English Studies Summer Camp Showcase Program 2016

July, 30, 2016

10:00 a.m.

Tarble Arts Center

Eastern Illinois University

Department of English

presents

English Studies Summer Camp SHOWCASE RECEPTION

OPENING ADDRESS

Melissa Ames, Camp Director

PART I. STUDENT PERFORMANCES & READINGS

Shakespeare in Play: Moving from the Page to the Stage

Instructor:  Melissa Caldwell

Students from this session will perform scenes from various

Shakespeare plays, showcasing their interpretations of the bard’s famous works.

Performers: Lillian Geil, Diamonte Kimble, Allison Mercer, Emily Moore, Isabella ORourke, Hannah Puckett, Hannah Rose Retzer, Kendall Tracey, Madelyn Whisenhunt, Elizabeth Zazyek

Spoken Word:  Writing & Performing Poetry

Instructor:  Olga Abella

After listening to and reading many different poets, the students in this session have crafted their own poems, and will each perform one of them.

Readers:  Casper Badovinac, TillieAnn Boliard, Evan Hinton, McClain Homann, Angelica King, Allison Mercer, Ryland Myers, Katherine Soucie, Dafne Valdez

P A R T I I . S T U D E N T  P R I N T & D I G I T A L W O R K S

Reading Images:  Picture Book to Graphic Novel

Instructor:  Fern Kory

Enjoy brief, focused "Reading Lessons" that give viewers a detailed look at the techniques and effects of visual   storytelling in a variety of graphic narratives.

Presenters:  Jillian Appel, Zachary Cook, Abbie Crowell, Dontykia Evans, Josh Fraser, Andrew Kinsella, Jennyfer Lara, Stephanie Las, Evan Marquart, Hannah Schmalshof, Emily Watters

Reviving the Dead:  The Walking Dead & Literary History

Instructor:  Angela Vietto

Students will share their creative and analytic responses to materials we've studied in our exploration of the ways concepts from literary history enriches our understanding of a text from the present, like The Walking Dead.

Presenters: Nicholas Bays, Zachary Cook, Noemi Guzman, Andrew Kinsella, Abigail Love, Gabrielle Manasco, Dylan Mason, Emily Watters, Austin Wendling, Dafne Valdez

A Novel Idea: How to Get Started, Keep Writing, & Learn About Book Publishing Biz

Instructor:  Letitia Moffitt

Representing their writing hopes for the future, students from this session present the first pages of the novels they worked to develop over the course of this week.

Presenters: Dewey Bowen, Tanner Lassak, Abigail Love, Grace McConville, Emily Moore, Liah Neudecker, Isabelle ORourke, Cheyenne Walker, Austin Wendling, Anna Yakey

Reel Images:  Gender, Genre, and the Movies in English Studies

Instructor:  Robin Murray

This digital showcase features Wiki pages students completed to provide a visual representation of each student's chosen genre and its representation of gender.

Presenters: Lillian Geil, Gabrielle Manasco, Harleen Mann, Dylan Mason, Amelia Pomfret, Hannah Puckett, Olivia Standerfer, Kendall Tracey, Madelyn Whisenhunt, Trevor Yurek, Elizabeth Zazycki

Frankenstein 2.0:  The Legend, The Reality, The Science

Instructor:  Randy Beebe

This digital showcase displays responses to the question of Frankenstein’s relevance in the 21st Century.  Taking their cue from the Creature’s lament

– “Of what a strange nature is knowledge!” – students created a descriptive yet analytical item that explores this enduring and vexing novel.

Presenters: Jillian Appel, Drew Chittick, Dontykia Evans, Josh Fraser, McClain Homann, Jennyfer Lara, Amelia Pomfret, Liah Neudecker, Rachel Staten, Cheyenne Walker, Anna Yakey

Becoming a Cultural Critic: Writing about Media & Popular Culture

Instructor:  Melissa Ames

This digital showcase features blogs focused on social

commentary and media analysis, showing off the students’

entrance into the world of cultural critics and public intellectuals.

