FACS - Florida Atlantic Comparative Studies

Abstract

IN THIS ISSUE:
Foreword
EMMANUEL ALVARADO
Artist’s Commentary
CYNTHIA ZAITZ
Indelible Ink of the Palimpsest: Language, Myth and Narrative in H.D.’s Trilogy
MICHELE BRAUN
Mary-ing Isis and Mary Magdalene in “The Flowering of the Rod”: Revisioning and Healing Through Female-Centered Spirituality in H.D.’s Trilogy
JULIE GOODSPEED-CHADWICK
Rethinking the Maya: Understanding an Ancient Language in Modern Linguistic Terms
RHIANNA C. ROGERS
Monarch of All I Can Sway: “Crusoeing” Alongside Oscar Wilde’s “The Decay of Lying”
VAL CZERNY
Mina Loy’s Design Flaws
COLBEY EMMERSON REID
Form and Function in the Social Perception and Appreciation of Web Sites
EMMANUEL ALVARADO

In Of Cigarettes, High Heels, and Other Interesting Things: An Introduction to Semiotics, Marcel Danesi, Professor of Semiotics and Communication Theory at the University of Toronto, emphasizes the paradoxical nature of culture, for members of every culture are at once those confined by its boundaries and the eventual agents of its change. Throughout history, Danesi explains, we can cite examples of the human tendency “to become restless for new meanings, new messages” (45). A comparative study of literature and the arts will reveal this tendency and its inherent paradox as it is manifested in the evolution (and revolution) of culture that occurs when the very boundaries of a given culture and its people are stretched and reshaped as new forms and accompanying theories emerge, often creating tension in their dismissal of the old. In people’s search for knowledge and understanding, we find those in pursuit of innovation and novelty, as well as those in support of tradition.

The editors of the interdisciplinary journal Florida Atlantic Comparative Studies invite submissions on any aspect of this topic for its Volume #12. The deadline is December 12, 2009. FACS is an interdisciplinary journal providing a forum for comparative study in the arts, humanities, language, culture and social sciences. Submissions in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish are welcome. Graphic submissions are also welcome.

Papers should be no more than 25 pages or approximately 7,000 words, and should follow the most recent MLA guidelines. A separate title page should include the author’s name and address. The author’s name should not appear on the manuscript pages to allow for blind review.

Send two hard copies and a CD of the manuscript to
FACS Editor
Department of Languages and Linguistics
Florida Atlantic University
777 Glades Road
P. O. Box 3091
Boca Raton, FL 33341-0991

E-mail submissions should be sent to facs_at_fau.edu. All electronic versions should be submitted in Microsoft Word.

About the Author

Emmanuel Alvarado earned his Master of Arts in Spanish and Latin American Studies and is currently completing a Ph.D. in Comparative Studies at Florida Atlantic University. Additionally, Mr. Alvarado also holds a Master of Science in Finance from the Instituto Superior de Tecnicas y Practicas Bancarias in Madrid, Spain. His current research concentrations include economic liberalization and integration, socio-economic inequality and social policy, migratory patterns and globalization. In 2007, Emmanuel Alvarado received the Lifelong Learning Society Fellowship for his research on North American economic liberalization and social inequality.

Michele Braun is a doctoral candidate in British Literature at Nor-theastern University. Her dissertation explores the relationship be-tween technology and notions of representation and inclusion as they emerge in the twentieth and early twenty-first century. She also is interested in the way mythology continues to inform literary production in a wide range of genres, including film and science fiction.

Val Czerny is currently an instructor of English Composition and Literature at Florida Atlantic University, where she is also a PhD candidate in the Literatures, Literacies, and Linguistics Program in Comparative Studies. Her dissertation topic, focusing on writing that reflects childhood roamings and “lunar” affinities with the feminine principle, is an exploration of the wild side of the imagination and its emergence in writing that risks expression outside the dominant realm of language. With a focus on nineteenth-century British and American literature and a concentration in gender studies, Val envisions new realities emerging through writing that speaks from the non-tame realm of the unbridled imagination.

Julie Elaine Goodspeed-Chadwick is an Assistant Professor of English at Indiana University-Purdue University in Columbus, Indiana. She graduated with her Ph.D. from Ball State University in 2007 and held her first professorship at Nicholls State University in Louisiana. Her research and teaching areas include transatlantic modernism, women and literature, literary theory, and gender and ethnic studies. She has a dozen articles published in journals that are indexed in the Modern Language Association International Bibliography, and the majority of this work focuses on issues pertaining to identity construction and trauma. Currently, she is working on a project that treats identity politics and war in the work of modernist women writers.

Colbey Emmerson Reid is an Assistant Professor of English at York College of Pennsylvania. She earned her PhD from the University of Washington in 2003 and currently researches the role of the mistake in modernist aesthetics.

Rhianna C. Rogers is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in Comparative Studies from Florida Atlantic University with concentrations in Mesoamerican History and Historical Archaeology. She holds a M.A. degree in History with concentrations in Latin American and Southeastern Native history. Her research utilizes both archaeological research and historical documentation in order to illustrate both the transformation and resilience of pre-Columbian indigenous roles in the Spanish colonial era. Ms. Rogers is currently the Department Chair of General Education at South Florida Bible College.

Cynthia Zaitz, cover artist, is a doctoral candidate (ABD) in Comparative Studies (Fine and Performing Arts). She will graduate from Florida Atlantic University in May of 2009.