Jessie Casteel | University of Houston-Downtown (original) (raw)
Papers by Jessie Casteel
Open Words: Access and English Studies
To begin, I will warn you that I'm going to use zir, zie, and zirself, gender neutral pronouns th... more To begin, I will warn you that I'm going to use zir, zie, and zirself, gender neutral pronouns that have never, alas, really caught on; they're indispensable here. Herculine Barbin: Being the Recently Discovered Memoirs of a Nineteenth-Century Hermaphrodite is a collected dossier published by Foucault containing a memoir and associated legal and medical documentation. It follows the story of Herculine, born in 1838 as female and reclassified as male in 1860. Throughout the narrative, Herculine is increasingly concerned about being both physically and psychologically different from the women who surrounded zir in the convents and schools in which zie lived and worked. Eventually Herculine falls in love with a fellow teacher, Sara, and confesses to a priest in confusion. This priest starts Herculine on the juridico-medical path to reclassification as male in order to marry Sara, a process that eventually sees Herculine cast as a freak, ostracized from society, and unable to find decent work or companionship. Herculine finally commits suicide in despair. In his introduction to the dossier, Foucault points Infectious Revolutions: Gender, Science, Identity and Humanity in Herculine Barbin Plaza 3.2 131 © Jessie Casteel out that before this historical moment, hermaphrodites in medieval Europe found more acceptance, and were allowed to choose the gender they wanted to inhabit, so long as they picked
Open Words Access and English Studies, 2016
Inarguably, Herculine Barbin is quite blatantly centered around the question of performative gend... more Inarguably, Herculine Barbin is quite blatantly centered around the question of performative gender identity. Perfomativity has helped us to better understand the cultural mechanisms that control individual and group identity formation in every area from gender to ethnicity, and, in a more literary application, it has also helped us to understand the construction of fictional characters. In spite of the width of this range, the application of the concept of performativity to the construction of human-identified subjectivity appears to have been little, if at all, explored. I find this lack unfortunate, because I think that bringing the lens of performativity to bear on an analysis of human subjectivity reveals not only a great deal about how our identities are constructed, but also about the nineteenth-century social anxieties over scientific revolutions that originally drove such constructions. Darwin’s theories and other evolutionary science were sources of preoccupation and anxie...
At its inception, scholarship in the field of basic writing was largely concerned with simply es... more At its inception, scholarship in the field of basic writing was largely concerned with simply establishing basic writing as a field and defining its borders and mission. In the 90’s, the field of inquiry into basic writing shifted to reflect a preoccupation with its social mandate, specifically the potential for basic writing to establish a more equal, empowering space for underrepresented student populations and more ready, broad access to formal education which might thereby lead to positive, egalitarian change both within and without the sphere of academic discourse. However, our current social, political, and economic climate renders many of the approaches educators sought to embrace in the past currently unviable, even as it underscores the very concerns those approaches attempted to address. I will explore the fact that basic writing classrooms now, more than ever before, reflect fundamental socioeconomic inequalities in our educational system, making questions of a social m...
