2003 Humanities Graduate Conference Abstracts (Alphabetical by presenter's last name).

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Rosa Montero's La Hija del Canibal: Empowerment Through the Scheherazade Tradition
Megan Baker, University of Utah, Department of Languages & Literature

This project not only outlines the emotional and mental development in Lucia Romero following the sequestration of her husband, but also explores space and power as she enters what had previously been designated and respected as male domain. Her progress is treated on a parallel plane with Felix Roble's life story as a revolutionary. Relating his experiences is not only cathartic for him, but the latter correspond to the Shahrizad tradition of 1001 Arabian Nights in that they affect the listener's understanding and perception of the world. This previews and facilitates Lucia's dynamic entry not only into criminal spheres, but enables her to create a satisfying life for herself.

I employ a Foucauldian power framework, which addresses Lucia's initial status, evolution and final state. I will also draw upon the function of storytelling as facilitating this process. The two, apparently disparate story lines in Montero's book, are united in the sense that both protagonists fight against great odds, weigh and consider their innermost loyalties and struggle to find meaning in their lives.

La hija del canibal (1997), is an extremely rich text that has not yet been the subject of scholarly publication. This project can be one that lays the groundwork, opening the door for further analysis and interpretation.

"Jugs"
Pam Balluck, University of Utah, Department of English, Creative Writing

This piece of fiction is a 4000-plus-word, first-person narrative set at the end of the 1970s in Los Angeles--asks, What is "a woman’s real body" (what’s unspoken in this story is ‘a real woman’s body’)?

I went straight past needing a training bra to stealing a 34C out of Mom’s dresser drawer . . . when I was eleven. . . . , instead of walking through the embarrassment of shopping for one with Mom, who didn’t live long enough to see me turn twelve, let alone top-off at a 37D.

Dr. Kohner . . . says I should get a "breast reduction."

I never heard of such a thing! Have you?

But Dr. Kohner got me to talk to . . . Dr. Zeitman. And I saw pictures in his office, before-and-after’s.

In this story, we never learn the narrator’s actual name. As a thirteen-year-old, at the pool in her bikini, she’s mistaken by her father from their highrise-apartment window for "a knock-out broad he’d never seen before"; at the end of her teens, she’s called "Jugs" by the Venice Beach bum she skates past most Sundays; she’s defined by her "rack," her "melons," her "tah-tahs"; is described by an older male friend as "a cross between Little Annie Fanny and Charlotte Bronte (whatever that means or looks like)." This is before surgery, when she moves "in a constant, unconscious dance of self-protection." And as we move through the beginnings of after with her, she says: "I feel like I’m winning something over . . . on my former boobs, my ‘original equipment’"; and asks, "What does that mean exactly?"

A Foundation for Understanding Art and its Difficulty of Definition
Edward Bateman, University of Utah, College of Fine Arts, Visual Art

Art has become a term that eludes definition. Even the notion that art can be defined has been challenged by those who say that art always attempts to expand past its boundaries or by the idea that art has no essence and therefore cannot be defined. Much has been written on this subject (and not just by art historians). To quote the philosopher/art critic Arthur C. Danto “…there has not been a major philosophical thinker from Plato and Aristotle, to Heidegger and Whittgenstein, who has not had something to say about this subject.” So why then do we seem to be so far from an accepted definition of art?

Inasmuch as art is a truly human activity, I believe that any attempt to explore this complex topic must establish as its foundation basic human capacities. I propose that this foundation consists of three basic aspects of human interest that come together in various combinations to explain the class of artifacts that we call art. They consist of the Sensate capacity, the Model-Making capacity, and creation and use of Status. These three categories also mirror the three primary spheres of human concern: the sensual, the intellectual, and the social. Because semi-functional definitions of art can be (and have been) created in each of these categories, I believe that the complex and often contradictory aims of these three concerns explain why an essential definition of art remains elusive.

