A Moveable Feast 2019-2020
Thursday, Oct. 10, 6 p.m., The Jepson Center for the Arts, Savannah Portrait of the Icon as a Young Woman: Photography and the Making of Stardom
Presented by: Amanda Konkle, Department of Literature and Film Studies, and Bridgett Conn, Betty Foy Sanders Department of Art
The persona of the celebrity thrives on the tension between images of the public and private—or the performed and the authentic—self. This tension is frozen in time in the many star-studded portraits that comprise “Portrait of the Artist,” an exhibit of photographic portraiture currently on display at the Jepson Center for the Arts. In this lecture, Dr. Conn will discuss the various methods of creating portraits of the “real” person behind the star persona, dispelling the idea that a photographer need only be in the right place at the right time to capture a compelling image. “Behind-the-scenes” photos of stars “as they are” on set often reveal how the stars see themselves, rather than the roles they are scripted to play. As Dr. Konkle will discuss, this is heartbreakingly true for Marilyn Monroe, whose final film role put her in the position of confronting the star persona she had crafted through poised and polished photos with a raw, exposed version of herself as a young woman rather than a star. Together they will explore how the stars we think we see are often a fantasy created by the “ocular proof” of the camera’s lens.
Sunday, Nov. 3, 5 p.m., The Mansion on Forsyth Park
Harnessing the Shadows: Ghosts, Vampires, and Undying Relationships to Our Past
Presented by: Alena Pirok, Department of History, and Kendra R. Parker, Department of Literature
Vampires, and ghosts, and us–oh my! In the spirit world of the Halloween season, Drs. Pirok and Parker invite you to embrace the shadows that represent our deepest fears in the stately and hauntingly beautiful Mansion on Forsyth Park. Dr. Pirok will examine the relationship between the Southern Gothic literary tradition and the development of Savannah’s ghost tourism, a development that has earned Savannah the claim of being “the most haunted city” in the country. She will explore how our streets are not haunted by individual specters but, by and large, by a mythical vision of Savannah’s own past. Dr. Parker will further trace how mythical recollections of an antebellum South, replete with its own tormented history, contribute to the post-emancipation stereotyping of Black people as vampiric predators. Together they will invite you to reconsider how stories of hauntings, vampires, and things undying shape our images of the past, our experiences of the present, and our apparitions of the future.
Thursday, March 5, 2020, 6 p.m., The Temple Mickve Israel
Breaking Gendered Boundaries in Our Bones and Our Crimes
Presented by: Virginia Estabrook, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, and Kate Perry, Department of Criminal Justice
We often hold profound expectations about gender that construct our judgements about the political and personal worth of others. This lecture will explore two distinct cases in which the rigidity of these expectations informs the way we respond to both historical and contemporary figures. Dr. Estabrook will focus on Savannah’s own Casimir Pulaski, whose remains have now been confirmed to have been buried beneath the monument in Monterey Square. Focusing on the forensic attributions of anthropologists, she will explore the complex issues that surround the history, anatomy, gender and myth-making unearthed in the bones of this Revolutionary War general. Dr. Perry, will shift the focus to contemporary issues and discuss the ways global norms about gender influence perceptions of and responses to gendered bodies. She will outline the experiences of women involved in human trafficking–discussing women as victims, perpetrators, law enforcement officers, NGO workers, and academics; emphasizing how the roles these women inhabit intersect with global norms about gender, political power, and security. Together these scholars will urge us to reconsider the boundaries of gender we have come to inhabit and see the worlds that are possible when we break them.
Thursday, April 23, 2020, 6 p.m., Savannah Cultural Arts Center
Shakespeare Near the Park
Presented by: Faculty from the Departments of Literature, Theater, and Music
Brush up your Shakespeare! Brighten up that Bard! Put a sparkle on the Swan of Avon! On this, the traditional date of Shakespeare’s birthday, the College of Arts and Humanities invites you to celebrate the occasion by sharing in a musical feast, where our faculty from the Departments of Literature, Theater, and Music will delight you in three Acts. The Literature faculty will open the curtain with a short introduction to Shakespeare, and throughout the gala they will offer brief background sketches for each of the selected scenes our troupe will perform. Act I will take you to a staged rendition of the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet, followed by a musical performance of “Tonight” from West Side Story. Act II will transport you to the “wooing” scene from The Taming of the Shrew, paired with a frolicsome version of “I Hate Men” from Kiss Me, Kate. The celebration will close with a reenactment from The Merry Wives of Windsor and a grand finale from Verdi’s opera, cameoing our very own Falstaff. And with that we’ll bid you adieu until next season!
Posted in General Announcements