The Cupola 2015

The title of our online undergraduate research journal references the architectural feature that tops Trible Library, thus honoring Cupola authors as the preeminent student researchers at CNU.

In support of its mission, CNU's Undergraduate and Graduate Research Committee (UGRC) honors and promotes up to six outstanding student research papers by publishing them in The Cupola. Student researchers published in The Cupola receive a cash award supported by the Douglas K. Gordon Endowed Undergraduate and Graduate Research Fund.

Submissions are judged based on:

• integration of research

• originality / creativity

• rhetorical qualities / style

• advancement of liberal learning

The Cupola Award is presented to students whose research papers were selected from the top papers submitted to the Undergraduate and Graduate Research Committee. Winners receive $500 and their paper published in The Cupola, CNU’s web based journal for undergraduate research. The top papers received the Douglas K. Gordon Cupola Award.

Research is the essential element of the scholar's craft. It is the means by which scholars pay forward into the fund of human knowledge the debt owed to their predecessors. At its best, research honors the past while enriching the future.

Dr. Richard M. Summerville CNU Provost 1982-1995, 2001-2007

2014 – 2015

“ 'Who…Or What…Is He?': The Evolving Role of Popular Culture

in

Diplomatic Relations from the 'Yellow Peril' of the Late 1800s to the Early Years of the Cold War”

by Oliver Thomas

“Othered” Child Protagonists and Helpful Monsters

by Rachel Condon

sponsored by Dr. Jean Filetti (Department of English)

Author Biography

Rachel Condon is a student of English with a concentration in writing. The creation and telling of stories are among her greatest passions, and few stories interest her as much as those featuring the fantastic. She was the kid who went looking for monsters in the woods and found them in books (and maybe has not quite given up on the woods yet, either). Her alma mater is Atlee High School and is about to be Christopher Newport University. She aspires to be an author and write all the books she wishes she had had growing up.

Abstract

Eddie, from Adler’s Eddie’s Blue-Winged Dragon, is “othered” because of his cerebral palsy. He is preyed upon by school bullies and an ableist teacher. His monstrous ally is a dragon that embodies his desire for strength and beauty as well as his anxieties regarding communication and control. Brendan is the protagonist of Moore’s The Secret of Kells, and he is the only child monk in the abbey. He is made to feel inadequate and powerless by his overbearing uncle, and is not permitted to pursue his own interests. The fairy Aisling, though at first lethally threatening and always wild, becomes his playmate and encourages Brendan’s artistic endeavors. The tree-like monster of Ness’ A Monster Calls is a thing that walks between waking and dreaming and it comes for Conor, a boy isolated in part due to his mother’s cancer. He is harassed by a bully and failed by his father. Only with the monster’s help can he begin to put his life back together, and that depends on surviving his final encounter with it.

To be a child or teenager is a vulnerability based “otherness.” This vulnerability can be exacerbated by other circumstances, like disability, abuse, or trauma. In the story of the “othered” child protagonist and the helpful monster, the child begins the story in a disempowered and marginalized space s/he is “othered” during her/his greatest feelings of helplessness, s/he encounters her/his monster the ultimate expression of “the other” and through interaction with this greater “other,” s/he becomes empowered, and her/his feelings of marginalization decrease.

There is a story-type that is not uncommon which deals with the powerless, marginalized human “other” and the helpful but dangerous, monstrous “other.” Perhaps the best “real” example is the Jewish legend of the golem, but the theme has found its way into many contemporary stories, too, particularly in those for children and young adults. There is something appealing in the story of the abused outlier and the creature of superhuman power. One particular variety of tales has become rather popular: the story of the “othered” child protagonist and the helpful monster. In these stories, the child protagonist begins the story in a disempowered and marginalized space he or she is effectively “othered” at the point of his or her greatest feelings of helplessness, he or she encounters his or her monster the ultimate expression of “the other” and through interaction with this greater “other,” he or she gradually becomes empowered, and his or her feelings of marginalization decrease. The texts Eddie’s Blue-Winged Dragon (Alder, 1988), The Secret of Kells (Moore, 2009), and A Monster Calls (Ness, 2011) all fall within this story-type. To help support the above theory, some relevant citations from “Monster Culture (Seven Theses)” by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen and “The Monster Chronicles: The Role of Children's Stories Featuring Monsters in Managing Childhood Fears and Promoting Empowerment” Michelle Alison Taylor have been included. Though Cohen’s and Taylor’s texts were used most often, there is further support found in On Monsters: An Unnatural History of Our Worst Fears by Stephen T. Asma, "In and Out of Otherness: Being and Not-being in Children's Literature"

by

Rosemary

Ross Johnston, Strangers: Gods and Monsters by Richard Kearney, and “Swaddling the Child in Children's Literature” by Joseph

Zornado.

Humanity has made a habit of hating and fearing that which it does not understand. This fear and hatred can lead to the marginalization the “othering” of individuals who are somehow unlike the majority (or a sizable and powerful minority) of their peers. These differences can be ability, age, temperament, or virtually any other trait or circumstance. Almost without exception, these “others” are either already without power or they are stripped of it. Outside of their former communities (or inside communities than cannot or will not protect them) and impotent, these “others” are quite frequently preyed upon by stronger and better integrated individuals. Among the most vulnerable of these “others” are those that are children and teenagers. Children and teenagers are physically weaker than adults, are not as developed mentally or emotionally, and are not given the same social status. These vulnerabilities are compounded when accompanied by another marginalized trait, such as disability, or another isolating condition, such as family troubles.

Yet there is another sort of “other” which, though just as hated and feared as the outlier mentioned above, is far from powerless. The monster has haunted human thought for as long as humans have existed. It takes many shapes and has many meanings, but it is always alien. The monster is the ultimate “other” and at the same time a hybrid space personified. A monster is never just one thing. Whether not animal nor human, not living nor dead, or not plant nor beast, monsters are all liminal beings. They walk a razor’s edge between binaries that human minds believe to be absolute. This trait can be as liberating as it is horrifying, as it offers a third option to

choosing between two apparently mutually exclusive identities. Most of all, monsters are powerful, and it is a power that impotent human “others” crave. Sometimes, they want it badly enough to call upon (or perhaps make) their own monsters.

Monsters rarely seem to appear when child protagonists are at their strongest, and almost never before the child has become a n “other.” Rather, monsters seem to come only at one’s darkest hour (literally or figuratively). They show up when the “othered” child protagonist is already beaten down by a bully, or a disability, or an overbearing guardian, or any number of troubles. The outcast child protagonist is at his or her lowest, and often loneliest, when his or her monster appears to him or her. A young outlier who is unable to overcome the obstacles of his or her everyday life does not have much in the way of a chance of surviving the arrival of a monster. On the other hand, a child “other” who is able to survive the arrival of a monster has a very good chance of overcoming the obstacles of his or her everyday life. If he or she can survive the monster, he or she can survive the abuse, his or her “otherness,” anything. This is the way of the story of the “othered” child and the helpful monster: he or she begins the story in a disempowered and marginalized space and when he or she is most helpless, his or her monster appears. Through interaction with the monster (the greater “other”) the “othered” child protagonist becomes empowered and his or her feelings of “otherness” decrease.

To be clear, interaction with the monster need not involve slaying it (in fact, it usually does not). The child protagonist c an survive his or her supernatural interaction by taming his or her monster, making a deal, winning its friendship, or a combination of the above. Through interaction with a being of such immense power and astonishing “otherness” as a monster, the child protagonist finds his or her own power and humanity (non-otherness; non-monstrousness), and walks away from the encounter stronger than before. He or she is now strong enough to stand up to perceived limitations, an overbearing guardian, or enormous loss.

The word monster is today used for all manner of things. A monster may be a particularly large animal, a person who has committed great evil, or a thing that lurks beneath a child’s bed at night. For the purposes of this essay, monster will be defined as a powerful and dangerous nonhuman being. The monsters encountered by the child protagonists in the analyzed stories are very different. The monsters are different because the child protagonists and their trials are different, and they therefore need different things from the monsters they encounter. Whatever power a given monster has, danger it poses, and hybrid traits it has are related to the desires or anxieties (or both) possessed by the child protagonist it encounters. Each monster is effectively custom -made for its child protagonist (or, each child protagonist is custom-made for his or her monster).

As with many story-types, the story of the marginalized child protagonist and the helpful monster follows a pattern. The child protagonist is aware of his or her “otherness” and the accompanying isolation and impotency, and it is at this point when the monster arrives. The monster’s first appearance presents itself as something threatening and uncontrollable, which marks it as a different sort

of being than the powerless child protagonist. At the same time, the monster’s “otherness” is made apparent. At the first interaction’s conclusion, the monster and the child protagonist come to an agreement that temporarily deflects any possible danger posed by the monster away from the child protagonist. The nature of the agreement depends on the intelligence of the monster and may be as complex as a deal or as simple as a reciprocated gesture of goodwill. After the agreement has been made, the monster will aid the child protagonist in some way (though this aid may have terrible consequences). There will be further interactions between the monster and child protagonist, frequently after instances where the child protagonist’s “otherness” has caused him or her trouble. The climax of the story involves the child protagonist overcoming a great obstacle with minimal or no help from the monster. In his or her triumph over the obstacle, the child protagonist comes into his or her own strength and no longer feels marginalized or impotent. Eddie, the child protagonist of Adler’s Eddie’s Blue-Winged Dragon, is a sixth-grader who is “othered” due to his cerebral palsy. Though he may be “picked last or not at all” for teams in gym class, it isn’t because other students are unaware of him (Adle r 60).

Cerebral palsy, or C.P., is a distinctive condition that causes physical disability. “Everybody in the school knew him [Eddie]. . . . having cerebral palsy made him ‘outstanding’” readers learn early in the story (Adler 12). Not all Eddie’s peers treat him poorly, but “it gall[s] him” to realize that some people “[don’t] think he [is] normal” because he happens to be disabled (Adler 132). Substitute gym teachers excuse him from activities “Without being asked” (Adler 131). Neighbors won’t “trust a kid with cerebral palsy to babysit” despite Eddie’s skill, and his best friend’s father asks Eddie’s friend if “a cripple [is] the best [he] can do for a friend” (Adler 16, 20). Eddie’s disability marks him, in the world’s eyes, as deficient or lesser.

The child-hero of Moore’s The Secret of Kells, Brendan, has a problem similar to Eddie’s. He is a young monk living within the confines of a walled-in monastery in medieval Ireland. Brendan is the only child monk at Kells, and is addressed simply by his first name rather than as Brother Brendan. The only two characters who acknow ledge his status as a monk are his uncle, Abbot Cellach, and Brother Aiden, the master illuminator and Brendan’s mentor (Moore Ch. 1, 2). The other, adult monks will occasionally poke fun at Brendan. While this is never done with any obvious malicious intent, Brendan’s facial expressions indicate quiet annoyance (Moore Ch. 1, 2).

There are children within the abbey walls that are roughly Brendan’s age, but he is not seen playing or interacting with them . He is a monk and he therefore has different responsibilities than those of his age-mates. However, he is also a child and is so regarded by his adult peers. Brendan is “othered” because he is in two apparently conflicting socially prescribed categories. He cannot fit in with the other monks because he is a child. He cannot fit in with the other children because he is a monk.

Brendan’s strict and solemn uncle runs the monastery and oversees the building of its massive walls, and he provides another trial for Brendan. Abbot Cellach intends for Brendan to run the monastery someday, and has little patience for Brendan’s childish failings. He demands much of his nephew and is unintentionally abusive, having either a task or a reprimand for Brendan nearly every time they meet. Cellach wants Brendan to focus on helping to build the walls, but Brendan is more interested in the work of the illuminators. He regularly gets into trouble for shirking other duties to help in the scriptorium. Cellach attempts to shape Brendan into the heir Cellach wishes Brendan to be rather than allow Brendan to develop his own skills and interests. To do this, Cellach relies primarily on the sort of psychological manipulation Joseph Zornado, a literature professor at Rhode Island College, calls “modern forms of swaddling” with the purpose of “breaking . . . the child’s will so that adults may form the child in their own image” (105-6). Cellach refuses to allow Brendan to follow his own interests and doesn’t make allowances for his natural impulse to play. Cellach also silences Brendan by cutting him off, even after Cellach has told his nephew, “I’m listening” (Moore Ch. 5). This last behavior appears to be a variation of what Zornado calls “befuddlement” which is “a process of confusion” created by contradiction (105). Claiming to be willing to listen to a child before interrupting him or her is just such a befuddling contradiction. Abbot Cellach exacerbates rather than alleviates Brendan’s feelings of isolation and “otherness.”

Conor O’Malley is the child protagonist of Ness’ A Monster Calls, and his sense of “otherness” is even greater than Brendan’s. He is “othered” because his mother has advanced cancer and his peers don’t know how to deal with that. After Conor’s (former) best friend, Lily, “told a few of her friends about Connor’s mum [having cancer]” word quickly got around school and “All of a sudden, the people [Conor had] thought were his friends would stop talking when he came over . . . He’d catch people whispering as he walked by . . . Even teachers would get a different look on their faces” (Ness 68). The school bully, Harry, begins harassing Conor after Conor “start[s] having the nightmare, the real nightmare . . . with the screaming and the falling, the nightmare he would never tell another living soul about” (Ness 19). The secret of the nightmare is what isolates and “others” Conor most of all, because it is an internalized “otherness.” Eddie does not feel bad for having C.P., nor does Brendan feel wrong for being a child monk. These are traits that prove inconvenient and alienating at times, but they do not cause the possessor to feel sinful the way Conor’s dream does. Conor is struggling with thoughts and emotions that make him feel like he is a monster.

People once considered the disabled monsters and subhuman beings (Asma 15). In Eddie’s time, some people just treat the disabled like monsters. In addition to the physical limitations and speech difficulties caused by his disability, Eddie has to deal with an ableist teacher and a trio school thugs. The readers first meet Eddie when he is mugged on his way to class by the school bullies Darrin, Richard, and Mack (Adler 10-12). When Eddie finds a dragon figurine in his best friend’s father’s pawn shop the next day, however, it changes everything.

A dragon is an “other,” a hybrid being. European dragons appear to be reptiles, which are more closely related to birds than mammals, but they have bat-like wings. One would suppose they would be cold-blooded, yet they breathe fire. Eddie’s dragon goes a step further by being an inanimate thing that becomes an animate creature. It is also fragile (having glass wings) in its inanimate state, but powerful when it is animate. The night after purchasing the dragon, it appears to Eddie in a dream with its “blue wings now as big as a hawk ’s . . . the brass body writhe[s] in snaky, sinewy curves . . . eyes, like red embers” (Adler 33). The dragon’s description sharply contrasts with Eddie’s, a boy critical of the way C.P. has shaped his body. Eddie is painfully aware “of his bum arm and leg” (Adler 24). He is also distressed by his “distorted mouth and droopy lip,” which he thinks is “revolting” (Adler 80). Appearances are not all that concern Eddie, and he often laments his physical weakness when suffering Darrin’s abuse. While briefly indulging in a fantasy, Eddie imagines “How great it would be if just once he could be strong enough to knock Darrin down” (Adler 32). Monsters do not always represent a child protagonist’s fear as Michelle Alison Taylor, occupational therapist and arts student, explains “[a] monster can be a metaphor for power and passion . . . children can love these terrifying creatures because they can also be comforted by them” (5-6). Eddie’s dragon is described as something powerful and awesome, a creature in full possession of the strength and grace Eddie craves.

There are two aspects of the dragon that reflect anxieties of Eddie’s rather than desires. The dragon has a fiery temper and is mute.

Eddie knows that he has an “explosive” temper and that his C.P. affects his speech (Adler 125). Sometimes in times of stress, the words he speaks “come out mush” (Adler 77). The dragon displays Eddie’s faults in distorted extremes. It embodies the threat of destructive rage and the loss of language at the same time that it promises liberating strength and terrible beauty.

Brendan meets his monster when Brother Aiden arrives at Kells with the Book of Iona, a book so beautifully illuminated that B rendan calls it “The work of angels” (Moore Ch.3). Brendan eagerly volunteers to help Aiden any way he can. At Aiden’s request, Brendan is persuaded to leave the walls of Kells and venture into the nearby wood for ink berries. It is there that Brendan encounters A isling.

The gender of Aisling, the helpful monster of The Secret of Kells, is never specified within the film and this is a very important detail. While Aisling can easily be read as genderqueer or otherwise of a non-binary gender, English lacks singular pronouns that are not gender specific. Aisling is likely a femandrogyne. Femandrogynes are not female, but they are more feminine than masculine. For simplicity’s sake, feminine pronouns will be used when referring to Aisling.

Aisling is a fairy, and unlike Eddie’s dragon, of human intelligence (Moore Ch.4). She has superhuman strength, the ability to climb sheer surfaces, shape shift (into a salmon, deer, and wolf), communicate with animals and the forest, and cast spells with her song and breath. Aisling is everything wild and untamable, and she claims the forest as her domain. She is both alluring and repellant to Brendan when the two first meet, for Aisling has both the absolute freedom he craves and is terrifyingly unpredic table. While she and Brendan are having their first conversation, Aisling continues to move about at impossible speeds (Moore Ch.4). Brendan can’t even look at who he’s talking to for long. Aisling is very much an “other” being: “difference made flesh…an incorporation of the Outside, the Beyond” (Cohen 7). Like all monsters, she is a liminal being that “refuses easy categorization” (Cohen 6). Not only is Aisling not a human, but she defies traditional gender categorization and can take the shape of several different species. Aisling is not strictly male nor female; she is neither human nor animal. Even Brendan refers to her kind (fairies) as “creatures” (Moore Ch.4). While Eddie’s dragon can shift from inanimate to animate, it is at least always a dragon. Aisling flies in the face of binary categories with her queer gender and capacity to shape shift. She is a child of the forest man has failed to tame, and could hardly be more different from the civilized, Catholic boy that Brendan is. On the other hand this difference goes both ways. It is easy to forget that “Strangers are almost always other to each other” (Kearney 3). This can be seen in Brendan’s struggle to explain the concepts of ink, pages, and books to Aisling (Moore Ch.4). Brendan does not understand Aisling, but neither does Aisling understand Brendan.

There is no magical forest for Conor to escape to. At home, he must deal with his mother’s illness and the side effects of he r chemotherapy. At school, he is friendless and preyed upon by a bully. Asleep, he is terrorized by a story his mind tells him again and again. It is at this point in his life that Conor O’Malley’s monster comes to him.

There isn’t a specific name for the type of monster Conor’s is. Rather, there are many names. When Conor a sks “Who are you [the monster], then?” the monster replies “I have had as many names as there are years to time itself! . . . I am this wild earth, come for you, Conor O’Malley” (Ness 31, 34). This is reflected in the fact that “the form [the monster] choos[es] most [often] to walk in” is a yew tree (Ness 136). The monster isn’t an ordinary yew tree, but one that can move and interact with the world. It is made of a colossal yew tree with “branches twist[ing] around one another . . . until they [form] two long arms and a second leg . . . The rest of the tree gather[ing] itself into a spine and then a torso . . . leaves weaving together to make a green, furry skin” (Ness 5). Conor’s monster is a plant that behaves like an animal.

Conor’s monster also acts a herald, in keeping with its title. Monster comes from “monstrum [which] is etymologically ‘that which reveals,’ ‘that which warns’” (Cohen 4). As evidenced by the symbolism of Conor’s monster’s chosen form, the healing yew, the monster is a living metaphor. Cohen says “Like a letter on the page, the monster always signifies something other than itself” and it needs only to be read (4). Conor’s monster comes to him because it already knows what will happen to Conor’s mother, just as Conor

does “deep in [his] heart” (Ness 167). It does not come to stop the inevitable, but to make sure Conor is well enough to weather the fallout.

The trait that most strongly marks the monster as an “other” is the nature of its very existence. Conor is never entirely cer tain whether or not the monster is real, or if it’s a figment of his imagination. The monster almost always interacts with Conor at 12:07 at night, and Conor will wake up from these encounters to conflicting signs. A window destroyed by the monster may now be i ntact, but the floor of his room will be covered in yew leaves (Ness 11). When Conor is not sleeping and the monster appears, he generally loses full consciousness of the outside world and no one else claims to see the monster. The monster’s interactions w ith Conor are certainly fantastic in nature. The monster, when telling stories, has the capacity to alter its and Conor’s surroundings so that Conor can see (and sometimes even interact) with the tale. When Conor is visited by the monster the second time, he tells himself “It’s only a dream” to which the monster responds “But what is a dream . . . Who is to say that it is not everything else that is the dream?” (Ness 30). The monster has a point, even ignoring the fact that dreams are considered sacred by many cultures, religions, and people. If Conor is interacting with the monster, listening to its stories, and accepting its aid, then the monster is as real as it needs to be.

Conor’s feelings about his monster’s destructive power are largely positive. Conor can see the potential benefits of having someone “thirty or forty feet” taller than him with “a head and teeth that could chomp him down in one bite” for an ally (Ness 30-1). Indeed, on their second meeting, the monster comments on the fact that Conor is “[thinking] I [the monster] have come to topple [Conor’s] enemies. Slay [Conor’s] dragons” (Ness 51). Conor isn’t intimidated by the monster’s power. Whenever Conor becomes concerned about the monster wrecking something, it’s tied at least in part to concern for other people or other people’s property. Conor asks the monster not to be destructive just once, and that’s only because he “[doesn’t] want [the monster] to wake [Conor’s] mum” which a yew tree busting through a wall would certainly do (Ness 29). In another instance, the monster takes a seat “plac[ing] its entire great weight on top of [Conor’s] grandma’s office” (Ness 137). This naturally makes Conor anxious, and “His heart [leaps] in his throat” because he believes his grandmother is already angry with him for his own act of destruction (Ness 137). When Conor believes the destruction to be contained to the world of the monster’s stories, however, he becomes downright enthusiastic.

Conor’s deepest desire is reflected in the monster’s ability to heal, though Conor doesn’t learn of this characteristic of the monster until it has visited him several times. Conor finds out that his mother’s latest medicine “is actually made from yew trees” soon after the monster has told him “The yew tree is the most important of all the healing trees . . . [all its parts] thrum and twist with life” (Ness 130, 105). More than anything, Conor wants his mother to recover. He knows that he doesn’t have the power to cure his mother’s cancer, but the monster might.

Though he is no more certain of the dragon’s reality than Conor is of his monster’s reality, Eddie is at first frightened by his dragon.

When the dragon fixes its gaze on Eddie, “[Eddie] gag[s] on his fear and pull[s] the [bed]cover over his head,” which is an understandable reaction from a sixth-grader (Adler 33). Fortunately for Eddie, he and his monster come to an agreement quickly. The dragon “snuggle[s] against his [Eddie’s] side. Its snaky head rest[s] trustingly right below Eddie’s cheek,” and all that is required of Eddie is that “With his good right hand, he dare[s] himself to touch its hide” for a bond to be made (Adler 34). Eddie’s drag on, his monster, is now more than willing to aid him.

