2016 Annual Conference
Marcy 22-25, 2016 • Seattle, Washington
Hotel Sheraton Seattle
The PCA/ACA is highly regarded in academe with well over 3,000 academic oral presentations given internationally, two top-tier journals (The Journal of American Culture and Journal of Popular Culture), and over 3,000 members. This year’s Seattle conference will be exciting, with papers on an enormous array of subjects.
The individuals who comprise the PCA/ACA are a group of scholars and enthusiasts who study popular culture. The PCA/ACA offers a venue to come together and share ideas and interests about the field or about a particular subject within the field. It also provides publication opportunities and sponsors the PCA/ACA Endowment.
The phrase “Popular Culture” is difficult to pin down. The web offers several definitions. Our organization’s list of Subject Areas & Chairs shows the intricacies of the term’s meaning. All of the Subject Areas, as diverse as they are, have as their focus one common denominator–we study all culture, not just those subjects approved by academic tradition.
TUESDAY
Cindy Caldwell
Tuesday, March 22 • 11:30 am
Session #: 1203
The Changing Myth of Mary Magdalene
Most still believe that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute, though there is no evidence to support this branding. Pope Gregory the Great preached this lie in 594 and because it served the overall purpose of the church, the lie stuck. There are other reasons for this false advertising, including undermining the power of the Egyptian Goddess, Isis; the need for the new church to maintain stability; the desire to continue the power of the patriarchy; and the creation of a powerful hierarchy.
There is also the Jungian concept of the Virgin Mary completing the Trinity and enlarging it to a Quaternity. I would offer that Mary Magdalene, as a Master Teacher, First Apostle, and Beloved Companion of Jesus, is actually the one who brings balance to the theology of Christianity and completes the Quaternity.
This paper will explore the varying myths surrounding Mary Magdalene, the scholarship that we have on her and how the recently discovered texts from Nag Hammadi and Cairo show a very different woman than the one portrayed in Biblical Theology. There is the Eastern European myth of Magdalene and the Red Egg; there is the Black Madonna and how some think she is Mary Magdalene, and there is the myth of the marriage between Magdalene and Jesus. This paper will explore these myths, their symbolic power, and how they can bring meaning to our lives today.
Andrea Slominski
Tuesday, March 22 • 11:30 am
Session #: 1203
The Evolving Goddess; “Maiden, Mother, Regent, Crone.”
The Triple Goddess as we know her is a post-modern creation. “Maiden, Mother, Crone,” based on mythological interpretations of Goddesses from ancient traditions, and used as a descriptor for the stages of a woman’s life, is a limiting construct when applied to the continuing development of the contemporary female psyche. Scholars, physicians, and archetypal psychologists see women’s processes of individuation expanding in direct proportion to her lifespan, beyond the three-fold nature of the triple goddess.
Since 1900 a woman’s life span has increased by thirty years, creating an additional stage of life, which I brand Regency, beginning at midlife and continuing until self-designation as Crone. Today, a woman’s midlife experience includes a potentially powerful, physical, creative and spiritual rebirth, resulting in a deepening of the female psyche toward individuation. Women, who experience Regency in their lives, shift to cultivating their own creativity, psyche, and personal development. Women are making some of their greatest contributions to culture after 40.
I propose we are witnessing women’s (and the goddess’) evolution, necessitating a redefinition of women’s midlife, from a deficiency disease to a time of dynamic creativity and ripening. We are blossoming—from three phases into four, from trinity to quaternity. “Maiden, Mother, Regent, Crone,” symbolically constellates— the four stages of a woman’s life—as was foreshadowed in Jung’s model of human psychology. For a mythology and its related archetypes to live in the minds and psyches of humanity, they too must grow, change and adapt with the needs of the changing culture.
