The Structure of Scares: Art, Horror, and Immersion in Marisha Pessl's Night Film

Genre ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-264
Author(s):  
Melissa C. Macero
Keyword(s):  
Close Reading ◽  
Subjective Response ◽  
Horror Genre ◽  
Substantial Level ◽  
The World ◽  
Extended Length ◽  
Formal Feature

Is immersion merely a subjective response to a work, or can it be an objective formal feature of the work itself? This article examines the unique situation of horror as a genre that demands a substantial level of immersion in order to be successful and will begin to answer this question through a close reading of Marisha Pessl's Night Film (2013). Through the novel's intricate staging of different forms of immersion that is made possible by its extended length, this article argues that Pessl and the horror genre more generally seek to establish a difference between something like literal immersion, which requires the engrossment of a reader or viewer in the world of the story, and immersion as a formal technique, which is for the most part indifferent to the actual engagement of the audience and instead produces a claim immanent to the work itself.

Flow

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mitchell Ohriner
Keyword(s):  
Hip Hop ◽  
Rap Music ◽  
Music Analysis ◽  
The United States ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
South Bronx ◽  
The World ◽  
Key Concepts ◽  
Voice Flow ◽  
Computational Music Analysis

Originating in dance parties in the South Bronx in the late 1970s, hip hop and rap music have become a dominant style of popular music in the United States and a force for activism all over the world. So, too, has scholarship on this music grown, yet much of this scholarship, employing methods drawn from sociology and literature, leaves unaddressed the expressive musical choices made by hip-hop artists. This book addresses flow, the rhythm of the rapping voice. Flow presents theoretical and analytical challenges not encountered elsewhere. It is rhythmic as other music is rhythmic. But it is also rhythmic as speech and poetry are rhythmic. Key concepts related to rhythm, such as meter, periodicity, patterning, and accent, are treated independently in scholarship of music, poetry, and speech. This book reconciles those approaches, theorizing flow by integrating the methods of computational music analysis and humanistic close reading. Through the analysis of large collections of verses, it addresses questions in the theories of rhythm, meter, and groove in the unique ecology of rap music. Specifically, the work of Eminem clarifies how flow relates to text, the work of Black Thought clarifies how flow relates to other instrumental streams, and the work of Talib Kweli clarifies how flow relates to rap’s persistent meter. Although the focus throughout is rap music, the methods introduced are appropriate for other genres mix voices and more rigid metric frameworks and further extends the valuable work on hip hop from other perspectives in recent years.

Matthew Arnold and the Institutional Imagination of Liberalism

2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 361-375
Author(s):  
Sebastian Lecourt
Keyword(s):  
Close Reading ◽  
Common Language ◽  
Matthew Arnold ◽  
Main Claim ◽  
Great Books ◽  
Shared Identity ◽  
The World ◽  
Class Divisions ◽  
Literary Canons

I first took up Matthew Arnold's essays as a dissertation writer circa 2008. Although I had not read much of Arnold's prose beyond the commonly anthologized pieces (“The Function of Criticism at the Present Time,” “The Study of Poetry,” bits of Culture and Anarchy), he was a figure very much out of favor, and I brought to the table a strong preconception of his polemic. Arnold, I had learned, was a kind of cultural nationalist trying to fight class divisions within Britain by prescribing a narrow canon of books that could shore up a common language for his compatriots. His main claim was that there was a singular tradition of great books called “culture” that embodied “the best that is known and thought in the world.” Everyone in Britain needed to keep reading these books if the nation were to retain a shared identity and not fall into chaos. Furthermore, as I understood it, Arnold thought that to experience culture you needed to remain “disinterested” and “aloof from what is called ‘the practical view of things’” (5:252). Arnold was a Victorian Mortimer Adler who sought to defend the authority of traditional literary canons as well as a Victorian Wimsatt-and-Beardsley who upheld disinterested close reading against hyperpolitical Theory.

In the Mouth of Madness

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Blyth
Keyword(s):  
Free Will ◽  
Horror Genre ◽  
Initial Release ◽  
The World ◽  
Horror Literature ◽  
Global Corporations ◽  
End Of The World

Somewhat overlooked upon its initial release in 1995, John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness has since developed a healthy cult reputation. But far more than simply a fan favourite, this closing instalment of the acclaimed director's self-described “apocalypse trilogy” (following The Thing and Prince Of Darkness) stands today as one of his most thematically complex and stylistically audacious pieces of work. The story of an insurance investigator drawn into the supposedly fictional universe of a best-selling horror novelist, the film is an extension of many recurring themes found in Carpenter's filmography (the end of the world, the loss of free will, a distrust of mass industry and global corporations, the cataclysmic resurgence of ancient evil), as well as an affectionate homage to the works of H. P. Lovecraft (and horror literature more broadly) and a self-reflexive celebration of the horror genre that predates the Scream-inspired postmodernist boom of late-nineties genre cinema. While numerous books and countless academic essays have been written about Carpenter's work, surprisingly little has focused exclusively on In the Mouth of Madness, a film which feels more prescient, more essential, and more daringly complex than ever. This book seeks to redress this imbalance, at last positioning this overlooked masterpiece as essential Carpenter.

scholarly journals RECOGNIZING THE IMPORTANCE AND STRUGGLES OF WOMEN: AN ECOFEMINIST READING OF ANITA DESAI’S NOVELS: FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN AND WHERE SHALL WE GO THIS SUMMER?