Just like Eddie, Brendan is frightened of Aisling at first, despite the fact that she saves him and Pangar Bán (his cat friend) from a pack of wolves (Moore Ch.4). This fear is a reaction she encourages by threatening Brendan to make him leave the forest saying “If you [Brendan and Pangar] don’t, I’ll make the wolves get you! Raargh!” (Moore Ch.4). Aisling makes it clear that she believes Brendan has come to her forest “to spoil it” or was “sent here by [Brendan’s] family to get food” and that she wants Brendan and Pangar to “go right back where [they] came from” (Moore Ch.4). Brendan tries to defend himself against such accusations, saying he’s “[in the forest] to get things to make ink. I don’t [Brendan doesn’t] have a family,” (Moore Ch.4). Hearing this, Aisling becomes instantly sympathetic, saying “I’m [Aisling is] alone, too” (Moore Ch.4). In discussing the way children relate to stories about monsters, Taylor notes that “[such stories] may even engender a sense of sympathy and responsibility toward the monster who was possibly abandoned or abused” (19). Taylor is speaking of real children and fictional monsters, but her observation appears to apply to Aisling and Brendan as well. Aisling is the last of her people (a sort of involuntary abandonment on their part), and Brendan is being raised by an abusive guardian. If both Aisling and Brendan see the other as an “other” as Kearney suggests, their shared sense of orphanage may lessen that. At any rate, this display of sympathy causes Brendan to fear Aisling less. He becomes bold enough to ask for her help in finding berries for ink. Aisling agrees provided that he and Pangar “promise never to come into [Aisling’s] forest again” (Moore Ch.4). With some hesitance, Brendan promises, and so he and his monster have made their agreement.

The agreement between Brendan and Aisling does not start out quite so cozy as that between Eddie and his dragon; Aisling doesn’t even tell Brendan her name at first. However, as Aisling goes about helping Brendan gather berries and showing him her forest, the two begin a childish game of one-upmanship which breaks the tension between them. Brendan tries to impress Aisling by describing the Book of Iona, describing it as “the most incredible book in the whole world . . , it will turn darkness into light. Wait until you see it;” Aisling responds by telling him “Wait until you see the rest of my forest” (Moore Ch.4). The two have other small contests of agility, speed, and climbing ability, all of which Brendan loses. It is the playing of the game, however, and not its outcome that is important. The child protagonist and his monster have become friends: by the time Brendan is ready to go home to Kells, Aisling decides that Brendan “can visit the forest again, if [he] like[s]. And Pangar can come, too” (Moore Ch.5). Brendan takes Aisling up on this offer after beginning his illuminating work under Aiden (both activities unknown to Cellach). Brendan frequently sneaks out into

the woods with drawing materials to show Aisling his artwork. Art is Brendan’s only source of escape outside of the woods, and he is eager to share it with his friend. Aisling appreciates the creativity that Brendan’s uncle does not and supports Brendan’s artistic endeavors.

Unlike Eddie and Brendan, Conor isn’t afraid of his monster when the two first meet. The monster attempts to intimidate Conor as Aisling does Brendan, but with much less success. When the monster appears at his window, all Conor feels is “a growing disappointment” (Ness 8). Though the monster’s “mouth roar[s] open to eat [Conor] alive,” Conor is able to deflect any real danger by sheer apathy (Ness 9). It is not until their second meeting that Conor and his monster reach their agreement. The terms of the agreement are that the monster “will tell [Conor] three stories. Three tales from when [the monster] walked before” and Conor “will tell [the monster] a fourth” or the monster “will eat [Conor] alive” (Ness 35-7). The trouble for Conor is that the monster doesn’t want just any story. The monster wants Conor to tell it “ the truth,” which “is the thing [Conor is] most afraid of” (Ness 36). The monster wants Conor to tell it the nightmare.

Conor’s relationship with his monster is a complicated one. Eddie discovers fairly quickly that his dragon is like a pet, and Brendan considers Aisling a friend after spending most of a day in the forest with her (Adler 34, Moore Ch.5). Unlike the other children and monsters, it takes Conor and his monster a while to decide where to place each other. The meeting between Conor and his monster was no accident: the monster “[has] come walking” because Conor “[has] called for [the monster]” (Ness 51). Conor finds this baffling because he has no conscious knowledge of calling for the monster. He sees the monster as “just a tree” and doesn’t understand why it can’t “just leave [Conor] alone” (Ness 50). For its part, the monster is just as confused by Conor’s behavior and the fact that “Nothing [the monster] do[es] seems to make [Conor] frightened of [it]” (Ness 50). The monster does attempt intimidation throughout the book, it physically restrains Conor, and sometimes lands him in a lot of trouble. However, the monster is at times almost paternal, be it by making a nest of leaves for Conor to sleep in or reprimanding him for using sarcasm (Ness 190, 49). It is not a perfectly straight line of progression, but the monster’s relationship with Conor changes throughout the text. The monster’s role in Conor’s life changes, in time, from adversary to teacher to healer to friend.

Enticing as it may seem, a monster’s aid often comes at a price. In the case of Eddie and his dragon, that price is control. There is a type of monster called “accidental monsters” because they “are dangerous . . . but not intentionally so” (Asma 13). This is the case with Eddie’s dragon, which has the power necessary to avenge any wrongs committed against Eddie, but it lacks the intelligence to keep from going too far. When Darrin embarrasses Eddie in front of a girl he likes, Eddie thoughtlessly says, “I wish he’d [D arrin would] drop dead” (Alder 39). Eddie then notices that the dragon has climbed out of his backpack and is pursuing Darrin. Darrin jams

his finger (Alder 40). Eddie isn’t quite willing to believe that he actually saw his dragon attack someone in waking life. As the people who anger him continue to suffer seemingly random misfortunes, however, Eddie begins to seriously suspect his dragon.

The dragon’s acts of violence are very clearly disproportionate to the actions that trigger them, and Eddie knows this: “a li ttle nip or scare [is] enough to even up the score with an enemy. Blood and broken bones [are] wrong, very, very wrong” (Adler 93). However, at the same time that the dragon is out of control, having it gives the illusion of control. The dragon’s might is particularly alluring to those like Eddie’s little sister, Mina, who “can’t kick anybody. So [Mina] need[s] [the dragon] to get people back for [her]” though she returns the dragon in fear of its power later (Adler 79). In moments of rage, Eddie himself gives into the temptation to “sic the dragon” on those who have hurt him (Adler 89).

This attraction is far from uncommon. Jeffery Jerome Cohen says of monsters that “fantasies of aggression . . . are allowed s afe expression in a . . . liminal space. Escapist delight gives way to horror only when the monster threatens to overstep these boundaries” (17). It could be argued that the degree to which boundaries are violated also impacts when (or even if) horror will set in. A portable dragon that can frighten enemies makes for a cute pet; a portable dragon capable of mass destruction and potential manslaughter is terrifying.

Brendan’s acceptance of Aisling’s aid and favor has no obvious drawbacks, unlike the relationships between Eddie and his drag on and Conor and his monster. The only real risk Brendan takes when going into the forest to visit Aisling is his uncle finding out. Brendan would be punished, but he wouldn’t have to worry about Aisling pushing a rock over on Cellach in retaliation. The fact that A isling is much more intelligent than Eddie’s dragon accounts for this in part, but not entirely, seeing as Conor’s monster appears just as smart as Aisling. Another factor appears to be the sharing (or not) of a major flaw, or a monster’s ability to manipulate such a flaw.

Brendan’s major flaws are his lack of confidence and his subservience, which are not traits that appear to hinder Aisling. Conor’s major flaw is his current inability to handle his grief which can, with his monster’s direction, explode into episodes of destructive rage. Because Conor’s monster doesn’t share Conor’s flaw, it can choose when and where to unleash Conor’s rage. Eddie and his dragon, however, both have a tendency to lose their tempers. When Eddie and his dragon lash out, the former doesn’t think and the later can’t

The prices Conor pays for the monster’s aid vary. Like Eddie, Conor must give up control in two of four major instances in wh ich his monster aids him. Unlike Eddie, Conor is only horrified by what he has done under the monster’s influence once: when he destroys his grandmother’s sitting room (Ness 114-6). In one instance, Conor must give up his safety as the monster forces him to complete his great obstacle (Ness 172). Eddie expresses regret for the actions of (himself and) his dragon, even though he chooses to retrieve it in the end. Conor, by the end of the story, has no real regrets about what he has done with the monster’s help.

The monster helps Conor primarily by telling him stories. Conor questions how helpful this is likely to be, but the monster assures him that “Stories are the wildest things of all Stories chase and bite and hunt” (Ness 35). The way the monster tells stories, they come to life. When the monster tells its second tale, a story about an apothecary and a parson, Conor is even able to “join in” and helps destroy the parson’s house at the end (Ness 110). The monster tells Conor destruction “ is most satisfying” and Conor “disappear[s] into a frenzy of destruction . . . Conor scream[s] until he [is] hoarse, smashe[s] until his arms [are] sore, roar[s] until he [is] nearly falling down with exhaustion” (Ness 110-1). He finds that “The monster [is] right. [Destruction is] very satisfying” (Ness 111). When the story truly ends and the monster leaves, however, Conor finds that he has wreaked at least as much havoc on his grandmother’s sitting room as on the parson’s house. Conor’s grandmother almost stops speaking to Conor entirely after the event, causing Conor to come to the erroneous (but not unreasonable) conclusion that his actions are the reason behind her silence (Ness 199). This causes Conor to feel even more alone than before. Stories are wild things indeed, especially wh en told by a monster to a grieving boy.

Another time the monster helps Conor is when his abuser, the bully Harry, does “the very worst thing [Harry] can do to [Conor]” (Ness 144). Harry decides that he will “no longer see [Conor],” and treats Conor as though he doesn’t exist (Ness 145). Conor is already alienated from his peers who “[look] away, like it [is] too embarrassing or painful to actually look at [Conor] directly” (Ness 151). To be completely ignored would be too great a social loss to endure. Johnston postulates “that the ultimate ‘otherness’ of children’s literature is . . . otherness of non-being” (45). Conor is already anxious of his mother’s impending death. The idea of his own social non-being is horrifying because, as the monster asks Conor, “if no one sees you are you really there at all?” (Ness 146).

It is at this time that the monster chooses to tell Conor the third story, a story about an “invisible man who [has] grown tired of being unseen” (Ness 146). Conor confronts Harry, shouting “You don’t see me?” to which Harry responds “I see nothing” (Ness 1512). What happens next is left deliberately ambiguous. Conor is the only one who sees the monster beat Harry up; the other students see Conor beat Harry up (Ness 156). Either way, the students believe (rightly or wrongly) that Conor beat Harry into the hospital (Ness 154). The monster warns Conor that “There are worse things than being invisible” after it and/or Conor is done with Harry (Ness 158). Conor finds this to be true because while his classmates “all [see] him now . . . he [is] further away than ever” from everyone but his (possibly ex-)ex-best friend, Lily (Ness 158, 162). Worse than being invisible is being a monster, and that’s exactly what Conor feels like.

After a particularly nasty encounter with Eddie’s personal tormenters, Darrin and his two goons, Eddie also enlists the aid of his monster. Eddie calls on his dragon and tells it to “Get those guys [the bullies] . . . You get them and make them sorry,” (Alder 115).

Eddie dreams of his dragon heaving flames on the bullies’ secret hideout in the woods, and wakes up the next morning to find that the

woods have been burned down (Alder 116-117). It is at this point that Eddie realizes the full price of a monster’s aid, and it scares him. Eddie decides that he cannot “trust himself to own a deadly weapon” and gives the dragon back to the store he got it from (Alder 123). Cohen hypothesizes that even Eddie’s “fear of the monster is really a kind of desire” because “the monster can function as an alter ego, as an alluring projection of (an Other) self” (Cohen 16-17). To be sure, returning the dragon has its own price because Eddie and his dragon have formed a bond. The night after giving his dragon up, Eddie dreams of it searching for him and “fe[els] as if he were missing part of himself” (Alder 128). The dragon is even more of an “other” than Eddie is, and he is losing a kindred spirit. For good or for ill, Eddie has seen that the dragon is a reflection of his desires and faults. To try to give it up is to try to run from a piece of himself.

Running from his major flaw, his temper, will not do Eddie any good. Eddie realizes that “if we face what we are afraid of, w e will emerge stronger than if we ignore it,” (Taylor 29). Eddie needs to confront his struggle with self-control head on if he is to conquer it. He cannot merely avoid power, but must become empowered and so be able to master himself.

The great obstacle that Eddie must overcome without his monster’s help takes the form of an essay and speech contest. While he has the option, due to his C.P., to have someone else read the essay he wrote aloud for him, Eddie chooses to read it himself despite being advised against it by his teacher (Adler 136). This is a significant step toward growth because Eddie’s trouble with controlling his speech parallels his struggle with controlling his temper. Eddie’s anger is one of those stressors that occasionally “[breaks] down all his carefully built-up muscle control” and makes his speech unintelligible (Alder 87). He must also exercise an element of self-control in pacing himself while reading to be sure he does not go so fast that his audience cannot understand him.

Winning the contest is, for Eddie, about being understood. Several times throughout the book, Eddie feels “othered” by peoples’ inability (or in some cases unwillingness) to understand his speech. Eddie is outraged when his teacher puts him on the spot to correct a paragraph in class, but then doesn’t listen well enough to hear what he’s actually saying (Adler 87). More than being just a moment of ill-treatment, the incident reawakens an anxiety in Eddie. He asks his best friend, “So how am I going to get to college? How am I going to be a psychologist if [patients] can’t figure out what I’m telling them?” (Adler 89). The silence of the dragon, its inability to express itself, reflects this fear. There is a point when the dragon grows depressed, and its only means of sharing this is “A great sadness [coming] from the dragon, like body heat” when it visits Eddie at night (Adler 99-100). Even when Eddie asks it, “What’s the matter?” he “[doesn’t] expect an answer” (Adler 99). It would be easy, but disastrous for his ambitions, for Eddie to allow himself to become a being like his dragon full of rage and silence.

To prepare himself, Eddie practices for hours with the tape recorder in the school library, going over his speech again and a gain. As Eddie carefully reads his essay “slow[ly] and give[s] every word its due,” he finds that he can successfully complete the task (Adler 140). He wins the contest and learns that practice breeds control, and that he can make himself be understood.

Brendan’s great obstacle is a two part task. The time for Brendan’s great obstacle comes when he must, to unleash his full potential as an illuminator, retrieve a magnifying crystal known as the Eye of Crom Cruach. Brendan knows there is a cave of Crom in the woods and attempts to sneak off to find the crystal, but is stopped by Cellach. Cellach decides he has had enough of Brendan’s sneaking off and forbids him to continue his studies saying, “No more excursions, no more scriptorium, and no more Brother Aiden” (Moore C h.7).

To Cellach’s astonishment, Brendan tells his overbearing uncle “No” (Moore Ch.7). For his defiance, Brendan is locked in his tower. Openly disobeying a guardian may seem like a small thing for a child to do, and it would be except for the psychological abus e Brendan has endured under Cellach. As it is, Brendan’s defiance is a sign of significant growth and therefore the first part of Brendan’s great obstacle.

Aisling helps Brendan twice during his great obstacle. The first time she aids Brendan is in unlocking the tower to allow him to escape, which she does by following the diagrams Brendan has drawn. The skills Brendan has learned in the scriptorium allow him to communicate the layout of the tower and exactly what needs to be done. His art, which has allowed him a metaphorical escape from everyday life, now helps Brendan literally escape the confinement his uncle has placed him in.

Aisling’s second instance of aid does not come so readily as the first. When she hears that Brendan wants to search Crom’s cave for the crystal, she is horrified and expresses immediate regret for releasing Brendan from his tower. Aisling is terribly afraid of Crom Cruach, who she calls “the Dark One,” and very reluctant to take Brendan to the cave that holds both Crom and its Eye (Moore Ch.4). Brendan explains to Aisling that “if [Brendan doesn’t] try [to get the crystal], the book [of Iona] will never be complete” (Moore Ch.7). This moves Aisling, who believes in Brendan’s dream. She opens a passageway to Crom’s cave, but she is physically inca pable of doing more (Moore Ch.8). Brendan will receive no more aid from his monster for the duration of his great obstacle.

In order to get the crystal, Brendan must defeat the massive, leviathan-like Crom Cruach with nothing more than a piece of chalk. It at first appears to be a hopeless endeavor, but Brendan discovers that he can draw lines that act as solid barriers. Brendan’s creativity and skills honed as an apprentice illuminator are what saves him, and he is able to trap Crom in a drawing and wrest the Eye away from it (Moore Ch.8). Brendan awakens the next morning inside the cave of Crom Cruach, Eye in hand, beneath a carving of Crom that is missing an Eye (Moore Ch.8). This could easily be interpreted to mean Brendan merely dreamt up his encounter with the Dark One.

Even if this is the case, there is psychological truth to the second half of Brendan’s obstacle: his subconscious created the danger of Crom, and then responded to it with an illuminator’s tool.

Conor is offered no way out of or tools to help with his great obstacle. Conor’s great obstacle is thrust upon him after he learns that his mother’s cancer has spread too far, too fast. The medicine made from yew trees didn’t work and “there aren’t any more treatments” (Ness 166). Outraged, Connor confronts his monster and demands that it heal his mother. His monster explains that “[It] did not come to heal [Conor’s mother] . . . [It] came to heal [Conor]” (Ness 172). It is then that the monster decides “it is time . . . for the fourth tale” (Ness 172). It is time for Conor to tell the story of his nightmare and to speak his truth. His monster does not help Conor complete his great obstacle, but forces him to face it.

The monster takes Conor into his nightmare, into “the middle of a cold darkness, one that had followed Conor . . . ever since forever, it felt like, the nightmare had been there . . . cutting him off, making him alone” (Ness 173). This is the nightmare that “others” Conor more than anything else and makes him feel like a monster. In it, Conor’s mother is seized by “The real monster, the one [Conor is] properly afraid of . . . formed of cloud and ash and dark flames . . . and flashing teeth that would eat [Conor’s] mother alive” and Conor catches her hands in his (Ness 179). Conor holds on to his mother’s hands until “the nig htmare reach[es] its most perfect moment . . . And [Conor’s] mother [falls]” (Ness 181).

His mother falling is not what makes Conor’s nightmare so awful, it is the fact that he “ let[s] her go” because “[Conor] wanted her to go” (Ness 187). In order for Conor to leave the nightmare, Conor needs to tell the monster why he let his mother go. It is such a terrible truth that Conor at first refuses to speak it, even knowing the nightmare will kill him if he doesn’t. It is at the climax of his great obstacle that Connor finally says, “I can’t stand it anymore! . . . I can’t stand knowing that [his mother will] go! I just want it to be over!” (Ness 188). By speaking the truth, Conor is freed from his nightmare and his great obstacle is completed.

With his great obstacle overcome, Eddie has found his own power and now feels “strong enough to fight his own battles without any help from magic dragons” (Adler 143). Now that Eddie does not need his dragon to feel strong, he is ready to reclaim it because “he and the dragon [are] bound together,” and Eddie knows he can control himself (Adler 143). If Eddie can control himself, speech and anger both, then he can control his monster.

Much like Eddie, triumphing over his obstacle gives Brendan a newfound sense of contr ol. In Brendan’s case this control is the power and freedom to choose his own path in life. With the Eye in his possession, Brendan is ready to complete his training. Having already confronted both Cellach and Crom, Brendan has discovered that he is willing to pursue his dream regardless of the cost to himself. He

embraces his role as an apprentice illuminator and fully dedicates his time to mastering his craft. The other monks come to admire Brendan’s skill and frequently visit the scriptorium to watch him work. Brendan is no longer “othered,” but celebrated.

Eddie and Brendan are ready to be (re)integrated into their social worlds the moment they complete their respective obstacles . This is not the case with Conor. His obstacle is the largest hurdle he has had to overcome, but he still feels like a monster. Conor still needs to be healed, and that is why his monster is still there. Crying, Conor explains that what is making him feel sinful and monstrous is that he “[doesn’t] mean it, though [letting his mother go] . . . Now [Conor’s mother is] going to die and it’s [Conor’s] fault!” (Ness 190). That is a heavy and lonely burden for a thirteen year-old boy to bear. Conor’s monster explains that Conor’s feelings aren’t monstrous at all. Conor is “merely wishing for the end of pain . . . to how it isolate[s Conor]. It is the most human wish of all” (Ness 191). It is now, after his great obstacle, that the monster helps Conor best. It gives Conor what he needs to reintegrate into human society by telling him “What [Conor] think[s] is not important. It is only important what [Conor] do[es]” (Ness 191). Conor is now ready to endure whatever comes next because he is no longer a monster, merely human.

Eddie went to reclaim his dragon when he ceased to feel like an “other,” but the story does not end so happily for Aisling. Even if viewers assume Brendan took time out of his training schedule to visit his monstrous friend, there comes a point when Brendan must flee Kells and the forest Aisling calls her own. He returns many years later as a grown man, and finds Aisling again in her wolf shape (Moore Ch.11). They have not forgotten each other, and she leads him past their childhood play places to the abbey. For one brief moment, she shows herself in her fairy form before disappearing, and she is still a child. Aisling leads Brendan to his old home where there are other humans, but does not join him. She is a monster: not human nor animal, not male nor female, not young nor old. She is the last of her people, and there will never be a place for her as anything other than an “other.”

The monster’s fate after Conor begins to no longer be an “other” is somewhat similar to Aisling’s in that it will not remain with Conor indefinitely. While viewers don’t really know how Aisling feels about her perpetual “otherness,” Conor’s monster doesn’t seem to mind returning to whatever space it came from, speaking of the “last steps of [its] walking” frankly (Ness 193). Conor, on the other hand, isn’t ready for his monster to leave by the end of the story. In the hospital Conor asks if “[It will] stay until…[Conor’s mother dies]” to which it responds “I will stay” (Ness 204). A monster cannot escape its “otherness” and join human society. Conor is going to lose his healer and his mother both, “But not this moment Not just yet” (Ness 205).

In the story of the “othered” child protagonist and the helpful monster, the monster appears to the child protagonist when he or she at the point of his or her greatest feelings of helplessness and marginalization. The monster shows itself to be uncontrollable and usually frightening in its first encounter with the child protagonist, and in possession of powers related to the child protagonist’s desires and

anxieties. The initial interaction with the monster acts as a catalyst, setting off a chain of events that ultimately lead to the child protagonist’s (re)integration into society. For the child protagonist to come into his or her own power, he or she must make an agreement with his or her monster, receive the monster’s aid, and finally overcome a personal obstacle with little to no help form his or her monster. Upon triumphing over his or her great obstacle, the child protagonist’s feelings of “otherness” decrease. He or she has survived his or her monster, and he or she has survived his or her great obstacle without his or her monster’s help. The child protagonist is now ready to successfully fight his or her own battles in life while fully integrated into human society.

Works Cited

Adler, C. S. Eddie's Blue-Winged Dragon. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1988. Print.

Asma, Stephen T. On Monsters: An Unnatural History of Our Worst Fears. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2009. Print.

Cohen, Jeffrey J. Monster Theory: Reading Culture . Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 1996. Print.

Johnston, Rosemary Ross. "In and Out of Otherness: Being and Not-being in Children's Literature." Neohelicon 36.1 (2009): 45-54. ProQuest. Web. 12 De. 2014.

Kearney, Richard. Strangers, Gods, and Monsters: Interpreting Otherness. London: Routledge, 2003. Print.

The Secret of Kells. Dir. Tomm Moore and Nora Twomey. Perf. Brendan Gleeson, Mick Lally, Evan McGuire, and Christen Mooney. Optimum Releasing Ltd., 2010. DVD.

Ness, Patrick, Jim Kay, and Siobhan Dowd. A Monster Calls. Somerville, MA: Candlewick, 2011. Print.

Taylor, Michelle A. "The Monster Chronicles : The Role of Children’s Stories Featuring Monsters in Managing Childhood Fears a nd Promoting Empowerment." Thesis. Queensland University of Technology, 2010. QUT EPrints. Queensland University of Technology, 27 Sept. 2010. Web. 12 Dec. 2014.

Zornado, Joseph. "Swaddling the Child in Children's Literature." Children's Literature Association Quarterly 22.3 (1997): 105-12. Project MUSE. Web. 12 Dec. 2014.