Wrestling—More than Meets the EyeA
nne Bialowas, University of Utah, Communication Department

As Ball (1990) eloquently stated, “Professional wrestling in the United States provides an exceptional arena for the study of popular culture. . . [and] provides us with, perhaps, the richest symbolism in popular culture” (p. 4). Overall, a predominance of research studies have focused on wrestling as a theatrical ritual drama in many instances just providing a linear history to trace where wrestling shifted from sport to drama. These studies commonly highlight the dramatic and ritualistic components of wrestling depicting good versus evil. The ritual/dramatic studies are limiting in their explanatory power to unpack what meanings underlie the dramatic staging of performances. Studies that focused on ethnic stereotypes do bring to light racism as one element found in these ritual dramas. Wrestling is viewed by far more than just males from a lower socioeconomic level—it is a family affair. Beyond fans seeing racist images, research has begun to shine the spotlight on masculine performances in professional wrestling. These studies started to invite the concept of “homoerotic” and “gay” performances of masculinities to the dramatic feature of professional wrestling. By reviewing characters that blur the lines of traditional hegemonic masculinity, I recognize that professional wrestling can challenge the dominant gender ideology.

Ban the Cigarette and Save the Youth of Utah: The 1921 Anti-Cigarette Campaign
Katie Clark Blakesley, University of Utah, History Department

The anti-cigarette movement, when fifteen states passed legislation restricting cigarettes and twenty-two other states and territories considered such legislation, was a manifestation of the reformist spirit that characterized the Progressive Era. However, historians have largely ignored the anti-cigarette crusades of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Utah was the last state to pass legislation that outlawed the sale and advertisement of cigarettes and cigarette papers, and did so in 1921.

There is strong evidence that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) coordinated theintroduction of SB 12, the anti-cigarette bill sponsored by Senator Edward Southwick of Lehi. However, the influence of the LDS Church alone does not account for the overwhelming show of support that flooded the Senate and House during the 14th legislative session. Based on preliminary research done in the House and Senate Journals, Deseret News, Salt Lake Tribune, a biography of Edward Southwick, and other primary sources, I argue that SB 12 was successful due to both secular and religious support for this legislation. Important questions to answer: Was support for SB 12 a grassroots movement, a movement led by the LDS Church, or a combination of both? What effect did the recent shift in power in the Utah Legislature from the Democrats to Republicans have on timing and support for the bill? What was the influence of Utah chapters of national groups, such as the Anti Cigarette League and No-Tobacco League? Why did public opinion change two years later?

The Problem of Perceptual Relativity
Diana Buccafurni, University of Utah, Department of Philosophy

One philosophical problem the philosophy of perception attempts to resolve is the problem of perceptual relativity. The problem of perceptual relativity is just this. Physical objects can appear differently from their objective, physical constitution. For example, from a distance, a building that appears brown is really red. Given determinate properties of objects, however, the building cannot be both brown and red. What accounts for these multiple appearances?

Many philosophical theories of perception offer solutions to the perceptual relativity problem including direct realist and representational realist theories of perception. According to direct realist theories of perception, what we perceive is the real, physical object itself, without mediation. According to representational realist theories of perception, we can only be directly aware of representations of real, physical objects, representations that are distinct from the physical objects themselves. On one such representational realist theory of perception, the sense datum theory, what we directly perceive when viewing objects are sense data: mental representations distinct from the physical objects of perception.

According to a direct realist view, perceptual relativity occurs due to some non-standard condition affecting perception. On the sense datum view, perceptual relativity occurs because it is the sense data that possess the perceived properties of physical objects. I will evaluate both explanations of perceptual relativity, concluding that the sense datum theory offers the better explanation of perceptual relativity, despite widespread rejection of this representational account of perception.

Part 1: "So you and me." Part 2: "Do you like him. . . or do you like him, like him?"
Michaela Cannon and Jill Schinberg, University of Utah, Department of Modern Dance

"Collaboration is the process of shared creation - two or more individuals with complementary skills interacting to create a shared understanding that none had previously possesed or could have come to on their own. Collaboration creates a shared meaning about a process, a product, or an event. In this sense, there is nothing routine about it. Something is there that wasn't there before."

-- Michael Schlage

The dance artist is in a perfect position to begin this critical research. Entering into a dance studio, prepared to look inside, to look out the window, and to have the willingness to honestly examine the way the world has marked the body, is a crucial first step. Finding the self crouched amid the social plays of power, and bearing the bravery to then present the findings to the public, begins the work of discovering and representing ourselves as thepeople we really are. The dance studio becomes an examining room where, through the intention of the artist, social constructions may become more magnified and identifiable. It is a place where gestures can be removed from their context,and distilled from their prescribed purpose so they can really be seen. The artist levels the playing field a bit by asking: What do these gestures mean tome? What have these gestures done to me?

