Elizabeth Lowry | Arizona State University (original) (raw)
Uploads
Papers by Elizabeth Lowry
Critical Essays on Twin Peaks: The Return, 2019
Drawing on Mark Frost’s Secret History and Season 3 of Twin Peaks, this chapter examines the rela... more Drawing on Mark Frost’s Secret History and Season 3 of Twin Peaks, this chapter examines the relationships constructed between UFO sightings, spiritual transcendence, and nuclear testing. While the relationship between aliens and nuclear sites is of interest to conspiracy theorists, and folklorists have long discussed the relationship between spiritual transcendence and extraterrestrial visitations, Frost and Lynch explore some of these connections in new ways—suggesting that extraterrestrial encounters can result in an uncanny prescience or ‘sixth sense,’ that may be associated with forces of good intended to offer a cosmic counterbalance to the evils of nuclear war. However, Season Three marks a movement away from simple good/evil binaries and suggests an ‘Other’ or third place where neither identity is clear and both are inextricably intertwined.
The Paranormal and Popular Culture, 2019
Born in 1835 in East Bloomfield, New York, Amanda Theodosia Jones has been described as a teacher... more Born in 1835 in East Bloomfield, New York, Amanda Theodosia Jones has been described as a teacher, inventor, businesswoman, poet, and Spiritualist. Jones engaged in many intellectual and artistic practices over her lifetime, but her autobiography details how each was informed by the one practice that she considered to be her true calling: her spiritual practice as a psychic medium. Her work as an autobiographer reveals how she attempted to contextualize her achievements and interests to demonstrate how they were unified by the guiding principles of the spirit world. As such, I aim to examine Jones’s practice and self-representation from a rhetorical perspective, considering how, in her autobiography, she accounted for engaging in what were considered strictly male endeavors. I ask: how did Jones use the power of her various practices to render her gender transgressions palatable to a nineteenth-century readership and what role did her spirit controls play in tempering the effect of ...
ions; the fact that they were merely vessels for reproduction
Essays on Women in Western Esotericism, 2021
Journal of pedagogic development, 2018
This essay is an exploration of teacher identity and the discomfort that arises from the notion o... more This essay is an exploration of teacher identity and the discomfort that arises from the notion of the ‘professional self’ and the ‘personal self.’ Drawing on a range of scholarship that discusses the complexities of teacher-identity construction, I consider how institutional hierarchies, Enlightenment-era thought, and student perception affect our self-construction in the classroom. Too often teachers try to live up to contradictory cultural ideals, which makes the process of professional self-construction in the classroom even more complicated. As such, I explore the notion of teacher identity development from the perspectives of those starting out in the profession and as well as experienced educators. I argue that problem of teacher identity development does not necessarily come to end as an educator grows more experienced.
Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, 2017
Rhetoric Review, 2013
ABSTRACT
Pivot: A Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies and Thought, 2017
Lulu Hurst was a young Gilded Age-era performer known for her demonstrations of uncanny physical ... more Lulu Hurst was a young Gilded Age-era performer known for her demonstrations of uncanny physical strength. For the most part, Hurst’s performance involved challenging an audience member to wrest objects from her grasp. For a member of Hurst's predominantly male audience, matching her strength to his own was a means by which to prove his masculinity to his peers. The notion of masculinity being on trial was particularly significant in the late nineteenth century--a time when women were beginning to gain social power. Elaine Showalter famously describes this period as being characterized by a "battle within the sexes" as well as between them (9). As such, I argue that Hurst’s “demonstrations of strength” are best understood within the context of what Marvin Carlson terms "resistant performance"--that is, a performance that subverts the status quo by exposing its underlying assumptions. Drawing on Victor Turner’s work on ritual and liminality, I argue that when...
