Tag: Comics Classics and Analysis

Princess Mononoke: A Masterpiece of Japanese Animation

Presenter: Annabel Winningham – Art History

Faculty Mentor(s): Alexandria Nanneman

Session: (In-Person) Oral Panel—Comics, Classics and Analysis

Hayao Miyazaki’s films are renowned for their fantastic visual complexity, cohesiveness, and heart- warming narratives. Miyazaki is able to unite oil-painting-like backgrounds with a great sense of depth and super-flat styled character to create playful, mystical, and breathtaking atmospheres. Although his art style is child-like and charming, the narratives of his work have very serious themes, and like much Japanese art post World War II, are highly influenced by westernization, industrialism, and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In Princess Mononoke, he portrays a sense of nationalism with an appreciation for the traditional Japanese way of life, yet detests the influence that the modern world has had on Japanese culture, especially as it contradicts many of the basic morals of the central religion of Japan, Shinto. The focal theme of the film is environmentalism, but he dives into the complexity of this issue by also portraying the benefits that have come with western industrialization. The film depicts a seemingly unresolvable conflict between the animals and spirits of the forest versus humanity, yet by the end of the film, Miyazaki beautifully displays the harmony that can be achieved, but only after devastating conflict and disaster. The film is a warning. The final battle is suspenseful and action-pact, but the movie concludes on a deeply pensive and hopeful note. My essay is a visual, historical, and contextual analysis of Princess Mononoke.

Creation Myths and Science Fiction: The Human Urge to Structure the Unknowable

Presenter: Hayden Stewart – History

Faculty Mentor(s): Dr. Andrea Goering

Session: (In-Person) Oral Panel—Comics, Classics and Analysis

In his introduction to “Sun Songs: Creation Myths from Around the World,” Raymond Von Over writes, “The myths of ancient mankind attempted to resolve such profound and confusing questions, and therefore when reading myths we experience not so much an emotional insight as a sensation of watching something marvelous grow in the mind of early mankind.” It is my belief that science fiction, in its most scientific and cerebral form, is the evolution of the creation myth. A story that symbolizes the question of “where are we going?” rather than “from where did we come?” It is that same growth of something marvelous growing in our minds, but now instead of then. My presentation includes a story that I wrote. It takes place during the Heat Death of the Universe, on the final abode of humankind. It is meant to be a meditation on how far away storytelling can take us, and what it can show us capable of achieving. Much like how the creation myths of our past told of what was before us, and how and why we came to be, this story aims to tell what will come after us, how, and why we should care about so distant a future. Along with the aforementioned text by Raymond Von Over and the myths it contains, I’ll be drawing from works by Isaac Asimov and Ursula K. Le Guin, and consensus timelines of the eventual fate of the universe. It’s my hope that this collection of ideas can add to the conversation of the importance of art for human self-conception and scientific/philosophical progress.

Welcome to Computer Science: Designing a Comic Tour of Computers and Computing

Presenter: Audra McNamee – Mathematics and Computer Science

Faculty Mentor(s): Kathleen Freeman

Session: (In-Person) Oral Panel—Comics, Classics and Analysis

While the number of high-quality educational comics is growing, there are no modern long-form comics discussing computer science at an undergraduate level. The computer science comics that do exist, along with being for a younger audience, are generally focused on teaching the reader programming concepts without exploring other aspects of computer science. For this thesis I scripted and drew the 54-page comic Welcome to Computer Science, which introduces the reader to computer science concepts including computer architecture, programming languages, and the internet. As a narrative comic written for an undergraduate audience, it can draw in readers who otherwise might not choose to engage with the material. As a breadth-first introduction, the comic provides the reader with a foundational understanding of computers and computer science; this work may provide even more experienced students with a better understanding of how their computer science classes relate to the rest of the field.

A Rhetoric of Friendship in the Works of Aristotle and Quintilian

Presenter: Elijah Leutwyler – English, Philosophy

Faculty Mentor(s): Corbett Upton

Session: (In-Person) Oral Panel—Comics, Classics and Analysis

The philosophy of friendship has recently returned to academic conversations with scholars such as Paul W. Ludwig or Alexander Nehamas engaging the subject from any number of historical lenses. But what does it mean to speak as a friend or persuade amicably? While it is a commonly held belief that one’s friends have your best interests in mind, this paper argues that a traditionally classical view of rhetoric inherently incorporates the virtue of friendship in any communication between people by close-reading moments of Aristotle’s On Rhetoric and Quintillian’s Institutes of Oratory. Indeed, Aristotle grounds rhetorical exposition in a distinctly moral register and Quintillian enacts that idea in his pedagogical style as a Roman educator. In essence, this paper sees Aristotle and Quintilian as champions to the idea that rhetoric is grounded in an appreciation for intrapersonal intimacy, interpersonal connection, and a pedagogical structure that allows for such values to flourish. Empathizing with one’s audience and entering speaking engagements with relationship development as a top priority not only guards a person’s speech from becoming manipulative as the two classical rhetor-philophers explain, it also fosters an environment where rhetorical speech can operate in the way it was always meant to: for the good of the people.

An Analysis of English to Japanese Translation in the novel Pachinko

Presenter: Elizabeth Chandler − Global Studies, Japanese

Faculty Mentor(s): Glynne Walley

(In-Person) Oral Panel—Comics, Classics and Analysis

The research in this analysis focuses on the translation choices to both convey and introduce subtext surrounding the cultural and linguistic identity of the zainichi Koreans to the 2017 Japanese translation of Pachinko by Korean American author Min Jin Lee. It follows the story of a multi- generational zainichi Korean family, who moved to Japan a decade or so before the beginning of World War 2 and ends in 1989, many years later. The story covers many decades of Japanese history, focusing on its treatment of and evolving cultural identity of zainichi Koreans. This is explored and conveyed in both original and translation, but it is the translations distinct differences attributed to a variety of factors that alters the novels subtexts surrounding this unique cultural identity. The of research will examine some of the more specific and broader choices made by the translator, Makiko Ikeda, throughout the duration of her translation in relation to this subject. This was accomplished by a close reading of certain passages within the text, and then comparing them to their English equivalent, accounting for cultural and historical implications of the translator’s word choice. This analysis will be broken into two main focuses: that of the foreignization of the text and the domesticating aspects. Ultimately, it is their effects on the implied and overt subtexts that they either reinforce or create in comparison to the original that are the primary conclusions of this analysis.