You Are What You Read: High Art, Low Art, and the Construction of Gender in Joyce's Ulysses
Kathryn Cowles, University of Utah, Department of English, British & American Literature

I'd like to look at gender-studies issues in James Joyce's Ulysses, particularly as they involve Gerty MacDowell. It's easy to read Gerty as simply the butt of a joke due to her narration's contradictory, cliché-riddled, romance-novel discourse. Pointing out the inconsistencies in her narrator's speech is easy, and often hilarious, work. Conversely, Stephen Dedalus, with his analytical, introspective investigations in "Proetus," seems to be the polar opposite of Gerty in that he is presented as a free-willed human being who creates texts, rather than is created by them, whereas Gerty is highly influenced by low-art texts around her. It's easy to write Gerty off as yet another Joycean joke, incriminated by her own language, while carefully and seriously following Stephen through his philosophic discourse. Yet Joyce actively resists simplistic explanations of characters in Ulysses; surely he means to accomplish more than picking on the intellectually helpless. For instance, his female characters are often tragic and complex when they seem most simple, and Gerty's contradictions and silliness often cover up greater social ills involving the plight of Irish women. Furthermore, Gerty's reliance on low-art texts is hardly limited to the women of the story. Ultimately, I think Joyce enacts a Gerty-like embrace of mutually contradictory beliefs when he teases, yet sympathizes with, all textual influences, all escape plans and fantasies, all narration styles, right along with Gerty's. He seems to say we can laugh at her all we want, but only if we're willing to laugh at him and at ourselves in the process.

Selling Suffrage: The Gaze and Rhetorical Conflict in Woman Suffrage Advertising
Rebecca DaPra, University of Utah, Department of Communication

“Meaning…arises out of a struggle or negotiation between competing motivations and frames of reference at all three levels of production, text and audience.”

--Christine Gledhill [1]

“Struggles over representation contribute to the construction, deconstruction and reforming of the real.”

--Christine Gledhill [2]

Throughout the suffrage movement, the group’s leaders utilized multiple forms of propaganda to garner support for woman’s right to vote. One common practice, advertising, is tightly related to consumerism. The advertisements sought to “sell” woman suffrage ideology to magazine and newspaper consumers, alongside other mass produced products, ranging from corn remover to jewelry (Finnegan 126-132). If we apply feminist film theory, a theory that examines the captured female image offered to the world for public consumption, it becomes evident that suffrage ads simultaneously sold the female image as a sexualized object to be subjected to a controlling patriarchal gaze. This later representation is problematic given the aims of suffrage advertising. This essay will examine the struggle over representation in suffrage marketing and how it contributes to the “construction, deconstruction and reforming of the real” (Gledhill 121).

My examination of this ironic quandary may be broken down into the following four components: I will first give a condensed historical overview of the suffrage movement followed by a brief discussion of the organization’s relationship to consumerism. I will then engage in a theoretical discussion on feminist film criticism to ground my critique of suffrage advertising before I give my analysis of two advertisements linked to, or published by, members of the suffrage movement.

--------------------

[1] Christine Gledhill. “Image and Voice: Approaches to Marxist-Feminist Film Criticism.” Multiple Voices in Feminist Film Criticism. 1998, 120.

[2] Christine Gledhill. “Image and Voice: Approaches to Marxist-Feminist Film Criticism.” Multiple Voices in Feminist Film Criticism. 1998, 121.

Disciplining Theses: Cross-Disciplinary Degree Work
Jenn Fishman, Stanford University, Department of English
Eric Handman, University of Utah, Department of Modern Dance

Since the nineteenth century, when academic disciplines began to take shape, academic study has been driven by the twinned goals of specialization and professionalization: terms that may vary in meaning but invariably shape university structures, curricula, admissions, hiring, and promotions. As graduate students, we encounter disciplinary boundaries at every turn in our educations as we learn to produce knowledge, participate in different intellectual communities, and earn the qualifications of our chosen fields and professions. This panel, “Disciplining Theses,” examines the consequences of doing cross-disciplinary degree work in fulfillment of the requirements of MA, MFA, and PhD programs across the humanities.

