his one-dimensional female symbols to serve as tools in his allegories. Hester has depth of
spirit and force of character. She is the original single mother and makes no apologies. Dimmsdale,
Chillingworth, and even little Pearl serve only to enhance the depth and beauty of Hester's iron-strong
character, making her Hawthorne's only dynamic woman.
Words Were Missing: Absent Identity in Mary Wilkins Freeman’s “Luella Miller”
Ashley Wakefield, Austin Peay State University
“Words Were Missing: Absent Identity in Mary Wilkins Freeman’s ‘Luella Miller’” explores Mary Wilkins
Freeman's subtle and intimate blending of horror and reality in her short story, "Luella Miller," by looking at
the title character, Luella, as both a vampire and a nineteenth century woman. The paper views Luella's
passive predation of all who surround her and her inability to sustain her own life through the lens of the Cult
of True Womanhood; if Victorian women are "not born, but bred," then Luella is only a villain because she
was first a victim. She is the dangerous product of a society that allows her no personal or sexual identity and
no means to voice - or even perceive - her lack of one. "Early one morning..." delves into Freeman's use of a
fictional horror to underscore a very stark reality.
Nora Roberts: Descendent of Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte?
Storme Davis, Tennessee Tech University
At first glance, today’s romance novels seem to be totally different from the classic love stories of Jane
Austen and Charlotte Brontë. However, closer study reveals many similarities between these two classic
novels and Nora Roberts’s books. Nora Roberts is a prolific, best selling romance novelist. Her In Death
series is a mixture of Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice. Throughout this series of police procedural/murder
mystery/romance novels, Roberts weaves elements from these two classic novels together. Not only does her
main character, Eve Dallas, share character traits with both Jane Eyre and Elizabeth Bennet , but Roarke,
Eve’s husband, shares character traits with both Edward Rochester and Fitzwilliam Darcy. There are
similarities, too, in the romantic relationships of the main characters in these three books. Like Austen’s
stories, Roberts’s stories end well and her characters learn life lessons so that they live happily. Likewise, as
in Brontë’s classic story, Roberts uses symbols and dreams to tell Eve’s story and to help her solve both her
personal problems and her police case.
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Poet’s Muse: Session Chair – Tom Saya (10)
Suprapersonal Haiku: An Archetypal Reading of Matsuo Bashō
D. Ian Burkett, Appalachian State University
Recapitulating Psychoanalytical Criticism, Charles Bressler explains that the collective unconscious is made
up of memories that “exist in the form of archetypes, which are patterns or images of repeated human
experiences—such as birth, death, rebirth, the four seasons.”
When I read this, I instantaneously thought of haiku, since haiku traditionally contain a kigo, or seasonal
reference. When considering haiku, the most noticeable poet to examine is Matsuo Bashō, who is widely
considered the master of this form. Juxtaposing these two—Jung’s collective unconscious and Bashō’s
haiku—and forging them into one, I developed a research question: In what ways do Bashō’s haiku reveal
archetypes that suggest a collective unconscious?
This question is an important one because, as far as my research has revealed, it has not been addressed. By
asking this question, I am suggesting that Bashō’s poems contain archetypes, especially (but not limited to)
the archetype Bressler mentioned, “the four seasons.” Take, for example, this haiku, which signifies winter:
the first snow
just enough to bend
the daffodil leaves
Containing such archetypes suggests that Bashō’s poetry embodies “universal images that have existed since
the remotest times,” and can, therefore, be understood as “suprapersonal.”
