{"title":"Doubles in a Science Fiction Screenplay and Film: Alexander Payne's Downsizing as a Case Study in Doubling and Duality","authors":"L. Beadling","doi":"10.1353/mml.2020.0020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/mml.2020.0020","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract: Frank Dietz notes that many scholars identify psychology as the best tool for analyzing doppelgängers and doubles in literature and film, although he goes on to argue that this critical lens is “insufficient for the field of science fiction” because the genre is founded on a presumption of science which can create narrative worlds in which “the existence of doubles is literal fact” (210). Alexander Payne’s screenplay and film Downsizing (2017) does just this by depicting a scientific breakthrough that allows people to shrink themselves to 1/5 of their original size. This in turn creates a mirrored set of societies, big and little. In addition, it is this same breakthrough that allows a tribe of shrunken humans to survive a global environmental disaster that makes life on the surface of the planet untenable, although this storyline is absent in the theatrical release of the film. There are two doubles of interest: the doubled societies of the big and the little, which is in both film and screenplay, and, in the screenplay only, the doubles between the present day main characters and the legendary figures of the future tribe of smalls:, most notably between Paul Safranek and his double Safrapül the Good (Matt Damon). Finally, the relationship between a screenplay and the produced film is a complex one in which the two versions of the same narrative are doubles with some profound differences; in this case, the differences between the available screenplay of Downsizing and the produced film may give clues to why this film is Payne’s least successful, both commercially and critically. In the case of Downsizing, there are numerous differences in the treatment of the theme of doubling between the doubled versions of the screenplay and the film. These differences both in terms of genre and theme result in much different texts and may help explain the film’s underperformance, especially compared to Payne’s other outings.","PeriodicalId":42049,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF THE MIDWEST MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION","volume":"23 1","pages":"53 - 77"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87683780","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Only Wonderful Things: The Creative Partnership of Willa Cather and Edith Lewis by Melissa J. Homestead (review)","authors":"Kelsey Squire","doi":"10.1353/mml.2020.0014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/mml.2020.0014","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42049,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF THE MIDWEST MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION","volume":"4 1","pages":"131 - 134"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89208714","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Doubling Down on Stupid: Direction, Misdirection, and Miscommunication in El castigo del penséque","authors":"Robert L. Turner","doi":"10.1353/mml.2020.0019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/mml.2020.0019","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract: In El castigo del penséque (The punishment of the “I thought that…”), Tirso de Molina makes use of a pattern of constant doubling to examine conflicts of love and social restraints, all the while foregrounding the historical reality of the conflict between Spain and the protestant German states in the early modern Low Countries. In this play Rodrigo, a poor Spaniard, is mistaken for the long-lost son of a minor noble. This initial doubling is repeated through disguise, mistaken identity and finally through language itself where the written and spoken work simultaneously support and contradict each other. Constant throughout the play is an awareness that words, social station, and the various identities of the characters are limiting and sometimes contradicting Rodrigo’s failure is a commentary on social custom, and Spanish politics.","PeriodicalId":42049,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF THE MIDWEST MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION","volume":"9 1","pages":"33 - 52"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79043327","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Using Literary Texts in Foundational Spanish Courses: Why I Teach \"A Julia de Burgos\"","authors":"Colleen Scott","doi":"10.1353/mml.2020.0022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/mml.2020.0022","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract: This essay examines the poem “A Julia de Burgos” by the great Puerto Rican poet Julia de Burgos and how students of Spanish interact with the poem. In this poem which de Burgos addresses to herself, the theme of the dichotomized self in relation to society and the notion of identity as performance is expressed. Language students know dualities and they come to see how this poem written in the late 1930’s is especially relevant today. Dualities are everywhere – images and screens projecting one’s constructed reality contending with one’s inner self. Within current pedagogy practices, there, too, is a dualistic state: a need to use technology and incorporate social media within the language classroom and a “back to basics” approach to get students back into reading and writing and reestablish the fundamental importance of the humanities. I explain how it is possible to get high-beginning/low-intermediate-level students of Spanish to read, process, and engage with a poem in the target language. This essay demonstrates how I foster interest and success in my students, giving them a greater appreciation for reading in the target language, which in itself reveals a duality of purpose: decoding and comprehension.","PeriodicalId":42049,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF THE MIDWEST MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION","volume":"10 1","pages":"107 - 116"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73135180","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Practicing the Work of Worms: Lyric Voice and Grievable Lives in Solmaz Sharif's Look","authors":"M. Capecchi","doi":"10.1353/mml.2020.0012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/mml.2020.0012","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract: This paper explores Solmaz Sharif’s debut book Look: her use of lyric voice; her identity as an exile; and her creation of Judith Butler’s “subject visibility” and “grievable lives” within Look. Sharif’s poems break new poetic ground, using erasure tactics, a complex lyric I, and the reappropriation of Department of Defense terminology. Sharif’s poems present multiple, contradictory