Tag: Beyond a Melody

A Critical Examination of Abstraction in John Dewey’s Reflective Thought

Presenter(s): William O’Brien—Philosophy

Faculty Mentor(s): Steven Brence

Session 3: Beyond a Melody

In this paper, I critically examine our human capacity for abstraction . I examine this tool in the pragmatic terms of John Dewey, wherein abstraction is understood as our human capacity used to successfully engage in our environment and achieve our interests and purposes . Specifically in the context of John Dewey’s reflective thought, I critically examine abstraction’s process and purpose . From this examination, the essential role that the tool of abstraction plays comes to light . It is seen that abstraction is necessary for reflective thought to function, and without it, this personally familiar process would cease to be . After showing abstraction’s essential role in this familiar context, I get into explaining problematic aspects of reflective thought’s logical understanding of abstraction . This understanding of abstraction has been the basis upon which reflective thought may produce logical results that are problematically ‘out of touch’ and biased . I take up the ‘reasonable woman standard’ in law to illustrate a concrete example of this . Ultimately, I conclude that for reflective thought we still need the same logical understanding of abstraction, but only insofar as it serves as a basis for a new logical understanding, wherein we must always ask and consider the question of who, in order to avoid logical results that are problematically exclusive and biased .

The Pearl of Santa Radegonda: An Investigation into Chiara Margarita Cozzolani’s Musical Fortune and Success during the Early to Mid-Baroque Era

Presenter(s): Natalie North—Percussion Performance and Music Theory

Faculty Mentor(s): Holly Roberts

Session 3: Beyond a Melody

In the second-half of the sixteenth century, the Council of Trent declared nuns as political entities whose musical activities required strict oversight . These papal mandates utterly failed in Milan, as they were met with the fiery opposition of Milanese nuns whose music would remain as heralding feats of their communities . In this project, I explore the music and life of Chiara Margarita Cozzolani (1602–78), a seventeenth-century nun and composer at the Milanese Benedictine convent, Santa Radegonda . In 1996, Robert Kendrick’s groundbreaking monograph (Celestial Sirens, Oxford University Press) immensely detailed the biographical and musical accounts of early modern women religious . For over twenty years, few scholars have continued this important work . Minimal scholarship has investigated how the backgrounds of Milanese nuns affected their long lasting legacies while living in cloistered convents . I contend that Cozzolani’s musical contribution would not have been celebrated during her lifetime had it not been for her entrance into the monastery as a member of Milanese nobility, during a time in which local clergy allowed women religious more artistic freedom . Additionally, I argue that Cozzolani’s position as maestra di cappella (choirmaster) of Santa Radegonda afforded her the unique privilege to perform, print, and preserve her music which ensured her legacy as a formidable composer in a field usually reserved for men . Support for my argument comes from the lack of extant biographies of Cozzolani’s female contemporaries that are without extraordinary upbringings . Had it not been for her fortunate happenstances, would Cozzolani’s music survive today?

The Harp-Weaver and Other Poems: A Haunting Maternal Presence in Edna St. Vincent Millay’s Poetry

Presenter(s): Martha DeCosta—English (major) and Creative Writing (minor)

Faculty Mentor(s): Corbett Upton

Session 3: Beyond a Melody

The image of the ideal mother as a self-sacrificial caretaker for her children echoes in Edna St . Vincent Millay’s Pulitzer Prize winning poem “The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver”: “She sang as she worked, / And the harp-strings spoke; Her voice never faltered, / And the thread never broke .” Although deserving of its high praise and reception, this sentimental ballad’s appearance in The Harp-Weaver and Other Poems collection seems somewhat incongruous, given the nature with which Millay’s other poems explore the roles of motherhood . She depicts speakers who regard children, or the absence of children, with detachment and pity for their unsettled lives, reinforcing underlying anxiety or association with death and suffering . This volume deals with darker themes such as domestic violence, neglect, and imagined realities, embodying various forms of motherhood and not a traditional depiction of gentleness and love . Much of the excitement and the controversy surrounding Millay focuses on her bisexuality and compelling voice for the early twentieth century’s New Woman . However, critical lenses historically discuss her poetic themes in connection with her biographical background . They leave unexplored gaps in their research by minimalizing or overlooking her poetic representations of alternate women’s roles . To enhance and expand the larger and perhaps limited literary discourse about motherhood in The Harp-Weaver and Other Poems, I analyze Millay’s portrayal of a haunting maternal presence throughout this unique volume .

Disrupting the Cyclical Narrative of Castration in Rape Revenge; distinguishing violence from vengeance

Presenter(s): M. Joelle Ahler—Cinema, Womens, Gender & Sexuality Studies/Ethnic Studies Minor

Faculty Mentor(s): Peter Alilunas

Session 3: Beyond a Melody

Rape revenge films have been heralded as feminist iconography since their conception despite many controversial points, as the agency they award their protagonists stands out in film history . This thesis dissects the relation of gendered violence and bodily autonomy presented in traditional rape revenge films to disrupt the narrative of castration as a form of feminized vengeance . Rape revenge films from the male gaze construct female agency and castration as retributive justice, creating cyclical narratives that perpetuate binary understandings of bodily autonomy in relation to gendered power . By dissecting several classic rape revenge films through the lens of hegemonic power and social constructions of gender, this thesis will examine how the rape is represented in the film and how the avenger’s relationship to the victim—self, family member or community member—affects the severity of the revenge . These films utilize binary systems of gender and heteronormativity to dictate sexual violence and reciprocal vengeance as ‘naturalized’ forms of female agency . Conflating the relationship of castration and rape presented in these scenes, the autonomy of the victim and the assaulter are equalized as vengeance is assumedly served . This thesis finds that rape revenge narratives construct castration as a tool for vengeance and reclamation of bodily autonomy to perpetuate binary understandings of sexual violence and patriarchal systems of power within these narratives .