Isolation to Humanity: The Process of Creating the Self
Caroline Malone, South College
In The Triumph of Achilles, Louise Gluck records the process of creating the self. These early poems explore
the tentative movement from emotional isolation to humanity. For Gluck, leaving the safety of the mind for
the page is a risky endeavor for even something as controlled as the poetic lyric posses the power to expose
too much of the self, thus inviting vulnerability. Yet the desire for intimacy requires action, and Gluck
accomplishes this through the form of the poem. It is the tension between what can and cannot be said,
through the possibilities and limitations of language that Gluck explores being and non-being. The lyric
form's power to contain yet release, to hide yet reveal, to dissolve yet embody allows Gluck to cautiously test
the boundaries between two equally attractive states: the protected self of Platonic forms and the vulnerable
self of the assailable world. Leaden and Golden Echoes: Hopkins’s Poetry as the Merging of Old and New Testament
Derrick Stewart, Tennessee Tech University
The poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins holds a prominent place in the development of modern poetry, but his
theology is often ignored. His works draw heavily from Old-Testament literary forms and subjects, and when
studied they reveal themselves to be a combination of these forms with the new revelations given in the New
Testament. Hopkins’s poetry is rooted, formally in Old Testament books like Psalms and Job, but his subject
matter is derived almost exclusively from the grace and redemption promised in the New Testament.
Specifically, the subject of nature, which had often been used in the Old Testament to make declarations of
God’s majesty, in Hopkins’s poetry becomes instead a metaphor for Christ.
This presentation focuses on Hopkins’s careful crafting of the form and message of his poems in this
environment. Christianity occupied the foremost place in the mind of Hopkins and it would be unrealistic to
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study his poetry outside of this context. Christianity functions as the reconciling power between Hopkins’s
notions of fallen man and glorious nature. It influences or even defines both his content and his form.
Keynote Address (10:30-11:15) Room 205
Opening the Boundaries between English Studies and Culture: From Middle-earth to Hogwarts
Dr. Amy H. Sturgis, Belmont University
The focus of English Studies is Literature, isn't it? But what exactly is Literature with a capital "L"? Who
decides, and why should we trust them? Join Dr. Sturgis as she employs the scholarship of J.R.R. Tolkien to
consider the value of the Harry Potter series and, in the process, challenge the (false?) boundary between socalled high and low culture.
Lunch – Roaden University Center (11:15-12:15)
Professional Development Workshop (12:15-1:15) Room 205
Interviewing Effectively Gets You the Job!
Dr. Heidemarie Weidner, Tennessee Tech University
The professional development workshop will present ineffective and effective interviewing techniques.
Knowing the difference between the two can determine whether or not you will get you the job for which
you are interviewing!
Session Two (1:30-2:50)
Opening the Composition Classroom: Session Chair – Margaret Johnson (305)
All the Classroom’s a Stage: Using Performance in the Composition Classroom—and Beyond
Rachael Williams, Columbus State University
Many English and humanities professors struggle to find interesting and innovative ways to spark students’
interest in their courses. How can those of us from pre-iPod/satellite cable/Internet generations capture
students’ short attention spans—and bring to life the creative thinking abilities that have practically been
beaten out of them? As a professionally trained actor and college English professor, I have found that
bringing performance into the classroom gets students’ attention very quickly. The medium of performance is
one very familiar to them, and using performance (in-person, film, music, television) in the classroom in
unexpected ways helps professors speak to them in a visual and aural language they understand. The
difference here is that even though students’ attention is riveted to performance-based teaching techniques,
they are slowly—subliminally, even—growing into sophisticated critical thinkers. They soon realize that this
is not just another lecture class to sleep through. By changing students’ expectations of what is “supposed” to
happen in the classroom, they morph into new intellectual identities as engaged learners almost without
knowing they are doing so.
I plan to frame my discussion through the work of Aaron Levy, Judith Rowe Michaels, Douglas Rushkoff,
Pepi Leistyna, and Sut Jhally, among others. My presentation will indeed be a performance itself, bringing
my points to life through simple costuming, sample monologues, a brief PowerPoint slideshow, and video
clips.
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Kenneth Burke and Composition: Toward a Synecdochic Writing Pedagogy
Sean Barnette, University of Tennessee
If first-year composition students are familiar with Kenneth Burke, it is likely to be through his Pentad,
which many rhetoric and writing textbooks present to students as a heuristic to aid invention. But Burke
himself was uneasy about this use of his Pentad; and in fact, though he rarely discussed pedagogy explicitly,
an examination of Burke’s writings on education and his own teaching methods suggests a Burkean approach
to teaching composition that, to the extent that it made use of the Pentad, would do so not to help students
generate essays but to engender in them what he calls an “impious fear of symbol using.” Furthermore, more
important than the Pentad in a Burkean composition course would be Burke’s “master trope” of synecdoche.
