Ghosts of War in Literature
Subject: Communications/ Sports Journalism and English
Presenters: Hayden Choate
Faculty Sponsor: William Arighi
Abstract:
For my Final Paper the topic I want to focus on is ghosts. Obviously, not the entire broad subject of ghosts but more specifically how we see the literal ghosts and the metaphorical ghosts in the readings we have done. The thing that really interested me about this topic is that I can tie three of the primary readings together. Sorrow of War, The Sympathizer and The Zenith. Mostly,
the first two novels as ghosts tie into being a part of the story. All these readings are about the Vietnam war which I would connect to a broader topic of ghosts to. Ghosts in the Vietnam War and how characters in these primary readings talk to ghosts and the way that they treat them. In addition to that, I would like to focus on the difference between how we as American citizens in today’s age see the Vietnam War. In Kwon’s article that we read and I presented on, Colin Powell is quoted talking about how there is a “metaphorical” ghost of war that hangs over Americans about the Vietnam war. In my personal experience, it may be different for others but I barely even learned about the Vietnam War until I was well into high school. Kwon’s piece is another source that I would use as well in paper to tie the topics of ghosts and the Vietnam war together. This would also be a source I would use to look at how ghosts are talked about in certain pieces of literature as I look at the other examples in the actual books we read, the differences and similarities to each other. In addition to those, I would want to find outside sources that are scholarly sources about ghosts, ghosts in literature and ghosts in the Vietnam War. That may be a bit of a challenge but the good thing is that I have the books as primary readings to get started and then go off of that. I think this is a very intriguing topic because it ties in history with something that is supernatural but something that people commonly talk about. It also talks about how characters in literary texts not only see ghosts but also when they talk to them what that does to them as characters in their particular story.
Forms of Intervention in Filipino Literature
Subject: Literature, Writing, and Journalism
Presenters: Chase Kupinsky
Faculty Sponsor: William Arighi
Abstract: Intervention is an action that one engages in in order to produce a desired result. In Gina Apostol’s novel The Revolution According to Raymudo Mata, the theme of intervention plays an interesting role. For example, the extensive use of footnotes that have been inserted into Mata’s memoir by each of the three external contributors serve different purposes. Each footnote is a form of intervention that also reveals information about their personalities/personal lives, along with their interpersonal relations. Translator Mimi C. Magsalin (pseudonym) utilizes footnotes to provide contextual information about Mata’s journals. She is very helpful and presents information impartially. As for editor Estrella Espejo, her intervening footnotes are often in the form of comments and speculations. The third contributor is psychoanalytic critic Dr. Diwatta Drake, who uses footnotes to state her observations and to chastise Espejo. Each of these characters also utilize notes, prefaces, afterwards, and epitaphs that provide extra framework for Mata’s journals that resemble what they say in their footnotes. These additions to Mata’s memoir are forms of intervention too. Regarding Mata and his life, he chooses to intervene in the burgeoning Filipino revolution and joins the secret Katipunan society. Mata’s intervention differs from Magsalin’s, Espejo’s, and Drake’s because his intervention involves him putting his body on the line for the revolution, while the three contributors utilize words to make their ideas known among each other. Intervention also plays an important role in Jose Rizal’s novel El Filibusterismo. Undercover subversive Simoun intervenes in the Philippines as he attempts to overthrow the Spanish rule that exists there. His intervention is key to El Filibusterismo’s plot and can be compared to the interventions that occur in Apostol’s work. Like Mata, Simoun commits himself to his cause, while his methods of intervention are similar to Drake’s rash and abrasive tactics. Throughout this paper, the nature of intervention will also be discussed, along with what it means to intervene and why one chooses to do so.
Memories From War
Subject: English
Presenters: Abigail Roebuck
Faculty Sponsor: William Arighi
Abstract: I will be diving into the novel The Sorrow of War by Bao Ninh. This novel really dives into how memories and current lives intertwine and it can make everything seem clouded and blended together. The text not only has the main character, Kien, describe some of his memories from fighting in the war and witnessing some very intense moments throughout his time in battle, but the way that the author chose to format the way that Kien describes his stories from the past and his life in the present day shows how the memories are a big part of his everyday life even though it happened years ago. Kien’s life experiences stick with him in his everyday life and the author tells us that through the style of writing instead of having Kien explicitly say it. Almost all of the memories that Kien shares about his past are traumatic experiences that he is able to describe in detail, and connect it to events and the people that are in his life right now. Kien is crippled by the memories, and the whole idea of not being able to become free from war because the war had left him with all of this trauma is what the novel revolves around. Both the story that he tells and the format that this novel was written in are equally important in conveying the message about how the traumatic experiences have given Kien memories that he cannot erase and they hold him hostage for the rest of his life.