The panel is structured to reflect the multi-vocality and collaborative impulse that is often a characteristic of interdisciplinary scholarship. It addresses the challenges of working within and across different humanities departments through a round table format. Five panelists, each working on thesis projects situated in two or more humanities fields--literatures and languages, writing and rhetoric, history, film, and the fine arts--will make 10-minute presentations in which they will discuss their cross-disciplinary theses in relation to one (or more) of three areas: research (e.g. theory, methods, writing), teaching (e.g. preparation, pedagogy), and professionalization (e.g. mentorship, publication, job searches). Presentations will be followed by a discussion among the panelists moderated by the chair, who will then open the floor to participation by members of the audience with the aim of fostering sustained discussion among conference participants.

Spiral Jetty and Systems Theory
Francis Halsall, University of Glasgow, History of Art Department

Complex artworks like Robert Smithon’s ‘Spiral Jetty’ present particular problems to Art Historical method which throw the discipline’s tried and tested methods and limits into sharp relief. And in order to do justice to the complexity of ‘Spiral Jetty’ it is suggested that we adopt an approach which draws on the interdisciplinarity of ‘Systems-Theory,’ and the analysis of the behavioural dynamics of complex systems.

‘Spiral Jetty’ is a complex network of what the discourse of ‘Systems-Theory’ calls ‘Distributed Representation.’ When identified in such as way ‘Spiral Jetty’ is seen as represented by being distributed over the numerous sites of the system of its representation. There is the sculpture (completed in 1970) at Rozel Point in the Salt Lake, the 16mm film Smithson made of the Jetty’s construction, the essay he wrote, the photographs taken, the performance of the Jetty’s construction and also the increasing body of secondary writings, artworks, photographs, websites and so-forth which have built up around the work over the following years.

It is because of this distributed complexity that ‘Spiral Jetty’ resists traditional art historical methods. Thus formal analyses based upon ‘style’ (demonstrated by the approach of both Wölffin’s ‘Art History without names’ and Greenberg’s formal modernism) fall short because they fail to account for the systemic and interdisciplinary nature of the work. Likewise the iconographic method (demonstrated by the approach of Panofsky’s ‘Art History as a Humanistic Discipline’) also fails the work by not accounting for the network of ideas, styles, methods and media from which ‘Spiral Jetty’ appears as an emergent property. It is also suggested that more recent attempts to apply the methods of the post-structural critique within art history (such as those of Craig Owens) are also unsatisfactory in their prioritisation of the textual and hence implicitly iconographic aspects of the work over others.

In conclusion it is stated that a work of art can tell us only what we ask of it. Hence the adoption of a ‘Systems-Theory’ approach within art historical method provides us with a new set of questions to ask of works of art. These questions, which I have addressed throughout my research, include not only how do works of art represent - and in the case of ‘Spiral Jetty’ this is as a complex system; but also how are works of art themselves represented in the complex systems of representation such as art historical discourse, the art gallery and the art market within which they circulate.

In the House
Lynn Kilpatrick, University of Utah, Department of English, Creative Writing

The space of the house has been figured as a prison for women and as the realm of their greatest authority. What does the space of the home represent in contemporary culture? My creative non-fiction piece “Inside the House” explores domestic space, gender and issues of narrative in a fractured text. The piece explores how the space of the house structures and constricts activity, and how the structure of the house is reflected in the narrative. The essay emulates the different spaces of the house and explores their meaning for its inhabitants. How, for instance, does the space of the foyer differ from that of the kitchen? How do architectural structures of both spaces dictate the behaviors appropriate to each? Drawing on theorists of space, as well as narratology, I explore the meanings of domestic space in contemporary culture, and for myself as a woman writer. I will read my essay and I will also be prepared to talk about domestic space in other texts.