Despite the substantial pressure composition teachers may feel from both students and administrators to
teach writing in general, Burke seems to suggest that students would be better served by focusing on more
specific, authentic writing tasks that are representative (but not reductive) of writing in general, even if those
tasks do not superficially resemble the sorts of writing students will do in other academic or professional
situations.
Taking It Outside the Classroom: Writing for the “Real World”
Elizabeth Robinson, Tennessee Tech University
The traditional essay is falling by the wayside. As much as we in academia cringe at the thought of losing
this part of our heritage, it is undeniable that composition studies are shifting from the rigid form of blackletters-on-white-paper-in-MLA-format to the various forms of writing that our students will actually engage
outside of the university. By asking them to write in these various formats, we allow our students the
opportunity to write as writers, not as students. This shift allows us to demand more critical thinking on their
part: they are called to be creative, something that has been sorely lacking in composition classes. Rather
than merely following a handbook’s example of MLA format, our students learn to evaluate elements of
design, to create elements of design in their own work, and to write in various, audience-dependent forms.
And all the while, they are still composing compelling pieces of writing. Through sharing examples of my
own students’ work, I hope to inspire other teachers to rethink the way we approach the teaching of writing –
in more thoughtful, “real world” ways.
Regionalism & the American Experience: Session Chair – Bill Fisk (316)
Pearl Flies Free: The Romantic in The Scarlet Letter
Kristen Ruccio, University of Alabama - Huntsville
This essay examines the Romantic content of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. Hawthorne
published The Scarlet Letter in 1850, although most of the story takes place some two hundred years earlier
in Puritan New England. The novel, which Hawthorn called “a Romance,” came into being at the end of
Romanticism’s aesthetic predominance, yet continues to claim a narrative and ontological space in the years
before Romanticism held sway. This temporal setting leads to masking of the Romantic content.
Hawthorne’s portrayal of Puritan life as sere and gray remains a crucial aspect of the work; nevertheless, a
Romantic sensibility saturates the novel and this equally important facet of The Scarlet Letter has been too
long neglected by critics. I could not attempt a full defense of the Romantic aesthetic within Hawthorne’s
magnum opus unless I wrote a book of my own; happily, a sketch of just one character may stand for the
Romantic within The Scarlet Letter. Pearl, love child of Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale, embodies
the Romantic aesthetic as expressed in The Scarlet Letter and I compare and contrast Pearl with some of the
most iconic presentations of childhood by other Romantics (Rousseau, Wordsworth and the painter Edward
Hicks) in order to illuminate my argument.
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Faulkner’s War Fiction: The Home Front and Hightower
Roxann Wylie, Tennessee Tech University
William Faulkner’s Light in August displays how war can have harsh consequences on Americans living at
the home front. Faulkner relies on both a psychological and societal definition of the phrase “home front.” In
this novel, Faulkner does not describe any of his characters serving in the war; however, he illustrates that
war has remarkably disturbed people residing decades removed from the Civil War. The indirect effects of
war tragically change the family situations of these characters left at home during the war.
The characters in this novel suffer from psychological problems caused by the aftermath of war. In Light in
August, the Civil War has upset Gale Hightower’s family creating mental disruption that Hightower cannot
conquer. Hightower has the inability to muddle through his emotional pain deriving from his family’s past,
so instead of conforming to his society, which also suffers from Civil War repercussions, Hightower
recreates an imaginary Civil War home front within his mind. Although Hightower did not fight in the Civil
War, his mental instability comes as an indirect result of war evolving from memories of his grandfather
serving as a Confederate Soldier.
Divine Right’s Trip and the Confluence of the American Dream
Audrey McCloskey Smith, Appalachian State University
During the second half of the twentieth-century, authors such as Jack Kerouac, Hunter S. Thompson, and
Gurney Norman took the figurative search for the American dream to another level: they transformed it into
a physical search for the American dream on the roads of America, using drugs and alcohol as a roadmap.
