Spring 2024
“The architect builds visible history.”
. . . The speaker is architectural scholar Vincent Scully. His famous quip is endorsed by every poet, playwright, and painter on earth whenever they set to work, because the arts are all to do with construction. And their building materials are the letters, words, ideas, images, colors, and sounds that somehow show usthe confusing and helter-skelter version of our petty-pelting lives. There’s magic in the web of it.
But the thing is these bits must always suggest more than they say, which puts pressure on us --the audience, the readers, the viewers, the listeners-- to join up the dots. Our job is to ask the tough question: “What is this about in the deepest sense?” And then work out an answer. It’s our duty as intelligent humans to engage with and challenge appearances to uncover the actual truth. “Then let them anatomize Regan; see what beats about her heart.” We all need to take on board just what Shakespeare still wants us to see and do.
You can spot this in just about any art gallery. Visitors head for a Van Gogh landscape, say (1889), expecting to feast on comforting nature, but instead are confused by a forest of sketchy, arthritic branches. Clearly, those trees are in pain. That’s because they were portrayed by a troubled soul confined to a hospital. What should be a bright sky is as watery and droopy as a pensioner’s runny eyes and liver-spotted hands. The tree branches are akimbo and might well have been gnashed by some afflicted and disgruntled patient. This is no pretty picture. Instead, it’s a text about man’s inhumanity to man. Say your prayers.
It's the same with A.E. Housman’s poem, Loveliest of Trees (1896):
“Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.
“Now, of my threescore years and ten,
Twenty will not come again,
And take from seventy springs a score,
It only leaves me fifty more.
“And since to look at things in bloom
Fifty springs are little room,
About the woodlands I will go
To see the cherry hung with snow.”
With Housman, it's no use acknowledging the trees are beautiful or even sublime, without also noticing that Nature, every spring, is also a time bomb. And it’s saying you have only a paltry 50 more chances before your death to witness the glorious bloom. And that number declines by one every April. Much obliged, AEH.
Recently, I saw the 2022 play Andy Warhol in Iranby Brent Askari. It’s to do with a 1976 trip by the controversial pop artist and “influencer,” who had been invited to Iran by the Shahto take some polaroid snapshots to be used in royal family portraits and celebrity promo prints. But in Askari’s two-character version, Andy is instead kidnapped by a young Iranian revolutionary and given a virtual AP course on radical politics. In effect, this play is a duet between a “whatever” celebrity and a young, intense Jacobin—each learning from one another (like Huck Finn and the slave Jim). When you consider it, the play is all about demolishing barriers and boundaries; and on how investigating The Other mainly teaches us about The Self. Mind you, the text of the play utters none of what I’ve just written here. You, the audience, have to listen and learn it off your own bat.
SO IT IS with every annual publication of the Paper Shell Review, a showcase for undergraduate scholars seeking clarity amidst the fog.
First up for 2024 is Annabelle Law, a senior at the University of Exeter (UK), whose “Imaginary, Frivolous, and Nauseating: Feminine Domestic Space and the Boundaries of Liminality in the Early Eighteenth-century,” looks at what the Enlightenment thought of women, judging by the public and private spaces that were devised for their exclusive use.
This is followed by Ned Tagtmeier, a junior at the University of Chicago, whose paper, “Incantation as Linguistic Disruption: Magic in Postcolonial Literature,” questions the use of crazy magic in the midst of the mostly rational Enlightenment.
Next, James Sullivan, a senior at the University of Exeter (UK), examines “Mental Illness and Literary Form in the Writings of Sylvia Plath.” He shows that Plath uses prose to write about depression in her novel The Bell Jar (1963) but uses poetry for that depression in Ariel (1965). As the man said, “The poetry is in the pity.”
In “God’s Wayward Creation: A Profile of Satan,” Ella Herr, a junior at the University of Maryland, College Park, surveys Satan’s views of good & evil and mankind. As it happens, the most powerful witness may well be Lucifer himself: “I myself am Hell.” It’s tough for Satan. The Lord God can be a real hard-liner. Who’d want to be in the dock with Him as the beak?