2017 ◽  
pp. 289-297
Author(s):  
Anjali Parmar ◽  
Ami Upadhyay
Keyword(s):  
Close Reading ◽  
Anita Desai ◽  
Human Race ◽  
Equal Share ◽  
Research Article ◽  
Living Things ◽  
The World

This research article glances in a few words at the concept of ecofeminism and the interconnectedness of woman and nature and their struggle. Earth belongs to all creatures on this planet so human has to share equally with them. All living things on earth have equal share on each and everything on this planet between them, But for the game called survival, human is destroying other things for their own benefits only. Since humanity is inseparable from nature, it is necessary to live in harmony to save the human race as well as the world from the damage and destructions which that demands the need of co existence. It is not only a movement but philosophies. Anita Desai is deeply fascinated by ecofeminism perception and through her novels she is trying to lead her readers to believe that nature and woman are resolving tools to the universal problems arising in today’s scenario. Through the close reading of Desai’s novel, I have explored the concept of ecofeminism. The present paper tries to reveal the features of ecofeminism through the portrayal of characters- Nanda Kaul and Sita in the Fire on The Mountain and Where shall We go This Summer? Respectively.

scholarly journals 明中葉知識體系建構的多元取向：從李夢陽〈刻《戰國策》序〉談起

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (31) ◽  
pp. 171-190
Author(s):  
王昌偉 王昌偉
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual History ◽  
Song Dynasty ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Multiple Perspectives ◽  
Good Case ◽  
Warring States ◽  
The Song Dynasty ◽  
The World ◽  
The Ideal

<p>嘉靖2年（1523），巡按河南的王溱（生卒年不詳）打算刊刻《戰國策》，為此特別請文學復古運動的領導者李夢陽（1473-1530）作序。通過對序文及李夢陽相關著作的細讀，本文旨在說明，從表面看來，李夢陽似乎是以衛道之士的口吻，通過作序的方式批判《戰國策》為畔經離道之書，事實上這篇序文實含有多重視角。要理解李夢陽這篇序文的學術思想史意義，我們必須把它放置在明中葉以還「雜學」或諸子學興起的背景下考慮。跟宋代以來的理學家強調士人學術應該統一在宏大和具普遍意義的「道」之下的傾向不同，明中葉以後的思想家對世界的理解，則是以多元和分別為基礎，強調萬物的分殊和差異。本文將說明，李夢陽序《戰國策》的多重視角，正反映了明代中葉知識界重視多元性和差異性多於普遍性的特點。</p> <p>&nbsp;</p><p>Li Meng-yang (1473-1530), a leader of mid-Ming literary archaist movement, was invited in 1523 by the inspector of Henan Wang Zhen to write a preface for a reprint of the Intrigues of the Warring States that the latter intended to publish. Through a close reading of the preface and Li&rsquo;s other works, this paper argues that while Li seems to have, on the surface, taken a moral high round and castigated the Intrigues for deviating from the orthodox teachings of the Classics, he preface actually encourages the readers to approach the text from multiple perspectives. We have to situate the preface in the context of the rise of &ldquo;miscellaneous learnings&rdquo; and the &ldquo;learnings of the masters&rdquo; in the mid-Ming period in order to appreciate its significance in intellectual history. Departing from the ways the Neo-Confucians since the Song dynasty envisioned literati learning to be a focused pursuit of a grand and universal Way, intellectuals from the mid-Ming onwards began with an assumption of multiplicity and diversity and emphasized disparities among all things. The multiple perspectives that Li Meng-yang exhibits in his preface to the Intrigues is a good case for showing that mid-Ming intellectuals were more inclined to see the world as complex and diverse, rather than to pursue the ideal of universality.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p>

Gavel

2018 ◽  
pp. 214-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
James EK Parker
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Critical Evaluation ◽  
Sound Studies ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
World Today ◽  
The World ◽  
Contemporary Work

The gavel is one of the most widely recognized objects of law around the world today. Images of it are everywhere. Gavels feature in some of the most prominent institutions of international law as well as in many courts and legislatures internationally. Even in jurisdictions where the gavel doesn’t appear in conventional legal settings it can still be found at auctions, conferences, and meetings, and will be doing important juridical work. It is not, however, well understood. Drawing on contemporary work in sound studies and jurisprudence, and via a close reading of a film by Italian artist Diego Tonus, this chapter provides a critical evaluation of the gavel’s material, symbolic, and sonic lives. It suggests that the gavel is right at the centre of the global juridical imaginary, and that this serves as a reminder that sound matters in law in ways that are not yet adequately explored.