Presenters: Nicholas Bays, Drew Chittick, Lita Elkendier, Shelbi Fisher, Keana Fox, Noemi Guzman, Maia Huddleston, Diamonte Kimble, Hannah Rose Retzer, Rachel Staten, Jordan Streeter

Spectacular Worlds & Social Commentary:  Science Fiction in Literature, Film & Television

Instructor:  Donna Binns

Spectacular Worlds students created Wiki pages based on their fa- vorite science fiction literary work, film, TV show, or video game

Presenters: TillieAnn Boliard, Dewey Bowen, Maia Huddleston, Stephanie Las, Harleen Mann, Evan Marquart, Ryland Myers, Hannah Schmalshof, Jordan Streeter, Trevor Yurek

Thinking Beyond the Page:  Experimenting with the Lyric Essay

Instructor:  McKenzie Dial

After spending the week exploring creative nonfiction, students from this session will share their own experiences through various forms of memoir writing.

Presenters: Casper Badovinac, Abbie Crowell, Lita Elkendier, Shelbi Fisher, Keana Fox, Evan Hinton, Angelica King, Tanner Lassak, Grace McConville, Katherine Soucie, Olivia Standerfer

The Heat: A Poem

The Heat

Pixie hair wilts

on moss-covered trails 

Long bobs dampen

on sandy stairs

gardenias cut

through

bitter beet air

sugar in tepid tea

Melissa McCarthy

slices  

Sandra Bullock’s

pants.

A bunny runs

into a bean

fence

and dies.

Outlander and the Battle Between Tourism and Green Energy

The Starz series Outlander (2014- ) reconstructs its 18th century settings with a keen eye towards authenticity. Despite its fantastical time travel plot, the series strives for historical accuracy in its portrayal of characters, both urban and rural settings, and historical events, such as the Jacobite uprisings of the 1740s. This authenticity extends to the main character Claire's (Caitrona Balfe) nursing profession and its natural medicinal herb roots. Claire's gathering of natural medicines becomes a plot point in many of the series' episodes, but it also emphasizes her character's connection to the natural world.

Nature and culture are interdependent in the series. Humanity has not yet fully dominated the natural world and must battle its curses (such as small pox) and relish its benefits (such as Claire's herbal medicines). It comes as a surprise, then, that the author of the novels on which the series are closely based opposes the green energy of a wind farm because it would obscure the natural beauty of the Rannoch Moores of Scotland.

A May 2015 article in the Independent explores what they call a "battle raging over the future of the rugged landscape, pitting the American novelist behind the series against a Dutch company which wants to build an “industrial-scale” windfarm in the area." Although some do support the wind farm because it contributes to Scotland's goal to move its energy away from fossil fuels and focus exclusively on renewable sources, most object to the farm because it may hurt the country's tourism industry.

Outlander is one reason for these objections. According to the article, "the novel's series author Diana Gabaldon said it would be 'insane' for Scotland to position the proposed 24 400ft-high wind turbines in one of its most beautiful regions and has called on the country’s official tourism body to intervene." The novels and television series Outlander brings tourists to Scotland, and these potential consumers seem to trump renewable energy, at least for now.

Silent Running (1971) and Eco-Memory

Silent Running (1971) responds to two cultures of the 1970s, a changing Hollywood and a shifting Washington atmosphere. The film’s environmental message slaps viewers in the face: If we don’t take care of our forests, they will die. As David Lichtneker puts it, “the eco message is a bit heavy handed (aided by the Joan Baez soundtrack).” Frederic Brussat, however, suggests that the film “surpasses other ecology films in its ability to stir our awareness and imaginatively create concern for the consequences of ecological neglect.” Brussat, one of the editors of the Spirituality and Health movie review section, even calls Freeman’s character a hero whose “ecological conscience is a challenge to us all.” 