Stealing the Opera in the Georgian Era: Tracing Michael Kelly and the Forty Thieves

by Matthew Kelly

sponsored by Dr. Danielle Ward-Griffin (Department of Music)

Author Biography

Matt Kelly is graduating summa cum laude from Christopher Newport University with a Bacehlor of Music with Distinction in Vocal Performance and a minor in Leadership Studies. Mr. Kelly was part of the President’s Leadership Program and the Honors Program and holds a Service Distinction. This summer he will perform in 44 performances with the Ohio Light Opera Company then head straight to Indiana where he will begin studies for a Master of Sacred Music degree at the University of Notre Dame. A musician equally comfortable onstage and in the stacks, Matthew Kelly first encountered Michael Kelly when preparing to sing the role of Don Basilio/Curzio and decided to further his studies of the composer while browsing the Josephine L. Hughes collection. This pap er was presented at the 2015 Paideia conference where Matthew Kelly sang “Ah! What is the Bosom’s commotion” accompanied by Dr. Danielle Ward-Griffin on piano.

Abstract

The Josephine L. Hughes Collection (JLH) is home to rare American music, providing a glimpse into the musical life of the Ame rican parlor in the South. One might be surprised to discover the Georgian era opera aria, “Ah! What is the Bosom’s Commotion” from The Forty Thieves by Michael Kelly in the collection. This song provides a point of departure into the life of a musician and a period of music that has almost entirely escaped academic attention. A prolific composer, performer, producer, and publisher at the famous Theatre Royal Drury Lane, Michael Kelly’s contribution to opera in the Georgian era deserves attention.

Drawing upon Kelly’s memoirs and clues found in the score, this paper pieces together the history of the aria from its inspiration and performance through its printing and arrival into an American collection. The work’s premiere coincides with a period of great mourning in Kelly’s life, which I argue is expressed in the drama of the aria. Furthermore, based on first person accounts of Kelly’s singing, I demonstrate how he used various compositional techniques to highlight his own vocal strengths. Finally, I situate the score in the context of music publishing in the Georgian era and suggest that the copy of “Ah! What is the Bosom’s commotion” contained in the JLH Collection is likely a bootleg version printed down the street from Kelly’s own shop. Developing upon Girdham’s work on Kelly’s predecessor, Stephen Storace, this paper provides academic entry into one of Georgian opera’s most active men.

The Josephine L. Hughes Collection (JLH) is home to many rare pieces and editions that provide a glimpse into the musical lif e of the American parlor in the South.1 While the American compositions and publications comprise the backbone of the collection, a sense of the performing tradition in the United States can be gained by examining the international works. One might be surprised to find the music of a Georgian Era opera composer in the collection. English opera in the Georgina Era (1714-1837 or the period between Handel and Gilbert and Sullivan) is all but entirely exempt from the Western performing canon and is rarely studied. The JLH collection is fortunate to possess music by Michael Kelly including, “Ah! What is the Bosom’s Commotion” from The Forty Thieves, a setting of Hamlet’s letter to Ophelia, “I Fondly Turn to Thee Mary,” “Rest! Warrior Rest,” “Flora McDonald,” “Here’s a Health to Thee,” and the most famous of his compositions, The Woodpecker, with text by Thomas Moore. In particular, “Ah! What is the Bosom’s commotion” provides a point of departure into the life of the prolific composer and performer as well as the operatic climate in which he lived.2 Michael Kelly left behind an extremely detailed two volume memoir that helps place the song in its historical context and offers many insights into the musical tradition from which it is derived. A detailed look into Kelly’s memoirs and the score in the JLH collection uncovers hidden secrets of the aria’s journey from the mind of the composer to the printing press.

Michael Kelly (1762-1826) was an Irish born tenor who spent most of his operatic career in London.3 After getting his start performing abroad in continental Europe, even premiering the comic roles of the conniving Don Basilio and the very incompetent, stuttering lawyer Don Curzio in Le nozze di Figaro by Mozart, Kelly spent the majority of his musical career in London at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, the most highly regarded opera house London after Covent Garden. Michael Kelly had his hands on almost every aspect of the opera: he was the leading tenor at Drury Lane for multiple decades, allegedly composed more than 60 operas, produced many shows, managed the Italian opera, procured French operas for the English stage, and even ran a music publishing company at 9 Pall Mall. Though he was a prolific composer, he is remembered today almost exclusively for premiering Don Curzio.4

Recalling Kelly through his compositions, however, allows deeper insights into the man’s life, with “Ah! What is the Bosom’s commotion” revealing a unique perspective on Kelly’s many talents. The Forty Thieves premiered at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in April 1806. Receiving a very brief mention in his memoirs, it appears The Forty Thieves was an average work for Kelly. As Kelly was a popular and prolific composer in his day, one might therefore take The Forty Thieves to be representative of the Georgian Opera era

1 Amy Boykin, “Treasure Trove of American Sheet Music: The Josephine L. Hughes Collection,” Virginia Libraries 50, no. 4 (Fall 2004): 5, accessed March 16, 2015.

2 Michael Kelly, “Ah! What is the Bosom’s commotion,” in The Forty Thieves (London: C. Christmas, c1806).

3 Michael Kelly, Reminiscences of Michael Kelly of the King’s Theatre and Theatre Royal Drury Lane (New York: Da Capo Press, 1968).

4 Walter Monfried, “Mozart’s Irish Singer Friend: Recalling Michael Kelly, Composer of Wines and Music, Who Dared to Disagree With the Master in Interpreting a Figaro Role but Won an Emperor’s Approval,” The Milwaukee Journal, May 15, 1957, accessed May 1, 2015, https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1499&dat=19570515&id=A_BQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=5SUEAAAAIBAJ&pg=7240,3053784 &hl=en.

as well. According to the composer it was a “splendid spectacle” with a “very great run.”5 Kelly notes that the spectacle included acting, singing, and dancing by the main character Morgiana, played by a Miss Decamp. The subtitle on the score reads “sung by Mr. Kelly in the Grand Dramatic Romance of The Forty Thieves.”6 As this aria is sung to Morgiana, it is likely that Kelly was playing the male lead opposite Miss Decamp. According to musicologist Jane Girdham, it is very difficult to distinguish between plays and operas of this era in British theater.7 Neither critics, composers, nor publishers were consistent in the terms they assigned to stage works. Operas contained spoken dialogue (much like the German singspiel) and plays traditionally contained music. Based on Kelly’s description of The Forty Thieves as a “splendid” spectacle and the description given in the title, the work can be best described using the terms of the Georgian era as a “musical spectacle” or “musical romance.”8 According to Girdham, the classifications assigned in the Georgian era typically contained the word “opera” or “musical” and then some sort of modifier such as comic, farce, romance, drama, or entertainment.9 The modifier is there simply to suggest themes in the work, thus the exotic them es in The Forty Thieves might have led to its classification as a spectacle.

The Forty Thieves is based on the folktale, “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves” from the Arabian Nights folktale collection. Ali Baba, the hero who eventually acquires a great treasure, works together with his slave Marjeneh, who uses her wits to save Ali Baba from the forty thieves on multiple occasions. This aria is sung by Ali Baba to Marjeneh, rendered in this English version as Morgiana. The aria seems to contain two verses, but it makes more sense dramatically for the second verse to be a reprise from the end of the show.

Ali Baba gives Marjeneh to his son in marriage at the end of the story, described in the text of the second verse: “Love made by a Parent my duty.” The first verse may refer to Ali Baba’s feeling deceived by Marjeneh when she kills an enemy thought to be a friend by Ali Baba, or it may be a romantic plot modification between Morgiana and Ali Baba, which occurred in the Orientalist 1944 Hollywood movie adaptation.10 The dramatic side of the musical romance is certainly demonstrated in the text of “Ah! What is the Bosom’s commotion,” which reads as follows:

Ah what is the bosom’s commotion In a sea of suspense while ‘tis tost

While the heart, in our passion’s wild ocean

Feels even hope’s anchor is lost:

While the heart in our passion’s wild ocean Feels even Hope’s anchor lost.

Morgiana thou art my dearest:

For thee I have languish’d and griev’d, For thee I have languish’d and griev’d.

5 Michael Kelly, 2:212-213.

6 Michael Kelly, “Ah! What is the Bosom’s commotion,” In The Forty Thieves (London: C. Christmas, c1806).

7 Jane Catherine Girdham, “Stephen Storace and the English Opera Tradition of the Late Eighteenth Century,” (PhD diss., University of Pennsylvania, 1988), 321.

8 Ibid., 322.

9 Girdham, 322.

10 Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, directed by Arthur Lubin (Universal Pictures 1944), Youtube video. This movie and other adaptations tend to hypersexualize Marjeneh and her the love interest of all male characters.

And when Hope to my bosom was nearest How oft’ has that hope been deceiv’d And when Hope to my bosom was nearest How oft’ has that hope been deceiv’d Morgiana my hope was deceiv’d Morgiana my hope was deceiv’d

The Storm of despair is blown over, No more by its Vapour depress’d I laugh at the clouds of a Lover, With the sunshine of Joy in my breast. Love made by a Parent my duty, To the wish of my heart now arriv’d, I bend to the power of Beauty, And ev’ry fond hope is reviv’d. Morgiana my hope is reviv’d.

The lyrics to the first verse contain many references to lost hope and deception which may have real life implications for the drama in Kelly’s personal life at the time The Forty Thieves was produced. Furthermore, the majority of lines are repeated, indicating a very pensive character. Michael Kelly’s The Forty Thieves was produced shortly after the death of Anna Maria Crouch, Kelly’s very close friend who sang the lead soprano roles opposite his leading tenor at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane for many years. 11 In this dramatic aria sung to the leading soprano one gets a sense of the personal mourning Kelly was experiencing in the text. Kelly recalls wanting to quit acting altogether at this stage of his life; given his state at the time of the production, the mourning and repeated lines of hopelessness in the aria suggest that he may not have needed to act.12

The music itself appears less affected than the text might suggest. Given that the aria was sung by Kelly, it is interesting to note that the aria has a range and tessitura much lower than the role of Don Basilio/Curzio. Whereas Curzio especially sings the majority of the time above the staff, “Ah! What is the Bosom’s commotion” does not go above an F#. Kelly was in his 40s during the premiere of The Forty Thieves and may not have had the same range as his younger days. His memoirs recall an invitation to sing Ferrando in Così fan tutte at the end of his career.13 The key, range, and melodic contour of “Ah! What is the Bosom’s commotion” follow Ferrando’s aria, “Un’aura amorosa” very closely and it is possible that Kelly was thinking of Ferrando as he composed this aria. Figures 1 and 2 resemble the similarities found in the opening measures of the two arias. 11

He certainly wrote the vocal line to highlight his strengths. Based on an account of the aria given in an American journal regarding the performance of The Forty Thieves, it appears that “Ah! What is the Bosom’s commotion” was a vocal thriller. The Halcyon Luminary describes the American performance as follows:

This highly and very justly admired song has met a deserved reception on our stage. It is performed by Mr. Darley , with the exquisite effect which ever accompanies that gentleman’s execution of the vocal tasks assigned to his profession.14 This aria was written to put the tenor’s voice on display. Kelly was distinguished among other tenors of his day for his abil ity to sing high notes in full voice, not resorting to falsetto.15 One critic recalled how Kelly’s ability to sing ascending intervals in full voice “often electrified an audience.”16 Kelly knew this strength of his as the dramatic moments occur on ascending fifths and sixths and the climax of the aria is on an octave leap. For example, there is a major sixth leap to bring out the word “languish’d” in measure 23, and

14 A Society of Gentlemen, “Ah! What is the Bosom’s commotion,” The Halcyon Luminary and Theological Repository, vol. 2 (1813): 184.

15 A. Hyatt King, introduction to Reminiscences of Michael Kelly of the King’s Theatre and Theatre Royal Drury Lane , by Michael Kelly (New York: Da Capo Press, 1968), ix.

16 Ibid.

Figure 1. Mozart, “Un’aura amorosa,” Così fan tutte, mm. 1-5.

Figure 2. Kelly, “Ah! What is the Bosom’s commotion,” The Forty Thieves, mm. 1-5.

Kelly also employs word painting in measure 15. As the singer laments, “even Hope’s anchor is lost” there is an ascending leap on the second syllable of “anchor.” These devices can be seen in Figures 3 and 4 below.

Kelly even indulges himself with a fermata over a high F# leading into the final cadence in measure 36. Kelly uses the lyrics and expressive melody to highlight his tenor voice and dramatic ability.

Harmonic variation is rather limited in this aria which is likely due to the compositional process behind The Forty Thieves and Kelly’s other works. Unlike his friends and fellow composers Mozart, Salieri, Gluck, and Haydn, Kelly did not write his own accompaniments or harmonizations. Thomas Moore sheds light on Kelly’s compositional process in a letter dating 1801, which poetically states: “Poor Mick is rather an imposer than a composer. He cannot mark the time in writing three bars of music; his understrappers , howev er, do all that for him.”17 Kelly composed the melody which was then harmonized and orchestrated by his assistants. “Ah! What is the Bosom’s commotion” is set in A major with an eight bar introduction. It is curious that such a lamenting song would be set in a major key. After an exposition of the melody, it passes through a V/V chord and ends solidly in a I, IV, I64, V, I progression ending with a perfect authentic cadence. This is quite literally a textbook chord progression which reinforces the claim that Kelly’s understrappers do his harmonizing for him. The accompaniment uses a broken chord Alberti bass pattern throughout. The aria is strophic and follows an ABA’ form modulating to b minor in the B section. The introduction is quoted to close the aria with one key difference: The arch of the introduction peaks with a fortissimo pounding of a IM7 followed by a rapid scalar descent in the right hand. This same moment occurs at the close of the aria with but the chord spelled as a simple A major triad. Figure 5 demonstrates the IM7 chord in measure 5 while Figure 6 shows the I chord in measure 39.

17 King, x.

Figure 3. mm. 23. Figure 4. mm. 15.

One can be certain the IM7 at the beginning was a typo given the harmonic palette of the time. Moreover, if we compare this score to the American editions available online, we see that all other versions show a I chord. This choice also seems representative of the conservative harmonizations encountered in Kelly’s other works, specifically his most successful opera, Blue Beard 18 Another typo occurs in measure 11, shown in Figure 7, where an accidental is missing in the right hand of the accompaniment. While these typos may seem like careless mistakes made by the printers, they may contain great significance with regards to the printing and distribution of the sheet music.

At this point it is certainly relevant to ask how an aria from an almost forgotten Irish composer made its way into an American song collection. According to A. Hyatt King in the introduction to Kelly’s memoirs, his music “enjoyed considerable success in America.”19 Over two hundred separate issues of his music were published in major American cities during his lifetime, with his arias making up the bulk of the publications. Furthermore, it was not uncommon for his operas to be produced in America shortly after their premiers in London. There are seven different American publications of “Ah! What is the Bosom’s commotion,” all published within five years of the opera’s premiere. 20 While Kelly’s music was published in multiple American cities, the Josephine L Hughes collection is unique in that its three copies of “Ah! What is the Bosom’s commotion” were printed and sold in London. On the title

18 Paul Douglass and Frederick Burwick, “Bluebeard; Or, Female Curiosity!,” Romantic-Era Songs, last modified 2009, accessed April 6, 2015, http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/douglass/music/album-bluebeard.html.

19 King, xiii.

20 These alternate editions were discovered through a search of the aria’s title on WorldCat.

Figure 5. mm. 5.

Figure 6. mm. 39.

Figure 7. mm. 11.

page of the aria appears, “Printed and Sold by Chas. Christmas 36 Pall Mall.”21 There is no copyright date provided on the score, however, the date of publication can be deduced from the printer’s name and location. One might presume that the printing is a first edition due to the typos in the music, but also due to the fact that it was printed by Chas. Christmas and not Falkener & Christmas. Michael Kelly’s publishing company occupied 9 Pall Mall (right next to the Theatre Royal Drury Lane) and 4 Pall Mall, while C harles Christmas sold from 36 Pall Mall; after going bankrupt in 1811, Kelly’s shop was acquired by a music publishing merger between H. Falkener & Chas. Christmas.22 Since this copy was printed at 36 Pall Mall prior to the merger, it is likely that Michael Kelly was still publishing and selling at 9 Pall Mall when this copy was printed and sold. One online song database has dated the Charles Christmas edition to 1807, which is well within Kelly’s publishing career.23 Michael Kelly states in his memoirs that he began his music publishing business for the purpose of selling his own compositions, therefore it is highly unlikely that Kelly sold the rights to his own music when he could have printed it himself.24 Thus, it is probable that the edition of “Ah! What is the Bosom’s commotion” contained in the Josephine L. Hughes collection is a “bootleg” copy of Kelly’s aria. In the introduction to Kelly’s memoirs, King mentions that there were instances of publishers pirating Kelly’s music though mostly abroad in America or Ireland.25 During this time period, however, it was also common for publishing companies to pirate the works of local composers within England.26 The pirated editions would often include intentional errors in the score.27 Considering the typos present in this edition, one can infer the Josephine L. Hughes copy was likely pirated just down the street from Michael Kelly.

Studying “Ah! What is the Bosom’s commotion” allows a glimpse into Georgian era opera from the stage to the printing press and across the ocean into the American Parlor. Using first hand accounts of Kelly’s singing combined with knowledge of his composing influences, such as Mozart, one can infer the stylistic tendencies of this aria in order to provide a well informed performance of a work that once thrilled audiences in England and America. Furthermore, despite the fact that Kelly’s works receive little attention today, the study helps provide insights that go beyond the music, particularly the illegal printing of the JLH collection’s edition. This information can help raise questions regarding the authenticity of other scores in the JLH collection. It is hopeful that further research in the Josephine L. Hughes collection can discover more hidden treasures and fresh insights into the individual sheet music practices of the young United States.

21 Kelly, 1.

22 Frank Kidson, British music publishers, printers and engravers: London, Provincial, Scottish, and Irish (London: W. E. Hill & Sons, 1900), 26.

23 “Ah what is the Bosom’s commotion,” Song List, last modified 2011, accessed April 6, 2015, http://arabkitsch.com/directory/ahwhat-is-the-bosoms-commotion.

24 Kelly, 163.

25 King, xiii.

26 Girdham, 167.

27 Girdham., 170.

Bibliography

Arab Kitsh. “Ah what is the Bosom’s commotion.” Song List. Last modified 2011. Accessed April 6, 2015. http://arabkitsch.com/directory/ah-what-is-the-bosoms-commotion.

A Society of Gentlemen. “Ah! What is the Bosom’s commotion.” The Halcyon Luminary and Theological Repository, vol. 2 (1813): 184.

Boykin, Amy. “Treasure Trove of American Sheet Music: The Josephine L. Hughes Collection.” Virginia Libraries 50, no. 4 (Fall 2004): 5. Accessed March 16, 2015.

Douglass, Paul & Burwick, Frederick. “Bluebeard; Or, Female Curiosity!.” Romantic-Era Songs. Last modified 2009. Accessed April 6, 2015. http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/douglass/music/album-bluebeard.html.

Girdham, Jane Catherine. “Stephen Storace and the English Opera Tradition of the Late Eighteenth Century.” PhD diss., University of Pennsylvania, 1988. Accessed March 16, 2015.

Kelly, Michael. “Ah! What is the Bosom’s commotion.” In The Forty Thieves. London: C. Christmas, c1806.

Kelly, Michael. Reminiscences of Michael Kelly of the King’s Theatre and Theatre Royal Drury Lane . 2 vols. New York: Da Capo Press, 1968.

Kidson, Frank. British Music Publishers, Printers and Engravers: London, Provincial, Scottish, and Irish. London: W. E. Hill & Sons, 1900.

King, A. Hyatt. Introduction to Reminiscences of Michael Kelly of the King’s Theatre and Theatre Royal Drury Lane , by Michael Kelly, v-xv. 2 vols. New York: Da Capo Press, 1968.

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus. “Un’aura amorosa.” Cosi fan tutte. Everynote.com. Accessed April 10, 2015. https://www.everynote.com/opera.show/5417.note.

Visibility and Victimization: Transgender Youth, Social Media and Violence

by Hayley Baugham

sponsored by Dr. Linda Waldron (Department of Sociology)

Author Biography

Hayley Baugham is a member of the CNU class of 2018, majoring in Psychology and double minoring in Leadership and Sociology. She is involved in the CNU Green Team, Feminist Alliance, and National Alliance on Mental Illness. Additionally she works with the CNU community as an FDAN. After graduating she plans to pursue a doctorate in psychology.

Abstract

Victimization of transgender youth is an issue that has fundamentally altered the topography of the American sociopolitical consciousness. For example, the suicide of transgender teenager Leelah Alcorn in 2014 became a social media cause célèbre, inciting controversy and debate. The victimization of transgender youth is well-documented; in Virginia, 44.8% of transgender youth have experienced gender-based violence and are four times more likely to attempt suicide (Goldblum et al, 2012). However, there remains a dearth of research on the effects of social media on transgender youth, despite its prevalence in their lives. Does a social media presence provide access to a “safe space” for transgender youth a form of virtual community with reciprocal support and index of trans-supportive resources? Or does the protection of anonymity combined with incendiary internet culture create a modern Bell Jar, in which transgender youth are subject to more harassment? Comprised of a literature review and data from a survey of transgender youth, this paper will discuss the intersectional sociology of gender identity, social media, oppression and resilience.

Introduction

Victimization of transgender youth is an issue that has fundamentally altered the topography of the American sociopolitical consciousness. With the advent of 21st century technology like the internet, transgender youth are more visible than ever before and so is their victimization. For example, the suicide of transgender teenager Leelah Alcorn in late 2014 became a social media cause célèbre, inciting controversy and debate. The victimization of other transgender youth is also well-documented; in Virginia, 44.8% of transgender youth have experienced gender-based violence and are four times more likely to attempt suicide (Goldblum et al, 2012). However, there is a liminal gap in scholarly research on the specific effects of maintaining a social media presence on transgender youth, despite its prevalence in modern life and its incidence in the recent spate of transgender youth suicides. This paper will explore this multidimensional and complex issue through a survey of transgender youth, analyzing their narratives of online oppression and empowerment.

Literature Review

To examine the specific issue of social media and its effects on gender-variant youth, it is important to understand the broader aetiology of transgender youth victimization. From an ecological perspective, many transgender youth are first endangered by a lack of a support system. This social ostracization often begins at home with the nuclear family. For example, a Canadian study discerned that only 34% of transgender youth have parents who affirm their transition. Furthermore, the authors found that “trans youth who have strong parental support for their gender identity and expression report higher self-esteem, better mental health…and adequate housing compared to those without strong parental support” (Travers et al, 2012). However, this study was topical in nature and failed to examine active abuse from parents.

In a more focused study, Grossman and D'Augelli (2007) found that 75% of transgender youth have experienced verbal, physical, or sexual abuse by a parent or guardian, with 35% reporting the abuse was physical. Dank et al (2014) specified that abuse of transgender youth is not contained within the family unit. The authors indicated that transgender youth are at higher risk for all types of dating violence and sexual victimization compared to both heterosexual youth and gay/lesbian youth. Furthermore, Robinson and Espelage (2013) explain that transgender youth in middle and high school are more likely to engage in sexually risky behavior, including having multiple partners, not using protection against STIs, and ignoring pregnancy prevention standards.

