Arts - Buffalo State College

84
Humanities
methods of rhetorical criticism to analyze Murrow’s speech in order
to further understand the structure and reasoning of this quite blunt
speech. First, the situation or the context that had prompted Murrow
to deliver his speech was examined. I looked at how these following
factors might have affected Murrow’s speech: rhetor, audience, topic,
setting, persuasive field, rhetorical conventions, and the media.
Second, I looked at the major ideas that were presented throughout
the speech by coding the speech using Wilson and Arnold’s
sixteen universal topics. Third, I analyzed Murrow’s arguments by
examining logical appeals evident in the speech. Finally, I analyzed
the syntax and imagery presented in the speech. The findings from
this rhetorical analysis were that Murrow was angry about the
programming done in television during that time period and that
he was concerned about how television would affect the Americans
in the generations to come. Murrow stated that the business end
of the media had affected the way radio and television chose their
programming. Much of the speech talks about the downfall of the
United States society due to the misuse of radio and television.
Presentation Type and Session: Oral – Social Sciences
Fame As a Facade
Sarah Kramer, PHI 401W: Respect Seminar
Faculty Mentor: Professor John Draeger, Philosophy
Stephen Darwall distinguishes between two kinds of respect.
Recognition respect is given to all humans simply for being rational
ends in themselves. Appraisal respect is given to a person with an
excellent character or excellence in a specific pursuit. While society
heaps praise and fame on celebrities of all kinds, fame seems empty.
In particular, Darwall would withhold appraisal respect because
fame need not track good character or even excellence in a given
pursuit. The social norm of praising celebrities includes regarding
them as more deserving of our attention, interest in their pursuits,
and their needs or wants. According to Cheshire Calhoun, we should
respect the social norm of celebrity and give celebrities appraisal
respect. This paper explores whether Darwall’s idea of appraisal
respect make sense of the emptiness of fame. It concludes that
following social conventions surrounding the famous need not
imply that they deserve the appraisal for any exhibition of virtuous
character or positive pursuit.
Presentation Type and Session: Oral – Humanities II
A Familiar Tale Turned Upside Down: The
Unconventional Use of Sentimentality and
Seduction In The Scarlet Letter
Gail Graesser, ENG 442: American Novel to 1900
Faculty Mentor: Professor Peter Ramos, English
Many authors of the early American novel use sentimentality
and adaptations of the British seduction novel as a means to find
their place in the literary world. In striving to create a uniquely
American voice, these authors use the mode of the sentimental novel
and apply it to the new American experience. These authors hope
to gain credibility for their literary works and the genre of the novel
as a whole. While most of these authors follow the familiar story
line comprised of a woman tempted by a wayward love, ruined at
the hand of her seducer, a subsequent illegitimate pregnancy, and
ultimate death, there is one which seems to challenge this pattern.
This paper argues that The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
uses the mode of the sentimental novel along with the motif of
seduction to create a very different outcome. Hawthorne shifts the
roles of his major characters in The Scarlet Letter to create a new
variation on the standard seduction novel. While his readers will be
familiar with the seduction theme, they will apply their sympathies
for these characters in a new way. By employing the reversal of
the use of sympathy with the character of Arthur Dimmesdale,
Hawthorne is enabled to portray the character of Hester in a unique
way. The use of Dimmesdale is a very creative and well-planned tool
by which Hawthorne brings readers his critical views of the Puritan
laws and Calvinistic way of life. The reader is given a new lens with
which to view the fallen woman in the familiar seduction motif.
The Scarlet Letter uses what is hidden to bring forth what is new.
Whether the somewhat hidden reversal of sympathy in its seduction
motif, the hidden truths of the characters themselves, or the hidden
hypocrisy of the men in power, this paper argues that Hawthorne
uses the unexpected to bring forth new truth. The uses of the
seduction motif and the reversal of the sympathies of the reader has
enabled Hester Prynne to emerge as the vehicle of new truth, a most
radical use of the fallen woman by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Presentation Type and Session: Oral – Humanities III
Fictionalizing Resistance: Scheherazade
and Her Reincarnation In the Modern
Arab Novel
Amy Widman, English Education
Faculty Mentor: Professor Aimable Twagilimana, English
From the stories of the ancient to the stories of our present, we
see a highly patriarchal society where women are often victims of
male dominated ideologies and practices. Somehow women have
engaged in resistance against their patriarchal societies. One may
wonder how women have survived in these societies for thousands
of years. Upon a closer inspection of literature, we see women in a
very different light than they are initially viewed. In the book Arabian
Nights we meet Scheherazade, who resists her patriarchal society
and saves the lives of many potential victims from the whims of a
vengeful king through storytelling. In Tayeb Salih’s novel Season
of Migration to the North, we meet Jean Morris and Hosna Bin
Mahmoud. These two characters show resistance against their society
in very different ways: manipulation and violence. Women have the
capacity of full control of not only themselves, but the world around
them. Women have approached this situation and presence of power
very carefully because they live in a male-dominated society, but it