Structured Freedom: Revealing the concealed in the works of Wassily Kandinsky and Arnold Schoenberg
Louise D. Lintner, Pennsylvania State University, Interdisciplinary Humanities Program

Kandinsky and Schoenberg shared an aesthetic in which we find two men who were contemporaries in search of the Universal in Art, and two men who also faced the frustration of a public experiencing difficulty in uncovering the deeper meaning in these artists’ works. Even today, the reaction of the general public to Schoenberg’s music is usually one of wincing and a furrowed brow. Many viewers of a Kandinsky painting still want to ask, “What is it?” We find in the writings of Kandinsky and Schoenberg a sense of urgency about their work. They use such words as “essential”, “internal necessity” and “obligation” of the artist. The underlying exigency on the part of the artist is to ultimately present to the viewer or listener what is concealed within the artist’s chosen forms. The paradox is that in order to reveal what is concealed, the revealed is concealed in the art form. Both men developed highly structured theories in order to reconcile heart and mind, intuition and logic or the conscious and the unconscious. Both artist and composer found a sense of freedom in their highly structured approaches to composition. What about the viewer or listener? The viewer and listener will also find a tremendous sense of freedom if they are willing to become drawn into the art. The works of Kandinsky and Schoenberg are very complex. A detailed analysis of Kandinsky’s “Dominant Curve” (1936) explains the degrees or levels of interpretation possible by the viewer.

The Heuristic Process of Concept Formation and Creating Forms of Representation: Creating and Performing Authentic Movement
Stephanie Milling-Robbins, Texas Woman's University, Programs in Dance

The process of authentic movement as a choreographic process is based upon its original use in the discipline of dance therapy. In dance therapy authentic movement is the process of opening oneself and allowing repressed elements of the unconscious to flow into the conscious world. While catharsis is the purpose of the use of authentic movement in dance therapy, its purpose in choreography is to create work that is true to the movement paradigm that is to be expressed by the dancer. Authentic movement is best described as movement that is neither self-expressive nor self-reflective, but movement that expresses ideas through the self; it is the quality of the movement that emerges during experimentation through improvisation in rehearsal, and is incorporated into a choreographed work. After the work is choreographed, the challenge is to preserve the authenticity of the movement as it is performed.

This paper is a qualitative case study of one artist’s experience of working with authentic movement in choreography and performance. Elliot Eisner’s theories of the role of the senses in concept formation and creating forms of representation are applied to the phenomenological data gathered from my interviews with the artist. The process of creating the movement concepts that appear in the art object to be performed—the form of representation--is accomplished through the dancer’s literal and imaginative use of the senses, and the dynamic interchange of the “role of maker” between the dancer and the choreographer.

The Eye/I of a Seer and a Breather: Reflected Eyedentities in Khlebnikov and Duchamp
Cami Nelson, University of Utah, Department of English

Avant-garde artists attacked prior notions of artistic purity and transgressed the boundaries of genre. I propose a study of two avant-gardistes who transgress the boundaries of their respective genres by invoking dimensions of science and math specifically centered on the functioning eye. Velimir Khelbnikov, a Russian poet, and Marcel Duchamp, a French/American visual artist, mirror each other in the aim to challenge the identiry of self, artist, and art.

Khlebnikov figures the word, Duchamp words the figure. The questions that will drive my investigations of these avant-gardistes will include: What does each artist demand of the viewer/reader eye? That is to ask, how does Khlebnikov's demand that the reader see his poetry compare with Duhcamps demand that the viewer read his visual art? How did non-Euclidean geometry and the fourth dimension, in particular, inform and allow their work?

My method of research includes investigations and comparisons of the prolific notes each artist produced in conjunction with his work along with reference to Khelbnikovian and Duchampian scholars who include, among others, Raymond Cooke, Paul Schmidt, Linda Henderson, and Dalia Judovitz. The eye, which serves as the locus of comparsion between Duchamp and Khlebnikov, functions as a diverse entity, ranging from suggestive metaphor to scientific mechanism to four-dimensional object. The diverse ways in which Khelbnikov and Duchamp figure the eye reveal interesting patterns in the avant-garde agenda to rewrite the ways in which people and their eyes approach poetry and visual art.

Rorty and Epistemic Relativism
Mark Olsen, University of Utah, Department of Philosophy

Abstract: Relativism seems to suffer from an inconsistency. Namely, it does not seem possible to simultaneously claim that there is no absolute truth, and hold, at the same, time that the claim that there is no absolute truth is absolutely true. Philosophers sympathetic to relativism try to avoid this problem by qualifying their points of view. One such philosopher is Richard Rorty. Rorty is accused by Hillary Putnam of holding an inconsistent and relativistic position. Rorty counters by insisting that his view does not fall into relativism because he has a criterion for what counts as a good, as opposed to a bad, judgment. However, I show that because Rorty's criterion is an historical criterion, it suffers from the same inconsistency which plagues any relativist. My attack on Rorty begins with a review of the debate between Rorty and Putnam. I also provide an analysis of relativism generally, as spelled out by Harvey Siegel. I finally show why Rorty's "historical" analysis of better judgment falls into the very problems pointed out by Siegel as being endemic of relativism. I conclude that, despite his insistence to the contrary, Rorty is the worst kind of relativist and that his view has all of the problems which relativism implies.