However, not all abuse is tangible or congruent to traditional definitions of family/intimate partner violence. Families and/or communities may subject transgender youth may also subject them to unwanted psychiatric treatment to resolve their gender identities to heteronormativity. Israel and Tarver (1997) observe that such “treatment approaches are little more than abuse, professional

victimization, and profiteering under the guise of support for a parent's goals.” Healthcare discrimination is patently detrimental to transgender youth, as they are a medically vulnerable population. Haas and Rogers (2014) report that 60% of transgender youth have been refused services by a healthcare provider. Since transgender youth are more susceptible to HIV/AIDS and problems from illicit hormone utilization (Kosenko, 2011), such discrimination is not merely an inconvenience rather, it actively victimizes transgender youth. Transgender youth also may face harassment at school due to their gender identity or expression. A seminal review of two stud ies by McGuire et al in 2008 found that “85% of transgender students reported verbal harassment, 49% experi enced physical harassment in school, and 34% reported physical assault.” Transgender students are, mirroring Dank’s study, more likely to be victimized at school than any other minority population, including the LGB community. The author’s analysis suggests this is because transgender youth face a complex, intersectional system of discrimination: transphobia intertwined with misogyny, homophobia, and secondary fac tors like racism and classism. The study also examines perceived support and connections at school, including GSAs and school counselors. Although transgender youth perceived these resources to be helpful to resilience in an often hostile climate, many still considered school to lack the characteristics of a safe community, with one respondent stating that attending school was ‘‘the most traumatic aspect of growing up’’ (McGuire et al, 2008).

Facing a maelstrom of unsupportive social groups, it is no surprise that transgender youth have embraced the internet as a new form of community. Kuper et al found a striking gender diversity online, highlighting gender-variant people who may not be visible in offline spaces (2012). However, gender-variant people do not exist peripherally or ornamentally on the fringes of the internet; rather, current literature portrays them as active participants in online discourse and data sharing. A 2013 study on how “queer” people receive sexual health information concluded that LGBT people “frequently used the Internet to compensate for perceived limitations in offline resources and relationships… citing the relative difficulty of establishing offline contact with LGBT peers [and services, etc.]” (DeHaan et al).

Paralleling the DeHaan et al study, a GLSEN report on LGBT youth online indicated that the internet “offers LGBT youth critical tools for coping with…negative experiences, including access to understanding and accepting friends, and exposure to health information that is unavailable elsewhere.” For example, two-thirds of LGBT youth (62%) had used the Internet to connect with other LGBT people in the past year. Many of these youth reported engaging in close online relationships with other LGBT youth, bei ng more “out” about their identities online, and using the internet to join LGBT-supportive communities. Furthermore, the study found that LGBT youth reported high rates of social activism online, with 77% of surveyed youth having taken part in an online community

that supports a cause or issue. According to the authors, this suggests that “Internet technologies may serve as an important resource and foster civic participation for some LGBT youth” (GLSEN, 2013).

However, the same study also found that the internet can “reinforce the negative dynamics found offline regarding bullying and harassment.” LGBT youth were nearly three times as likely as non-LGBT youth to say they had been bullied or harassed online; 1 in 4 LGBT youth (26%) said they had been bullied online specifically because of their sexual orientation or gender expression in t he past year. Moreover, LGBT youth were four times as likely as non-LGBT youth to say they had been sexually harassed online (GLSEN, 2013).

Questions for the Study

The mixed results of the GLSEN study show that the effects of an online presence on LGBT youth is a deeply nuanced, intricate issue deserving of further research. In addition, current research takes a problematic umbrella approach in its focus, usually including the entire LGBT community and all types of technology. There remains a dearth of research on the specific effects of social media on only transgender youth, despite its pervasiveness in their lives.

This research project will attempt to answer two questions. Does a social media presence provide access to a “safe space” specifically for transgender youth a form of virtual community with reciprocal support and index of trans-supportive resources? Or does the protection of anonymity combined with incendiary internet culture create a modern Bell Jar, in which transgender youth are subject to more harassment? I predicted that social media would be a nuanced influence in the lives of transgender youth, with both beneficial and detrimental effects.

Method

Survey Procedure and Data Analysis

The survey was developed and released in accordance with the requirements of Christopher Newport University’s Internal Review Board. The 20-question survey was composed of a mix of qualitative and quantitative questions. Some were multiple-choice and others were open-ended, in the style of a digital interview. The questions addressed themes of gender identity, perceived victimization based on transgender status, and the costs and benefits of navigating social media as a gender-variant person. The survey, hosted on Google Forms, was posted on the social media site Tumblr over a period of ten days, with 38 total responses. The mechanism of subject selection was completely anonymous due to the sensitive subject matter. The only identifying data taken was gender identity and an initial age verification, as participants were required to be between the ages of 18 and 21. Factors like race and geographic location were not addressed; furthermore, no names or social media handles were collected. This stringency in information gathering

was a result of privacy concerns for the respondents, who were a vulnerable population due to their youth and transgender status. The data from the survey was analyzed and graphed via IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS).

Participants

The respondents were transgender youth between the ages of 18 and 21 who used social media. On average, participants spent 5. 9 hours a day on social media. The most common places for the respondents to have an online presence were Tumblr, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. 94.7% discussed or documented their transgender identity openly on social media. The operational definition of “transgender” was inclusive of most gender-diverse identities and, for the purposes of this paper, refers to any person whose gender identity and/or gender expression differs from what is typically associated with the sex they were assigned at birth. The majority of respondents were transmen 28 or transwomen (76.3%); however, there was a sizeable minority of nonbinary people. A smaller subgroup identified as genderqueer. Two respondents described themselves as “other,” with one respondent preferring the term demigender and the other agender. Please see Figure 1 for a more detailed breakdown of participant gender variation.

Results and Analysis

“We Are a Community” – Positive Aspects of Social Media Presence

Social media was often perceived as a positive safe space for transgender youth, with one participant divulging that “social media has been a lifesaver” (Anonymous, 2015). While this exuberant statement is impossible to generalize for all transgender youth, the survey data suggests that social media can be a very welcoming place for gender-diverse people. To quantify this point, 94.7% of respondents indicated that they had seen trans-supportive messages, comments, or posts online in the past six months. For the survey participants, social media provided a sense of welcome and community that transgender youth often lack at home and school (DeHaan et al, 2013). 76.3% of respondents were members of trans-supportive online communities like Facebook groups or Tumblr blogs. Respondents often stated these communities empowered them to meet others with shared life experiences and buttressed them through difficult periods in their real lives. For example, one participant stated: “…We are able to seek out other people that are like us and in same

28 A note on terminology: Transmen were operationally defined as people assigned female at birth but who identify and live as men; transwomen were defined as people designated male at birth but identify and live as women. Nonbinary denotes people who experience their gender identity and/or gender expression as falling outside the dichotomous categories of male and female. Genderqueer is a broader term that denotes a person whose gender identity is neither male nor female, is between or beyond genders, or is some combination of genders. Demigender involves feeling a partial, but not a full, connection to a gender identity. Agender people do not possess a gender identity.

situations and support each other in hard times. It gives us courage to express ourselves and helps us mold our own identities. We are a community, and it has helped a lot of us keep on going, like it should do” (Anonymous, 2015).

Furthermore, this secondary social support also helped the transgender youth in the survey to affirm their genders and improve their mental health. 94.8% of respondents had used social media to learn more about or explore their gender identity 89.5% of whom found the information to be accurate and helpful. Exemplifying this is one respondent, who specified: “…If it hadn't been for social media I don't think I would have ever figured out what my gender was. I knew that I wasn't comfortable with being labeled a girl but I didn't have the terminology to discuss what I felt until I found it on social media” (Anonymous, 2015). In addition being conducive for gender affirmation, a social media presence helped 73.6% of respondents improve their mental and emotional health. (For a more detailed examination of social media, gender affirmation, and mental health see Figure 2). As discussed in the literature review, transgender youth experience depression and suicidal ideation at exponentially higher rates than their cisgender peers and yet receive less effective mental healthcare (Goldblum et al, 2012). The mental-health and gender-affirmative support transgender youth receive on social media could help to assuage this critical problem.

However, these virtual communities offered more benefits to transgender youth than social support. Social media also served as an avenue for gathering resources in addition to information. 39.5% of transgender youth surveyed also utilized social media to find more tangible resources like healthcare and financial aid, with one youth stating they had used social media to “set up a gofundme29 for transition expenses like top surgery and hormones.” Since transgender youth are often economically disadvantaged and often cannot afford gender-affirming healthcare services, the use of social media to crowdsource transition services represents a kind of online altruism filling a void left by offline social services (Gehi and Arkles, 2007). In this vein, a recurring theme in the interview questions was using the viral power of social media to find trans-supportive housing. For example, one respondent asserted that social media “…helps boost alerts about trans youth whom [sic] are being kicked out of their houses for their ways of life” (Anonymous, 2015). Another youth disclosed, “I met my roommate on Tumblr after my parents kicked me out.” This aspect of social

GoFundMe is an online social crowdfunding platform that allows people to raise money for personal causes and life events.

media is certainly beneficial to transgender youth, who often experience housing insecurity and comprise 40-50% of homeless minors (Durso and Gates, 2012).

“Great Measures of Pain” – Negative Aspects of Social Media Presence

However, it would be erasing the experiences of many of the surveyed youth to portray navigating social media as a transgender person as an entirely rosy experience. Social media can also be a dangerous, negative space for transgender youth. 86.8% of surveyed transgender youth have received hurtful messages or comments about their gender identity in the past six months. 42.1% received messages inciting them to commit a self-harming act, such as cutting or suicide. These kind of direct attacks on transgender youth were a frequent theme in the interview questions, in which transgender youth often expressed feeling unsafe on social media. Doubts about the very concept of safe spaces on the Internet also plagued one respondent, who lamented how transphobic people invade transsupportive communities and cause distress: “Safe spaces [last for] a short period of time, before hateful people discover the pages and troll them and tell people to kill theirselves til [sic] they're forced to close down” (Anonymous, 2015). This belies GLSEN’s (2013) advocacy of the Internet’s capacity to provide LGBT-only safe spaces.

It also exemplifies how the anonymity many social media sites afford enables individuals to engage in harassment and other disruptive behaviors that would be stigmatized in a real-life social discourse involving. This phenomenon can be attributed to the online disinhibition effect, or the abandonment of social restrictions on hurtful behavior that would otherwise be present in normal face-toface interaction during interactions with others on the Internet (Suler, 2004). Online disinhibition, caused by a kind of solipsistic disassociation from one’s moral identity in the real-life culture, allows the aforementioned “trolls” to harangue transgender youth on social media sites with impunity. For example, one youth indicated that having an online social media presence “does make us easier targets…and has affected some of us far too greatly and has pushed some of us to great measures of pain” (Anonymous, 2015). This conceptualization of transgender youth as “targets” online is telling it reflects the bleak reality of the danger of trans existence offline in the United States, where gender-nonconforming people are “targeted” for hate crimes at a higher rate than any other minority group (Goldblum et al, 2012)..

Recurrent online bullying and harassment led to offline victimization for some respondents. 55.3% of youth surveyed believed negative experiences on social media negatively affected their mental, emotional, or physical health. The consequences of online bullying in this subgroup of participants included: self-harm, stress, anxiety, depression, dysphoria, eating disorders, substance abuse, and suicidal ideation. (Refer to Figure 3.)

52.6% of these youth experienced increased anxiety and stress levels. 47.4% suffered an increase in depression. However, the most disconcerting statistic was the 15.8% of this subgroup that stated their victimization on social media contributed to suicidal ideation. Grossman and D’Augelli (2007) reported that nearly 50% of the participants in their study had seriously thought about suicide at some point in their lives. As such, transgender youth are already more likely to experience suicidal ideation and online victimization, according to some of the surveyed youth, is contributing to this endemic. It is important to consider the negative, harmful aspects of social media and how they affect transgender youth in addition to the previously enumerated benefits.

Conclusion

Transgender youth expressed a nuanced view of social media’s effects on their lives, highlighting both the negative and posit ive characteristics. However, while they were forthcoming about the detriments of maintaining an online presence, they were overall more positive than was hypothesized. They focused mainly on how social media has empowered and enabled them, often claiming the victimization they experienced online was outweighed or even ameliorated by the strong community bonds they had forged and the valuable information or resources they had gained. The findings from this study underscore the critical implications of online bullying and support systems for transgender youth. They also reflect both the increasing importance of social media in 21st century youth’s lives and the extraordinary resilience and optimism of the transgender community.

The transgender youth in this study contributed a valuable perspective into their experiences on social media and its effect on their victimization and empowerment. However, the sample size of transgender youth was relatively small comprising of 38 participants in a three-year age range and gleaned mostly from users of the social media platform Tumblr. Therefore, further research with a larger sample size is necessary to purport universal generalizability. The transgender experience as multifaceted and diverse as their

community, and as such this study is limited in its ability to present themes that are indicative of all transgender youth. F urther research is necessary to fully explore the relationship between transgender youth and social media.

References

Bradford, J., PhD., Reisner, S. L., M.A., Honnold, J. A., PhD., & Xavier, J., M.P.H. (2013). Experiences of transgender-related discrimination and implications for health: Results from the Virginia transgender health initiative study. American Journal of Public Health, 103(10), 1820-1829.

Dank, M., Lachman, P., Zweig, J. M., & Yahner, J. (2014). Dating violence experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 43(5), 846-57.

Dehaan, S., Kuper, L., Magee, J., Bigelow, L., & Mustanski, B. (2013). The Interplay between Online and Offline Explorations of Identity, Relationships, and Sex: A Mixed-Methods Study with LGBT Youth. Journal of Sex Research, 421-434.

Durso, L.E., & Gates, G.J. (2012). Serving Our Youth: Findings from a National Survey of Service Providers Working with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Youth who are Homeless or At Risk of Becoming Homeless. Los Angeles: The Williams Institute with True Colors Fund and The Palette Fund.

Gehi, P. S., & Arkles, G. (2007). Unraveling injustice: Race and class impact of medicaid exclusions of transition-related health care for transgender people. Sexuality Research & Social Policy, 4(4), 7-35.

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Haas, A., & Rodgers, P. (2014). Suicide attempts among transgender and gender non-conforming adults: Findings of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey. Los Angeles, California: UCLA School of Law.

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Reclaiming Center Stage: Britten's Canticle II

by Callie Boone

sponsored by Dr. Danielle Ward-Griffin (Department of Music)

Author Biography

Callie Boone is a junior majoring in music with concentrations in Vocal Performance and Choral Music Education with a minor i n Leadership Studies at Christopher Newport University. She has recently been admitted into the five -year Master of Arts in Teaching program at CNU. Boone is a member of Omicron Delta Kappa, Alpha Chi, and Pi Kappa Lambda as well as the CNU Honors Program, President’s Leadership Program, and Prestigious Scholars Program. In the summer of 2014, she was awarded one of the Undergraduate Student Research Association grants through CNU which she used to fund a trip to Aldeburgh, United Kingdom. Here she was able to study in the new Benjamin Britten archive, established in 2013. She presented her work at the Paideia Undergraduate Research Conference at CNU in April 2015. Boone also plans to perform Canticle II in a lecture recital in the fall of 2015 with her faculty advisor, Dr. Danielle Ward-Griffin.

Abstract

Benjamin Britten’s Canticle II: Abraham and Isaac (1952) tells an age old story of faith, willpower, sacrifice, and love. Scored for tenor, alto, and piano, Canticle II is one of the English composer’s five Canticles. Although frequently performed in the world of sacred music, Canticle II has tended to be overlooked by scholars, favoring instead the grandeur of pieces such as his War Requiem (1962). However, Canticle II is important on its own terms. Britten writes and edits stage directions that supplement and inform the character development in a work not originally intended to be a fully staged production. As such, Canticle II sets a precedent for the performance practice of this and other canticles and church compositions by Britten.

This paper explores two interrelated questions: how does Britten dramatize the Abraham and Isaac story through music and how should this transfer to the stage? I argue that the implicit father-son relationships between God and Abraham, and God and Isaac are reinforced through the music and the resulting character development, and thus claim their own spotlight. This is all without physically acting out the stage directions for every scene. To understand the proper performance of Britten’s work, we must examine his compositional and literary decisions. Drawing upon archival materials, including the original libretto draft, I show how Britten developed his ideas about the relationships between Abraham, Isaac, and God – both musically and in performance – through his use of implicit and explicit directions. In an in-depth score analysis, I demonstrate how these directions correspond with thematic transitions in the music and how they should transfer to the stage. Ultimately, gaining insight into the musical language of Canticle II may help performers achieve a more informed and effective performance.

Introduction

Imagine the sound of a devastatingly strong love between a father and son, tested by faith, torn apart by sacrifice, all in the name of God. Benjamin Britten’s Canticle II: Abraham and Isaac, written in 1952, brings this story to life in performance. Scored for tenor, alto, and piano, Canticle II is one of five Canticles. Canticles are pieces known for their intensely spiritual and hymn-like nature. Although frequently performed in the world of sacred music, Canticle II has tended to be overlooked by scholars. Research favors Britten’s much grander – and pessimistic – retelling of the story of Abraham and Isaac in the War Requiem, written in 1962.30 However, Canticle II is important in its own right. First, it reveals Britten’s uncanny ability to tell a powerful story amidst a rather simple-sounding musical structure. Secondly, it reinforces his passion for musically depicting his deeply held beliefs in his works. Canticle II, for instance, reflects his passion for the preservation of innocence. Most importantly, Canticle II includes stage directions that can be performed but are unlikely to be staged. This claim is based on the context of the play, and this paper’s performance analysis. One must wonder then, why he included the stage directions in the first place and why he took so much time editing them if there was no intention to stage them in performance.

At the core of my argument are two interrelated questions: how does Britten dramatize the Abraham and Isaac story through music and how should this transfer to the stage? I argue that the implicit father-son relationships between God and Abraham, and God and Isaac are reinforced through the music. This is also true of the resultant character development. These relationships, when developed musically, are enough to claim their own spotlight without performers physically acting out every scene. The first part of this paper discusses an analysis of the character development of Abraham and Isaac based on their father- son relationships with God. This analysis is based on a review of Britten’s edits in the book of Chester Miracle Plays and the following libretto draft. Secondly, using these same primary sources, this paper analyzes the stage directions in Canticle II. Their application in the score provides support to reinforce this paper’s claim that they should not be performed. Combining the musical intent of the character development and the stage directions, the last section discusses proper performance practice of this work.

Significance of Canticle II

Born in 1913 in Lowestoft, United Kingdom, Britten composed several dramatic genres of music including choral music, operas, orchestral works, and film music. Britten was a very precise composer who was deeply involved in the development of his works from the writing of the libretto to the set design and stage directions. Above all, however, it is the music within his composition that stands out. Canticle II functions not as a piece of music to be passively heard but rather as part of an experience in which the audience can 30 Mervyn Cooke, “Britten: War Requiem,” Cambridge Music Handbooks, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996). Several other Britten scholars have written about the comparison between Canticle II and the War Requiem. These include Philip Rupprecht, Heather Wiebe, Lucy Walker and the editors of Letters from a Life: The Selected Letters of Benjamin Britten Vol. IV 1952- 1957, Philip Reed, [Mervyn Cooke], and Donald Mitchell.

become actively engaged, both aurally and visually. Britten scholar Philip Rupprecht has coined the concept of musical language. This concept describes the combination of words, physical action, and music that brings forth meaning and truly compelling communication. Rupprecht notes that in particular, music acts as a crucial component in the structure of this meaning.31 This is especially true in Britten’s case as he strives to further develop the characters and plot of Canticle II through the music, which is then embodied by the performer.

Britten and his Music

Part of the reason that Britten’s performances were so compelling rests in the fact that he took care to write himself into his music as a part of his musical language.32 His emotions, experiences, and beliefs all found their way into his compositions. The performance and composition of Canticle II was no different. It is representative of Britten’s interest in Biblical themes in the 1950s. The church was undergoing a period of revival in Britain during this time. This was accompanied by the resurgence of theatrical genres being performed in the church, such as the original Miracle Plays.33 The story of Abraham and Isaac is first told in Genesis. Instead of deriving his libretto from this this text, however, Britten used a later version of the Abraham and Isaac story found in the fifteenthcentury book, the Chester Miracle Plays.34 The story tells of God’s commandment to Abraham to use his own son, Isaac, as sacrifice. Unaware of this plan, Isaac helps his father prepare for his own sacrificial burning. After all the preparations have been made, God speaks to Abraham again; for Abraham’s unfailing faith, God will save Isaac’s life. As a result, both men rejoice in God’s power and unfathomable grace.

The War Requiem, as previously mentioned, follows a similar story line with a more dire ending. Abraham does, in fact, slay Isaac at the altar. This is representative of the loss of many innocent lives during a time of senseless war. This message is heightened as Britten, an ardent pacifist, wrote the War Requiem for the opening of the restored Coventry Cathedral, which had been bombed during that time. This version of the story, gruesome as it is, received more attention than Canticle II because of its bloody and unexpected end, and its inclusion in a work that is much larger and more famous than Canticle II. However, many of the musical themes used to depict the Abraham and Isaac story in the Offertorium of the War Requiem, are taken from Canticle II. His self-quotation reveals Britten’s deep connection to the sounds of Abraham and Isaac in Canticle II and their musical effectiveness in portraying such a disastrous story.

31 Philip Rupprecht, Britten’s Musical Language, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 1-3.

32 Graham Johnson, Britten, Voice & Piano: Lectures on the Vocal Music of Benjamin Britten , Guildhall Research Studies, 2, (Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Co., 2003), 5.

33 Heather Wiebe, Britten’s Unquiet Pasts: Sound and Memory in Postwar Reconstruction, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 155.

34 Alfred W. Pollard, ed., “The Sacrifice of Isaac,” in English Miracle Plays, Moralities, and Interludes: Specimens of the preElizabethan Drama, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1927), 21-30, 1-9300358, BPL. This is the copy of the Chester Miracle Plays owned by Britten. It was used as a rough sketch for his later libretto draft.

For the purposes of portraying a mood and a story, Britten dug deeply into his musical score to enhance the character development of the individuals in Canticle II by closely entwining them with the libretto and his music.35 In composing Canticle II, Britten spent a great deal of time on the libretto He condensed and edited much of the text, by both cutting and adding to the original stage directions, as seen in his original edit markings in the Miracle Plays 36 Throughout the piece, the three characters Abraham, Isaac, and God interact through direct dialogue and prayer. Each character has a father-son relationship with the others both in a physical sense for Abraham and Isaac, and a spiritual sense for God and Abraham, and God and Isaac. Britten carefully foregrounded these character’s relationships in Canticle II to achieve depth and connectedness between the characters readily and consistently throughout the work To do this, he cut intermediary characters found in the Chester Miracle Plays. 37 For example, in the Chester Miracle Plays, as in Genesis, the angel is the one that speaks to Abraham after his first encounter with God. However, in comparing Britten’s copy of the Chester Miracle Plays with his libretto, which one can see in Figure 1, he crossed out the indication of an angel speaking and replaced him with God. d in the stage directions indicating “God speaks” whenever God’s voice comes back into the texture. Thus, even though he is not physically represented – that is, there is no individual performer to speak for him

his presence is felt throughout.

Libretto

Figure 1

Chester Miracle Plays (Pollard, 1927, BPL ID: 1-9300358) during Britten’s initial editing process.

Character Development

This presence of God is signaled by the key of E-flat major. At the very beginning of the piece, God’s disembodied voice and call are sung by both the alto and tenor in this key. The introductory triad, which can be seen in Example 1, consists of an open E-flat chord played without the fifth scale degree, only playing the E-flat and G (which are a major third apart). What is more, God’s music often supports Abraham’s own response. In measure 11, which is shown in Example 2, following God’s opening call, Abraham’s voice seems to blossom out of the E g into different tonal centers. This reveals that God’s voice is the starting point for Abraham’s music. In this example though fleetingly in the grand scheme of the piece, but assuredly nonetheless –we are reminded that God’s spirit is with Abraham. Hi flat chord progression carries over into Abraham’s terrified acceptance and realization of his call. As Abraham realizes the severity of his situation, there is a sudden transition in the mood of the piece. The representation of G measure 20. God’s key of E flat major and the new key, A major, are a tritone apart. The tritone is an interval known to represent conflict; it is widely recognized in music as the devil’s interval. This harmonic shift reveals the conflicting emotions Abraham is now feeling as he is wrestling with the fact that he must take away the life of his son who was given to him by God. The musical reflection of Abraham’s conflict with God adds increasing depth in his character development through the use of Britten’s musical language.

