Theory & Genre Interplay

"Teleporting Blindspots: Remix and Postcolonial Neglect in HBO’s Watchmen."

As Eduardo Navas’s recent work in codifying “Remix Theory” has established the subversive potency of reinterpreting existing cultural artifacts, the question remains how much that subversion may be mitigated by the biases inherent to the relevant preexisting content. This paper explores that delicate balance of subversion and inheritance through the lens of HBO’s 2019 television series Watchmen, a cultural product uniquely relevant for this field of study. Adapting source material that itself remixed and subverted the power dynamics typical to the superhero genre, Watchmen is at once a display of the power and limitations of any single iteration of remix, as it successfully reinterprets the source material to address issues of US racial inequality even as it falters when expanding that vision of inequality beyond US borders. This paper argues that the post-colonial insufficiencies of this iteration of Watchmen, especially in regard to the underexplored alternative-reality annexation of Vietnam, are a function of the limitations inherent to any single iteration of a remix, and it consequently advocates for an expansive vision of remix—one focused on a continuous process of subversion rather than the production of a discrete cultural artifact.

Read Adam Byko's essay below.

"'Exit, pursued by a bear':
Absurdity and Metatextuality in Shakespeare’s Late Romances."

In this essay, I examine the textual elements in two of Shakespeare’s late romances – specifically The Winter’s Tale and The Tempest – and determine what causes them to become uniquely metatextual works in Shakespeare’s corpus. For The Winter’s Tale, I focus on the play’s odd structure and the purpose of the seemingly random bear that functions both as a divider and a harbinger of pure absurdity. With The Tempest, I focus on the character of Prospero, finding parallels between his god-like actions and Shakespeare’s own emotions when staging a play. I conclude by explaining how The Tempest – despite its fantastical setting and plot – represents one of Shakespeare’s most self-consciously personal plays. Throughout the essay I stress the importance of viewing Shakespeare’s plays through a non-traditional lens, and explain how looking at these works in this way can reveal more about Shakespeare’s personal feelings on drama. Ultimately, I conclude that these plays represent a definitive break from Shakespeare’s earlier plays, taking him into a more self-aware and knowingly playful territory.

Read Anthony Garcia's essay below.

"From Jesus to Martin Luther: A History of Christian Anti-Judaism."

Early Christian writers and the authors of the gospels and Paul’s letters, attempting to separate early Christianity from Judaism, inadvertently created a foundation for anti-Judaic texts. I argue antagonistic language towards the Jewish people increases throughout the chronology of the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke). However, it is not until the gospel of John and Paul’s letters that Christianity begins to use its own language to propagate a uniquely Christian ideology. This unique Christian language also brings fierce competitiveness between Christianity and Judaism. Early Christian writers (post-New Testament authors), who laid the foundation for Christian theology and interpretation, kept to these short-standing traditions of anti-Judaic competitiveness, and writers like Marcion, Tertullian, and Justin Martyr created the first pieces of church doctrine to be carried into the Middle Ages. Christianity’s domination of both religion and politics in the Middle Ages allowed anti-Judaism to flourish throughout the West. However, no text has built upon this foundation, or brought it into the modern era, more successfully than Martin Luther’s On the Jews and Their Lies (1543). Luther, the father of the Protestant Reformation, is hailed as a German and Christian hero. However, his texts served (and still serve) as a blueprint for modern anti-Judaic and antisemitic language and action, but Luther’s use of anti-Judaic language did not begin with his own works. Luther extrapolates his argument from the New Testament, early Christian writers, and the Catholic Church of the Middle Ages.

Read Michael Parrish's essay below.