The Beginning of the End of the World

2019 ◽  
pp. 10-39
Author(s):  
Owen Stanwood
Keyword(s):  
Close Reading ◽  
Global Expansion ◽  
Protestant Church ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
The World ◽  
Eventual Return ◽  
The Creation ◽  
End Of The World ◽  
Cosmic History

This chapter focuses on Europe itself, in order to chronicle the creation of the Huguenot diaspora. Starting with the example of the theologian Pierre Jurieu, it shows how the coming of persecution led Huguenots to define themselves as a godly remnant of the once great French Protestant church. Thousands of refugees scattered around Europe, where they sought aid from Protestant rulers even as they promoted themselves as people with a particular role in cosmic history. Jurieu was the leading promoter of this specialness, which he took from a close reading of Revelation, but which had political implications. Jurieu and other Huguenot leaders especially sought to create “colonies,” self-contained Huguenot communities around Europe that could preserve the refugees’ faith for an eventual return to France. Over the course of the 1680s and 1690s these colonies appeared around Europe, from Germany to Ireland, and set the stage for the Huguenots’ global expansion.

The Minstrel as Social Critic: A Reading of Ezenwa–Ohaeto's

Matatu ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 179-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sule E. Egya
Keyword(s):  
Close Reading ◽  
Social Vision ◽  
Social Critic ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Ethical Failures

Ezenwa–Ohaeto is one of the modern Nigerian poets who, in their creative endeavours, have continued to tap the rich sources of orature in their culture, in what is now known as 'the minstrelsy tradition'. The maturity of his explorations of the minstrelsy tradition comes through in the last volume of poetry he published before his death, (2003). In a close reading of some selected poems from this volume, this contribution not only looks at the minstrelsy tradition so central to Ezenwa–Ohaeto's poetry, but, more broadly, explores the social vision of Ezenwa–Ohaeto as an African poet. Unlike his earlier volumes of poetry, takes a critical swipe at the inadequacies of advanced countries in Europe and America in what we may call the poet's transnational imagination. In his chants across the world (the volume is an outcome of his many travels), Ezenwa–Ohaeto examines the issues of racism, equity in international relationships and, as is characteristic of his oeuvre, the moral and ethical failures of leaders in Africa.

Borges, the Apologist for Idealism

1998 ◽  
pp. 23-30
Author(s):  
Marina Martín
Keyword(s):  
External World ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
The World

In Nueva refutación del tiempo, Borges explicitly interprets both Berkeley and Hume as genuine exponents and "apologists" of idealism. We may not owe Berkeley the discovery of a doctrine which according to Borges is practically as "ancient" and "popular" as metaphysics itself. However, his arguments connote a unique philosophical achievement. Borges himself adheres to these arguments and goes beyond them. He makes Berkeley's doctrine flow into Hume's which in turn flows into the uniform ocean of pantheistic idealism as envisioned by Schopenhauer and by Oriental philosophy. A close reading of the story "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" shows how the epistemology inherent in the language descriptions of this planet leads its metaphysicians to move from the underlying Berkeleian-Humean principles to the acceptance of pantheistic idealism. This story is not only a subtle, imaginative fantasy; it is also a work of intellectual elegance reading deep into the problem of knowledge of the external world. Berkeley and Hume devoted their whole attention to this issue and developed views that could adequately address the problem. Borges avoids arguing whether their doctrine falls under the denomination of "immaterialism," "phenomenalism" or "idealism." He seems either to deliberately ignore this scholarly dispute or to go beyond it in an effort to let the texts speak for themselves. Thus, Berkeley's Principles, and Hume's Treatise and first Enquiry show a common fact: the world is mind-dependent.

scholarly journals Transforming Representation: Jacques Derrida and the End of Christianity

Open Theology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 116-124
Author(s):  
Martin Koci
Keyword(s):  
Jacques Derrida ◽  
Driving Force ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Central Question ◽  
The World ◽  
The Media ◽  
Central Argument ◽  
Common Understanding

Abstract The central question of this paper revolves around the problem of representation. Following Jacques Derrida and his critique of representation, this paper will interconnect two, at first sight distinct, topics: Christianity and the world of media. For Derrida, Christianity stands behind our common understanding of representation, whereas the media are the major driving force of any representation today. The central argument of this paper is to unfold this link between Christianity and representation and thus to elaborate on the idea of representation in relation to the end of Christianity announced by Derrida. Firstly, I will review Derrida’s account on the logic of representation. Derrida deems Christianity to be responsible for the logic of representation discernible in today’s media world and offers a devastating critique of the concept. Secondly, I will contextualize Derrida’s approach by pointing out the tension between the modern and postmodern perspectives on representation. Thirdly, I will return to a close reading of Derrida. Fourthly, I will offer a critique of Derrida’s critique and will look further at the possible meanings of ‘the end of Christianity.’

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