Example 1

Abraham relationship, God’s connection with Isaac is an implicit one. God never actually addresses Isaac musical motives sung by Isaac after he finds out that he is to be sacrificed. Keeping in mind n groups of

a clear reminder and musical representation of God’s presence. Starting in measure 102, seen in Example 3, ten in his flat with the during the bleeds into Isaac’s the Example 3. Many of the Old Their inclusion maintains the d and the Holy Trinity during Isaac’s

Example 3 , Groupings of three in Isaac’s melody and in the piano. Example of umlauted e’s used by Britten to maintain triple divisions in (mm. 102

Of course, God’s presence could also be heard as a menacing one. The depth and intricacy of the relationships created by Britten present God’s grace and presence with Abraham and Isaac as almost ironic. The brutality of God in asking Abraham to kill his only son is beyond human comprehension. However, he is supposed to be Isaac’s protector and Abraham’s deliverer. This story is wracked with disturbances of grace such as this. Yet, God remains constant even though Abraham and Isaac are enduring this massive trial of faith. God’s presence is affirmed by the constant return of the E flat tonal center after God’s reappearance in the texture at measure 248 with his opening call of “Abraham! My servant dear, Abraham!” There is a constant question of the sincerity of God’s grace and presence until this point. Furthering this sense of discomfort, the piano accompaniment which has come to represent God in the absence of his voice or rhythmically, as can be seen in the rhythmic incongruence mentioned above. For example, beginning in measure 25, seen in Example 4, the accompaniment is deceptively supportive of Abraham’s vocal line which starts with the statement, “Make thee ready my dear darling.” In most cases, the stress and strong beats fall at the same time. However, the vocal line is in triple meter and the piano, in duple meter. The presence of this polymeter is maintained until measure 73, when the piano begins to play with a full, broad sound and constant tremolo under Abraham.40 Both of these examples reveal the disturbance of grace felt by Abraham and Isaac as they attempted to carry out God’s will, enduring only through faith.

Reception of

Nonetheless, by taking such care to structure the relationships between God, Abraham, and Isaac within the story as he did, Britten brought forth one of the most important messages for a listener to this tale. This alludes to the theme in Abraham and Isaac of the perpetual presence and eternal grace of God. During the 1950s, Britten wrote for listeners who were desperate to use the arts within the church to find peace in their faith after the war. As musicologist Heather Wiebe has recently shown, British Protestant Churches in the 1950s were slowly starting to rebuild after an extended period of decline. These churches were to act as a vessel for the growing relationship between religious art forms. Britten contributed to this growth in his composition of several church operas (church parables) and religious choral works in the 1950s and 1960s. There was also a renewed interest in performing the medieval Miracle Plays in British churches, one of which, “The Sacrifice of Isaac,” is the basis of In dramatizing the Abraham and Isaac story and revealing God’s presence within it, Britten was attempting to speak to an audience seeking to revive their faith. This was especially effective when

The first Aldeburgh performance of was in the Aldeburgh Parish Church on June 22, 1952 as part of a fundraising tour for the English Opera Group and the Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts, founded by Britten in his adopted hometown. was also composed specifically for Britten’s partner, Peter Pears, and a close friend, Kathleen Ferrier. During the first performance, Britten himself accompanied his two companions in a powerful debut. wrote that the work was “full

41 Wiebe, 155-169.

42 Programme for the Fifth Aldeburgh Festival, June 14-22, 1952, BPF, PG/AF/1952. This Aldeburgh performance is one of the most well-known because of its inclusion in the Aldeburgh Festival. It should be noted, however, that the first performance of Canticle II took place in Nottingham on January 22 at the Royal Albert Hall, which was the first stop on the EOG’s tour. Other early performances include one at the Town Hall on January 23rd in Birmingham and another on January 25th in Manchester at the Free Trade Hall.

43 Neville Cardus, ed., Kathleen Ferrier: A Memoir, New ed., (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1969).

of the musical virtue of the composer, original, emotional, yet beguiling to the ear, and asking for no great mental exertion.”44

According to newspaper reviews, Canticle II was met with warm reception and much appreciation.45 From the newspaper reviews, we can also gather that the audiences may have felt profoundly impacted by the performance of the work.46 Britten’s very pointed musical language dramatizes the story and develops the relationships between the characters with God that he knows the listeners are looking for as well. A newspaper review in the Nottingham Guardian indicates that Britten planned only to perform Canticle II in places where he wished to stage some of his future operas.47 Many of these were church operas that he wrote in and around the 1960s, as formerly mentioned, intended for fully staged performances in Aldeburgh’s churches and near by cathedrals. The performance aesthetics of an intimate church setting, when coupled with a work like Canticle II, greatly contribute to the impact of the story. The intimate nature of the work is enhanced by the space and the atmosphere of the sanctuary sets a tone for the audience of connecting with God.

For an audience member, the aural and visual experience of a piece is drawn not only from the performance space, but also from the performer’s body language, emotion, and voice. The relationships between God and Abraham, and God and Isaac, are reinforced by the active interpretation of the music and the voice and body language of the performers.48 As a result they witness a living character being built right before their eyes. As Rupprecht writes, “In song (…) music and words encounter one another directly [and their] powers of communication depend on the material presence of words ”49 Well aware of this, Britten focused on character development in writing out dynamic and articulation markings for the performers to follow. For example, if one compares the most recently published score, printed by Boosey & Hawkes, and the original performance score used by Pears, he will notice that several markings are slightly different. For instance, when Abraham proclaims Isaac’s name in measure 97, which can be seen in Figure 2b, Pears’ score indicates accents over the dotted quarter notes on the first syllable. This subtle performance marking adds anguish and an almost choking effect, as if Abraham is holding back tears. These added accents in Pears’ score alter our perception of Abraham’s relationship with Isaac in that the increased emotion and musical impact are felt by the audience.50 There are also several instances of altered dynamic, articulation, and style markings. It is known that these recorded markings and the rest of this particular score are in Pears’ handwriting. The altered musical markings were most likely taken during rehearsal with Britten. These accents seem to have been lost in the editing process and did not make it into the 1953 version of the published score, which can be seen in Figure 2a. Pears’

44 “New Britten Canticle Produced in Nottingham,” Nottingham Guardian, January 22, 1952, BPF.

45 Other reviews with similar sentiments include articles found in the Nottingham Journal, the Birmingham Post, and the Birmingham Gazette

46 J.F. W. “Aiding the English Opera Group: Recital in Birmingham Town Hall,” Birmingham Post, January, 23, 1952, BPF.

47 Nottingham Guardian, January 22, 1952.

48 Rupprecht, 2.

49 Ibid., 1.

50 Original Manuscript for Canticle II: Abraham and Isaac, Vocal Part, BPF. This score was used by Peter Pears in the first performances of Canticle II. The reference draws from analysis of the primary source document held in comparison to a 1953 publication of the same work.

original performance score reveals a meaningful dialogue between Pears and Britten that indicates how Britten wished for the work to be performed.

, Excerpt taken from 1953 publication without the accents over the proclamations of Isaac’s

Staging

Britten’s deep involvement with the preparation for the performance of Canticle II from a musical standpoint raises questions as to how much thought he put into the physical utilization of the stage directions he included in this work. One might wonder, too, whether it should be treated as a hymn or miniature opera, based on Britten’s intentions. It could be argued that Canticle II should be more readily considered for staging because it dealt with and followed up on the same theme of sacrifice as his 1951 opera, Billy Budd 51 Britten was known to follow up many of his major operas will smaller, though no less significant pieces, that follow similar themes of the larger work.52 The shared theme, however, does not mean that they should be executed in the same way, especially concerning staging. There are several issues with the stage directions that might cause one to think of Canticle II’s stage directions as distinctly different from those in Billy Budd. First of all, the props named in the stage directions pop up out of nowhere, despite the fact that they are connected to shifts in the plot. For example, the first stage direction indicating the use of props, which can be seen in Example 5, occurs at measure 30 calling for a bundle of sticks. The next, which indicates the use of a kerchief, does not appear until measure 229.

If we consider the venues in which this piece was performed, they do not lend themselves to a fully constructed set and additional props for an approximately seventeen minute piece. In a hymn setting, the text should be able to tell its own story, not be

Further complicating the issue is that the stage directions in Canticle II are less than helpful in developing the overall plot. They barely contribute to setting the transitions between scenes, so to speak. This does not correlate with the fact that most of the stage directions are provided at large musical transition points in the score. Rather, the text and music facilitate this change. For example, measure 265 is accompanied by a stage direction saying, “Then let Abraham take the lamb and kill him.” This marks the point in the story just after God has released Abraham from the responsibility of slaying his son as Abraham steadies himself in praise and thanksgiving.53

The stage directions should at least involve some sort of release of Isaac and preparation of the lamb, if nothing else, but they do not.

In scores of Britten's other operas, for instance Noye’s Fludde (1958), a church opera also derived from the Chester Miracle Plays, the stage directions are quite direct and in some cases brief. Yet, they provide enough detail for no holes to be missing in the story. 54

If Canticle II is regarded as more being akin to a hymn than an opera, then performing the piece without the inclusion of the stage directions is perfectly acceptable. Indeed, this has been the common performance practice; an extensive search online and in the archive reveals only one record of these stage directions having been performed.55 Scholarship, too, has tended to ignore these directions; Victoria Sevdayan mentions that their utilization in a performance would enhance the singing and overall effect of the piece, but goes into no further detail.56 Although this is an interesting point, there is no musical or textual evidence that explains how the performance would be enhanced. Nor is there any indication that further research is to be done on the topic. In fact, the inclusion of the stage directions would be distracting and may detract from the solemnity of the composition. If performed, they would take away from the mystical nature of Canticle II because the communication between the characters is of the utmost intimate quality as the experience of this work is akin to a prayer. This is especially true when associated with a chamber, setting meaning that the piece is performed by a small number of musicians, usually in an intimate manner. This way of thinking can be seen in the spirit of Britten’s stage directions.

Canticle II in Performance

Yet what does this indicate for the performance practice of Canticle II today? In most performances, the two singers assume a stance figuratively separated from each other on center stage to represent the voice of God. Examples of this can be both individual s standing with their backs to the audience, or standing back to back. Then, as the performers transition into Abraham and Isaac, they turn to face the audience. Generally speaking, they will perform the rest of the work like a chamber piece, facing the audience and engaging in

53 Ibid.

54 Benjamin Britten, Noye’s Fludde, Op. 59, (London: Boosey & Hawkes, 1959).

55This is a very recent performance, uploaded in 2013 to YouTube by countertenor, Leandro Marziotte. Even in this performance, very few of the stage directions were completely addressed and none of the props were used, with the exception of a piece of furniture covered in black cloth which may have been intended to represent an altar. However, neither Marziotte, nor the tenor, Raphael Höhn, ever approached it during the performance.

56 Victoria Sevdayan, “A Vocal-Performance Analysis of Benjamin Britten's Canticles I, II, and III.” PhD diss., (California State University, Long Beach, 1997), 46

minimal interaction between the performers. The performers are attempting to embody God in a way that is disconnected from the other two characters while being sung by the same voices. In this regard, the variety of stances make sense. This style of performance is not necessarily “wrong” but it does not lend itself to furthering the development of the relationships between the characters through the medium of the physical performers. Performers are limited in the intimacy and relational impact they can portray to the audience if they are turned away, hiding emotions portrayed on their faces. Thus it is crucial that they have access to the same presence of God that the characters within the story feel. To represent this on stage, it is most efficient to utilize the physical space in front of and around them while keeping their faces directed outwards, or standing side to side and looking outward, with one’s eyes slightly out of focus.

In highlighting the development of the relationships between the characters, the work lends itself more readily to its likeness to church music instead of a miniature opera. The stage directions provided should inform the performers’ perspective when attempting to bring their characters to life in performance. But they should not be overtly carried out during the duration of the performance. Rather the stage directions should be used to energize the emotions, body language, and expressions of the performers. With a stage direction such as one indicating that Abraham raised his hand, intending to slay Isaac, the performer must feel the anguish, sheer terror and insurmountable weight of the action he is going to commit. The audience too must be dragged through the air with the slashing of the invisible sword as they trace the agony in the face and body language of the performer. Yet there should not be the physical raising of an empty hand. This absence of physical action but embodiment of the stage directions in the music allows the audience and performers to immerse themselves in the piece without the distraction of unnecessary movement. It also allows them the opportunity to invest themselves in the subliminal messages in the story as they can devote more attention to the text as it grows from the underlying musical development instead of watching the performers for physical cues. Performers and audience members alike can engage in the depth and value in the father-son relationships, feeling the presence of God even though his character is not physically there.

Conclusion

As one prepares to perform a work like Canticle II it is important to consider such things as the relationships within the music and between the characters as well as the performance practice that accompanies it If such underlying points are not understood by the performer, they cannot be brought to the forefront of his or her character development and performance. As a result, much of the profundity and meaning for the audience is lost and, in a sense, the “magic” is gone. The depth of musical detail in creating the fatherson relationships I have outlined make Canticle II a critical piece. It aids in identifying Britten’s compositional thought process in the creation of his dramatic staged works. It also reveals the deep passion Britten maintained for expressing himself personally in all of his works, no matter how small or simple they may sound upon one’s first listening. Canticle II has the poignancy and gravity to stand on

its own and does not have to be considered as just a follow up to Britten’s other major operas or as a supplement for a much larger and well known piece like the War Requiem . Understanding Canticle II in this way provides insight into the performance of his other small, yet pointed and passionate works such as his other Canticles. For performer and audience member alike, Canticle II is a fully developed spiritual story ready to reclaim center stage.

References

Britten, Benjamin. Canticle II: Abraham and Isaac. Op. 51. London: Boosey & Hawkes, 1953.

. Noye’s Fludde. London: Boosey & Hawkes. 1959.

War Requiem. London: Boosey & Hawkes, 1963.

Cardus, Neville. ed. Kathleen Ferrier: A Memoir. New ed. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1969.

Cooke, Mervyn. Britten: War Requiem. Cambridge Music Handbooks. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

. “Be Flat or Be Natural? Pitch Symbolism in Britten’s Operas.” In Rethinking Britten, edited by Philip Rupprecht, 102-127. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.

Johnson, Graham. Britten, Voice & Piano: Lectures on the Vocal Music of Benjamin Britten . Guildhall Research Studies 2. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Co., 2003.

Reed, Philip, Mervyn Cooke, and Donald Mitchell. ed. Letters from a Life: The Selected Letters of Benjamin Britten. Vol. IV 19521957. Woodbridge, England: The Boydell Press, 2008.

Rupprecht, Philip. Britten’s Musical Language. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001.

“The Sacrifice of Isaac.” In English Miracle Plays, Moralities, and Interludes: Specimens of the pre-Elizabethan Drama, edited by Pollard, Alfred W. 8 ed. 21-30. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1927.

Sevdayan, Victoria A. “A Vocal-Performance Analysis of Benjamin Britten's Canticles I, II, and III.” PhD diss., California State University, Long Beach, 1997.

White, Eric W. Benjamin Britten: His Life and Operas. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1970.

Wiebe, Heather. Britten’s Unquiet Pasts: Sound and Memory in Postwar Reconstruction . New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012.

Unintentional Shipment of Species: Transporting Goods Damaging the Ecosystem?

by Paige Daniels

sponsored by Dr. Jay Paul (Honors Program)

Author Biography

Paige Daniels is a member of the class of 2015 at Christopher Newport University where she majored in Cellular, Molecular, and Physiological Biology with a minor in Leadership Studies. She is a member of the Biology honors society (Beta Beta Beta), Alpha Phi, Leadership honors society (Omicron Delta Kappa), and Alpha Phi. Having fallen in love with Immunology, she will pursue her Ph.D. in Biomedical Science at the University of Buffalo SUNY following graduation. She extends her gratitude to her friends, family, roommates, God, and Dr. Knies, Brown, Paul, and Meighan, who have worked with her extensively to develop her love of research and writing.

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to call for changes to the national and international ballast treatment sy stems. Due to an increased reliance on international trade, modern systems for transport of resources between countries pose a serious threat to habitat specificity and biodiversity. The current management of ballast water is limited to ballast-water exchange systems and the irregular cleaning of ship hulls; however, these methods are inefficient and unsustainable for the long-term. In order to successfully combat the rate of oceanic organism transfer and the slow degradation of oceanic habitat and biodiversity, the United States should quickly instate a new form of ballast water management and hull cleaning in all outgoing and incoming ships via updated legislature and a standard ballast treatment system. Furthermore, the United Nations should consider creating a similar international standard for ballast control and speciestransfer management.

Over the past century, the world’s aquatic ecosystem has been drastically altered: biomes constantly battle habitat loss, climate change, invasive species, sea level rise, coral bleaching, and overfishing. However, nature must also combat other problems associated with the globalization of civilizations. Modern methods for transport of materials between countries also pose a serious threat to habitat specificity and biodiversity. While the current management of ballast water is limited to ballast-water exchange systems and the irregular cleaning of ship hulls, these methods are inefficient and unsustainable for the long-term. In order to successfully combat the rate of oceanic organism transfer and the slow degradation of oceanic habitat and biodiversity, the United States should quickly instate a new form of ballast water management and hull cleaning in all outgoing and incoming ships via updated legislature and a standard ballast treatment system. Furthermore, the United Nations should consider creating a similar international standard for ballast control and species-transfer management.

I. Invasive Species

Species which migrate a long distance or are forced into a new environment are commonly termed ‘introduced’ species. These alien populations are characterized by several basic elements which assess an individual’s ability to adapt to a new environment an d the relative scope to which it outcompetes or harms the native species’ balance and niche. While an introduced species has a variety of ways it responds to a new environment, an invasive species always outcompetes native flora and fauna and flourishes at an unprecedented rate, grows and spreads rapidly, and damages the local habitat to an extent that is considered to be harmful to human life, the global and regional climate, and the ecosystem (Anil). One common invasive pathogenic microorganism is the fish rhabdovirus, a virus which causes fish internal hemorrhaging and which is easily transferred through water, contaminated eggs, and fishing bait. It was originally found in the northern hemisphere and European freshwaters but quickly spread in the late 1980 ’s to cause extreme population depletion in the Great Lakes (Bain). Furthermore, an introduced species in a nonnative habitat could also outcompete or change the native niche and species web, spread foreign infectious agents to cause animal and human disease, li mit marine and coastal resources by ecosystem and habitat damage, and damage or lessen the efficiency of the ships. The most infamous historical example of a species transferring an infectious agent via a maritime vector is the Bubonic Plague, a deadly diseas e that killed 25% of Europe’s population in the fourteenth century and which was originally transported across the world inside the stomachs of fleas on rats that had been hidden onboard a trade vessel (Miller).

A commonly understood method of species relocation is that of intentional international transfer. Species are often traded because of useful characteristics, such as botanical beauty, unique flavor, or attractiveness in the pet or household trade. Once these individuals are transported to a new area, they may escape into the environment and compete for their own portion of the species niche or release foreign infectious species into the habitat. In fact, a form of enteric red mouth disease in salmonids, caused by the bacterium Yersinia ruckeri, has extended its geographic range to the Great Lakes due to the import of infected live fish and fish eggs from Europe, with

the intention of selling them as foodstuffs, and their release or physical processing in to the Lakes (Peter et al.). Incidents such as this are not uncommon in the modern age of international trade and globalization; trade ships have still been scientifically correlated with the transmission of infectious disease and are one of the major driving forces behind the massive shift in some coastal organism’s geographic range, according to Wilson of the Journal of Emerging Infectious Disease. Furthermore, many other aquatic species, such as the invasive jumping Asian carp, which was initially traded for human consumption, have been banned from transaction between countries because individuals found their way into local habitats and destroyed the native fauna and delicate food web (National Park Service). Interestingly, one of the most common forms of species transfer across the globe is not by transmission from an infected host or intentional trade of a desired species, but through international trade using massive ships which unintentionally harbor the invasive agent in their hulls.

II. Modern Shipment and Ballast Water

Approximately 90% modern international trade utilizes an oceanic or maritime vector (Anil). When ships load cargo and goods onboard, they quickly allow hundreds of thousands of gallons of water into the lower tanks of the ship by simple water diffusion, not requiring much active pumping machinery; this method allows the craft to overcome the additional weight of the cargo onboard and also provides extra stability when at sea. The water pumped onboard is conveyed directly from the port, a process which disturbs the coastal floor and suspends moderate amounts of stones or soil into the water flushed into the ship’s hull (Minchin et al).

Original ships were made of wood and contained dry ballast; this made it easy for wood-boring organisms and ballast-dwelling organisms to inhabit the ship and be unintentionally transported. In the past, solid ballast such as rocks or sand was employed to offset the additional weight of the cargo. This required manual labor, actively hauling the ballast onto the ship prior to and following docking in port, and had to be completed at the same rate as the cargo was transported onboard. Using solid ballast was generally considered to be unproductive in terms of cost and energy-effectiveness, and subsequent phasing-out began in the late 1800s and was complete by 1950, when it was replaced with water ballast (Hewitt, Gollasch, & Minchin). Currently, modern metal ships are largely loaded with ballast water, an automated process which takes substantially less labor. Additionally, the metal exteriors allow for much less biofouling of the ship, or a significantly smaller ratio of organisms which can attach to the slick and impenetrable surfaces of the vessel (Hewitt, Gollasch, & Minchin). Furthermore, organisms which were commonly transported through the solid ballast are less often transmitted with water ballast; however, it is important to note that organisms which live in dry ballast can also be found in ballast water, as water often contains sand and other solid particles such as silt and mud. These particles can aid in the transferal and also the development of a microenvironment within the ballast tanks during the voyage. Still, to say that species are different in solid and water ballast does not imply that certain populations are more likely to be harmful to the introduced environment than others those factors cannot be certifiably predicted.

Nevertheless, the development of water ballast formed an unintentional and unexpected issue with the transferal of aquatic organisms into foreign environments around the world where they then altered that novel environment. This occurs when oceanic shipping vessels fill their hull with over 12 billion tons of ballast water and suspended sand from the harbor upon arrival at a dock, the ships release that water and sediment into the alien ecosystem (Drake, Doblin, & Dobbs). Hundreds of different marine species and thousands of unique microorganisms are therefore transferred around the globe where they are released into new habitats to compete for a niche. However, due to the randomized uptake of organisms onto the ship, species were extremely non-specific, meaning that identical ships harbor very different micro-ecosystems and released unique collections of species upon docking.

For this reason, scientific support of the hull-transfer of species required a significant amount of research and time and the understanding of the causes and effects of this method remains minimal. Furthermore, because invasive species and environmental science are themselves both relatively new sciences, it is increasingly difficult to demonstrate that an already-introduced species originated from a different area, and that the vector which transported it was maritime shipment. This makes it challenging to develop any historical context of transported microorganisms. Currently, the most common method of demonstrating the transferal of species is by genetic analysis. When different populations of the same species inhabiting distinct areas of the globe are found to have the same common ancestor, it can be inferred that both populations originated in the same area and therefore were brought recently to that new area.