Emma Tresemer
Tuesday, March 22 • 3:00 pm
Session #: 1403
The Mouth of God:
Investigating the “Other” Side of Divinity in the Form of the Hungry Monster
Hungry monsters, or “Eaters,” such as Grendel, the Minotaur, and the zombie, can be found in many mythological systems. They are always fundamentally recognizable by what and how they consume: usually the diet is of human flesh, and it is always eaten in a way that elicits a disgust/horror response from those witnessing. They eat without moral or ethical compunction and without physical limitation. Further, they are not “real:” an Eater may stem from an actual origin point in the world, but becomes enlarged to represent something beyond any physical incarnation, thus embodying the archetypal “perfect enemy” that can be killed with moral impunity.
There are two major issues that arise when dealing with Eaters. On the one hand, the hungry monster represents an aspect of divinity as, generally speaking, human-eating monsters have inexplicable and/or divine origins. The other aspect is the side of human nature that sees, projects, and creates the monstrous which then must be destroyed. This presentation looks closely at both of these topics, paying attention to the fundamental question as to where this hunger—both of the monster for human flesh and of the human for the monster’s death—comes from.
WEDNESDAY
Rebecca Diggs
Wednesday, March 23 • 8:00 am
Session #: 2104
Finite Frontiers:
Deadwood and the Myth of the American Dream
As much now as at any other point in human history, myth permeates our world and both reflects and informs our culturally specific beliefs and values. Where creative representations of myth once took the form of cave paintings or fireside storytelling, they now frequently come to life on the myriad screens which populate our environment. Television has assumed the role of the village story-teller, and perpetuates our myths through its gently glowing face.
The short-lived HBO series Deadwood manifests one of America’s most tenacious and dominant myths: the “American Dream.” This is the mythic substrate from which arise such notoriously American characters as capitalism and consumerism, entrepreneurship, get-rich-quick schemes, grifting, grinding, gambling, pioneering, and prospecting. Seen through the lens of Deadwood, this powerful myth, though at times relentlessly brutal, shows itself as the pulsing heart of late nineteenth century American progress, and reminds viewers that it is also a substantial thread that runs throughout American history from the immigration of Europeans through today.
I provide a mythological analysis of Deadwood utilizing mythologist Joseph Campbell’s theory of myth’s four functions: evocation of a humbling metaphysical/mystical awe, offer of an acceptable cosmological understanding, maintenance of sociological laws and norms, and support for psychological harmonization of the individual with the societal, cosmological, and metaphysical realms. These functions so delineated provide a frame through which to sift this television series for its particular mythic elements so viewers may piece together some of the nuanced American Dream mythology therein.
Allison Stieger
Wednesday, March 23 • 9:45 am
Session #: 2103
Taylor Swift’s Temple:
Celebrity Worship and Archetypal Energy in a Social Media Age
In the Golden Age of Greek myth and culture, worshippers visited the temples of their favorite gods, leaving offerings for a favorable outcome in whatever area of their life they might be concerned about at the moment. For example, one might offer fresh flowers to Aphrodite for assistance in a love affair or seduction, or sacrifice a bull to Poseidon to ensure that a business deal conducted across the sea went well.
In this way citizens had a container, as it were, in their relationships with the gods. Gods were capable of holding the archetypal energy of the dealings of humankind. Each god was responsible for a different area of life, so no individual god was expected to satisfy every need of every human being in the populace.
In the modern era we have moved away from a polytheistic religious system. American culture is divided between followers of monotheistic faiths such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and those who have rejected organized religion altogether. Both of these choices fail to address the need for a holding place for the archetypal energy that was once laid at the feet of the gods. However, those energies are still a driving force in culture. Rather than being funneled into god or goddess worship, the social media age has allowed us to deposit that energy elsewhere, in the form of celebrities.
This paper will examine the role that celebrities fill in the daily lives of their fans, and will argue that celebrities are the current “archetypal container” for the god energy that once was held by the gods of polytheistic systems.
Ashland Pym
Wednesday, March 23 • 11:30 am
Session #: 2205
The Future of video Game Narrative
Video games are the cultural scapegoat for violence. Games like Call of Duty are constantly in the news as the (erroneous) reason for gun violence. Unfortunately the vast majority of Americans who do not play games think of Call of Duty as the example that represents the whole of the video game industry. This is untrue in the same way that Rambo does not represent the whole of the film industry. The game industry is a burgeoning narrative medium that is being overlooked culturally and, in many cases, by developers themselves.