European journal of American studies, 2017
Journal for the Study of Radicalism, 2015
W hat is now recognized as the Modern American Spiritualist movement began in 1848, when the Fox ... more W hat is now recognized as the Modern American Spiritualist movement began in 1848, when the Fox sisters, two teenaged girls in upstate New York, allegedly communicated with the spirit of a man who had died in their home. The fundamental tenets of Spiritualism held that one could communicate with spirits of the deceased— either with the help of a medium at a séance, or (with enough practice) on one’s own. The idea of communicating with spirits quickly spread throughout the Northeast, carrying with it a set of principles that raised considerable controversy. Spiritualists were typically thought of as proponents of social change who rejected “orthodoxy in science, medicine, economics, and sex.” Spiritualism is also often portrayed as an anti-structuralist and individualistic alternative to Christianity. But perhaps most significantly, Spiritualism was widely believed to provide evidence of an egalitarian afterlife that made its foundational ideology attractive to feminists and abolitionists who were advocates for the same equality in American life. Spiritualism was a catalyst for a profound transformation in the antebellum consciousness. While the social change spurred by the ELIZABETH LOWRY
Journal of American Studies, 2015
bodies as "nature" or "other" (). That is, the transcendentalists' notion that anyone could be ... more bodies as "nature" or "other" (). That is, the transcendentalists' notion that anyone could be educated, that anyone could be divinely inspired, and that all human beings had limitless potential became distinctly problematic when the white Christian male had to put his philosophy into practice and consider women and people of color as being an integral (rather than an incidental) part of the universality of all things. This is especially problematic for the white male for whom becoming one with nature has the effect that he must merge with entities also coded as cultural pollutantsfor instance, the reified bodies of women, Native Americans, and slaves. As such, pantheism and the concept of "natural transformation" become "transcendental tropes" with "political and social consequences," with the result that for many nineteenth-century proponents of transcendentalism "U.S. democracy is built on tropes that both universalize and tyrannize" (). For the pantheist, then, merging with the "other" could be liberating, but it was also terrifying. Anxiety over this merging is inevitably reflected in Emerson's writingsand also in the works of those influenced by transcendentalismas discourses of dismemberment and fragmentation. Upon addressing these anxieties, Hardack's wry humor is revealed as a parenthetical aside when, in discussing dismemberment in Melville's Pierre, he writes that "Pierre could be subtitled 'A Farewell to Arms' instead of 'The Ambiguities'" (). By his own admission, Hardack's style of argumentation is unusual, requiring "a slightly different way of reading, as it develops, by necessity and design, several arguments that are accretive or cumulative rather than exclusively linear" (). For instance, in chapter , Hardack links "parthenogenesis and primitivism, taxonomic universality, the animation of black nature, and the animation of inanimate matter," all of which are "governed by a rhetoric which assumes that god is a universal, impersonal form of natural law" (). While some may find Hardack's "accretive" approach distracting, he undoubtedly presents readers with "relatively unaddressed syntactical evidence that indicates that Melville was responding to transcendental theories generally and Emerson's work directly" (). As such, a key component of the book's central argument is this: "Far from being hostile or indifferent to Emersonian idealismas many critics. .. have contended-Melville was strongly influenced by a pantheism that he increasingly longed to refute, especially in his later years" (). This assertion is followed by an intriguing counter to existing scholarship in the field: Emerson should not be read as a prophet of self-reliance or Christian virtue, as he is commonly conceived. .. Emerson emerges here as an exemplar of self-negation, a man
Handbook of Spiritualism and Channeling, 2015
The European Legacy, 2015
Critical Essays on Twin Peaks: The Return, 2019
Drawing on Mark Frost’s Secret History and Season 3 of Twin Peaks, this chapter examines the rela... more Drawing on Mark Frost’s Secret History and Season 3 of Twin Peaks, this chapter examines the relationships constructed between UFO sightings, spiritual transcendence, and nuclear testing. While the relationship between aliens and nuclear sites is of interest to conspiracy theorists, and folklorists have long discussed the relationship between spiritual transcendence and extraterrestrial visitations, Frost and Lynch explore some of these connections in new ways—suggesting that extraterrestrial encounters can result in an uncanny prescience or ‘sixth sense,’ that may be associated with forces of good intended to offer a cosmic counterbalance to the evils of nuclear war. However, Season Three marks a movement away from simple good/evil binaries and suggests an ‘Other’ or third place where neither identity is clear and both are inextricably intertwined.
The Paranormal and Popular Culture, 2019
Born in 1835 in East Bloomfield, New York, Amanda Theodosia Jones has been described as a teacher... more Born in 1835 in East Bloomfield, New York, Amanda Theodosia Jones has been described as a teacher, inventor, businesswoman, poet, and Spiritualist. Jones engaged in many intellectual and artistic practices over her lifetime, but her autobiography details how each was informed by the one practice that she considered to be her true calling: her spiritual practice as a psychic medium. Her work as an autobiographer reveals how she attempted to contextualize her achievements and interests to demonstrate how they were unified by the guiding principles of the spirit world. As such, I aim to examine Jones’s practice and self-representation from a rhetorical perspective, considering how, in her autobiography, she accounted for engaging in what were considered strictly male endeavors. I ask: how did Jones use the power of her various practices to render her gender transgressions palatable to a nineteenth-century readership and what role did her spirit controls play in tempering the effect of ...
ions; the fact that they were merely vessels for reproduction
Essays on Women in Western Esotericism, 2021
Journal of pedagogic development, 2018
This essay is an exploration of teacher identity and the discomfort that arises from the notion o... more This essay is an exploration of teacher identity and the discomfort that arises from the notion of the ‘professional self’ and the ‘personal self.’ Drawing on a range of scholarship that discusses the complexities of teacher-identity construction, I consider how institutional hierarchies, Enlightenment-era thought, and student perception affect our self-construction in the classroom. Too often teachers try to live up to contradictory cultural ideals, which makes the process of professional self-construction in the classroom even more complicated. As such, I explore the notion of teacher identity development from the perspectives of those starting out in the profession and as well as experienced educators. I argue that problem of teacher identity development does not necessarily come to end as an educator grows more experienced.
Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, 2017
Rhetoric Review, 2013
ABSTRACT
Pivot: A Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies and Thought, 2017
Lulu Hurst was a young Gilded Age-era performer known for her demonstrations of uncanny physical ... more Lulu Hurst was a young Gilded Age-era performer known for her demonstrations of uncanny physical strength. For the most part, Hurst’s performance involved challenging an audience member to wrest objects from her grasp. For a member of Hurst's predominantly male audience, matching her strength to his own was a means by which to prove his masculinity to his peers. The notion of masculinity being on trial was particularly significant in the late nineteenth century--a time when women were beginning to gain social power. Elaine Showalter famously describes this period as being characterized by a "battle within the sexes" as well as between them (9). As such, I argue that Hurst’s “demonstrations of strength” are best understood within the context of what Marvin Carlson terms "resistant performance"--that is, a performance that subverts the status quo by exposing its underlying assumptions. Drawing on Victor Turner’s work on ritual and liminality, I argue that when...
European journal of American studies, 2017
Journal for the Study of Radicalism, 2015
W hat is now recognized as the Modern American Spiritualist movement began in 1848, when the Fox ... more W hat is now recognized as the Modern American Spiritualist movement began in 1848, when the Fox sisters, two teenaged girls in upstate New York, allegedly communicated with the spirit of a man who had died in their home. The fundamental tenets of Spiritualism held that one could communicate with spirits of the deceased— either with the help of a medium at a séance, or (with enough practice) on one’s own. The idea of communicating with spirits quickly spread throughout the Northeast, carrying with it a set of principles that raised considerable controversy. Spiritualists were typically thought of as proponents of social change who rejected “orthodoxy in science, medicine, economics, and sex.” Spiritualism is also often portrayed as an anti-structuralist and individualistic alternative to Christianity. But perhaps most significantly, Spiritualism was widely believed to provide evidence of an egalitarian afterlife that made its foundational ideology attractive to feminists and abolitionists who were advocates for the same equality in American life. Spiritualism was a catalyst for a profound transformation in the antebellum consciousness. While the social change spurred by the ELIZABETH LOWRY
Journal of American Studies, 2015
bodies as "nature" or "other" (). That is, the transcendentalists' notion that anyone could be ... more bodies as "nature" or "other" (). That is, the transcendentalists' notion that anyone could be educated, that anyone could be divinely inspired, and that all human beings had limitless potential became distinctly problematic when the white Christian male had to put his philosophy into practice and consider women and people of color as being an integral (rather than an incidental) part of the universality of all things. This is especially problematic for the white male for whom becoming one with nature has the effect that he must merge with entities also coded as cultural pollutantsfor instance, the reified bodies of women, Native Americans, and slaves. As such, pantheism and the concept of "natural transformation" become "transcendental tropes" with "political and social consequences," with the result that for many nineteenth-century proponents of transcendentalism "U.S. democracy is built on tropes that both universalize and tyrannize" (). For the pantheist, then, merging with the "other" could be liberating, but it was also terrifying. Anxiety over this merging is inevitably reflected in Emerson's writingsand also in the works of those influenced by transcendentalismas discourses of dismemberment and fragmentation. Upon addressing these anxieties, Hardack's wry humor is revealed as a parenthetical aside when, in discussing dismemberment in Melville's Pierre, he writes that "Pierre could be subtitled 'A Farewell to Arms' instead of 'The Ambiguities'" (). By his own admission, Hardack's style of argumentation is unusual, requiring "a slightly different way of reading, as it develops, by necessity and design, several arguments that are accretive or cumulative rather than exclusively linear" (). For instance, in chapter , Hardack links "parthenogenesis and primitivism, taxonomic universality, the animation of black nature, and the animation of inanimate matter," all of which are "governed by a rhetoric which assumes that god is a universal, impersonal form of natural law" (). While some may find Hardack's "accretive" approach distracting, he undoubtedly presents readers with "relatively unaddressed syntactical evidence that indicates that Melville was responding to transcendental theories generally and Emerson's work directly" (). As such, a key component of the book's central argument is this: "Far from being hostile or indifferent to Emersonian idealismas many critics. .. have contended-Melville was strongly influenced by a pantheism that he increasingly longed to refute, especially in his later years" (). This assertion is followed by an intriguing counter to existing scholarship in the field: Emerson should not be read as a prophet of self-reliance or Christian virtue, as he is commonly conceived. .. Emerson emerges here as an exemplar of self-negation, a man
Handbook of Spiritualism and Channeling, 2015
The European Legacy, 2015