Due to the increasing importance of understanding and managing the ecological consequences of international trade, it is necessary to examine the methods in which organisms may be transferred, as well as the documented effects of species which have been relocated in this way. However, the most challenging scientific distinction is showing that organisms were transferred to the nonnative area by maritime ballast; and indeed, organisms from all the major taxonomic and trophic groups have been detected in the ballast or its sediments (Drake, Doblin, & Dobbs). In fact, according to Bax et al. of the Journal of Marine Policy, over 10,000 species are currently in transit internationally via cargo ship’s ballast water. Microorganisms and various species of higher order have been located in ship’s ballast water, residual sediment, and internal ship biofilm. Cases of invasive organisms have been investigated, and their historical transfer from their native area, by these large trade vessels, documented. Moreover, all cargo ships, even those without ballast or hull water and therefore containing no larger organisms, still house extremely large numbers of rotifers, cladocerans, viruses, copepods, and bacteria (Drake). In one case study, investigators determ ined that at least 56% of the microorganisms annually transferred to the port of Hampton Roads could survive the relocation, inferring that a total of 6.8 x 10^19 viruses and 3.9 x 10^18 bacteria are annually introduced to the lower Chesapeake Bay a truly injurious amount. Furthermore, the transfer of microorganisms also occurs in the sediment resting at the bottom of their ballast tanks, which often carry diatoms and dinoflagellates. A se cond case study by Hallagraef& Bolch showed that about half of transferred microorganisms are viable after an international trip, and that the

sediment could sometimes contain populations of over 300 million cysts. Additionally, of these species, multiple pathogenic strains were identified and linked to prior marine disease and phytoplankton biodiversity loss in that area.

One such infamous infection-linked passage occurred in 1991. Peru experienced a case of epidemic cholera which quickly spread throughout Latin America and Mexico. A year later, scientists of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) identified that V. cholerae infecting oysters and oyster-eating fish in Alabama had been transmitted by ballast water of ships reporting from South America. In further support of this claim was the fact that the US strain was genetically indistinguishable from the Peruvian epidemic 1991 strain (Takahashi).

Recent research on organism transfer via maritime trade vessels has given evidence of the necessity of trade regulation in order to combat the transfer of invasives and disease. Indeed, ballast-water quarantine measures were already undertaken in Australia in the early 1990s because of their previous issues with these deleterious factors (Hallagraef& Bolch). However, quarantine measures could never exist as a longitudinal management option and other possible avenues, such as mid-ocean exchange and further regulation, must be explored (Crowl et al).

III. Possible Modifications

There are numerous proposed solutions to this issue of organism transfer due to ballast. Firstly, ships could transfer ballast while at sea, trading the sea water for port water. Secondly, boats themselves and ship contents could undergo chemical treatment to lessen the amount of viable species that can travel inside and on the outside of the vessel. Thirdly, water could be heavily filtered upon arrival into the ship; water could go through a series of different-sized filters which each remove assorted particles from the ballast, rendering it harmless. Fourthly, diver inspection for biofouling could be invoked where, upon inspection, a boat could be fined, sent with directions to clean the craft prior to re-entry, or directed to a dry-docking facility to be cleaned immediately. Lastly, all leisure craft, such as personal boats or yachts, could also be subject to the solutions mentioned.

Possibly the most popular governmental solution to the ballast problem remains the first option: ballast management systems and exchange programs. In this process, boats which take on ballast from the dock would hold the water in their tanks until they were about halfway through their journey. They would then release the water into the sea, exchanging it at an equal rate with the sea water.

Upon arrival at the destination harbor, the sea water would then be released into the port. While it may appear to be a relatively easy solution, this system should never be considered in the long-term, as Hewitt, Gollasch, & Minchin state “[it is a] part-effective or temporary measure”. Though this is an interim beneficial possibility, the system may be unsafe during a storm or in specific dangerous locations, where incorrect procedures could lead to serious events at sea. Furthermore, while it does eliminate a portion of the transfer

of species from the original port to the end port, sediments can still remain in the ballast, and not all of the ballast may be removed in the exchange process, and so it would still cause a form of organism transfer from port to ocean and ocean to second port. Certain ships which execute only within the US economic zone or are not seafaring are not required to do this. Hewitt, Gollasch, & Minchin suggest that ships smaller than a certain size should not be required to participate in exchange. The distance of the journey may also limit the necessity of the ballast exchange system. Exchange may not be needed for short journeys but would be necessary for treks over a certain distance. Additionally, for trips that had exceptionally long durations, more than one exchange may be required.

The most pressing issue with the ballast exchange system is its efficiency. In a study performed by McCollin, Shanks, & Dunn, an evident alteration of the species composition after releasing ballast in the port waters was still evident even with mandator y ballast exchange, illustrating that ports were still seeing an introduction of harmful species, and suggesting that it is an unreliable and inefficient treatment method. Additionally, Dunstan & Bax examined the efficacy of the system by analyzing the reduction in possibility of organism invasion in the introduced area. Unfortunately, they found that mid-ocean ballast exchange only reduced the possibility of invasion by 25%; therefore, this system is a not successful enduring method for mediating of species invasion.

Why is mid-ocean ballast exchange considered the most reasonable method for ballast treatment, and why is it being pursued? To answer this question, one must weigh the pros and cons of each of the possibilities. Mid-oceanic transfer, as discussed, is a successful method in that it slightly reduces possibility of invasion and the sheer number of populations present in the ballast. However, it would be costly to introduce the systems into all ships, could be dangerous in certain weather conditions, and would require an enormous amount of regulation. The second option, chemical treatment could be successful but could also aggregate the environmental issues, just, in addition to introduced species, introducing foreign chemicals into the environment. In the United States, coppe r cladding on the ship exterior and also the development of paints with biologically-active compounds were first attempted around the 1970s, as government officials began to notice the incredible amount of biological material that could fasten itself to th e outside of the ship. In one example, a boat in New Zealand was analyzed by researchers and found to have 96 tons of biological material. This chemica l solution was an attempt to limit this “biofouling” and attachment to the vessel exterior. However, the paints caused severe issues in marine communities adjacent to the ports, and were banned in 2003, after a very long and extensive debate spanning a couple decades, according to a United Nations body, the International Convention on the Control of Harmful A nti-Fouling Systems on Ships of the International Maritime Organization. Luckily, as modern transportation engineering of ships has improved, vessel speeds have increased significantly, causing it to be considerably more difficult for organisms to remain attached to the hull.

The possibility of creating a large water treatment plant should also be assessed. This plant could filter large amounts of w ater that was transported from ship’s ballast tanks. The clean water would then be removed and allowed to return to the harbor. While this

could be a successful method, it would require vast systems of enormous water treatment and filtration plants, all of which a re within close proximity to a harbor to ensure direct ballast transportation. This would entail a m assive government initiative that remains implausible at this time.

The next option, the development and installment of sophisticated water filtration systems, could be very successful. However, obtaining large filters able to separate out minute organisms, such as viruses, from hundreds of thousands of gallons of water entering the ship would be incredibly expensive to the point of unaffordable for the government and for individual captains. Finally, a new form of hull biofouling inspection utilizing certified divers as a mandatory “clean ship” accountability program could ensure that each craft has a limited amount of adhesive organisms. While this could be successful, it would require paid divers and a government or state-regulated inspection process much like that of car inspections. Furthermore, it would lessen the amount of biofouling but would not adequately address the ballast organisms and would therefore not be sufficient alone. Similarly, requiring all leisure craft to be subject to the solutions mentioned may not be possible or reasonable for the captains to afford. Likewise, it would add unnecessary minutia to leisure boating the portion of the boats that is not the core of the issue. When comparing these options, the adoption of the mid-oceanic ballast water exchange appears to be the top route because it is a comparatively easy, efficient, and affordable temporary solution.

Past Regulations

Many of the modern government regulations imposed on large trade craft are centered on increasing the efficiency of the craft and avoiding unnecessary costs, such as the seepage of fuel into the water, and not avoiding the transfer of organisms and microorganisms. In fact, only recently was the management of organisms on the hull considered, largely because of recent research suggesting that ships with high biofouling expend excess fuel during the voyage (Hewitt, Gollasch, & Minchin).

In terms of invasive species, the United States used to largely be focused on terrestrial invaders, as they have a measurable economic impact. Regulations enacted by the Lacy Act, Federal Noxious Weed Act, and Plant Protection Act have all partitioned off certain species as unwanted or allowed in federal and state organism “dirty lists,” and created certain methods to inhibit their spread into and throughout the US. Scientifically, this is an ineffective and unattainable way to attempt to limit the invasion of native habitat and interaction webs. For this reason, the national and federal regime is considered to be weak and unorganized (Hewitt, Everett, & Parker).

The first attempt to control ballast water occurred in the NANPCA Act, which directed regulations to reduce ballast -based organism introductions in the Great Lakes, an area which has historically struggled with invasive species. This Act was later amended to include

all the US aquatic areas. Recently, further ballast regulations have been included in Federal Regulations which intend to be implemented in 2016. In this installment, all vessels coming from outside the US or Canadian economic exclusive zone are require to manage the ballast by retention on-board or mid-ocean exchange at least 200 nautical miles from any shore. Ships that do not voyage further than 200 nautical miles from any US shore for a sufficient length of time or have identified safety concerns are not required to conduct ballast exchange in areas other than the Great Lakes or the Hudson River. Additionally, vessels traveling near the US but which do not depart or port in a US area are not required to abide by these laws. There are also regulations for the contents of the ballast. According to the Federal Regulations, the following are mandated:

(1) For organisms greater than or equal to 50 micrometers in minimum dimension: Discharge must include fewer than 10 organisms per cubic meter of ballast water.

(2) For organisms less than 50 micrometers and greater than or equal to 10 micrometers: Discharge must include fewer than 10 organisms per milliliter (mL) of ballast water.

(3) Indicator microorganisms must not exceed:

(i) For toxicogenic Vibrio cholerae (serotypes O1 and O139): A concentration of less than 1 colony forming unit (cfu) per 100 mL.

(ii) For Escherichia coli: a concentration of fewer than 250 cfu per 100 mL.

(iii) For intestinal enterococci: A concentration of fewer than 100 cfu per 100 mL.

Furthermore, ships operating in US water must also “regularly” clean their hulls to reduce biofouling. All of these regulations are subject to inspection by the Coast Guard at any time, though no regular scheduled assessment exists. If any vessel is found to be unsatisfactory during this time, the violator is liable to a civil penalty of at maximum $35,000 and may be charged with a cl ass C felony (Electronic Code of Federal Regulations). Unfortunately, the broad mixture of unorganized authorities and jurisd iction which remain unresolved have complicated the management attempts thus far (Hewitt, Everett, & Parker). Interestingly, exemptions to these ballast treatment plans include military and government vessels and oil tankers. Australia has already implemented some ballast management programs. Historically, the reefs of Australia have suffered serious invasions which caused extreme economic and environmental impacts. To prevent these issues from aggregating, the government developed the National System for the Prevention and Management of Marine Pest Incursions to address all marine pest vectors and establish prevention strategies and emergency response systems. Mandatory requirements for ballast management under the Quarantine Act, which was passed sometime later, requires all vessels to either conduct mid-ocean exchange or contact a government

branch prior to docking. Also, the protocol strongly suggests that all international vessels to have a clean hull upon arrival or be brought shortly after docking for cleaning (Hewitt, Everett, & Parker).

New Zealand, as well, remains one of the few countries that drafted legislation to prevent non-indigenous species by creating a preborder quarantine system and a post-border incursion response. This system requires mid-ocean ballast exchange prior to entry into the water space. The incursion response maintains that all aquatic areas are constantly monitored for new areas of introduction and seeks to determine the extent of the invasion as well as the primary point of introduction (Hewitt, Everett, & Parker).

Detailed Options

The following outlines a list of possible avenues for improving the ballast system in the United States which should be pursu ed prior to the new Federal Regulation’s enforcement in 2016.

As is always needed, citizens, crewmen, and captains should be informed of the reasoning behind the changes that will be made they should be informed as to why they need to do these things.

Research is always needed in order to better our understanding of how our current methods are working. If more unbiased research is obtained, improvements to the current management systems could be adequately assessed. An integral part of that process would be determining the precise amount of bacteria and viruses escaping from the ballast per gallon, and considering if that is in accordance with the standards described in the Federal Regulations. These standards may also have to be changed once more research is conducted in order to reduce the amount of organisms released if the research determines that it still negatively affects the environment.

The term “regular” should be clearly defined in the in the statement in the Federal Regulations “regular hull and ballast ta nk cleaning” in order to create a stronger and more reliable federal ballast and biofouling management system.

Crude Oil Tankers should not be exempt from the ballast water exchange systems.

The ability to uptake and discharge ballast near marine sanctuaries should be eliminated or ships should be require d to retain ballast on board.

A system of regular ship surveying should be created by the Coast Guard instead of random assessment, which produce little effectiveness and reliability.

There should be a series of filters in the ballast water exchange system that keep many of the organisms from coming in, and blocks them from going out; even the small addition of one filter to the system would create a more efficient and sustainable system

Any chemical treatment of the ballast should be eliminated, and ballast treatment systems that include harmful chemical treatment should not be available. These chemicals are harmful and not sustainable.

It can be incredibly difficult, and sometimes very expensive, to install the management systems on older vessels. To aid captains who cannot afford the transition, there should be some type of financial support offered.

The establishment of a public recommended the ballast management systems should be provided. Currently, the modern systems ar e all very different, including UV-radiation, filters, Chlorine treatment, etc. The most useful and effective ones should be chosen and made the standard.

IV. Suggested Modifications

Not all of the suggested avenues above are immediately possible or fiscally feasible. Therefore, the following section will outline the suggested avenues which are most likely to be implemented by the government or incorporated into legislation.

The most important method of deterring organism transfer via ballast water is to further update legislatio n in order to provide the most thorough management initiative. This would provide a sustainable system that would reduce the risk of invasion for the short-term while other longitudinal approaches are explored. The additional legislative actions suggested include: more frequent hull and ballast tank cleaning ensured by redefining “regular” and setting a standard for measuring the cleanliness of these areas, including Crude Oil Tankers in the list of ships that are required to conduct mid-oceanic water transfer, organizing systematic craft surveying by the Coast Guard to ensure that all ships have been undergoing the ballast transfer and hull and tank cleaning, and eliminating vessel’s ability to uptake and discharge of ballast water near marine sanctuaries, preserves, parks, and reefs, perhaps requiring them to retain their water onboard.

Another essential amendment that should be employed immediately in the US is the creation of more sustainable ballast treatment systems; this would ensure that less species are being transferred, that the recommended ballast treatment system is the most efficient

on the market, and that the system is not damaging the harbor environment. To reach this objective, unbiased agencies should begin researching the current systems and determine which is the most efficient and sustainable. This model would then be adopted as the national or state standard ballast management system, and all ships would be required to install it onboard. Meanwhile, new alternative models would continue to be developed and these models would be compared to the standard in terms of efficacy and sustainability by possibly incorporating proper filtration methods and eliminating chemical treatment while maintaining a low relative system a nd installment cost.

International Recommendations

There are presently numerous international and national Commissions, Workshops, Conventions, and Committees dedicated to assessing the nature of ballast invasive species transfer. However, while these may be beneficial in terms of research, they are not devoted to establishing a solution. Groups such as the Helsinki Commission (HELCOM) and the International Maritime Organization (IMO)’s Marine Environmental Protection Committee (MEPC) should reevaluate their organizational goals in order to accept the responsibility of establishing an international ballast management program and defining a list of approved ballast treatment syste ms. More importantly, the United Nations, which has been proactive enough to create conferences and meetings devoted to ballast -related issues, should also reassess their purpose as an environmental protection agency and endeavor to institute an international standard for ballast treatment comparable to that proposed previously.

V. Conclusion

Modern United States ballast management is nonexistent, though a government enterprise has been designed to begin in 2016. However, this system is severely lacking in structure and definition, rendering it inefficient and unsustainable for the long-term, and must be amended immediately. Furthermore, in order to successfully combat the current rate of oceanic organism transfer and the slow degradation of oceanic habitat and biodiversity, the United States should quickly determine which ballast management system is the most sustainable and efficient, and name that the national standard. Likewise, the United Nations and analogous lesser ballastdedicated organizations should reconsider their goals and begin instituting a similar international standard for ballast control and species-transfer management.

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What…Is He?":

The Evolving Role of Popular Culture and Perception in Sino-American Diplomatic Relations from the "Yellow Peril" of the Late 1800s to the Early Years of the Cold War

by Oliver Thomas

sponsored by Dr. Andrew Falk (Department of History)

Author Biography

I am a graduating senior with majors in History and American Studies and minors in U.S. National Security Studies and Leadership. As a member of the Alexander Hamilton Society, Phi Alpha Theta, Alpha Chi, Omicron Delta Kappa, the Lipset Society, WCNU radio, and the Center for American Studies Ambassador Program, I enjoy staying engaged in the intellectual and cultural conversations on campus. In the Fall, I plan to travel to Taiwan on a Fulbright grant to teach English, conduct personal research which I will continue in graduate school, and engage with Taiwanese citizens. I have worked with many CNU professors such as Drs. Andrew Falk, Andy Bibby, Ben Redekop, Jon White, and Nathan Harter on their research and autonomous publication projects. Upon my return from Taiwan, I will pursue graduate studies in international security.

Abstract

The power projection capabilities garnered by popular culture and other “softer” mechanisms often receive less attention than “hard” military projection in international relations. The trilateral relationship that developed between the People’s Republic of China, the Republic of China, and the U.S. during the early half of the twentieth ce ntury was in fact based upon fragile misconceptions set in place by generalizations found in pop-culture outlets. Aside from the highly ambiguous yet dynamic geopolitical climate in East Asia during World War Two and the Cold War, American public opinion remained highly disconnected from the actuality of Asian peoples. In fact, schematic reference to the “Yellow Peril” era (late 1800s) was deployed against the Japanese and, eventually, the Communist Chinese. Depictions of Asian peoples as mysterious, deviant, and sub-human allowed American officials to pursue their geostrategic goals in both conflicts. However, this embedded schemata severely curtailed America’s ability to conduct diplomacy with both mainland China and Taiwan during the Cold War and continues to do so today.

“Taiwan remains a hot potato for both mainland China and the U.S. Handled the wrong way, it could poison U.S. attitudes.”57 Former Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Nitze scribbled these notes onto a memo pad in 1977, long after Chiang Kai-shek’s forced exile to Formosa in 1949. The hot potato that Nitze referred to was the question of Taiwan’s representation, sovereignty, and liberation during the Cold War. Following the end of the Second World War, both The People’s Republic of China and America sought to “liberate” Taiwan from the opposing side’s geopolitical and ideological goals. As historian Warren I. Cohen alludes to, China became a significant issue to American policy makers “less out of concern for China than in defense of an abstract principle.”58 The cultural soft power projected by the U.S., PRC, and ROC ignited a battle between ideas, perceptions, and popular schemata of democratic, freemarket virtue against communist oppression. Historian Johannes R. Lombardo correctly asserts that Washington and the American public held a common view that “Communism was a monolithic movement and Mao Zedong’s China would be a satellite of the Soviet Union.”59 To garner public support, all three nations mixed elements of cultural imperialism into their popular culture in an attempt to promote their national interests. The historical narrative surrounding this diplomatic exchange must be assessed through a cultural lens in order to comprehend America’s deep seeded xenophobic need to label differing peoples such as the Chinese as “outsiders” or “other.”60

Popular culture representations in America of Communist China reinforced mistrust and misunderstanding between the two nations, in turn exacerbating the tensions over the “Taiwan Question.” American, films, comic books, political cartoons, OWI pamphlets, and magazine articles all played roles in forming a generalized image of East Asian peoples. In truth, most Americans had no clear notion of what life in China or Taiwan was like; popular culture filled the void, allowing Americans to adhere to a stereotypical image of people of Asian decent. Both the U.S. government and the PRC manifested a “cultural hegemony” by which they created a popular image of each other. Antonio Gramsci, an Italian Marxist political theorist, explains that the dominant group in society supported by intellectuals initiate ostensibly spontaneous consent amongst the masses to create shared political goals.61 Moreover, he asserts that “this apparatus is, however, constituted for the whole of society in anticipation of moments of crisis of command and direction when spontaneous consent has failed.”62

57 Paul Nitze. Notes on China, August, 1977. Manuscript. From Library of Congress, The Papers of Paul S. Nitze

58Warren I. Cohen, America’s Response to China: A History of Sino-American Relations (4th ed.), (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000), 86.

59 Johannes R. Lombardo, “A Mission of Espionage, Intelligence and Psychological Operations: The American Consulate in Hong Kong, 1949-64,” in The Clandestine Cold War in Asia, 1945-65: Western Intelligence, Propaganda and Special Operations, ed. Richard J. Aldrich, Gary D. Rawnsley, and Ming-Yeh T. Rawnsley (London, Frank Cass, 2000), 65.

60 Here, it is important to note that the usual assumption that the Chinese were the main harbingers of xenophobic tendencies during the 20th century is simply untrue.

61 Antonio Gramsci, Selections for the Prison Notebooks, trans. Quintin Hoare and Geoffrey Nowell Smith (New York: International Publishers: 2012), 12.

62 Ibid., 12.

The Cold War as well as World War II initiated political instability, tension, and paranoia, all of which were exacerbated on a global scale with rising nuclear weapons capabilities. Popular culture became an invaluable component of U.S. policy makers’ agenda. Just as the Japanese took on the role of antagonists during the Second World War, the Communist Chinese inherited the label of “other” in the American mind. As diplomatic historian Andrew Falk correctly points out, “government officials viewed cultural producers as influential activists in relation to foreign policy.”63 Due to cultural misunderstanding and an ideological void incited by Cold War polarity, U.S. policymakers, media moguls, and cultural producers molded public conceptions of Taiwanese, Chinese, and Japanese to bolster their geopolitical agenda.64

President Harry S. Truman’s ambivalent foreign policy toward the People’s Republic of China and the Nationalist Republic of China on “Formosa” reflects a deep seeded and continuous confusion about American conceptions of Asian affairs. The dynamic trilateral relations between the states remain, as historians Evelyn Goh and Rosemary Foot point out, “a major source of discord,” which have led to “crises in relations.”65 Historians fail to come to a consensus on the manner by which America conducted its foreign policy from 1949 to 1960. Diplomatic historian, Nancy Tucker points out that “[d]iscovery and controversy are the norm rather than any fresh, satisfying, and widely accepted paradigm.”66 I argue that a key issue hindering the progress of Sino-American relations during the early years of the Cold War was a deep-rooted divide in cultural diplomacy partnered with American civic ignorance toward distinct elements of East Asian states. Popular culture mediums in America such as film, comics, pamphlets, propaganda, and journalism manifested a one-sided image of Asian peoples as subhuman and deviant. Moreover, this lack of public opinion acted as a gift and a curse to the U.S. government because it allowed policy makers to act without dissent from the public, but it also left officials to take the blame if relations decayed in the Far East. Tucker clarifies that “although the American public tended to be apathetic toward foreign relations and ignorant about Asia, the United States had no choice but to confront the challenges that the forces of aggression and revolution posed.”67 Almost no historical interpretations of American foreign policy toward China include an analysis of public opinion and why the government either could not or did not correctly educate the public on East Asian Affairs. Nor do they take into consideration the role that popular culture played in influencing the American public’s ideas about the Chinese. America’s geopolitical and geostrategic imperative to deter the spread of communism in the Pacific ostensibly dictated American sympathy toward Chiang

63 Andrew J. Falk, Upstaging the Cold War: American Dissent and Cultural Diplomacy, 1940 -1960 (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2011), 7.

64 The polarity noted is also referred to euphemistically as the “Bamboo Curtain.” This separation was distinct from the Cold War in Europe due to the mysterious and hermetic nature of East Asian peoples in the eyes of Americans.

65 Evelyn Goh and Rosemary Foot, “From Containment to Containment? Understand US Relations With China since 1949,” in A Companion to American Foreign Relations, ed. Robert D. Schulsinger, (Malden: Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2006), 256.

