READING ILLNESS FROM THE "THE DEAD COLD LIGHT OF TOMORROW": KATHERINE ANNE PORTER'S PALE HORSE, PALE RIDER IN THE TIMES OF COVID-19

Este trabajo sugiere una revisión de Pale Horse, Pale Rider (1939), el texto semiautobiográfico de Katherine Anne Porter en el que la autora relata su experiencia próxima a la muerte cuando fue víctima de la pandemia de gripe de 1918. La obra está considerada como la más relevante entre las que se ocupan de dicha pandemia en la tradición estadounidense, y este trabajo se sirve de esa historia crítica del texto, centrada en gran parte en explorar las intersecciones entre ficción y memoria, para trasladar no obstante el foco crítico hacia la experiencia de lectura en el momento presente, con el objetivo de ofrecer una nueva perspectiva que aclare algunos de los misterios del texto original. En un contexto en el que nuestra propia experiencia traumática durante la pandemia de la COVID-19 ha desenterrado la memoria cultural de la gripe de 1918, este estudio examina las incertidumbres y ambigüedades de la narración de Porter, investigando la hipótesis de que la lectura contemporánea de Pale Horse, Pale Rider sirve para decodificar parte de la indeterminación modernista de la obra, ofreciendo así la posibilidad de trascender las limitaciones en torno al uso del lenguaje y del mito en el texto para construir nuevos significados a partir de la memoria compartida.Alternate :The aim of this study is to suggest a new assessment of Katherine Anne Porter's semi-autobiographical account of her near-death experience with the 1918 flu, Pale Horse, Pale Rider (1939), considered by many as the paradigmatic American narrative of that pandemic. Following the trend set by most critics of Porter, this article explores the intersections of memory and fiction in the novella, but shifting attention to our present-day response, assessed as a critical tool that provides renewed insight into the mysteries of Porter's late-modernist text. Revisited in a context in which cultural memories of the 1918 influenza have been awakened by our own traumatic experience with COVID-19, this article seeks to probe the uncertainties in Porter's aestheticized trauma narrative. The aim is to investigate the hypothesis that our contemporary reading of Pale Horse, Pale Rider illuminates the modernist obscurities in the text and, in consequence, raises the possibility of transcending the limitations of language and myth exhibited in the text, providing new meanings through connection and remembrance.

Building Multicultural Connections beyond a Canonical Text, Animal Farm

Rodesiler and Brown report that teachers Allison Babula facilitated a study of Animal Farm, a required text, in ways that connected to students' lives. When teaching Animal Farm, or any literature, they strive to maximize its relevance in an increasingly multicultural world. They emphasize the constant dialogical relationship involving literature, their identities, and the world, especially with canonical texts they are required to teach. Recognizing that teachers must be cognizant of the ways power and political dynamics can be reproduced in the classroom setting, they were mindful not to neglect students whose voices and identities are typically silenced or tokenized by the dominant culture. For instance, Animal Farm, a canonical work of literature, served as the unit's anchor text, yet their conversations still centered marginalized voices, from people affected by the rule of communist China to the students themselves.

Introduction: The Art of Adaptation in Film and Video Games

Dennis Cutchins (2018) Studying the transformative journey of content from one genre or medium to another is of interest to academics, members of the public who are avid consumers of media, and practitioners of adaptation—and we are all practitioners, whether delivering a message by email originally intended to be spoken, or adapting a book (like S. A. Corey’s science fiction novel Leviathan Wakes) into a television series (like Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby’s The Expanse) into a video game (like The Expanse: A Telltale Series). Thomas (2021b) also discusses Star Wars video games as part of a wide-ranging interview with acclaimed game designer Ryan Kaufman, who is currently VP of Narrative at mobile game studio Jam City, and former Creative Director at Telltale Games. (2020) study three texts relating to Finnish forests—the film Tale of a Forest (2012), the book Tale of a Forest (2013), and a series of short documentaries called Tales from the Forest (2013)—with a focus on how each works as an environmentally conscious narrative. The film, for instance, presents images of primeval Finnish forests (which can be considered nostalgic and escapist, but still promote awareness about ecological issues), while the book and documentary series take alternative approaches, such as discussing contemporary forestry practices in an attempt to educate audiences.