Alexandra Yazeva Aleksandr Vampilov's Drama Duck Hunting and the (In)different Character in the D... more Alexandra Yazeva Aleksandr Vampilov's Drama Duck Hunting and the (In)different Character in the Different Theatre: A Phenomenological Analysis of Viktor Zilov's Revolution While comparing views of literary critics around the world concerning Aleksandr Vampilov's revolutionary drama Duck Hunting (1967), I discovered that its main character Viktor Zilov evoked the most contradictory responses. The play is presented as a chain of Zilov's memories which are triggered by a malicious joke: the protagonist's friends send him a funeral wreath as if he died. The main character's story is given now in two perspectives. The first one is his memories, where he constantly lies to his family, his boss or his friends although being absolutely tired of his life full of masquerade. Exhausted from it, Zilov strives for harmony, which he sees in nature. The masquerade surrounds him in his memories. As he recalls, very seldom had his friends shown their true faces, but mostly adjusted their behavior for the situation. The other perspective is Zilov's present: he is sitting in his room, recalling the past before the sent wreath and wishing for the rain to stop, as he longs to go duck hunting. He needs this trip to nature to get rid of falsehood. The memories reduce Zilov to despair. Finally, he decides to kill himself and calls his friends to his own wake. However, when the Aleksandr Vampilov's Drama Duck Hunting and the (In)different Character in the Different Theatre Plaza 3.2 16 ©Alexandra Yazeva friends come and indirectly show their vivid interest in the things they could get in case of Zilov's death (e.g., the boat, the apartment), revealing the real price of their friendship, the protagonist changes his mind and drives his guests away with the rifle in his hands. The playwright leaves Zilov alone in his room, crying or laughing (stage directions indicate that it is unclear) and ready to go duck hunting, as the rain finally stops. Few critics assert that the central protagonist, a thirty year old hypocrite who is searching for his real self, manages to find it in the end 1 ; they also see his outstanding nature and giftedness. 2 The overwhelming majority suggests 3 that the character's self-evaluation ultimately becomes his selfdestruction. 4 As a result, the question of the play's finale is still open to interpretation. Duck Hunting, a double revolution of the author and the protagonist, needs a holistic approach. Thus, the goal of this paper is to consider the problem of Viktor Zilov, the protagonist of Aleksandr Vampilov's play, from the phenomenological point of view. Phenomenological analysis will make it possible to prove that Viktor Zilov accomplishes not a re-evaluation, but a revolution, that he revolts against his former self and emerges victorious. The main advantage of the phenomenological approach, which has come to the study of literature from philosophy, is that it provides a holistic vision of a work of art, i.e., it permits to see the close connection between all the expressive means of it, even if they are very far from each other throughout the text. These means can be certain thoughts' repetitions, artistic details (gestures or significant digressions from the plot) or stylistic devices, such as metaphors, metonymies, etc. Together they constitute the communicative form of the central literary image's manifestations. The 1 See Antipiev 8-56, for the perspicacious comments on Zilov and Duck Hunting. 2 More on Vampilov and his characters, see Turovskaya 102-15. 3 See, e.g., Rudnitsky162-76. 4 On Zilov and his unhappy finale, see Tenditnik 181.
Open Words: Access and English Studies
Open Words: Access and English Studies
To begin, I will warn you that I'm going to use zir, zie, and zirself, gender neutral pronouns th... more To begin, I will warn you that I'm going to use zir, zie, and zirself, gender neutral pronouns that have never, alas, really caught on; they're indispensable here. Herculine Barbin: Being the Recently Discovered Memoirs of a Nineteenth-Century Hermaphrodite is a collected dossier published by Foucault containing a memoir and associated legal and medical documentation. It follows the story of Herculine, born in 1838 as female and reclassified as male in 1860. Throughout the narrative, Herculine is increasingly concerned about being both physically and psychologically different from the women who surrounded zir in the convents and schools in which zie lived and worked. Eventually Herculine falls in love with a fellow teacher, Sara, and confesses to a priest in confusion. This priest starts Herculine on the juridico-medical path to reclassification as male in order to marry Sara, a process that eventually sees Herculine cast as a freak, ostracized from society, and unable to find decent work or companionship. Herculine finally commits suicide in despair. In his introduction to the dossier, Foucault points Infectious Revolutions: Gender, Science, Identity and Humanity in Herculine Barbin Plaza 3.2 131 © Jessie Casteel out that before this historical moment, hermaphrodites in medieval Europe found more acceptance, and were allowed to choose the gender they wanted to inhabit, so long as they picked
Open Words Access and English Studies, 2016
Inarguably, Herculine Barbin is quite blatantly centered around the question of performative gend... more Inarguably, Herculine Barbin is quite blatantly centered around the question of performative gender identity. Perfomativity has helped us to better understand the cultural mechanisms that control individual and group identity formation in every area from gender to ethnicity, and, in a more literary application, it has also helped us to understand the construction of fictional characters. In spite of the width of this range, the application of the concept of performativity to the construction of human-identified subjectivity appears to have been little, if at all, explored. I find this lack unfortunate, because I think that bringing the lens of performativity to bear on an analysis of human subjectivity reveals not only a great deal about how our identities are constructed, but also about the nineteenth-century social anxieties over scientific revolutions that originally drove such constructions. Darwin’s theories and other evolutionary science were sources of preoccupation and anxie...