66 Nancy Bernkopf Tucker, “Continuing Controversies in the Literature on US-China Relations Since 1945.” In Warren I. Cohen (ed.) Pacific Passage: The Study of American-East Asian Relations on the Eve of the Twenty -first Century (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996), 215.

67 Nancy Bernkopf Tucker (ed.), China Confidential: American Diplomats and Sino -American Relations, 1945-1996 (New York: Columbia University Press, 2001), 11.

Kai-shek and Taiwan. However, American feigned allegiance toward Chiang did not solidify American partnership with Nationalist China.

The “loss” of China thesis is a common line of argument discussed amongst historians. Republican politicians criticized Truman’s “neutrality” in East Asia. They believed that Truman’s foreign interests lay overwhelmingly in Europe during the immediate years after World War Two, and his “softness” toward communism in China was a sign of weakness. However, Nancy Bernkopf Tucker, a renowned historian on U.S. foreign relations with PRC and ROC, contends that Truman’s policy was not passive. She claims that President Truman and Secretary of State Dean Acheson “worried that failure of an allegedly democratic government in China would suggest to other Asian peoples that the system itself didn’t work or that the United States would not stand by its commitment to succor troubled allies.”68 Acheson was forced to explore different means to install a democratic bulwark in Taiwan regardless of the hinderances posed by the dictatorial leadership of Chiang or the lack of intelligence in East Asia. Other historians such as Robert M. Blum argue that the Truman administration actually attempted to oppose communist influence in Taiwan by allotting $75 toward different outlets for deterrence.69 To some extent, it may be argued that America had good intentions to suppress the Communists in China after their victory during Chinese Civil War, but a sheer lack of knowledge of Chinese history, culture and public opinion made it difficult to conduct productive diplomacy. American pop culture depictions of Communist China and the Chinese in general did not help the possibility of reaching a consensus with Beijing.

Some historians contend that Truman’s China policy was a necessary movement to maintain it’s “anti-communist cause” in Europe.

To achieve domestic mobilization, American diplomats could not align an agreement with communist China against the Soviets.70

Thomas Christensen is one historian who supports this line of logic. In the opening chapter of his book Useful Adversaries, he proposes that “if the domestic price of selling grand strategy includes making some foreign policy compromises, we should not treat leaders making those compromises as either irrational of self-serving.”71 From a realist international relations point of view, it makes sense that leaders would adapt to reconcile the basis of their domestic and foreign policy for the purpose of self-preservation. This argument echoes that of Cold War historian John Lewis Gaddis who posits that political leaders adhered to differing methods of deterrence which led to inconsistencies in foreign policy.72 Applying this argument to the Truman administration on a basis of

68 Nancy Bernkopf Tucker, Patterns in the Dust: Chinese American Relations and the Recognition Controversy, 1949 -1950 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1983), 2-3.

69 Robert Blum, Drawing the Line: The Origins of the American Containment Policy in East Asia (New York, 1982), 5.

70 Goh and Foot, “From Containment to Containment? Understanding US Relations with China since 1949,” 258.

71 Thomas J. Christensen, Useful Adversaries: Grand Strategy, Domestic Mobilization, and Sino-American Conflict, 1947-1958 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), 3.

72 John Lewis Gaddis, Strategies of Containment: A Critical Appraisal of American National Security Policy during the Cold War (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982), 56-61.

realpolitik thought provides some clarity to the seemingly contradictory “loss” of China to the Communists. Still, these accounts only manifest a strictly American interpretation of the tri-lateral relationship.

Creating an objective historical depiction becomes increasingly difficult given misperceptions and assumptions about belligerents’ objectives. Many latent additions are found within Chinese archives which have recently been adding to a larger portrayal of the diplomatic exchange. Historian Dong Wang posits that Sino-American policy was irreconcilable based on their diverging geopolitical and economic imperatives. She points out that China “sought to resist American hegemonic ambitions, circumvent the U.S. isolation of China, and improve relations with America’s allies.”73 This disagreement expanded into other global prerogatives for both countries. Wang maintains that “American support for the Guomindang in the Chinese Civil War and its military involvement in the Korean War, combined with Chinese advocacy of Third World revolutions, fed political and ideological conflict.”74 The Taiwan issue or the “Two Chinas” question was indeed a “stumbling block” that hindered the possibility of normalization between the PRC and America.75 The PRC viewed the issue with Taiwan as one of internal sovereignty rather than one of international contention.

On the other hand, historian Shu Guang Zhang argues that “Beijing misperceived US intentions in that it was convinced that Washington wanted to control Taiwan as part of a policy to encircle China.”76 Zhang maintains that “deterrence was a predominant theme in the policy assumptions and objectives of both the PRC and the United States.”77 However, the lack of knowledge about the other’s intent vastly skewed the prospects of either side to engage in peaceful means of diplomacy. This relationship “was one in which the two countries applied deterrence against each other, often simultaneously but without knowing what the other was doing.”78

To the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), an American presence in Taiwan, be it strategic or otherwise, was an imperialistic threat. Truman, Acheson, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff favored a non-militaristic approach to constructing a bastion against communism in Taiwan, but the clashing imperatives of the CCP, ROC and America corroded relations between them. Truman understood that such an overt occupation of Taiwan would not be in American foreign political interests. Zhang maintains that “U.S. strategists understood, a show of military strength in Taiwan would entail too many political risks and difficulties.”79 Zhang also reiterates Wang’s point that ever-changing and ambiguous assumptions about American policy from the perspective of the CCP led to an overreaction from Beijing. He maintains that “they did not see this as a U.S. attempt to build up a better defense line against possible Soviet expansion in

73 Dong Wang, The United States and China: A History from the Eighteenth Century to the Present (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2013), 5-6.

74 Ibid, 193.

75 Ibid., 194.

76 Goh and Foot, “From Containment to Containment? Understanding US Relations with China since 1949,” 260.

77 Shu Guang Zhang, Deterrence and Strategic Culture : Chinese-American Confrontations, 1949 -1958 (Ithaca: Cornell University, 1992), 1.

78 Ibid, 2.

79 Ibid., 54.

the Far East, but rather as a part of a scheme to invade first China and then the Soviet Union.”80 And so, as these Chinese historians have noted, the relations between the nations were strained by incoherence and a lack of knowledge about each other. Most importantly, these interactions seem to take place only between the elite diplomats and leaders of the three nations. A missing piece of the puzzle lies in American popular imagery of the Chinese which was portrayed in magazines, comics, trading cards, songs, films, cartoons, and pamphlets. Sino-American cultural diplomacy reinforced mutually held cases of xenophobia and racial stereotypes rather than fostering understanding between the nations.

The lack of public knowledge and ambiguity lasts to this day. American pop culture helped to project a caricature of the Communist Chinese which built upon a previous stereotype of East Asian peoples in general. Presently, America’s PACOM region is saturated with aggression and territorial disputes. As Nancy Tucker points out “the United States has no good alternatives to participation in an unnerving confrontation fraught with uncertainty and danger.”81 The American public, on the whole, has been contained by a loosely generalized interpretation of East Asian countries. Truthfully, citizens stood clueless about the cultural ideologies of East Asia. Limited popular culture depictions of the Chinese and Taiwanese people encapsulated both nations based on their ideological leaning and Darwinian based conceptions of sub-humanity rather than their history or culture. In turn, the American public political opinion of China fluctuated between “disgust” and “cautious optimism,” in accordance to U.S. international security interests.82 The people of East Asia remained shrouded in mystery, making it impossible to conduct productive diplomacy with Beijing until Nixon and Kissinger helped to open the door to China in 1972.83 This paper will add a much needed analysis of how private citizenry constructed an image of China as distinct from the threat of communism in Europe.

American generalizations about East Asian peoples are deep rooted and can primarily be traced back to the late 1800s. As correspondent A.T. Steele points out, “it was mainly during the nineteenth century that the foundations were laid for the huge and conglomerate edifices of truths, half-truths, assumptions, legends, prejudices, and contradictory opinions that make up our present-day outlook on China.”84 In wake of the industrial revolution and the completion of the transcontinental railroad in America, white Americans feared that Chinese labor workers and immigrants would saturate the workforce. The “Yellow Peril,” a popular culture term first coined by the British, spread to America leading to racist and hypocritical political action. By 1882, Congress passed

80 Ibid. 77.

81 Nancy Bernkopf Tucker, Dangerous Strait: The U.S. Taiwan China Crisis (New York: Columbia University Press, 2005), 15.

82 Waren I. Cohen, America’s Response to China: A History of Sino -American Relations (4th ed.), (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000), 103.

83 Ibid., 198.

84 A.T. Steele, The American People and China: A Volume in the Series, ‘The United States and China in World Affairs,’ (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1966), 7.

legislation that disallowed Chinese to enter American borders for ten years. 85 As historian T. Christopher Jespersen states, “many Americans looked upon the Chinese, especially the laboring class, as members of a subhuman race that threatened to undermine their way of life.”86 To the Chinese, the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act and the 1892 Geary Act were merely validation of American imperialism.87 Both of the acts forced non-laboring Chinese immigrants to acquire certification for entry into America.

The Chinese, and to some extent the Japanese, faced harsh discrimination as popular images in America depicted them as “subhuman” and rodent like. Posters and trading cards portrayed the “Yellow Peril” in parasitic fashion. A trading card printed by Forbes to promote pest control shows a Chinese man devouring a rat, eluding to the popular stereotype that the Chinese fed on types of animals that could be seen as pets in America.88 The card also suggests that Chinese are mere vermin themselves. Moreover, Americans manifested Chinese as immoralists, heroin and opium addicts, destroyers of Christian values, and harbingers of prostitution. A poster printed in the early 1900s, as seen in Figure 2, depicts another stereotypical image a of a Chinese dressed in traditional Qing dynasty apparel and a long queue. The man is standing menacingly over the corpse of a young American woman with a gun and torch in his hands. The caption on the poster reads: “The Yellow Peril in All His Glory.”89 The poster seems to suggest that the woman symbolizes American moral virtue and that the Chinese embody the antithesis of moral goodness.

Americans used these barbaric depictions of Chinese to support passage of exclusionary legislation out of fear and misunderstanding of Chinese culture and people. Satirical cartoons found in Wasp magazine also supported this perspective commonly held by Americans. One cartoon published by George Frederick Keller in 1878 portrays a fearful query from American laborers in California. It asserts, “The Chinese must go! But who keeps them?”90 The cartoon alludes to a symbolic war against Chinese immigration with a yelping donkey portrayed in military garb front and center. Another cartoon published in Wasp more blatantly questions the mysterious characteristics found in Chinese by asking, “What is it?” The strange figures floating aimlessly in the cartoon resemble ape-like children who are bellicose and elusive to the American mind.91

In addition to popular magazines, such examples of anti-Chinese popular culture can be found in music and poetry. A song entitled “The Heathen Chinee,” was based on poetry by American writer Bret Harte. The song maintains that “the heathen Chine is peculiar,”

85 The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, HR 5804, 47th Cong., 1st sess., Congressional Record no. 71 (May 6, 1882).

86 T. Christopher Jespersen, American Images of China: 1931-1949 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996), 2.

87 Dong Wang, The United States and China: A History from the Eighteenth Century to the Present (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2013), 80

88 See Figure 1 in Appendix.

89 See Figure 2 in Appendix.

90 See Figure 3 in Appendix.

91 See Figure 4 in Appendix.

and “childlike,” alluding to American disconnect from East Asian culture.92 The poem itself emphasizes the superiority of Americans and portrays the Chinese as conniving and cheating. These forms of popular culture along with deportation and left Chinese immigrants feeling dehumanized and shameful.93 American self-interest and political imperative overrode, “democratic virtue,” and formerly posited open door immigration policies. Ironically, America seemed more backward with its conflicting ideological values and political action. These generalized perceptions of Asians carried into the twentieth century, creating a sort of schizophrenic mindset in the next generation of East Asian immigrants in America.

By noting these early perceptions of Chinese, understanding the reoccurring cultural diplomatic tropes in Sino-American relations during the twentieth century becomes more facile. Many of these popular abstractions continued through the 1900s; Americans viewed East Asians as mysterious, conniving, and subhuman in correspondence to the extent to which they infringed upon American domestic or global interests. China historically adhered to an isolationist policy, and by this time, America isolated itself from understanding a perplexing Chinese history and culture. Certain elements of Asian mannerisms and alluring behavior became encompassed in popular culture during the pre-World War II era.

Americans put an odd caucasian twist on Asian Americans by interpreting their presence from a strictly Western perspective. The Chinaman, the Japanese, and the Koreans became “bananas” as Eric Liu states in his autobiographical reflection of being second generation Chinese-American: yellow on the outside, white on the inside.94 In the case of film and television series during the 1920s through 40s, one could posit that Asian characters, in fact, embodied the opposite cultural depiction. White actors such as Warner Oland, Sidney Toler, and Roland Winters played the well known Asian detective, Charlie Chan. Twentieth Century Fox produced 44 films of the ‘Charlie Chan’ series between the years of 1931 and 1949, in turn gaining popularity and acclaim throughout America.95

The film series helped construct and solidify the mystical interpretation of East Asian peoples as distinctly separate from Western ideology and culture. As film scholar Fran Mason states, the detectives were “coded in terms of Asian values, but they also enunciate Western values to control their ‘otherness’ and this, along with their portrayal by Western actors, produces tensions with regard to both ethnicity and cultural representation.”96 The use of “yellowface” on the Swedish actor Warner Oland in Charlie Chan films ostensibly presented an untouched reality to be unmasked and understood by the American people. The series instead promoted inauthentic, contrived interpretations of Asians through broken English and the selective display of traditional Chinese culture. Films

92 Bret Harte, “The Heathen Chinee,” Overlord Monthly, September, 1870.

93 Iris Chang, The Chinese in America: A Narrative History (New York: Viking, 2003), 256.

94 Eric Liu, The Accidental Asian: Notes of a Native Speaker (New York: Vintage Books, 1998), 34.

95 Fran Mason, Hollywood’s Detectives: Crime Series in the 1930s and 1940s from the W hodunnit to Hard-boiled Noir (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), 106.

96 Ibid., 106.

from the series such as Charlie Chan on Broadway (1937) portray the detective as clueless in a foreign land.97 Chan believes the modern world to be superficial and lacking in tradition. Moreover, he attributes the growing complexities of modernity to America’s growing influence.98 Although this portrayal of the Chinese is somewhat alluring, the case of ‘Charlie Chan’ reflects a very selective and narrow interpretation of Asians. The films contribute to the ambivalent and, many times, incorrect Western cultural understanding of the East. Scholar Norman K. Denzin correctly argues that Chan is “othered by being associated with Western ideals of rationality, virtue and normality to make him a stranger and friend at the same time.”99

Other examples of this popularized image of Asiatic peoples are found in the ‘Mr. Moto’ film series of the 1930s and 40s. Played by a Hungarian actor named Peter Lorre, Mr. Moto was a Japanese detective with ambiguous behavior. The depiction of the Japanese in films such as Mysterious Mr. Moto (1938), and Mr. Moto in Danger Island emphasizes the need to transform a “dangerous man of mystery to a comforting whodunnit character.”100 A reoccurring joke in the film Mr. Moto in Danger Island sums up Americans’ hazy conception of the Japanese. A central character in the film, Twister McGurk, finds himself unable to learn a wrestling move coined by Mr. Moto. Each time he fails to master the skill, he mutters, “gee, it’s bewildering.”101 His confusion alludes to contemporary American relations in the Pacific. Mr. Moto, similarly to the rising Japanese power, is an intrepid force in need of taming. By the beginning of the Second World War Two, the production of Mr. Moto films ended because of rising tensions between America and Japan. Mason points out that Mr. Moto “is a source of ideological anxiety because he signifies concerns about threats to American power in the Pacific generated by Japan’s modernity.”102 The apparent fear and misunderstanding of East Asians in American popular film speak to the need to conceptualize Asian nations as relatable to Western culture based on the extent to which they modernized or fit into their grand strategy. This assertion is especially true during the World War Two era, and the years leading up to the conflict.

American perceptions of the Chinese and Japanese evolved over the course of the Second World War and into the Cold War. After the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, American propaganda portrayed caricatures of the Japanese as subhuman, apelike, suicidal and devious in order to garner public support for the war effort. Cultural historian James L. Baughman rightly refers to journalists, cartoonists, and film makers during the Second World War as “voluntary propagandists,” who “fully endorsed racism

97 Eugene Forde, Charlie Chan on Broadway (1937; Los Angeles; 20th Century Fox; 1938). Fig. 7 in Appendix

98 Ibid.

99 Norman Denzin, “The Asian Eye: Charlie Chan and Mr. Moto Go to the Movies,” in The Cinematic Society: The Voyeur’s Gaze (London: Sage, 1995), 88-113. Quoted in Fran Mason, Hollywood’s Detectives (London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), 117.

100 Norman Foster, Mysterious Mr. Moto (1938; Los Angeles: 20th Century Fox; 1939); Herbert I. Leeds, Mr. Moto in Danger Island (1939; Los Angeles; 20th Century Fox; 1939) Fig. 8 in Appendix.

Fran Mason, Hollywood’s Detectives (London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), 130.

101 Herbert I. Leeds, Mr. Moto in Danger Island (1939; Los Angeles; 20th Century Fox; 1939)

102 Mason, Hollywood’s Detectives, 124.

toward those of Asian decent.”103 The American public viewed the Chinese as victims of Japanese atrocities and imperialism, citing the repeated bombing of civilians, and the brutal war crimes at Nanjing (1937-38) and Bataan (1942). However, the “victimization” of the Chinese seemed more of a contrived good versus evil propaganda ploy to validate involvement in the war.

Before Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “Quarantine Speech” given on October 5,1937 in Chicago emphasized the need for global justice to purge the evils of fascism and to promote the virtues of democratic freedom. Giving the speech in Chicago was indeed contentious given the city’s staunch isolationist subscription. Americans sat in their homes, listening eagerly to the radio for what FDR had to say. In his speech, he maintained that “[i]nnocent peoples, innocent nations, are being cruelly sacrificed to a greed for power and supremacy which is devoid of all sense of justice and humane considerations.”104 Roosevelt, saw China as a “great power,” but as historian Dong Wang points out, “it was a largely symbolic gesture.”105 Once America joined the war, the Chinese fell to the back burner as the “Germany first” strategy, supported by both Roosevelt and chief of staff of the U.S. Army General George C. Marshall, took precedence. At best, Americans conceived of the Chinese as a resilient people who deserved aid against an imperial monster. At worst, the Chinese appeared to be on a trajectory toward imminent destruction against the superior Japanese force and under the pressures of an ongoing civil war. The American public referred to propaganda and other forms of popular culture to understand the war in the Pacific, all of which played a large role in manifesting a vermin-like image of Japanese people while promoting the Chinese “victim.” The cultural disconnect between the U.S. and Japan cultivated racism on both sides and merciless combat paired with atrocious human rights violations. Popular culture outlets such as cartoons, newspapers, and propaganda installed a disgustingly racist schemata of the Japanese. As historian John Dower points out, “newspapers declared the war in Asia totally different from that in Europe, for Japan was a ‘racial menace’ as well as a cultural and religious one.”106 Pamphlets created and distributed by the U.S. government reinforced these opinions.

In 1942, the U.S. War Department partnered with cartoonist Milton Caniff to distribute a “Pocket Guide to China” to American soldiers stationed there.107 The opening comic strip entitled “How to Spot a Jap,” examines physical aspects and linguistic tendencies that set the Japanese and the Chinese apart.108 The beginning of the cartoon sets an American soldier side by side with a Chinese and

103 James L. Baughman, The Republic of Mass Culture: Journalism, Filmmaking and Broadcasting in America since 1941 (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992), 6.

104 Franklin Delano Roosevelt, “Quarantine Speech, October 5, 1937” (Speech. The Miller Center of Public Affairs, http://millercenter.org/president/speeches/speech-3310,), accessed October, 16, 2014.

105 Dong Wang, The United States and China: A History from the Eighteenth Century to the Present (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2013), 152.

106 John W. Dower, War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War (New York: Pantheon Books, 1986), 7.

107 Milton Caniff, How to Spot a Jap. Cartoon. Washington D.C., Special Service Division, Service of Supply United States Army, 1942. From United Service to China Archives, Seely G. Mudd Manuscript Library. https://archive.org/details/PocketGuideToChina (accessed November 16, 2014).

108 Ibid. See Figure 7 in Appendix.

Japanese soldier. The cartoonist attempts to make the point that Chinese are typically of the same height and build as Americans, making them relatable easy and identify with. As historian T. Christopher Jespersen elaborates:

in comparing the physical characteristics of white American males with their Chinese counterparts, and in stating that the two had more in common physically and racially than did the Chinese and Japanese, it suggested that the Chinese had apparently made physical progress toward becoming more like Americans in some bizarre form of Darwinian evolution.109

The cartoon hints at the sub-human status of the Japanese, taking direct influence from previously supported schemata of the “invasive” Chinese of the late nineteenth century by depicting the Japanese as either monkeys or rats. Dower reminds us that “looking upon the Japanese as animals, or a different species of some sort, was common at official levels in Washington.”110 Many other cartoons found in magazines and newspapers such as American Legion Magazine, Collier’s, Evening Standard, and the New York Times portrayed the Japanese as apes, void of any similarity to the American people. The publication found in American Legion Magazine shows monkeys in a zoo cage with a nearby sign reading, “Any similarity between us and the Japs is purely coincidental.”111 Another cartoon entitled “The Monkey Folk,” as seen in Figure 11, depicts the Japanese soldiers as primates swinging through trees, helmeted and armed with machine guns. 112 The cartoon, found in the British magazine Punch, is supported by an excerpt from Ruyard Kipling’s Jungle Book, moving the description given to the monkeys in the story to the Japanese. Again, the mysterious bestiality that was once attributed to the Chinese was now being applied to a distinctly separate foreign enemy: the Japanese. In the Evening Standard, well known cartoonist David Low published a cartoon that reinforced the childlike behavior projected on the Japanese. The caricature depicts a monkey labeled “Jap” hanging by its tale from a palm tree, clutching a dagger. Three stoic, well built soldiers labeled as the United States, Britain, and U.S.S.R. are oblivious to the monkey’s presence as they gaze out into the horizon. The “Jap” swings back an forth, deciding which enemy to stab first.113 To the Allied powers, America in particular, the Japanese were a deceptive beast worthy of hunting and extermination.114 The cartoons cited from the period clearly show this.

Merciless warfare reinforced the rigid schemata held by both American and Japanese soldiers. This severely flawed logic sheds light upon the contrived American ambition to depict the war as a clearcut situation void of any ambiguities. Dower clarifies that “the road to Pearl Harbor was depicted as a one-way street: Japan provoked the war, and did so because of the peculiarities of its own history,

109 T.Christopher Jespersen, American Images of China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996), 73.

110 Dower, War Without Mercy, 82.

111 American Legion Magazine, October 1942, 56.

112 Punch, January 14, 1942.See Fig. 11 in Appendix

113 John W. Dower, War Without Mercy, 87; See Fig.12 in Appendix

114 See Figure 13 in Appendix. Leatherneck 28.3 (March 1945).

culture, and collective psychology.”115 Another element of Caniff’s aforementioned cartoon exposes the American belief that the Japanese acted deviantly and could never be trusted. The cartoonist writes that, “don’t trust any Japanese prisoner - They’re tough babies and think it glorious to die if they can take an enemy with them.!”116 In fact, the Japanese psychological disposition served as an additional means to validate their killing. Other mediums such as television cartoons emphasized the points made in Caniff’s strip. Popular cartoon characters such as Bugs Bunny and Popeye the Sailor Man reassert the tropes found in the comic strips. Two banned episodes of Popeye, “Your a Sap, Mr. Jap,” (1942) and “Scrap the Japs,” (1942) bolstered the American home front morale by depicting the Japanese war making capability and intelligence to be vastly inferior. Popeye makes easy work of Japanese navy ships, tearing them apart like “a purse of matches.” The Japanese appear rodent like and adhere to the same deceptive behaviors portrayed in OWI propaganda. They are back stabbing, “double crossing chimpanzees,” who have no sense of Western conceptions of honor during war. Popeye exclaims that he’s “never met a Jap that wasn’t yellow,” playing upon the xenophobic tendency to classify Asian people as “other.”117 Warner Brothers Pictures also contributed to wartime propaganda with their well known character, Bugs Bunny.