We can all agree that video games have an effect on their audience. What we can’t agree on is what that effect is. Most games don’t use their full narrative potential. If they did, they could have a profound beneficial impact. Novels like The Jungle and Uncle Tom’s Cabin affected major cultural change, and films like Star Wars and Citizen Kane helped to shape the cultural psyche. Imagine the potential of the inherent interactivity and deep immersion that comes with game narrative.
Video game narrative, however, is still in its infancy. In my presentation, I will demonstrate what powerful story-driven are doing to create audience engagement and the effect it has on players. Following that with be an examination of Portal and the impact of narrative over storytelling. Using these examples, I will propose several unique strengths that video games have as a narrative medium. Focusing on these qualities will help the industry forward to meet its full potential.
Jody Bower
Wednesday, March 23 • 1:15 pm
Session #: 2020
Re-Storying Movies:
How American Animated Fantasy Films Are Reimagining the Princess and the Prince
Fantasy films often tell the story of how a prince and a princess overcome the obstacles to their eventual marriage. Early fantasy movies typically featured a prince who saved the princess (who sometimes was an ordinary girl who became his princess when he married her) through a heroic act. But in the late 20th century, the princess became a plucky heroine who played as a big a role in defeating the forces of evil as the prince did and then evolved into a warrior in her own right. The hero also underwent a role reversal, often starting out as a rogue or nobody who helped the princess and was later raised to equal status through their marriage. In the 21st century, heroines of animated fantasy films are taking the lead role to themselves, with the hero playing a minor role or absent altogether. Jody Gentian Bower, PhD, author of Jane Eyre’s Sisters: How Women Live and Write the Heroine Story, will discuss how these movies reflect changing cultural attitudes about heroines and heroes.
Priscilla Hobbs
Wednesday, March 23 • 1:15 pm
Session #: 2020
The Storyteller Silenced:
Disney’s Wise Old Man and the Controversy of The Song of the South
In the film, The Song of the South, the plantation workers ask, “What would Uncle Remus do?” marking him as the wise sage who tells life lessons through story. Little Johnny, in need of the guidance of such a Wise Old Man, is magnetically drawn to Uncle Remus, finding in him and his Br’er Rabbit stories a sympathetic role model. This paper proposes to address two major avenues. One is to comment on the charges brought against the film for its portrayal and appropriation of African-American culture, which have led to the “vaulting” of the film and Disney’s refusal to formally release it to the public. The other is to explore the archetypal impact of the silencing of the Uncle Remus, and how this reflects a cultural disconnect from stories and their storyteller.
Dori Koehler
Wednesday, March 23 • 1:15 pm
Session #: 2020
Re-Storying the Franchise:
Disney Myth and the Tradition of Reinterpretation
Traditional mythologies develop their power through continued re-storying of their canon. Mythic characters are ritually positioned for the sake of being re-visited at appropriate times, in appropriate seasons, and for appropriate reasons. This process of re-storying myth allows the community participating in their myths to access, and be transformed by, imagination. In the contemporary American context, we often turn to Hollywood as a container for and purveyor of our archetypal, mythic material. Disney is arguably Hollywood’s most powerful purveyor of myth.
If this is true, an examination of Disney’s project choices proves to be a fruitful topic for discussion. In August of 2015, at the D23’s biannual Expo and answer to ComicCon, Walt Disney Studios hosted an event giving an elated audience a preview of their film releases for the following two years. Out of the twenty-five films scheduled for release, sixteen of them are either remakes or franchise sequels. News of this schedule spread across social media and fan buzz began to develop. The reaction continues to be mixed. Many fans are excited by what they see as successful re-interpretations of classic Disney fairy tales, such as Maleficent and Cinderella. On the other hand come loud critiques of Hollywood’s lack of originality and continued adherence to franchising as a formulaic way to boost profits and bolster an ever-expanding consumer machine. Is either of these correct? As is so often the case, the answer is yes, no, and maybe. If one understands these films as indicative of a larger mythic re-interpretive tradition, a more holistic image emerges, the complexities of which this paper will examine.