J.W. Williamson’s interview with Gurney Norman helped to shape the way in which I approach Divine
Right’s Trip. In that interview, Norman quotes poet Nikki Giovanni stating on the radio show “Go Tell it on
the Mountain,” “The Appalachian region is the confluence of the American dream” (Williamson 20). Divine
Right’s Trip is not only a novel of the counter culture; it is also an Appalachian novel. Appalachia is where
the American dream comes together, where it meets, which implies, of course, that there is more than one
American dream. The progression of Divine Right from the drug scene in California to the hills of Kentucky
is also a progression of the desires and ideals of America’s youth, a progression, if you will, of the American
dream.
In this paper, I look at Gurney Norman’s counter culture novel Divine Right’s Trip to decipher the state of
the American dream at the time and temperature in which Norman wrote it, and also to find any statements
he is making about the ever-evolving American dream.
The Lore of Yore: Session Chair – Robert Cloutier (308)
The Native American Origin Myth: Finding Structure through Narratology
K. Angela Harris, Tennessee State University
This research examines the validity of an underlying structure beneath the surface of four Native American
origin myths, proving that modern literary theory can be applied to an originally oral tradition. By applying
Todorov’s process of a narrative to the origin myths of the Cherokee, Tuskogee, Yuchi and Yokut, a
structural parallelism is illuminated; the surface structures of the myths are broken down. In doing so, their
structures are discovered, showing patterns that can be found throughout the myths, both individually and
universally.
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Keeping Company with Wolves: An Analysis of “Little Red Riding Hood” from 1697 to 1979
C. Elizabeth Allen, Lees-McRae College
While traditional fairy tales continue to be retold, the stories often become re-invented. “Modernizing” the
characters, setting, or plot of fairy tales can often alter the original moral. When comparing the traditional
version of the classic fairy tale “Little Red Riding Hood” to its modern adaptations, the wolf’s character does
not change: he continues to be a representation of “dangerous masculinity.” Little Red, on the other hand,
develops from a naïve victim relying on outside assistance, to a dynamic character embracing a “dangerous”
lifestyle, to an empowered woman relying only on herself. Her development can be identified through the
four different versions of the “Little Red Riding Hood” fairy tale: first, Charles Perrault’s traditional version;
second, the song “Lil’ Red Riding Hood” from the 1960s band “Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs,” “The
Little Girl and the Wolf” by James Thurber, and finally Angela Carter’s “The Company of Wolves.” But
although the character of Little Red Riding Hood transforms in each version of the story, the original moral
remains the same: the world is dangerous for a young girl, mainly because men threaten to “corrupt” her,
which causes the reader to wonder just how much of a transformation has been made.
“The Rose and the Briar”: The Poetics of Folk Balladry in Performance
Joshua Lavender, Georgia College & State University
This essay argues for a broader textual and linguistic treatment of ballads, not as musicological relics but as
shifting texts in dynamic performance—poetry in flux. What the ballad process so amply demonstrates is not
a democratic chaos but a painstaking recombination of thematic, narrative, and poetic elements. Oral
tradition and performance thus tend to produce composite texts. By comparatively analyzing several versions,
both textual and musical, of the traditional folk ballad “Barbara Allen” and determining how they pursue
diverse interpretive goals, the essay illustrates the folk process—the incessant rewriting of songs—in action
and illuminates how that process resembles, draws upon, and influences more formal poetics. I propose that,
as transmission and reinterpretation occur, ballads adapt in complex narrative, poetic, and linguistic ways to
the interpretive disposition of the performer, who effectively recreates the song. The available composite
texts provide the framework and tools for this recreation, which parallels processes by which readers
encounter written texts. Situated at the juncture of text, tradition, and performance, ballads provide an
archetypal perspective from which to probe the sociolinguistic interaction of identity, audience, and style.
Framing a model of poetics becomes a matter of determining to what degree language is a function of
performance or an extension of identity.
