Tag: Oral Session 3O

Spectral Prose: Reading the Object in Icelandic and American Literature

Presenter(s): Maxfield Lydum − English

Faculty Mentor(s): Brian Gazaille

Oral Session 3O

Research Area: Humanities

Object-oriented ontology (OOO), a development that has become particularly useful in ecological philosophy, seeks to understand the way in which objects exist and act upon one another. OOO views existence as lying in an irreducible rift between the appearance and essence of objects. Timothy Morton has recently formulated this theory of causality into a philosophy of ecological awareness in the Anthropocene. Drawing from Morton’s recent books Realist Magic (Open Humanities 2013), Dark Ecology (Columbia 2016), and Humankind (Verso 2017), I attempt to unravel the ontological presuppositions that have guided certain trends in the development of western prose writing. Chief among these presuppositions is a view of objects as subservient to the personal, economic, and literary interests of humans, an ontological hierarchy that Morton argues is the greatest barrier to ecological awareness. Tracing a line from the Icelandic family saga tradition into the works of Herman Melville and Ken Kesey, I argue for the long prose form as an environment of ecological attunement, a narrative arena in which objects can exist in the spectral interplay of appearance and essence. By analyzing these seemingly disparate occasions of prose writing under the interpretive lens of OOO, we begin to understand the way in which the existence of objects in the narrative sphere allows for a possible future of ecological awareness.

Sa’di and the Safavid: The Material Culture of a Treasured Persian Manuscript Now at UO

Presenter(s): Elmira Louie − Comparative Literature, English

Faculty Mentor(s): Vera Keller

Oral Session 3O

Research Area: Humanities

This talk offers a material cultural analysis of a hitherto unstudied Persian manuscript in UO’s collection, identifying the city and cultural context of its production. This manuscript went on an incredible journey. In 1615 CE, the Burgess MS 43 manuscript of Sa’di’s Gulistan and Bustan was created in Persia. At some point in its life, the manuscript was transported to Europe, where the original Persian leather binding was swapped for a more European style: soft, red velvet with two silver clasps. According to a book seller’s catalogue entry, this manuscript once belonged to John Ruskin, the preeminent art theorist of Victorian England; the binding of the manuscript, which its not typical for Persian bindings, suggests the Orientalist lens through which it was once viewed. Using the approaches of material culture studies and the history of the book, this talk recoups the manuscript from its Orientalist past and restores it to its original culture of production and consumption in the Safavid book arts. Taking a journey back to the 17th century Persian context reveals that this manuscript was created by a team of artists, illuminators, and scribes in a Shiraz kitabkhana for a member of the wealthy elite.

Text to Table: Everything Is About Lemon Meringue Pie

Presenter(s): Ashley Kim − Biology, Environmental Science

Faculty Mentor(s): Barbara Mossberg

Oral Session 3O

Research Area: Humanities

Food sustains all human life. It allows the human body to function in its most basic form, but can also bring joy with the right combination of ingredients. In Dr. Barbara Mossberg’s “Helpful Banana Bread”, she explores the role of nature in food through cooking, but also the role of humans in the food cycle of nature itself. By allowing the audience to share her recipes, experiences in the kitchen, and memories of nature, she gives readers new insight to the seemingly simple acts of cooking and eating. All life on Earth works together to maintain the complex environment that sustains human life itself. Bringing the experiences in this book to an audience in a non-traditional format (in this case, food) will help them share in the moments that the author came to her realizations about the relationship of nature and food. In turn, the audience has the opportunity to come to these realizations themselves. Since the author describes her memories of eating and cooking in such vivid detail, just reading these experiences make the audience feel as if they were experiencing it themselves. Physically being able to taste and smell the same foods she enjoys in the same manner she suggests elevates the audience’s experience of the book and the world around them. This translation is much more immersive than solely reading traditional literature because it allows the audience to have the experiences as the author, allowing them to understand the human role and impact on nature through food.

A River Runs Through: An Analysis Of Ken Kesey’s Sometimes A Great Notion Exploring the Mirroring of a Fictional River to the Flow of the Novel Through Syntax and Form

Presenter(s): Alison Hamilton − English

Faculty Mentor(s): Corbett Upton

Oral Session 3O

Research Area: Humanities, Literature

In this project I will be analyzing Ken Kesey’s novel Sometimes A Great Notion, and discussing how his stylistic choices and singular form bring the world of the novel to life, and highlight the significance of the river within the novel. This story finds its own flow and cohesion using first person, second person, and third person narration, while also switching between many different characters. Almost every character in the novel has their consciousness explored as we see the story from their perspective. We also encounter an omniscient third person noncharacter narrator who begins each section of the novel and occasionally interjects with their own thoughts. Throughout the novel Kesey changes his syntax and appearance of sentences and paragraphs to show the changes in character, perspective, and time. A glance at any page of the novel shows an abundance of differing appearances of the text: from italics, to parentheses, to punctuation, to font size. Using these tools Kesey gives the readers visual cues to who is speaking, what time it is, and what perspective is being presented. I Sometimes A Great Notion n, Kesey has managed to create a portrait of a town and its people. He shows how a river can connect people far and wide and through time, and he creates that river through his unique structure and narrative choices. I will show how the flow of the novel itself emulates the flow of the river within the story.

La Mulata: In Her Own Words

Presenter(s): Elisa Carvallo − Spanish

Faculty Mentor(s): Lanie Millar

Oral Session 3O

Research Area: Latin American Studies

La mulata has been a topic of fascination in the Afro-Latin American Literature for more than two centuries. In the Caribbean poetry of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, la mulata has served as a muse to many poets. In the eyes of the white men, la mulata was an exotic seductress. On the contrary, in the eyes of mulato men, she would never be as pure as a white woman. No matter the poet’s opinion of her, la mulata continued appearing as a subject of conversation and inspiration in many of their works. These poets had much to say about her, but what did la mulata think of herself? Of course, due to the patriarchal hierarchy that dominated the Caribbean culture at the time, many mulata poets did not have the opportunity to write, let alone publish their own works. But, those who were able to, provided a new image of la mulata who had not yet been able to emerge. Poems about la mulata, written by mulatas, allow readers to take a look at the self-image that la mulata struggled to understand and accept. These works go beyond the physical and biological traits of la mulata and expose her mind and soul.