Singing in a new world: Scotland - hopeless schizophrenic or cosmopolitan post nation?

Rival views of Scotland at the beginning of the twenty-first century see the nation as either, hopelessly schizophrenic, mired in its own bedevilled tartanry and forever salvaging the present through historic erasure or as a cosmopolitan postnation at ease with its contradictory legacies and able to tap its inherent multiplicities for a contemporary self image. These contentions are being interrogated in public debates and political contexts as well as in literature in Scotland. The process of re-imagining or re-visioning Scotland began much earlier than 1999 when the Scottish Parliament, last adjourned in 1707, was reconvened. Contemporary authors have long been reconsidering issues of identity and how this could and should be represented in their writing. This paper will examine how the underlying forces of insistent Scottish identity-making now seem to be moving in the direction of synthesis rather than fragmentation within literature, permitting multiple perspectives and a plurality of approaches through different genres, recognising other people’s rights to perceive or imagine Scotland differently. Anne Forbes’ novels Dragonfire,(2006) The Wings of Ruksh (2007) and The Underground City (2008), fully post-modern fantasy novels, will be used as examples of ‘fusion’ texts introducing an optimistic new notion of ‘belonging’ transcending the cultural fatalism of the so-called ‘clash of civilisations’ hypothesis and building positively on the politics of difference. They represent a form of literary cosmopolitanism entirely consonant with the way Scottish society currently aspires to progress, offering the right set of circumstances for developing new forms of syncretistic myth-making and storytelling across and between communities

A Theory of Genre Formation in the Twentieth Century

In his article "A Theory of Genre Formation in the Twentieth Century" Michael Rodgers explores the relationship between Vladimir Nabokov's Invitation to a Beheading and magical realism in order to theorize about genre formation in the twentieth century. Rodgers argues not only that specific twentieth-century narrative forms are bound intrinsically with literary realism and socio-political conditions, but also that these factors can produce formal commonalities

The beast initiate: the lycanthropy of Heracles

The obscurantist Hellenistic poet Lycophron referenced the initiation of Heracles as a beast suckling the breast of the goddess Hera. This was the event that was the mythological origin of the Galaxy and of the lily flower that incarnated the same deifying essence as the celestial milk of the goddess and it was the etiology for the domestication of felines. As the Lion of Nemea, Heracles was the greatest of the wild cats. The lily was an analogue of a sacred mushroom, as the narkissos of Persephone’s abduction by Hades. The event of the lactation of Heracles is depicted on four Etruscan mirrors and a Faliscan-Hellenic red-figure krater. The deifying milk-flower of the goddess was a ritual of adoption into the family of the celestial deities, that Hera performed also with two other bastard sons of Zeus, Hermes and Dionysus. As the beast being initiated, Heracles became a wolf. Like the motif of the domestication of the cat, the lycanthropy of Heracles involves the whole family of canines, from the domesticated dog to its wilder antecedents in the wolf and its analogue as the fox. The lycanthropy initiation is a bacchanalian rite of root- cutters and is a motif of warrior brotherhood widespread among the Indo-European peoples.Published versio

Narcissus in Queer Time

Queer temporality has been studied in relation to the Middle Ages as a means of questioning the prevailing historiography for other modes of connection to the past, such as embodied or affective. Conversely, the other branch of queer temporality has been primarily interested in how queer lifestyles today disrupt the heteronormative plan laid out by society. Joining these modes, Gower’s revision of Narcissus questions our notions of historiography through showing us an example of a queer, transgender character and his struggles with heteronormative expectations—demonstrating that the medieval is not so disconnected from the modern