Literature and the Silver Screen: Session Chair – Shirley Laird (10)
Bombarded by Hollywood’s Feminine Ideal: Analyzing Pedagogy When Confronted by the
Differences Between Movies and Books, Specifically in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
Paul Ludwig, Walters State Community College and Union County High School
I always have been interested in the differences between how stories and characters develop in movies
compared to how they develop in the books on which the movies are supposedly based. While teaching both
the book and movie versions of Anne Brashares’ Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, my high school dualenrollment class compares and contrasts the role of the young women to illustrate how supposedly liberal
Hollywood continues to change the stronger women characters from books into film characters under the
power and protection of men. It is an interesting and illuminating exercise to watch young women realize the
extent to which they are bombarded by Hollywood’s feminine ideal.
Through a humorous introspective examination of my own teaching methods, this paper explores student
reaction to feminist criticism while also offering a few completely self-learned pedagogical ideas for other
teachers to consider.
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Representations of Chinese Masculinity in US Cinema: Jackie Chan’s Revival of 19th Century
Stereotypes
Ashley K. Emmert, Georgia College & State University
Since the first images printed in the late 1800’s undermining the masculinity of Chinese immigrant workers,
Chinese-American men have been unable to recover from alternatively demasculinizing or villainous
stereotypes. Despite the variety of approaches by playwright Frank Chin, producer Bruce Lee, and Jackie
Chan, each has validated the hegemonic system demasculinizing Chinese-American males. Yuan Shu claims
that “rather than promoting what Peter McLaren calls ‘critical multiculturalism’… diversity in Chan's work
becomes a matter of management of differences and identities.” However, utilizing Peter McLaren’s notion
of critical multiculturalism, I will argue that there is little difference in Chan’s roles in Hollywood cinema
from even the earliest stereotyping images. Chan, like his predecessors, reinforces the stereotypes attached to
Chinese-American men both on and off screen. Since the first derogatory images of Chinese-American men
in the 1860’s, popular culture has switched from one extreme stereotype to the other, alternating between
what in the earlier years can be characterized as “desexualized Model Minority” to “quiet infiltrators,” and
similarly today, as desexualized nice-guys and threatening martial artists. Hollywood cinema emphasizes the
first in Chan’s characters and plays down the second, successfully protecting Euro-American hegemony
while feeding effeminizing stereotypes haunting many Chinese-American men today.
“Regarding Influence: The Interplay of Shakespeare, Welles, Van Sant, and Art”
Alex Fitzner, Pellissippi State Technical Community College
The difference between heritage and history, according to critic David Lowenthal, is one of conformity—that
is, while history must stay relatively consistent with a true account of events, heritage “is not a testable or
even plausible version of our past; it is a declaration of faith in that past” (Lowenthal 74). We are able to use
these definitions to aid in tracing how an event in the past can become something so different in its later
anecdotal manifestations; this division can, with some certainty, account for how—and sometimes when—a
story becomes apocryphal.
What happens, though, when we attempt to apply these exclusive categories to early modern texts and their
derivations, like Shakespeare’s Henriad and films like Welles’ Chimes at Midnight and Van Sant’s My Own
Private Idaho? The contrast here becomes less useful than the conflation, for Shakespeare’s lofty cultural
position means that his work now functions as a form of history, and partially because of this, modern
filmmakers like Welles and Van Sant have appropriated his work. The resulting films, then, occupy the
same cultural space that Shakespeare’s plays in his time, and yet use that work to tell the stories of their
cultural moment. How are they both early modern films in theme and cultural space as well as products of
their own time and self-aware influence?
Session Three (3:00-4:20)
Opening the Classroom with Technology: Session Chair – Elizabeth Robinson
(305)
The Dance of Teaching and Technology
Anne Ippolito, South College
Technology has revolutionized the way we gather information, communicate, and assemble our noteworthy
ideas. It has insinuated itself into the fiber of our being and is impacting the way today’s teachers deliver
their lessons, communicate with students, and create assignments. And, in some ways, it has made our jobs
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more difficult. The plethora of available information requires patience teaching students how to filter Internet
material with a critical eye. The easy availability of information makes us ever vigilant for plagiarized as
well as copied and pasted material. Lastly, communicating via Email puts us on call almost 24/7, demanding
precise and neutral language.