Jennifer Selig
Wednesday, March 23 • 1:15 pm
Session #: 2020
Cross-Species Creatures and Contemporary Cross-Species Friendships:
A Psycho-Comical Comparison and Analysis
From the pages of Greek mythology, see the cross-species creatures the chimera and the satyr, the sphinx and the centaur. From the videos of YouTube, see the cross-species friends the baby deer and the kitten, the lioness and the antelope. From the pages of Egyptian mythology, see the cross-species creatures Ammatt and Montu, Horus and Khepri. From the videos of YouTube, see the cross-species friends the tiger and the piglets, the frog and the mouse. Read about the Babylonian Pazuzu, the Native America Deer Woman, the Slavic Simargl, the Scottish Wulver. Watch the elephant and the ram, the cat and the owl, the man and the lion.
This presentation explores our eternal fascination with cross-species creatures which abound in mythology, and draws parallels with contemporary cross-species friendships which flourish on the internet. After taking a humorous romp through the field by viewing some mythic images and a few YouTube videos, the presentation will turn to till more serious psychological ground, exploring first what both these phenomena might have in common, then taking some imaginative leaps and speculating what our love of those adorable cross-species animal videos may be revealing about us now.
THURSDAY
Laura Strudwick
Thursday, March 24 • 8:00 am
Session #: 3029
Ambition, Madness, and Social Climbing in Filth and Macbeth
Can horrific ethical choices catapult one into a descent into madness? Can the psychological consequences of actions born solely of greed and ambition create a state of insanity? Two recent popular film adaptations of literary works provide opportunities to examine these questions: Filth (2013), starring James McAvoy, based on the novel by Irvine Welsh; and Macbeth (2015), starring Michael Fassbender, from Shakespeare’s play. Both protagonists engage in secret violence to manipulate career promotions, a literary device that kicks off their descents into madness. They pursue their greed and ambition, following a downward path into an underworld of hallucinations, delusions of grandeur, and underlying guilt. The resulting fracturing of their psyches brings forth imaginary dopplegangers that manifest as an alter ego and ghost, respectively. Each character’s death severs his tie with his projected double; in fact, in both deaths, a physical severing of the head from the body occurs that throws into relief their final separation from their delusions.
FRIDAY
Susan Rowland
Friday, March 25 • 8:00 am
Session #: 4213
Cooking Mysteries in Seattle, or The Sleuth and the Goddess
This paper, The Sleuth and the Goddess will explore critically neglected ‘cozy’ detective fiction’s “cooking” subgenre, with a focus on an author with a Seattle based series, Mary Daheim. Cozies feel “cozy” because they end in a restoration of a relatively tranquil social group whose values are strengthened by one of their own solving the murder.
Above all, mysteries, even cozy mysteries, are metafictional. If metafiction is fiction about fiction, its resonance in mysteries begins very early in Holmes as the subject of Watson’s ostensible newspaper columns. At a deeper level, cozy metafiction partakes of a mythical and metaphysical level of religious “mysteries.” For cozy metafiction in particular enables the form to structure the promise of solving the greatest mystery of all; that of death.
Metafiction ensures that the drama is simultaneously accepted as fiction. Death is “solved” and “re-solved” by the solution that banishes its ability to poison an essentially recuperable world. The contemporary cooking sleuth is a particularly potent example of divine re-membering of the body through nourishment to body and soul, as I will show.
Ultimately, the cozy cooking mystery has roots in one particular pre-Christian goddess in ways that charge this literary form with the ability to overcome such deep cultural divisions as that between human and non-human nature. For the cooking sleuth proves to be an image that awakens our archaic roots in rituals and mysteries of life and death.
