Media Analysis
“No, Sweet Octavia, You Shall Hear from Me Still; the Time Shall not Out-go My Thinking on You”: Octavia Minor’s Literary Afterlives in Renaissance Drama
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Lien Van Geel
In this paper, I make a case for the afterlives of Octavia Minor, Emperor Augustus’ Sister. Renaissance drama sees a remarkable uptick in the interest in the Octavia figure, who projects virtue and stoicism as a prime exemplar for the Elizabethan woman. I suggest that Renaissance depictions of Octavia build markedly on the Plutarchan comparison and result in bipolar juxtapositions of, on the one side, Octavia (as champion of virtue and constancy) and, on the other, Cleopatra (that model of decadence and debauchery incarnate). In Renaissance closet drama—a genre of play that was meant for small circles, possibly because of its political flavouring—Octavia becomes a figure of neo-Stoic virtue and restraint, in stark contrast to the ever-mourning Octavia of Seneca’s Ad Marciam. I demonstrate that the Octavia of the Renaissance, however, exists at the opposite end of the spectrum: her ability to deal demurely with marital obstacles and political dilemmas survives and is praised instead, much like the Octavia that Plutarch creates in his Life of Antony. The political implications of these closet dramas add an extra layer of complexity to the reception of Octavia. Indeed, these plays, written privately in the context of the Pembroke Circle, used Ancient Rome as a lens through which to view the political situation of contemporary England, with Queen Elizabeth I and Cleopatra closely aligned. In short, I demonstrate how this elusive character can be repurposed for and by future generations in texts ranging from Brandon to Daniel, Shakespeare, Dryden, and Fielding.
My Body Bleeds: The Systematic Reaping of Indigenous Bodies in Speculative Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Jun Reyes
This paper explores the overarching narratives of colonial impact and indigenous identity negotiation in two texts, the TV series The 100 and Cherie Dimaline’s novel The Marrow Thieves, through their common motifs of the symbolic and literal reaping of indigenous people and their land. Utilizing a dual lens approach of postcolonial literary theory and indigenous studies, this paper contextualizes human-environment connections in landscapes largely impacted by their contact with colonial imposition. The 100’s Mountain Men plotline deals with the initial stages of colonial contact with indigenous communities as it intersects with older systems of colonial control that have survived in isolation from these communities, exploring narratives of the highly symbolic reaping of indigenous people for exploitive purposes. The 100’s approach to the nuances and history of violations of indigenous bodily autonomy serves as a jumping off point for an exploration of colonial exploitation and appropriation, especially as it relates to the sanctity of the body and a sense of wholeness that comes with maintaining respect for cultural products and their producers. As the technologies and systems of colonization present an eerie parallel with Cherie Dimaline’s novel The Marrow Thieves, this paper uses the common themes and colonial methodologies in both pieces of media to explore indigenous futurity in a post-apocalyptic setting as a speculation that relies on indigenous autonomy, particularly bodily, and how it interacts with the rights to survival in a world that demands not only adaptation, but an intimate connection with the environment to be sustainable.
Unraveling the Tapestry: Intersections with Age-Based Power in Contemporary YA Literature
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Jessica Seymour
Contemporary YA literature is pre-occupied with diversity – its inclusion and its lack. At its best, YA is a platform for marginalised voices to speak their experience to the next generation, portraying pitfalls and celebrating victories, and making the genre a richer and more engaging space. It is also, inescapably, primarily a space for adults to speak to youth. This dynamic introduces concerns about age-based power and intergenerational oppression/solidarity. ‘Aetonormativity’ is used to describe the mindset of adults creating an ‘ideal’ child, usually to prepare them be a productive citizen in adult society, and the practices they use to force/manipulate children to conform to this ideal. This age-based power is structurally reinforced in society by limiting the autonomy that a young person has until they reach a certain age. Marginalised segments of the population also experience structural inequality. The intersectional nature of certain youth, therefore, creates segments of the population who are doubly-disempowered at a structural level. Some adult characters are seen in YA fiction leaning on aetonormativity to instruct youth from marginalised communities in how best to interact with the systems that seek to oppress them. This paper examines how intersectionality colours aetonormative-coded behaviours in adult characters; how race, status, and gender interact with age-based power in the relationships between young characters and their caretakers, and how we as scholars can approach this discussion with nuance and respect. Several books pulled from the Publisher’s Weekly Best Books list will form the core of this analysis.
Distant Reading of Ecological Narratives in African and American Literature: A Computational Approach to Global Environmental Discourse
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Jackline Ballang
The Anthropocene’s far-reaching environmental consequences necessitate innovative approaches to understanding ecological consciousness. While ecocriticism has gained traction in literary studies, most research in the field focuses on isolated geographic and cultural contexts. This project bridges that divide by employing computational methods to comparatively analyze environmental narratives. Drawing on the concept of Distant Reading, this research offers a comparative analysis of environmental narratives in eight novels from American and African literary traditions: Ayi Kwei Armah's Healers (1979), Helon Habila's Oil on Water (2010), Ben Okri's The Famished Road (1991), Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower (1993), Louise Erdrich's Tracks (1998), Donna Barba Higuera's The Last Cuentista (2021), Barbara Kingsolver's Flight Behavior (2012), and Imbolo Mbue's How Beautiful We Were (2021). Using R-based visualizations, this study reveals cross-cultural patterns and variations in ecological themes, sentiment, and vocabulary. The findings reveal topic modeling networks that map the intersection of environmental and cultural themes across the novels. Secondly, sentiment analysis charts that track shifts in environmental consciousness across different temporal and geographical contexts; and lastly, word frequency distributions that highlight regional variations in ecological vocabulary which helped to identify both universal and region-specific environmental concerns. The research contributes to the field of both digital humanities and literary studies offering new insights into the global dynamics of environmental consciousness.