The Progression of Social Science: An Analysis of Positivism, Popper, Lakatos, and Feyerabend
Chris Patterson, University of Utah, Middle East Studies.

Contemporary social scientists predominantly utilize positivist and/or empirical methods to explain social interactions. A.J. Ayer remarked some fifty years after writing his seminal work on positivism, Language, Truth, and Logic, “the most interesting thing about positivism was that we were wrong”. Yet, social scientists continue to preference empirical methods in the analysis of human social and cultural behavior with analyses like rational choice theory, game theory, political economy, economics, statistical modeling, and others. Since Ayer, a number of theorists have elaborated various different theories and methodologies of inquiry. A methodological theorist must understand the theoretical structures with which one builds the method and the limits/benefits that these structures provide. The differences between the structures constructed by different methods display the differences between each theorist’s specific understandings of their ultimate subject, society. An analysis of the weaknesses of positivism and Popper’s methods as applied to the social sciences will display the improved strength of Lakatos and the superiority of Feyerabend’s understandings.

Karl Popper elaborated a theory of scientific methodology delineating deductive logic patterns from general theories with falsification as the method for noting between “real” and “pseudo” science. Lakatos criticizes Popper’s for naively ignoring the contemporary practice of natural science while simultaneously attempting to explain, and ultimately utilize, the pernicious presence of anomalies and ad hoc explanations, nor does natural science practice deduction or falsification. Instead of falsification or positive/negative ad hoc theory genesis, Feyerabend recommends a pluralist counter-inductive logic system in which facts are used to contradict theories and results (Feyerabend/Against Method/20). All methods (scientific, literary, religious, etc. . .) are considered equal in merit, but describe only aspects of the facts in their realms. Utilization of pluralistic methods allows a more complete synthesis of individual facts by comparison across disciplines. Theories are not to be changed unless facts, not hypotheses, disagree (Feyerabend/26). This serves to limit ad hoc explanations (which are usually hypotheses about why certain facts did not fit a theory). Facts are only labeled “good” or “bad” when compared to other methodologies; the results are “good” if the methodologies elaborate new information about a fact and “bad” if the results present no new knowledge (Feyerabend/225-226). Pluralist methods reveal multiple aspects of individual facts which no single method can provide. Feyerabend believes that the research community arrives will ultimately utilize the “good” theories over the “bad” by reaching consensus. This consensus, not falsification or progressive/regressive ad hoc theory generation, represents the point of demarcation as individuals attempt to display the “good” nature of their facts as opposed to other conceptions.

“All theories have their limits” they are not born complete and they constantly evolve as individuals critically examine their theories, find weaknesses, and seek to patch those weaknesses (or replace the theory) then share their knowledge with others (Feyerabend/231). Specifically, a methodological theorist must understand the structures with which one builds the method and the limits/benefits that these structures provide. Feyerabend presents the most self-reflexive and self-critical analysis of his method for natural and social science. His method presents the opportunity to continuously add to our understanding of fact and widen the scope of what constitutes scientific methodology, something which positivist conceptions, current natural science methods, Popper, and Lakatos do not offer.

Horace Fletcher and the Magic of Mastication
Jason Pickavance, University of Utah, Department of English

Next only to Harvey Kellogg, Horace Fletcher was the most popular health advocate of the Progressive Era. He became most known for his theory of chewing, or what he called scientific mastication. Fletcher argued that the key to good health was thorough chewing. One should masticate, Fletcher believed, until the food liquefied and activated the involuntary swallowing impulse. Though it may seem odd to us today, Fletcher’s method (it soon became known as Fletcherising) was one of the most popular health fads of his day. Among those who counted themselves Fletcherisers were John D. Rockefeller, Thomas Edison, Henry James, and Upton Sinclair (who later wrote a book on health promoting Fletcher’s ideas). Something about Fletcher’s method resonated with the American public during the Progressive Era. In my paper, I explore the logic of that resonance. Fletcher’s method reflected a quintessentially progressive vision of efficiency and self-control, a vision more explicitly promoted in other progressive discourses--particularly the work of Frederick Taylor and his efforts to rationalize labor and the physical culture movement with it ideal of the perfect body. Fletcher’s method set the individual against the impersonal forces of industrializing America. In an increasingly modern world, Fletcher located the solution to good health and strict habits of self-control in the individual and his capacity to exercise his will.