In 1944, Friz Freleng directed an episode entitled “Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips.” Bugs finds himself stranded on a desolate island in the Pacific rampant with Japanese soldiers. The Japanese babble and speak in broken English, implying that they are ignorant. Moreover, the characters’ physical features are highly generalized which perpetuated the notion that all Japanese were the same. One scene in particular drives the racially charged hatred of the Japanese home. Bugs Bunny disguises himself as an ice-cream truck driver and proceeds to hand out popsicles with grenades hidden inside. The Japanese soldiers eagerly take them without question while Bugs relentlessly throws racial slurs at them: “Here’s your’s bowlegs. One for you monkey face. Here ya are slant eyes.” A moment later, explosions are heard off screen as Bugs winces sarcastically. Solidifying the opinion of Japanese stupidity, a tattered soldier returns to the truck with a popsicle stick reading, “Good for free.” Bugs proceeds to give him two popsicles, to ensure the soldier’s death. Once all the Japanese are exterminated, Bugs is finally left in a “beauteous Garden of Eden,” implying the necessity to eradicate a verminlike species from a “peaceful” global community.118 Combat, in many ways, bolstered a desire to kill the Japanese because of their inhumane acts during the war.

115 John W. Dower, War Without Mercy, 29.

116 Caniff, How to Spot a Jap, 72

117 “You’re a Sap, Mr. Jap,” (Popeye the Sailor), Famous Studios, Dan Gordon, September 7, 1942; “Scrap the Japs,” (Popeye the Sailor) Famous Studios, Seymour Kneitel November 22, 1942.

118 “Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips” (Bugs Bunny), Warner Brothers Pictures, The Vitaphone Corporation, Friz Freleng, April 22, 1944. See Fig. 14 in Appendix.

Soldiers who fought the Japanese soon recognized that American popular conceptions of Japanese soldiers as “bespectacled runts,” held little truth.119 American Captain William Dyess, a pilot interned by the Japanese during the Bataan Death March, debunked this portrayal stating that Japanese commissioned officers“were cruel of face, stalwart, and tall.”120 Still, the American citizenry remembered the dark, unmerciful portrayal of the Japanese as rapists, killers of innocent children, cannibals, and allies of Nazism. American and Japanese propaganda continued to fuel these deep-seeded racial and ideological tensions. Conveniently enough, Americans constructed a new image of the Chinese, contriving them as relatable victims of the war. No longer were they rodent consuming, hedonistic children. In the eyes of President Roosevelt, General Patrick Hurley, and to many other elite Americans, the Nationalist Chinese government under Chiang Kai Shek became allies in a “common battle” against the monstrous Japanese.121 Additionally, as Dower states, “the war did not create the image of the superman, but rather brought it to the surface conjured it up, not from some pool of past impressions of the Japanese, but rather from the great Western reservoir of traditional images of the Other.”122 American geopolitical imperatives allowed popular depictions of the Chinese during the nineteenth century “Yellow Peril,” to be shifted to the Japanese to bolster American security agenda. Popular culture maintained an illusory yet harmonious diplomatic tie between America and China.

Having resisted the Japanese onslaught alone with a civil war dividing its defensive capabilities, China looked to America for support. Chiang, boasting anti-imperialist credentials, intended to use new found leverage in the alliance formed with the U.S. to obtain global influence.123 Popular opinions in America and Britain still thought of the Chinese as mysterious and ambiguous. As Chiang regrettably wrote, diplomatic exchanges with his western allies showed “the contempt that Americans and British hold for us. Even Roosevelt can’t get out of these old attitudes. Such a pity.”124 Even as allies against a merciless enemy, underlying diplomatic exchanges between America and Chiang remained a confusing dichotomy of conflicting expectations and ambitions.

Those who favored the Nationalists Chinese in the struggle in the Pacific utilized popular culture outlets to manipulate American public opinion. Graham Peck and the U.S. Office of War Information, the United China Relief (UCR), and Henry Luce’s Time magazine projected positive, resilient imagery of the Chinese. All of these organizations desired to provide humanitarian aid to the Chinese while educating American citizens about the state of the war in China. Gallup Polls taken in 1939 showed that 73 percent of

119 William E. Dyess, The Dyess Story: The Eye-Witness Account of the Death March from Bataan and the Narrative of Experienc es in Japanese Prison Camps and of Eventual Escape (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Son’s, 1944), 70.

120 Ibid., 70.

121 Jay Taylor, The Generalissimo: Chiang Kai-shek and the Making of Modern China (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2009), 188.

122 John W. Dower, War Without Mercy, 116.

123 Rana Mitter, Forgotten Ally: China’s World War II, 1937 -1945 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt,2013), 242

124 Chiang Kai-Shek diary, Hoover Institution Archives (December 1941 monthly reflection) cited in Rana Mitter, Forgotten Ally, 242.

Americans expressed sympathy for the Chinese struggle in the Pacific.125 Posters, pamphlets, and mail distributed by the UCR depicted paternalistic, Christ-like images of Uncle Sam comforting and using chopsticks to feed a sickly Chinese child.126 The depiction of the Chinese in UCR posters also show an evolution away from previous subhuman portrayals. For example, posters created by Martha Sawyers show the Chinese as heroic and worthy of respect. Their physical features also contribute to the reshaping of American perceptions of the Chinese. A much more realistic style replaced their vermin-like stature by expressing truer image of Chinese people.127 Most of all, media moguls such as Henry R. Luce used his cultural and political connections to bolster a highly identifiable perception of the Chinese Nationalists. His close relationship with Soong Meiling Madame Chiang Kai-shek provided a personality that dictated Sino-American relations even more so than Chiang’s.

As Jespersen elaborates, Madame Chiang “advanced the notion that China and the United States had much in common by emphasizing the similar histories, mutual interests, and shared political and ideological aspirations that purportedly bound the two countries together.”128 Luce, a son of missionaries in China, gained exposure, albeit constricted, to Chinese culture from an early age. He emphasized the importance of Chinese Nationalist’s role both in the World War Two and global politics more generally during the twentieth century. For Luce, creating the “American Century” through Time-Life remained contingent upon the extent to which the magazine could expose Americans to Chinese culture and society.129 He and his wife Clare manifested an affinity for Chiang and his mistress, thereby promoting staunch support for the Chinese Nationalists. After traveling to inland China, Luce proclaimed, “what strikes me about these far inland cities is how modernized they have become. I see America and the 20th century stamped all over them.”130 Madame Chiang also fit Luce’s, and most Americans’, idea of what it meant to be American: Christian, Western garb, and shared ideologies. Luce set out in Time magazine to construct a popular image of the Chinese accessible to all Americans. As historian Alan Brinkley asserts, “the construction of Luce’s publishing empire is part of a much larger phenomenon of the middle years of the twentieth century: the birth of a national mass culture designed primarily to serve a new and rapidly expanding middle class.”131

Through Time and Life magazines, Luce portrayed Madame Chiang as the antithesis of previously held notions of the Chinese people.

125 Gallup, The Gallup Poll: Public Opinion , 1935-1971, I:69, 156.

126 Ed Hunter “Uncle Sam Feeding a Chinese Child,” Poster. From “Cheer China,” United China Relief, Incorporated (B.A. Gardside Collection, Hoover Institution Archives; T. Christopher Jespersen, American Images of China: 1931-1949 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996), 45.

127 Martha Sawyers, “China Shall Have Our Help,” (1942) and “China First To Fight,” (1943) Poster. United China Relief George C. Marshall Research Foundation.

128 T Christopher Jespersen, American Images of China: 1931-1949 (Stanford: Stanford University, 1996), 82.

129 Robert E. Herzstein, Henry R. Luce, Time, and the American Crusade in Asia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 34.

130 Henry Robinson Luce, “China: To the Mountains,” June 4, 1941, TIA.

131 Alan Brinkley, The Publisher Henry Luce and His American Century (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2010), xii.

A 1943 issue of Time magazine featured Madame Chiang on the front cover supplemented by the caption, “She and China know what endurance means.”132 Madame Chiang, as an icon of American pop culture, became a touring cultural diplomat between the U.S.and China. Driven by passionate stage presence, Americans became enticed with her character and alluring Chinese beauty. After giving a speech to the U.S. Senate, one Congressman reflected, “Goddam it, I never saw anything like it. Madame Chiang had me on the verge of bursting into tears.” Indeed, as Time editors stated, “Through this woman, a few Americans saw and understood China.”133 Major film producers in Hollywood also contributed to the culturally relatable depictions of the Chinese. On April 4, 1943, David O. Selznick, the well known film producer of Gone With the Wind (1939), hosted a massive gathering at the Hollywood Bowl. With the Luces’ help, the event drew a crowd of over 30,000. The pageant consisted of multiple stage performances to expose the audience to Chinese history through music, theater, and narration. Madame Chiang’s forty-five minute speech ended the event in a truly American fashion by citing the Declaration of Independence. She pledged that China and the other countries in the United Nations would not permit “aggression to raise its satanic head and threaten man's greatest heritage: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all peoples.”134 In actuality, the event provided entertainment rather than a true portrayal of China’s future trajectory. As Karen J. Leong points out, “the spectacular pageantry at the Hollywood Bowl illustrates the wartime blurring of entertainment and news coverage of the war.”135 Madame Chiang, in essence, acted as “product for mainstream consumption:” a model for American women, and a hope for American politicians that China would uphold Western ideas and culture.136

Jespersen correctly maintains that “during World War II Soong Meiling literally captivated the United States with her public appearances.”137 Madam Chiang was indeed a stage show designed to illicit popular support for the Chinese throughout America. Noting the evolution and shift of constructed American memory and imagery of Asian peoples, one may observe the convenient adaptation of the Chinese as catalysts of democracy, Christianity, and noble virtue. As historian Sterling Seagrave maintains, “American policy was thus based upon the personalities of the Chiangs, Soongs, and the Kungs , rather than upon the events, the nation or the people.”138 Geopolitical incentives shaped American popular culture and opinion into a new, however, still one-sided abstraction of the Chinese. Although popular culture offered a favorable depiction of the Chinese to Americans, it did so at the expense of excluding the Communists and other facets of Chinese culture more broadly. Time’s China correspondent, Teddy White, correctly pointed out that, by “virtually ignoring the Communists and standing by Chiang, both Luce and the U.S. government were

132 Boris Chaliapin, Time, March 1, 1943. See Figure 17 in Appendix.

133 Time, March 1, 1943, 23-24.

134 Cited in Life, April 19, 1943.

135 Karen J. Leong, The China Mystique: Pearl S. Buck, Anna May Wong, Mayling Soong, and the Transformation of American Orientalism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005), 144.

136 Ibid., 144

137 Jespersen, American Images of China, 105

138 Sterling Seagrave, The Soong Dynasty (New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1985), 404.

misleading Americans.”139 Ultimately, American perceptions of both the Chinese and the Japanese during World War Two ended up being incorrect. American notions and perceptions of Chiang and the Nationalists exacerbated the tense dichotomy between the Republic of China and the People’s Republic of China. Movement into the post-war years revealed further the American pop cultural tendency to easily shift unfavorable images of Asian people upon new enemies. The “loss of China” through Chiang Kai-shek’s forced exile to Formosa in October 1949 bolstered a fear and hatred of Communism’s spread in Asia. Not wanting to take the blame for the Communist victory in China, Dean Acheson of the U.S. State Department published the China White Papers in August, 1949.140 These statements included allusions to a declaration of peace and a security treaty with Japan. In turn removing the cultural stigmas placed on the Japanese during World War Two. Combined with the rising pressures of the Korean War in 1950, a rekindling of “yellow peril” sentiments rose in the American public.

The Chinese and North Korean communists became America’s new adversaries in the Pacific, initiating a change in American popular depiction of the Chinese, more specifically the People’s Republic of China. Cold War era portrayals of the Chinese communists supported polarized ideology between the virtue of democratic freedom and “satanic, traitorous” communists.141 Through Chiang’s regime and the Asian People’s Anti-Communist League, the American elite saw images of Formosan propagandist literature referring to the Communists as “gangsters,” who were “inhuman and devoid of all moral scruples.” Building upon the sub-humanity and immoral constructs found in late 1800s depictions of the Chinese, Formosans and Americans compared the “Communist controlled area” with a zoo “with people there being placed under ruthless exploitation by the aggressor and traitor alike.”142 Luce and other proNationalists intended to use this depiction as leverage against the PRC during the early 1950s. Luce’s assistant, Kip Finch sent the following memorandum to Luce:

I should say that my personal point of view has been that we should close our eyes to any faults of the Nationalist Government, past or present, on the simple ground that it offers the only ready weapon with which to fight Communism.

139 Theodore H. White to Charles Wertenbaker, 19 June 1942, TLCTHW; Herzstein, Henry R. Luce, Time, and the American Crusade in Asia, 41.

140 See U.S. Department of State, The China White Paper (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1967); Originally issued as “United States Relations with China with Special Reference to the Period 1944-1949,” Department of State , Publication 3573, Far Eastern Series 30.

141 Asian People’s Anti-Communist League, A Decade of Chinese Communist Tyranny (Taipei, 1960) See also China Year Book, 1957-1958 (Taipei: GIO 1958) p. i.

142 Ibid. Cited in Gary D. Rawnsley, “Taiwan’s Propaganda Cold War: The Offshore Islands Crises of 1954 and 1958,” ed. Richard J. Aldrich, Gary D. Rawnsley, & Ming-Yeh T. Rawnsley, The Clandestine War in Asia, 1945-65: Western Intelligence, Propaganda and Special Operations (London: Frank Cass, 2000), 84.

In other words, I have not felt that we should mind using the Nationalist sword against Communism simply because that sword might still have some innocent blood on it.143

Finch’s statements allude to the American tendencies to manipulate imagery projected on the public for eventual geopolitical gain. President Truman, however, committed to staying out of Taiwan. Taipei’s futile attempt to reach the American public for the purpose of building support for retaking the mainland fell short as false, generalized stereotypes of East Asians fell back into place. American policy makers dismissed Taiwan’s cry for aid against the Communists. They did however, utilize Taiwan’s position as a bastion against the global spread of Communism. The PRC thus fit nicely into American schemata of “Red Scare”culture, allowing for a continuous misunderstanding of the Chinese. Concerns from the Chinese also led to diplomatic stagnation. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles stated in a 1952 edition of Foreign Affairs magazine that “many Orientals fear that Westerners are incapable of cooperating with them on a basis of political, economic, and social equality, and this fear divides the East and West. It has a long background of growth, and Communist propaganda in Asia concentrates on keeping it alive.”144 Mistrust and false depictions perpetuated the tensions in Sino-American relations during the Cold War.

In a 1957 issue of Newsweek, a map depicted the spread of global anti-American sentiments. American relations with Formosans appeared strained as the corresponding text bubble summarized: “Collaboration endangered by increasing civilian-soldier irritations and cultural misunderstandings.”145 Faced with such bleak assessments, the U.S. State Department promoted cultural educational reforms that promoted “closer economic, political, and cultural ties with the people of Asia.”146 Comics, films, and other forms of popular media reflected America’s continuing disconnect from Asian political agendas, culture, and history. These depictions, in turn, bolstered xenophobic beliefs in American exceptionalism and the superiority Western culture in general. Based off of the 1959 novel written by Richard Condon, The Manchurian Candidate, became a film in 1962. With stars such as Frank Sinatra and Laurence Harvey, the film held great influence over American popular opinion of the Communist Chinese. The plot follows Staff Sergeant Raymond Shaw who is brainwashed by Chinese Communists, allowing his mother, a Communist agent, to gain power in the White House. As scholar Christina Klein states, “the film presents the communist Chinese and the North Koreans as devious foreign enemies who have learned to insinuate themselves into the American political system, the American family, even the American mind.”

147 The film assured the American public that the Chinese were once again encroaching upon the merits of Western ideology and morality. In

143 Kip Finch to Henry Robinson Luce, memorandum, 14 M arch 1952, in Henry Robinson Luce Papers, Box 26, Folder 1, Formosa (Taiwan): Reports to Luce, 1952 (D.C.: Library of Congress Manuscript Divison: accessed July 22, 2014).

144 John Foster Dulles, “Security in the Pacific,” Foreign Affairs, January 1952, 185.

145 “Worldwide The Feeling About Us,” map, Newsweek, 10 June 1957: 52-53.

146 Francis O. Wilcox, “Foreign Policy and Some Implications for Education,” Department of State Bulletin, July 29, 1957: 179, 180, 182.

147 Christina Klein, Cold War Orientalism: Asia in the Middlebrow Imagination , 1945-1961 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003), 37.

short, interaction with Asians ensured corruption, national decadence, and the enslavement of the U.S. people by way of Communist brain washing.148 Before The Manchurian Candidate, the musical The King and I utilized different rhetorical strategies to bolster America’s global image as non-imperialistic, modern, free, and an example of superior cultural. Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein’s musical (1951) was adapted into a film in 1956 by Twentieth Century Fox. One of the principle characters, King Siam, embodies the hopeful movement of the lesser Oriental toward a modern and Westernized individual. In the scene “Getting to Know You,” a school teacher named Anna Leonowens presents a prototype by which the “slavish” Asians can propel themselves into modernity by understanding Western culture.149 The scene follows closely the Cold War cultural education reforms for diplomatic purposes through promoting exchange of ideas and cultural differences.150 Ostensibly, educational mediums such as this seemed to be a step forward in alleviating cultural misunderstanding between the two nations, but as Klein points out “the entire narrative revolves around achieving some of the ends of imperialism through non-imperial means.”151 Although Hammerstein was an internationalist and a proponent of bolstering understanding between the American political elites and the Chinese Communists, the musical naively displays an effortless evolution into modernity. Moreover, the production portrays an insincere and fickle attempt to engage in constructive diplomatic exchange with Asian Communists. In truth, the film bolstered American anti-communist culture.

Comics of the time also compounded upon the ambiguous interpretations of the Chinese Communists. Many Asian villains appear in series such as Captain America and Iron Man, both building upon the image of the intelligent yet manipulative Dr. Fu Manchu. One notable Chinese Communist mastermind is a character that emerged in 1956 named “Yellow Claw.” The front cover of its first release implores its readers to inquire, “Who…or what…is he??!”152 The villain is depicted as an inhuman, vampire-like monster dressed in traditional Chinese garb. He is a master of alchemy and martial arts, both stereotypically linked in Western conceptions of Chinese history. The Yellow Claw’s ultimate goal is to achieve world domination by destroying the West. The series follows an FBI agent named Jimmy Woo who seeks to deter the manipulative schemes of the Yellow Claw. The comic series offers a clear manifestation of anti-communist sentiment present in America. More importantly it shows that American conceptions of the Chinese as mysterious, sub-human tricksters were still highly prominent in the public consciousness. Cold War depictions of the Chinese were thus extremely different from the Soviets, of whom Americans found a deeper connection in Western cultural roots and ethnicity. Although the

148 Ibid. 37.

149 The memory of slavery in America during the Cold War years became equatable to Communism. In turn, the Soviet Union and China were portrayed negatively as imperialists and hegemonic; ironically this was the same manner in which Communist nations viewed the West. See also Klein, Cold War Orientalism, 207

150 The King and I, by Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein II, directed by Walter Lang (Los Angeles, CA: 20th Century Fox, 1956)

151 Klein, Cold War Orientalism, 207.

152 “Yellow Claw #1,” (Yellow Claw) Atlas Comics, created byAl Feldstein and Joe Maneely (October, 1956). See Fig. 18 in Appendix.

Soviets and communism in general incited great fear and paranoia in the minds of Americans, the cultural void between the U.S.S.R. did not run as deep.

In regard to the Chinese, popular culture filled the gaps in the American psyche where ambiguity and confusion lay. As A.T. Steele correctly asserts, “American public opinion toward China is determined, to a very large extent, by the amount of and kind of information reaching the people.” Films, comics, and music still serve as the main forms of information the American public receives about the Chinese; “it lies at the very root of American misunderstanding on China.”153 Taking into consideration the extent to which American geopolitical objectives and ideological motives played into the categorization of different East Asian nations through the twentieth century, it can be assumed that the American public at large was disconnected from an authentic notion of China’s people, history, and ideas. With such a limited vantage point, there is no surprise that misunderstanding exists today. Indeed, a recent article written by security analyst Julia Famularo reflects many of the same motivations with interacting with the ROC and the PRC after Deng Xiaoping’s open door policy. She maintains that the U.S. “relationship with Taiwan has suffered from benign neglect for far too long,” and that “sustaining a productive partnership with Taiwan is critical to the success of U.S. strategic goals in the Asia-Pacific region.” Additionally she maintains that the Obama administration “should work directly with Taiwan to. preserve democracy,” and “reopen blocked channels of communication.”154 Aside from new strategic, human rights, and economic issues since the end of the Cold War, what has really changed in America’s schematic construction of Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China? Middlebrow Americans continue to contrive and reconstruct a highly generalized abstraction of China and its people. Assistant Secretary of State during the Truman administration, W. Walton Butterworth, explains the problem well:

It is not surprising that we tend to think of foreign people like ourselves, with very much the same standards of values, the same motivations and objectives in life, and the same capabilities and accomplishments. This tendency to clothe peoples in other lands with our own characteristics and circumstances increases our difficulty in understanding even those peoples who share with us a common cultural and political heritage; we must be especially wary of it in thinking of the Chinese whose roots go far back into a past totally different from our own. 155

Due to popular depictions and stereotypes corroding American potential to grasp opposing cultural and geopolitical incentives, the mysterious Asian ‘other’ cannot fit into the diplomatic conversation until a genuine effort is made to investigate their history and

153 A.T. Steele, The American People and China, 141.

154 Julia Famularo, “U.S.-Taiwanese Relations After the Midterms: A Unique Opportunity,” The National Interest, November 13, 2014

155 W. Walton Butterworth, “China in Mid-Revolution,” address, May 10, 1950, p. I, Butterworth Papers, box 3.

culture. Sino-American cultural diplomacy could thus benefit greatly if the American public takes care to approach popular depictions of the Chinese with a critical eye paired with authentic curiosity toward a dynamic and historically rich nation.

Appendix: Popular Culture Images of East Asian Peoples

Fig. 1 “Rough on Rats: They Must Go.” Trading Card, (Forbes ©, printed in late 19th Century, Early 20th Century).

Fig. 2 “The Yellow Terror in All His Glory.” Poster

by George

Frederick Keller for The San Francisco

Fig. 3“The Chinese Must Go, But Who Keeps Them ?” – 11 May 1878

Fig. 5-6 “`The Heathen Chinee,” words by Bret Harte, music by Chas. Tourner, S. Brainard's Sons, Cleveland, 1870, illustration by Vallendar & Co

Fig. 7

Fig. 8

Fig.

Fig. 10

Fig. 11 Punch, January 1942.

Fig. 12 David Low, Evening Standard, July, 1941.

Fig. 13 Leatherneck 28.3 (March 1945).

Fig. 14

Fig. 15-16

Fig. 17

Cold War Imagery

Fig. 18