The dated Baez music and didactic message, however, are not the only qualities that connect the film to its 1970s context. Created for under a million dollars, Douglas Trumbull’s Silent Running was one of the five movies with new directors authorized by Ned Tanen, producer in charge of Universal’s and Lew Wasserman’s youth division.  It was Trumbull’s directorial debut, although his special effects skills were well-respected (see 2001: A Space Odyssey [1968]).  Movie-making moved from the studio’s to the director’s hands under Tanen’s plan, with the studio taking a hands-off approach to production, a big change in Hollywood, and one reason why Trumbull could direct such a confrontational film as Silent Running (Biskind 126). Most clearly, however, the film provides an apocalyptic message that calls contemporary humanity to action—save the forests now before they are eliminated. 

In Silent Running corporations seek to wipe out all remnants of ecology for economic gain, so nostalgia comes from a more personal viewpoint, that of Freeman Lowell. For example, the opening of Silent Running recalls a past where nature thrives, where plants and animals are sympathetically depicted as “children” under the care of a human “Holy Fool” or “St. Francis of Assisi.” Opening shots show close-ups of snails, frogs, and fuzzy bunnies in a mossy forest, as well as a white-cloaked man (Bruce Dern’s character, Freeman Lowell) caring for them and then interacting with nature by swimming in a calm natural pool. Only after Freeman climbs on shore do we realize that this ecosystem is constructed and protected within a bio-dome. As shots of the dome draw further back, the dome’s location becomes clear—this dome is floating in space and surrounded by stars. In the world of Silent Running, technology is necessary to save “nature.”

Nostalgia for the nature enclosed in the dome is shattered by a loud reality in which Freeman’s colleagues drive over his plants in four-wheelers. Company logos cover the space station and even bins full of soil—Polaroid, AMF, Dow, American Airlines, NA Rockwell, and Coca Cola support this “natural” setting. Yet a voice-over claims these biosphere forests have been preserved as a way to re-foliate the Earth. The narration explains, “On this first day of a new century, we dedicate these last forests of a once beautiful nation in the hope that they will return and grace our foul earth. Until that day may God bless these forests and the great men that care for them.” As David Ingram puts it, the film combines an “uneasy … nostalgia for a seemingly lost authentic relationship between human beings and nonhuman nature, before the despoliations of modernity, with a reliance on a technological fix to solve environmental problems” (180). 

In spite of these corporate claims, only Freeman Lowell shows any nostalgia for a once-green Earth. Lowell recalls with nostalgia a time when Earth was green and ecologically diverse and laments the “dried synthetic crap” they now eat and the unchanging Earth they left behind: “On earth everywhere you go it’s seventy-five degrees. Everything’s the same. All the people are the same.” His fellow crewmen, however, celebrate Earth’s sameness since there’s “no more disease, no more poverty, [and] everyone has a job.” In fact, earlier in the film when the other crewmen are playing poker, and Lowell talks about his dreams for reestablishing the Earth’s parks and forests, one of the crewmen argues, “It’s been too long. People have other things to do now.” Lowell waxes nostalgically on a time when the Earth was green. The other crewmen—and everyone else, it seems—see nature as expendable. For them, a better Earth is as technologically controlled as their space station. Everyone looks happy in the world of Silent Running—everyone but Lowell. When the crew hears about the corporation’s plan to destroy their biospheres and put their ship back into commercial business, all but Lowell are overjoyed, since it means they’ll go home to Earth. Lowell sees only the losses they’ll all suffer: “no more beauty,” “imagination,” “frontiers.” Children will “never … be able to see the simple wonder of a leaf in their hands,” Lowell asserts. 

Lowell sees nature as so necessary and irreplaceable that he willingly kills his colleagues to protect the last dome and save the last eco-memory of a natural Earth ecosystem. For Lowell, nature is necessary, but so are human companions, so he cannot bear the guilt his crime causes him through memories. Like a bottle thrown into an ocean, Lowell thrusts the last biosphere into space. Our last view of the dome shows us Dewey in charge of its (artificially) well-lit forest. But death is the only solution for Lowell, as a tragic hero who can’t bear the memories he holds. Eco-memory and memories of human friendships merge in Silent Running, suggesting that Lowell’s ultimate solution is only partially effective.