Fantastic alterities and The Sandman

This article explores the ways in which the comics medium enhances our understanding of literary models of the Fantastic. It examines the presence and depiction of multiple worlds in Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman, with specific reference to the role of the comics medium and its denial of mimesis when creating such alterities. It initially uses literature review to establish a contemporary working model of the Fantastic, taking as its basis the framework devised by Tzvetan Todorov, and incorporating the later work of Rosemary Jackson, A B Chanady, and Christine Brooke-Rose. It establishes the position of the Fantastic as a literary mode lying between the marvellous (supernatural accepted) and the uncanny (supernatural explained), and clarifies the distinction between the mode of the Fantastic (which encompasses various genres) and the genre itself. The article then considers the ways in which both the form and content of the comics medium sustain the mode of the fantastic. It broadly discusses the ways in which the following factors contribute to this process: • subject matter: fantastic events, super powers, alternate worlds • non-realistic aesthetic: pop art, stylised visuals, fiction of fonts (invoking the tension between hand-drawn and computerised artwork or lettering) • authorial reticence: the possibilities for surpassing or discarding narrative voice • the role of the reader: as both interpreter and co-creator. It then focuses more closely upon the genre of the Fantastic, establishing the ways in which this genre is opposed to both magical realism (outright fantasy) and realism (where such events are explained). It summarises the role of various qualities of the Fantastic in this regard, which include an antinomy between the natural and supernatural, author reticence, over- or under-determined language, and a defiance of absolute meaning in favour of interpretation or hesitation . The article then proceeds to two case studies, taken from Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman: A Game of You and The Kindly Ones. The first analyses the construction of two contrasting alterities (‘The Land’ and ‘New York’) and examines the ways in which, despite initial appearances, these two worlds are both equally removed from the referent of ‘reality’. It proceeds to discuss the use made of over- and under-determined signifiers, the transformation motif, intertextuality, and the redefinition of static notions (home, gender) as fluid and undefined. It deconstructs The Kindly Ones in similar terms, considering the ways in which its triple alterities are all simultaneously validated by the text and the role of motifs such as multiple names and duplicated characters. It concludes that, like the Fantastic, the comics medium exposes the notion of ‘reality’ as a constructed referent, which the text’s alterities comment on. The nature of the medium allows for the construction and sustenance of multiple worlds without recourse to a stable notion of reality. As the reader’s hesitation destabilises interpretation of reality versus fantasy, absolute meaning is denied. It therefore seems that comics offer what might be best described as a postmodern vision of the Fantastic

What’s all the fuss about Disney? : narcissistic and nostalgic tendencies in popular Disney storyworlds

This paper seeks to study the narcissistic and nostalgic desires cultivated in cinematic audiences by modern Disney story franchises. Through its storyworlds, the Disney conglomerate is a key player in the cultural formation and consciousness of global audiences, young and old. The research demonstrates how narcissism and nostalgia are used as a means for personal development and amelioration of the present condition as well as a means of control over the viewers’ self-understanding and knowledge of past and present realities. The paper explores Baudrillard’s concept of controlled narcissism which illustrates how a subject’s self-development is hampered by media conglomerates that disseminate a fixed formula which becomes their means of exercising control over time, space and identity formation. This paper also considers the use of nostalgia by media and entertainment industries. Using the works of Fredric Jameson, Linda Hutcheon and Svetlana Boym, this study investigates the commodification of nostalgia which promotes a recyclable and romanticized view of the past as well as the prospective use of nostalgia which allows the viewer to critically reflect on past and present times. These theories are applied to two contemporary case studies to understand better how narcissistic and nostalgic tendencies are manifested in the complex and transformative journeys of the flawed protagonists in contemporary popular Disney storyworlds.peer-reviewe

Algorithm Magic: Simondon and Techno-animism

Drawing on Simondon’s vision of the primitive magical universe - the original harmonious mode of existence of the human in the world - the chapter proposes that a new algorithmic magical and animistic universe is in the making in our contemporary computational world. By framing the immersive experience of computation and its sensibilities, perceptions and affects through Simondon’s magical unity where humans are integral part of a totalizing and harmonious whole, the chapter looks at the black mirrors of our digital screens as the portals into a new magical and animistic reticulation of the human and the nonhuman. This perspective locates the algorithm within a genealogy of the relationship between technology and magic, and reads it as a mysterious form of nonhuman intelligence performing in inscrutable ways. It is the increasing autonomous agency and digital uncertainty of algorithms that engenders a new magical and animistic universe

Colonial Trauma in Márquez and Rushdie’s Magical Realism

Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude and Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children are hallmarks of the genre of magical realism. A typically problematic genre in terms of classification, this article looks at magical realism from a Freudian perspective, with particular reference to Freud’s notion of The Uncanny. Freud’s notion of uncanniness deals in displacement; it is uncomfortable, haunting and cyclical. The dominant presence of such uncanny effects in magical realist literature, I argue, reveals the haunting presence of colonial trauma within the current postcolonial psyche

Boston University Percussion Ensemble, November 23, 2002

This is the concert program of the Boston University Percussion Ensemble performance on Saturday, November 23, 2002 at 8:00 p.m., at the Concert Hall, 855 Commonwealth Avenue. Works performed were "Ku-Ka Ilimoku" by Christopher Rouse, "Intentions" by Eugene Novotney, "Ritual March (The Funeral of Achilles)" by Giacinto Scelsi, I. Bahamut and IV. The Fauna of Mirrors from "The Book of Imaginary Beings" by Mark Saya, "Two Ethnic Pulses" by Chao-Jan Chang, and "Second Construction" by John Cage. Digitization for Boston University Concert Programs was supported by the Boston University Humanities Library Endowed Fund