Although the technology revolution brings with it some disadvantages, there is a definite upside to teaching
with technology. Writing papers using Word and its tools make revision a snap; and the spell check and
grammar check tools, can eradicate lost points for careless mistakes. In addition, PowerPoint becomes a
powerful tool for student presentations and for lectures, when used as a visual aid—not a crutch. And,
perhaps more importantly, technology affords us the opportunity to use the Millenials’ fascination with it to
our advantage, designing creative lessons that go where we could not before—filming documentaries,
conducting job research online, or playing Career Jeopardy. Finally, a Virtual Library possible through the
World Wide Web generates a “green” classroom, propelling us toward a paperless environment. The savings
of trees, space, and waste are significant. Thus the dance of technology and teaching moves like an intricate
tango in a sometimes fierce love-hate relationship.
Hypertext and Hyperactivity: A Look at Technology in the Classrooms
Jeannie Parker Beard, Dalton State & Georgia State
In this age of hypertext, and hyperactivity, educators are engaging students in the texts of our times. Critical,
rhetorical analysis of various media should be embraced in the composition classroom. Technology can be
used as an instructional tool, an interactive learning tool, and an outlet for creative, critical problem solving
in our classrooms. As such, students should be allowed to exercise their newfound rhetorical skills by
producing their own multimedia texts.
This presentation will discuss the successful outcomes of using technology in the classroom. Students are
allowed to do a final multimedia project at the end of the semester, in lieu of writing a formal paper. The
project takes the form of a short documentary and must meet the requirements of a proposal argument. This
project is a culmination of the rhetorical strategies students have learned and built upon throughout the
semester. Students look forward to sharing their work with the class, and presenting feasible solutions to
local, national, and global concerns.
Attendees will learn how to incorporate themes and prepare students for this assignment by generating
topics, setting guidelines and facilitating workshops. In addition to viewing an example of student work, we
will look at assessment guidelines and rubrics for these new forms.
Pushing the Boundaries of Good and Evil: Session Chair – Scott Christen (10)
The Politics of Doomsday: Watchmen and the Political Implications of the Superhuman
Gary Thomas Gravely, Tennessee Tech University
This paper will analyze the superhero as a modern form of the traditional quest hero and the political
questions resulting as a consequence in Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ graphic novel Watchmen. As a
dystopian alternative history, Watchmen brought a revolutionary lens via which one could analyze the
superhero and political realities that might arise as a result of its existence. The history of the Cold War finds
itself drastically altered due to superheroes and their intertwining quests. The usage of power and the
superhero as a representative of the community in his quest will be explored as well. Moore and Gibbons’
utilize the fantastical entity of the comic book world to explore the implications of right-wing politics in the
latter half of the twentieth century. Patriotism, service, legal authority, conservative media, and
multinational corporations present themselves as only a few of the issues tackled by Moore and Gibbons as
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they delve into the nature of power and the morality of its usage in this fictional setting with too many
similarities for our own comfort.
Defining the Symbolic Order: Good and Evil in Buffy and Angel
Timothy Fletcher, Georgia College & State University
This essay examines the journey of Wesley Wyndam-Pryce through Buffy and Angel, utilizing Lacan’s
theories of the subject, defining the Symbolic Order by the various conceptions of the battle between Good
and Evil in the Buffyverse. I argue that Wesley spends his life moving from one Symbolic Order into
another, constantly attempting to fit himself into each of these Symbolic Orders by creating a new ego that
conforms to his own idealized image of each Order and ultimately losing all hope in the Symbolic and
moving into the realms of the Real. Consequently, Wesley is perhaps one of the few characters in the
Buffyverse who sees the Symbolic Order for the deception it is. Just before going to his death, he lacks any
desires, any connection to the Symbolic Order that has so far dominated his life. It is from this state that
Wesley, realizing his own demise, opts to find comfort in the Symbolic “lie” that Illyria offers, finding the
oblivion of the Real too difficult to accept.
Thank you for taking part in this year's Symposium of English Studies!
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