speakers, and her use of the lyric mask evokes complexity and dialectical opposition. While these multifaceted lyric voices do not allow for clear answers within her work, it is precisely this conflict that creates subject visibility for Sharif’s lyric speakers. As an immigrant and intellectual exile, Sharif’s voicings of these individuals are both useful to create grievable lives and problematic as her poems speak for the other. However, this tension is precisely what makes Sharif’s work compelling. Rather than resolve and classify, Sharif’s work strains against categorization through bending the lyric form and voicing multiple speakers within the Iran-Iraq War and the “War on Terror.” Ultimately, this paper argues that Sharif’s brutal depictions of violence, grief, and loss require her western reader to LOOK (to “be receptive of an influence”), to engage with the other, to recognize all life in its grievable state, to recognize new possibilities, and to transform.","PeriodicalId":42049,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF THE MIDWEST MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION","volume":"105 1","pages":"117 - 126"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78378089","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Learning from the Germans: Race and the Memory of Evil by Susan Neiman (review)","authors":"Kurt Hollender","doi":"10.1353/mml.2020.0013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/mml.2020.0013","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42049,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF THE MIDWEST MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION","volume":"32 1","pages":"127 - 130"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87957957","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Seductive Aberrations: The Uncanny Affects in Bram Stoker's Dracula","authors":"Vincent Pacheco","doi":"10.1353/mml.2020.0018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/mml.2020.0018","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:In this paper, I read Bram Stoker’s Dracula through affect theory and examine how certain uncanny encounters with the vampiric women in the novel can evoke the doubling of affective responses. In particular, I look at Jonathan Harker’s encounter with the sister-brides of Dracula and the different encounters with Lucy’s pre-vampiric/vampiric form to argue that what constitutes the intolerable in the novel can be considered as an uncanny affect and that its uncanny double is what constitutes tolerable in the novel. These uncanny affects, which are sometimes indistinguishable, arguably influence the many encounters with the feminine representations of the vampire in Dracula which I call seductive aberrations. These aberrations, through the entanglement of uncanny affects, muddle the very definition of the doubling of the tolerable/intolerable dichotomy when those are potentially indistinguishable. I posit here that notions of desire become affectively entangled when the notions of encounter become unhomely in nature. Moreover, I contend that what makes the uncanny affect unfamiliar is the inability to properly qualify bodily sensations.","PeriodicalId":42049,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF THE MIDWEST MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION","volume":"35 1","pages":"13 - 31"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85720993","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Palimpsests and Doubles: Echoes of The Rubáiyát in T. S. Eliot's Poetry after Vinnie-Marie D'Ambrosio","authors":"Russell Brickey","doi":"10.1353/mml.2020.0021","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/mml.2020.0021","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract: This paper expands on the observations of Vinnie-Marie D’Ambrosio regarding the relationship between the poetry of T.S. Eliot and Victorian author Edward FitzGerald transmogrification of the poetry of the medieval Persian polymath Omar Khayyam. Theories of literary authenticity, the imaginative-double (the author speaking through the voice of a spurious historical figure), and The Rubaiyat and Eliot's The Four Quartets. Importantly, Sarah Dillon's concept of “palimpsestuous\" (the inscription of parent texts beneath the child texts) allows readers to glimpse the relationship between Khayyam, FitzGerald, and Eliot despite their vast chronological and geographical separation.","PeriodicalId":42049,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF THE MIDWEST MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION","volume":"366 1","pages":"105 - 79"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76608247","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Collapsing the Cartographies of Gender and Nationality: Howe’s Transatlantic Explorations in The Hermaphrodite and From the Oak to the Olive","authors":"Denise M. Kohn","doi":"10.1353/mml.2019.0007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/mml.2019.0007","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:Like many nineteenth-century American writers, Julia Ward Howe found that the expanding culture of transatlantic travel offered her the liberty to explore, study, and work. In this article, the author examines Howe’s novel, The Hermaphrodite, which is set in England, Germany, and Rome, in conjunction with her chapter on Rome in her travel book From the Oak to the Olive. Reading these texts through the lens of cultural geography and transatlantic studies, the author suggests that our understanding of The Hermaphrodite should be broadened to see the novel as a type of travel narrative in which the intersex protagonist Laurence journeys across a picturesque Europe, identifying at times as male, female, and nonbinary within different spaces. In both The Hermaphrodite and From Oak to Olive, Howe seeks to write literary narratives of the transatlantic world, and though one is fiction and one is autobiographical, they are both imaginative constructions of the relationships between space, gender, and national identity.","PeriodicalId":42049,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF THE MIDWEST MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION","volume":"12 1","pages":"43 - 75"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77328137","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Corporeal Archipelagos: Writingthe Body in Francophone Oceanian Women’s Literature by Julia L. Frengs (review)","authors":"Lisa Connell","doi":"10.1353/mml.2019.0001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/mml.2019.0001","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42049,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF THE MIDWEST MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION","volume":"53 1","pages":"181 - 184"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88672595","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}