Talking With the Land: Signifying and Semiotics in Barry Lopez’s Arctic Dreams
Colby Poulson, University of Utah, Department of English

The land is like poetry: it is inexplicably coherent, it is transcendent in its meaning, and it has the power to elevate a consideration of human life.

--Barry Lopez

Throughout his book Arctic Dreams, Barry Lopez makes reference to the way words often fail to accurately represent things, regularly acknowledging the “inadequacy of…language” (232). However, Lopez also praises the native Eskimos for the way that their language is inseparable from the land and connects them to the land. He argues that, unfortunately, “The European culture . . . has yet to understand the wisdom, preserved in North America, that lies in the richness and sanctity of a wild landscape” (406). This failure is apparent in European, Western language, which tends to separate us from the land by abstracting the land, and this separation usually results in a more harmful relationship with the land. As Gary Snyder argues, Westerners have a tendency to see language as an instrument of control, something that is forever separated from the natural world or the thing that language is meant to represent, and “when occidental logos-oriented philosophers uncritically advance language as a unique human gift which serves as the organizer of the chaotic universe—it is a delusion (“Tawny Grammar” 76-7).

However, though Lopez recognizes that language (especially Western European language) often tends to distance us from nature, Lopez has not lost hope for language. He argues instead that a language which is mutually beneficial to both the landscape and to human beings is possible if we can stop viewing language as simply an abstraction, and start listening to the land, as the natives do, instead of just listening to ourselves. Then, we must use our own language to teach others the importance of communicating with and listening to the land.

The Problem of Painlessness: Why Deep Ecology Won't Work Without a Willingness to Feel
Alf Seegert, University of Utah, Department of English, British & American Literature

Deep ecology's greatest contribution to environmental philosophy consists in the idea of the relational or ecological Self. Proponents of deep ecology argue that our present environmental crisis is fundamentally a crisis of perception, where we mistakenly identify ourselves with our particle-like egos and thereby reduce the rest of the world to the status of "Other" and objecthood, despoiling it in the process. Deep ecology consequently proposes an ontological shift where one instead "identifies widely" with ecosystemic functions and recognizes that relationships are not merely something that we have, but are rather what constitute who we fundamentally are. Proponents of deep ecology argue that this “wider identification” results in spontaneously Earth-friendly behavior because the Earth is understood as a part of one's wider Self.

Making the leap from ego- to eco-consciousness is,
however, not a logical but a psychological
procedure--and a difficult one. In my paper I attempt
to flesh out how we might experience ourselves as
something more than "skin encapsulated egos" by
questioning how we identify ourselves in the first
place. Identifying as an individual body is, I
propose, not something we do because we are
topologically bounded, but rather because our bodies
are primary agents of feedback. Consequently, I argue
that cultivating a wider sense of self can only happen
if we somehow extend our nerve endings “beyond the
skin” and thereby allow ourselves to experience
feedback—which requires a capacity for feeling both
joy and pain. Only in this way will we be moved and
empowered to respond to the injuries our species
continues to inflict upon the natural world.

Can Companion Animal Euthanasia Inform the Debate over Human Euthanasia?
Jessica Taverna, University of Utah, Department of Political Science

Entire books on euthanasia are written without mentioning it. Conferences take place without putting it on the agenda. Debate takes place without discussion of it. “It” is the reality of widespread use of euthanasia as an end-of-life practice for companion animals. Despite its absence from the discourse on human euthanasia, this practice is often discussed in terms strikingly similar to those used in discussion of human euthanasia. The first section of my paper illustrates these similarities as a way of understanding how non-human animal euthanasia practices can enhance debates concerning human euthanasia. The second section asks if there is a moral framework that allows us to make sense of these similarities, as well as to further the validity of a comparison between animal and human euthanasia. If so, what framework would be necessary to provide a meaningful ethical comparison? I argue that similarities in practice and discourse do in fact justify exploration of the moral comparison, but that anthropocentric ethical frameworks do not allow for such a comparison; a non-anthropocentric framework is needed for comparison. The third section of the paper applies Tom Regan’s rights-based theory first to the case of animal euthanasia, and then, by extension, to human euthanasia. My paper will not attempt a thorough defense of Regan’s position. However, it will argue that, if one accepts Regan’s framework, one must accept its justification of companion animal euthanasia, and thus also an implicit justification of voluntary human euthanasia.

