Category
Oral - Creative and Artistic
Description
This oral presentation examines an original short story titled Background Radiation. This story explores grief and connection through the lens of a man who has lost his girlfriend in a tragedy. When a presence begins to inhabit his home, he becomes convinced that this is his chance to get his girlfriend back. To emphasize how the character is “out-of-time”, the story juxtaposes a near-future, “weird fiction” setting against the character’s obsession with older forms of media. In doing so, the story explores the relationship between the character’s fixation on the historical past and his fixation on his own personal past. These connections are most prominent in the examples of classic cinema that the character engages with and references throughout the piece. To establish the connection between this fixation and the themes of the piece, this presentation aims to examine these references and how they reflect and add to the story being told. The presentation also conveys the narrative techniques used in the piece, such as the use of analepsis, foreshadowing, and narrative tension. Weird fiction has been used by authors like Edgar Allen Poe and M.R. James to contrast human stories with the supernatural, often to emphasize the humanity of the characters. This original collection continues this tradition of weird fiction. This creative work examines how technology interacts with grief and contributes to isolation, and uses classic film as a medium to discuss obsession and stagnation. Therefore, this oral presentation demonstrates how classic film is used in the story to comment on the general by referencing the specific, leading to a greater understanding of how media accentuates emotions.
Background Radiation: The Symbolism of Film in a Creative Work
Oral - Creative and Artistic
This oral presentation examines an original short story titled Background Radiation. This story explores grief and connection through the lens of a man who has lost his girlfriend in a tragedy. When a presence begins to inhabit his home, he becomes convinced that this is his chance to get his girlfriend back. To emphasize how the character is “out-of-time”, the story juxtaposes a near-future, “weird fiction” setting against the character’s obsession with older forms of media. In doing so, the story explores the relationship between the character’s fixation on the historical past and his fixation on his own personal past. These connections are most prominent in the examples of classic cinema that the character engages with and references throughout the piece. To establish the connection between this fixation and the themes of the piece, this presentation aims to examine these references and how they reflect and add to the story being told. The presentation also conveys the narrative techniques used in the piece, such as the use of analepsis, foreshadowing, and narrative tension. Weird fiction has been used by authors like Edgar Allen Poe and M.R. James to contrast human stories with the supernatural, often to emphasize the humanity of the characters. This original collection continues this tradition of weird fiction. This creative work examines how technology interacts with grief and contributes to isolation, and uses classic film as a medium to discuss obsession and stagnation. Therefore, this oral presentation demonstrates how classic film is used in the story to comment on the general by referencing the specific, leading to a greater understanding of how media accentuates emotions.
Comments
Undergraduate