Program

9:30     WELCOME AND OPENING REMARKS
             Dr. Yin Liu, Head, Department of English
9:35 - 10:45    PANEL 1: ETHICS AND RELATIONS
                        Chair: Dr. Cynthia Wallace, Associate Professor, Department of English
The Influence of John Locke’s Economic Philosophy on Aphra Behn’s Justification of Slavery in Oroonoko
Seth Loeppky
The end of the eighteenth century in England saw the rise of a progressive political ideology that argued for the economic justification of slavery and colonization. Scholar Laura J. Rosenthal claims that Behn resisted this ideology; my analysis demonstrates, however, that Oroonoko (1688) conforms to it.
Adelaide Procter’s Criticism of Victorian British Marriage Culture in “The Bride’s Dream” and “Philip and Mildred”
Billy Arthur
Adelaide Procter’s poems “The Bride’s Dream” and “Philip and Mildred” illustrate different stages of love and marriage through the eyes of British women. Writing in Victorian England and from a Roman Catholic perspective, Procter comments on how the social expectations and laws surrounding marriage limit women’s autonomy.
Inamorati, Information, and Identity: Conspiracy and The Greek Way Bar in Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49
Erin Paulhus
In Pynchon’s novel The Crying of Lot 49 (1966), Oedipa’s encounter in a gay bar with a man who has sworn off love is a roadblock in her quest to unravel the Trystero conspiracy, but the episode reveals how the novel’s pervasive sense of paranoia relates to romantic relationships and queer identity.
The Power of Subjectivity: A Humble Perspective on Attention in Mary Gordon’s Simone Weil in New York
Matthew Rempel
In this 2014 novella, Mary Gordon unites the real-life, titular French thinker with a fictional group of eclectic friends. Each interacts with the complicated philosopher differently, but the American couple Joe and Lily stand out for their lack of preconceptions. Through their surprising interactions with Weil, they represent the benefit of authenticity in how we interact with others.
10:45-11:10   REFRESHMENT BREAK (RIVER ROOM)
11:10-12:10    PANEL 2: BOUNDARY CROSSINGS
                        Chair: Dr. Tristan B. Taylor, Lecturer, Department of English
The Relation of William Marshal’s Chivalric Virtue to Literary Medieval Knights                         
Jettsun Leier                                                                                                                                   
William Marshal was a twelfth-century knight whose life embodied the ideals of chivalric virtue. This paper analyzes the representation of virtue across the boundary between fiction and fact, arguing that as a model of virtue the real-life Marshal is equal to or greater than knights of legend such as Lancelot, Gawain, and Yvain.
Object and Practice: Creative Labor in Ondaatje’s In the Skin of a Lion                                         
Bailey Schaan
Throughout In the Skin of a Lion (1987), Michael Ondaatje portrays forms of labour that blur the boundaries between work and art, and thus between high and low culture. In blurring these boundaries, Ondaatje expresses how such forms of labour are worthy of celebration, but also how they reveal brutal aspects of capitalist society.
The Tragic Heavy Weight of Boredom: Watanabe’s Cowboy Bebop and Aristotle’s Poetics       
Mikayla McDougall                                                                                                                       
Shinichirō Watanabe’s critically acclaimed animated series Cowboy Bebop (1997) brilliantly merges Postmodernist stylistic features and themes with Aristotle’s ideal “Complete Tragedy” in Poetics. Aligning unconventional work like Watanabe’s with the venerated classics of Aristotle brings to light diverse and interesting branches of Postmodernism.
12:10    CLOSING REMARKS
Dr. Dawn Wallin, Associate Vice-President Research (Engagement), University of Saskatchewan

Panelists

 

Bailey Schaan

Bailey Schaan (she/her) is in the final year of her B.A. (Honours) in English, with a minor in History. She is planning to begin an M.A. degree this coming fall in the field of contemporary Canadian women's writing.

Billy Arthur

Billy Arthur is finishing their undergraduate degrees in Honours English and Psychology, with interests in poetry and human development. They intend to continue their studies at the graduate level with Social Work.

Erin Paulhus

Erin is currently completing her Honours B.A. in English, along with a French minor and a certificate in French-English Translation. She is particularly interested in studying intertextual uses of Shakespeare in contemporary Canadian literature and enjoys playing the flute in the U of S Wind Orchestra and hanging out with the English Undergraduate Society.

Jettsun Leier

Jettsun Leier is a fourth-year undergraduate student at the University of Saskatchewan. He is happy to be here. Thank you for attending.

Matthew Rempel

Matthew Rempel is currently completing his Honour’s English degree. Alongside an interest in creative writing and theatre, he plans on continuing his studies at the graduate level.

Mikayla McDougall

Mikayla McDougall is an aspiring author and sometimes poet in the process of completing her undergraduate Honors English degree with a minor in History. She greatly enjoys studying mythologies and legends, anything from Arthur’s Round Table to Mount Olympus.

Seth Loeppky

Seth Loeppky is finishing his undergraduate English degree at the University of Saskatchewan, with an interest in seventeenth to nineteenth-century British literature. He plans on starting his career in communications once he is done with his degree with the possibility of one day returning for grad school.