From Philology to Philosophy: Constructing Nietzsche's Perspectivism
Joseph W. Ulatowski, University of Utah, Department of Philosophy

An important relationship obtains between Nietzsche's early philology and his later philosophy usually omitted by commentators and critics of Nietzsche's work. Ironically, Nietzsche never received formal training in philosophy; Nietzsche was, in fact, a classical philologist, academically trained as such. The aim of this paper is to expose how Nietzsche's philological training influenced the construction of an important epistemological component of his later philosophy - the perspectival theory of truth. In particular, I will argue that Nietzsche's solution to the antinomy of philology seems to point to his acceptance of a perspectival theory of truth, the view that rejects the very possibility of absolute knowledge transcending all perspectives. The paper shall be divided into three parts. The first part will explain the antinomy of philology and Nietzsche's solution to it. Some aphorisms from Nietzsche's early work, _Wir Philologen_, should provide ample support for the solution to the antinomy. Second, I will show how Nietzsche's solution to the antinomy reflects a second-order hermeneutical analysis, or what I call Nietzsche's concept of "meta-hermeneutics." To clarify Nietzsche's use of the concept of meta-hermeneutics I will briefly review two competing views in philosophical hermeneutics. Finally, I will attempt to bridge the gap between Nietzsche's philology and his philosophy by showing that Nietzsche's concept of meta-hermeneutics led him to adopt a perspectival theory of truth.

The Site of Memorial: Current Discussions in the Negotiation of Memorial Forms and
Spaces Appropriate for the World Trade Center Memorial
Tracy E. Willburn, University of Utah, Department of Communication

The dialogue regarding memorial architectural forms is becoming more energized and more controversial as it considers the "appropriate" form for a final memorial to occupy the site at ground zero where the World Trade Center once stood. This study considers how the civic and social dialogue--carried on through such media outlets as newspapers and web-sites--regarding this eventual memorial is transforming memorial rhetoric and the future architectural forms which will be deemed "appropriate" for memorials. Key to this discussion are issues such as the appropriate use of space, the appropriate form of a memorial, appropriate memorial practices, and who are the appropriate individuals to offer such designations. I argue that these issues are embedded in the visual features of the proposed forms for the World Trade Center Memorial and in the visual features of the "virtual memorials" posted on the web. Clearly, this study is generative is both method, text, and conclusions as this is an active and present debate.

Dark Years Through Colored Lenses: Cinematic Memory and Counter-Memory of Vichy and the Occupation
Robert Young, Xavier University (Ohio), Humanities

This paper focuses on the "mode retro" of French film in representing the years 1940-1944. I argue that rather than expecting a comprehensive or ideological view of the time, filmmakers attempt to focus on an aspect of the occupied zone or Vichy. Too frequently, critics and historians expect a film to do more than it is capable of--to totalize the French experience of wartime instead of shining a light on the reactions of people or institutions. Thus, Truffaut's "Le Dernier Metro" and Malle's "Lacombe Lucien" can be seen as companion pieces in depicting choices that individuals make when faced with extreme situations. Instead, they are often abstracted to the vanishing point and treated as examples of a pendulum swing in mediation.

I treat these two films, in addition to Berri's "Uranus" and "Lucie Aubrac," as reference points in a landscape of choices and barriers to authentic action for characters who had less moral clarity about their situation than we posess in retrospect. Contemporary filmmakers, I argue, turn their lenses on people in contingent situations, using drama to explicate psychological truth. Thus, their films are aids to understanding rather than ethical or historical treatises.

I also attempt to note the consequences of this view for "memory work" in general and to indicate the possibilities of this approach in analyzing memoirs, plays, novels, and historiography itself.