Elizabeth Kingswood
Friday, March 25 • 11:30 am
Session #: 4208
And The Saints Go Marching In:
The Spread of Santeria and the Cuban Queer Diaspora
RuPaul’s Drag Race might not seem like a fitting place to begin a scholarly article, however, one statistic from this reality show that features drag queens is worthy of note. In the five seasons that the show has aired, 60 drag queens have competed from around the US. Of those, eight (13%) have come from Puerto Rico. This is interesting considering that Puerto Rico represents less than 1% of the U.S. population. Why are there so many drag queens in Puerto Rico?
Combine this statistic with a casual comment made by a colleague that during her research interviewing Santeria priests in various New York Botanikas, that there had been an unusual number of gays among the Santeria priesthood.
Is there a connection between these two unrelated observations? Is there some trail that will lead me from Cuba (where the religion commonly known as Santeria developed), to the drag queens of Puerto Rico (where many Cubans fled after the 1959 revolution), to the Botanikas of New York (where we find an interesting number of gay Santeria priests)?
In fact, there is. This paper will examine the diaspora of queer culture that spread, hand-in-hand, with Santeria, as well as the change in Santeria traditions as it made its way through and in response to various less-than-sympathetic cultures. In addition, I will explore the concept of gender not only as it relates to the religious practices of Santeria, but also in how the Santeria divinities, the Orisha, respond to the various modern gender manifestations (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender).
Kate Rittenhouse
Friday, March 25 • 1:15 pm
Session #: 4313
Fairy Tales, Myth, Clinic and Context:
Perspectives on Narcissistic Images of the Self (roundtable)
Amanda Caleb, chair of the Fairy Tale area: The treatment of narcissistic characters in classic European fairy tales largely follows gender divisions: female characters (or characters exhibiting female traits) are punished and are publicly displayed; male characters are challenged and then rewarded. Moreover, female characters are more likely to exhibit narcissistic traits related to body and body image; this gendered representation of narcissism suggests a co-morbidity of both narcissistic personality disorder and body dysmorphia, as shaped by patriarchal structures, and which perpetuate the female pursuit of perfection.
Kate Rittenhouse, chair of the Mythology in Contemporary Culture area: The words narcissism and narcotic are both derived from a Greek verb meaning to become numb. The image of Narcissus starving whilst gazing at his own reflection invites interpretation as a metaphor for the sterile self-absorption of the cellphone selfie. In the myth, Narcissus’ fate was arranged by the goddess Nemesis, as retribution for his refusal to accept or give love. A camera lens is both an eye and a mirror; when the subject of the photo is also the photographer, the gaze is turned entirely inward. The selfie depicts the photographer/subject as the centre of the world, over and over again, endlessly repeating Narcissus’ affront to the principle of eros.
Eric Greene, chair of the Mental Health area: contemporary culture provides an unctuous breeding ground for narcissists. While the upsurge of the symptoms of the diagnosis (Campbell & Twenge, 2009) can be argued to be a result of a variety of contextual factors such as the self esteem movement in education, the rise of social media, the advertising industry and the social construction of desire, the function of greed in capitalism, etc., according to many schools of thought in the psychological and psychiatric community, the diagnosis refers to a very specific set of symptoms which result primarily from early childhood problems. This portion of the panel will focus on how various theorists and schools of thought define the illness and interpret its etiology.
Carol-Ann Farkas chair of the Medical Humanities area: Self-help, self-improvement, self-promotion, and self-absorption: we have come to inhabit an environment where we willfully sacrifice privacy, and hopelessly old-fashioned values such as modesty and humility, in exchange for a fantasy of attention, validation, and wide-spread adoration. Celebrities–particularly women–perform the role of fairy-tale princesses, the embodiment of sexualized desire, achieved through a sorcerous mix of sacrifice, potions, and exacting, disciplined rituals. Popular and social media serve as enchanted mirrors, showing us a reflection of ourselves overlaid with visions of all that we can be if we wish, dream (and work, and network) hard enough. We are all potentially princesses, if we’re willing to make the ill-fated, enchanted bargain to give up that which is most precious in exchange for youth, beauty, and love.