At its inception, scholarship in the field of basic writing was largely concerned with simply es... more At its inception, scholarship in the field of basic writing was largely concerned with simply establishing basic writing as a field and defining its borders and mission. In the 90’s, the field of inquiry into basic writing shifted to reflect a preoccupation with its social mandate, specifically the potential for basic writing to establish a more equal, empowering space for underrepresented student populations and more ready, broad access to formal education which might thereby lead to positive, egalitarian change both within and without the sphere of academic discourse. However, our current social, political, and economic climate renders many of the approaches educators sought to embrace in the past currently unviable, even as it underscores the very concerns those approaches attempted to address. I will explore the fact that basic writing classrooms now, more than ever before, reflect fundamental socioeconomic inequalities in our educational system, making questions of a social m...
Alexandra Yazeva Aleksandr Vampilov's Drama Duck Hunting and the (In)different Character in the D... more Alexandra Yazeva Aleksandr Vampilov's Drama Duck Hunting and the (In)different Character in the Different Theatre: A Phenomenological Analysis of Viktor Zilov's Revolution While comparing views of literary critics around the world concerning Aleksandr Vampilov's revolutionary drama Duck Hunting (1967), I discovered that its main character Viktor Zilov evoked the most contradictory responses. The play is presented as a chain of Zilov's memories which are triggered by a malicious joke: the protagonist's friends send him a funeral wreath as if he died. The main character's story is given now in two perspectives. The first one is his memories, where he constantly lies to his family, his boss or his friends although being absolutely tired of his life full of masquerade. Exhausted from it, Zilov strives for harmony, which he sees in nature. The masquerade surrounds him in his memories. As he recalls, very seldom had his friends shown their true faces, but mostly adjusted their behavior for the situation. The other perspective is Zilov's present: he is sitting in his room, recalling the past before the sent wreath and wishing for the rain to stop, as he longs to go duck hunting. He needs this trip to nature to get rid of falsehood. The memories reduce Zilov to despair. Finally, he decides to kill himself and calls his friends to his own wake. However, when the Aleksandr Vampilov's Drama Duck Hunting and the (In)different Character in the Different Theatre Plaza 3.2 16 ©Alexandra Yazeva friends come and indirectly show their vivid interest in the things they could get in case of Zilov's death (e.g., the boat, the apartment), revealing the real price of their friendship, the protagonist changes his mind and drives his guests away with the rifle in his hands. The playwright leaves Zilov alone in his room, crying or laughing (stage directions indicate that it is unclear) and ready to go duck hunting, as the rain finally stops. Few critics assert that the central protagonist, a thirty year old hypocrite who is searching for his real self, manages to find it in the end 1 ; they also see his outstanding nature and giftedness. 2 The overwhelming majority suggests 3 that the character's self-evaluation ultimately becomes his selfdestruction. 4 As a result, the question of the play's finale is still open to interpretation. Duck Hunting, a double revolution of the author and the protagonist, needs a holistic approach. Thus, the goal of this paper is to consider the problem of Viktor Zilov, the protagonist of Aleksandr Vampilov's play, from the phenomenological point of view. Phenomenological analysis will make it possible to prove that Viktor Zilov accomplishes not a re-evaluation, but a revolution, that he revolts against his former self and emerges victorious. The main advantage of the phenomenological approach, which has come to the study of literature from philosophy, is that it provides a holistic vision of a work of art, i.e., it permits to see the close connection between all the expressive means of it, even if they are very far from each other throughout the text. These means can be certain thoughts' repetitions, artistic details (gestures or significant digressions from the plot) or stylistic devices, such as metaphors, metonymies, etc. Together they constitute the communicative form of the central literary image's manifestations. The 1 See Antipiev 8-56, for the perspicacious comments on Zilov and Duck Hunting. 2 More on Vampilov and his characters, see Turovskaya 102-15. 3 See, e.g., Rudnitsky162-76. 4 On Zilov and his unhappy finale, see Tenditnik 181.
Open Words: Access and English Studies