Seeking Sustainable Development in McCabe and Mrs. Miller

 

Most western films with mining at their center examine dichotomies between corporate and small time miners or between miners and ranchers or farmers in traditional ways, with the individual miner usually defeating the corporate miner or rancher. The conflicts in these westerns continue the big guy versus little guy theme found in other western films; yet the mining on display, no matter how buried in the action-packed plotline, reveals environmental issues worth exploring—those associated with both mining and the long-term consequences of mining techniques themselves. These issues and their consequences are especially evident in McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971). We assert, then, that McCabe and Mrs. Miller not only reveals that environmental history but also proposes a more effective way to maintain the ecology of the mining West: sustainable development. In the mining westerns we viewed, the conflict between corporate and individual miners also reveals two conflicting views of ecology: fair use methods of corporations and sustainable development aspirations of individuals wishing to maintain resources for future generations of a growing community. McCabe and Mrs. Miller highlights a more effective way to maintain the ecology of the mining West: sustainable development.

McCabe and Mrs. Miller focuses on zinc mining and comments on environmental consequences of mining techniques, responding to an environmental history that highlights the dangers of unrestrained land ownership. The film both perpetuates and blurs the dichotomy between two “classes” of miners, while examining ecological issues in both obvious and opaque ways. The debate between miners and their methods of destroying or sustaining the land continues in western films, whether in relation to a sampling of classic Anthony Mann westerns, cult westerns from Budd Boetticher, or revisionist westerns from Sam Peckinpah, Robert Altman, and Nils Gaup. We contend, however, that mining westerns like these grounded the conflicts they illustrate in an environmental history that has not as yet been resolved. McCabe and Mrs. Miller reveals that environmental history and proposes a more effective way to sustain the ecology of the mining West. McCabe and Mrs Miller also responds to a mining history and culture that was a product of the General Mining Act of 1872. The General Mining Act of 1872 is a United States federal law that authorizes and governs prospecting and mining for economic minerals, such as gold, platinum, and silver, on federal public lands.

McCabe and Mrs. Miller rests on a naturalist philosophy and takes a connection between dying men and a dying landscape even further than Ride the High Country, since the film’s hero, McCabe (Warren Beatty), literally dies in the snow, his body buried in a blowing drift while the rest of the town of Presbyterian Church attempts to put out a fire burning down their house of worship. The film also grapples with the same “big guys” versus “little guys” conflict found in other mining films, catalyzing with an altercation between McCabe and a mining corporation from Bear Claw, the town down the mountain from Presbyterian Church, but in McCabe and Mrs. Miller, the community nearly fails and is either bought or destroyed by a corporate mining company. The mining company wants to buy McCabe’s holdings and take over the town, but McCabe holds out for too much money and is killed after a long shootout with the corporation’s assassins. In McCabe and Mrs. Miller, eco-resistance destroys corporate gunslingers. But McCabe and Mrs. Miller illustrates the cost of that vigilante justice: the death of a hero and the community he attempts to build.

McCabe and Mrs. Miller deconstructs the Western genre, blowing up the hero myth McCabe at first seemed to represent. The film does not valorize violence or a Western hero. Instead, McCabe hides in an open shed and shoots his pursuers stealthily and out of fear. The community works together to put out the church fire. McCabe fights alone. He eradicates the three faces of the corporation, so the community can rebuild itself on the values of a church rather than the brothel both McCabe and Mrs. Miller have left behind. But neither McCabe’s death nor Mrs. Miller’s departure are valorized. Instead, extreme close-ups show McCabe’s snow-covered body and ice-streaked face and Mrs. Miller’s oblivious opiate stare, two views that illustrate their powerless state. McCabe and Mrs. Miller confront nature and build a business community, confront a mining corporation and seem to succeed, even in the face of their own sacrifices. But they die in the face of change and represent a dying frontier and the drive toward a more traditional community like that in Pale Rider. In McCabe and Mrs. Miller the community members won’t quit. Instead, they will build homes, schools, churches, raise their families, and sink roots—just as they did in Pale Rider. And those roots rest on zinc mining without the corporate interference that kills off towns and community ideals.