In the last Paper Shell essay, Annie Sidranksy, a Senior at Yale University, uses a Modern poet to reply to a Romantic one, in “Fantasy and Reality in the Confinements of Wordsworth and Brooks.” It’s all to do with optional (a nun’s cell) versus compulsory (public housing) confinement.
Literary study is all about discovering new truths and challenges to old assumptions, which once mattered but are suddenly beside the point. It’s always a new landscape, with us stumbling about looking for fresh, useful answers. At heart, it’s about how you relate to the art and how the elastic artreciprocates.
I can imagine just such a debate:
Artist/Poet/Playwright: “That’s not what I meant at all!”
Scholar : “Dude, you never knew what you meant! That was your genius!”
Michael Olmert
Professor, English Department
University of Maryland
Journal Information
Editor-in-Chief
LeeAnn Wong Arbelo
Editorial Executive & Cover Design
Katherine Mahoney
Managing Editor
Kiersten Williams
Advisor
Melvette Melvin Davis
Reading Group Leaders
- Ananyaa Malhotra
- Carolina Correia
Editorial Team
- Grace Marshall
- Hannah Campion
- Maxine Poe-Jensen
- Nicholas Pietrowski
Letter from the Editor-in-Chief
Our deepest thanks to...
Scott Trudell and Christina Walter, for their confidence in undergraduate student work and for ensuring that the University of Maryland is home to a thriving and welcoming literary community,
Karen Lewis, for kindly guiding our staff through the publication process each year,
Melvette Melvin Davis for her patience and encouragement, without whom this project would not have been possible,
The Center for Literary and Comparative Studies and the Department of English, for housing our publication, providing our funding, and allowing this project to have a worldwide reach,
Michael Olmert, for his continued commitment to the success of this journal and for always inspiring students with his words of wisdom,
Our editorial board, for providing their thoughtful input during the essay selection process and for diligently reading, discussing, and copy editing these papers,
Sohayl Vafai, for founding this wonderful journal over a decade ago,
Each of our contributors, for their willingness to conduct deep investigations into literary scholarship and for generously allowing us to feature their exciting ideas in this year’s edition,
And lastly, our readers, for enthusiastically engaging with literary criticism and for making the Humanities an integral component of your educational journeys.
Sincerely,
LeeAnn Wong Arbelo
Editor-in-Chief, 2024
Staff Biographies
LeeAnn Wong Arbelo is a second-year Banneker/Key Scholar pursuing a double degree in English and Philosophy, Politics, and Economics. She is currently studying abroad in London at Queen Mary. She works as a Writing Center tutor and Ambassador for the College of Arts and Humanities. In her spare time, she enjoys cooking, crocheting and spending time with friends and her cat, Dumpling. This is her second year as the Editor- in-Chief, and she is excited to continue this role next year.
Katherine Mahoney is a senior journalism and studio art double major from Olney, MD. She currently serves as an editorial intern for Girls’ Life magazine. In a few weeks after graduation, she is planning on traveling around Europe and then getting a job in broadcast news. She has been in the Paper Shell Review since sophomore year and has been a reading group leader, cover designer and now is the Editorial Executive.
Kiersten Williams is a May 2024 graduate with a B.A. in English at the University of Maryland College Park. She enjoys cooking, reading, and a really good cup of coffee. She plans to move to New York City after graduation and pursue a career in publishing.
Ananyaa Malhotra is a senior English and Communications double major, with a minor in Creative Writing. In addition to serving as a Reading Group Leader for the Paper Shell Review, Ananyaa works as a tutor at UMD's Writing Center, and she is President of UMD's chapter of Sigma Tau Delta, an international English honors society. She looks forward to her graduation this May, after which she hopes to apply her experience with the Paper Shell Review to a career in publishing!
Carolina Correia is a senior English major concentrating in Language, Writing, and Rhetoric, with a minor in Linguistics. Correia loves reading fiction, authors’ biographies, and literary criticism. Correia is passionate about language and teaching, and post- graduation goals include promoting educational equity and working in the publishing industry. Her involvement with the Paper Shell Review has been foundational for developing skills in editing and engaging with university students’ critical view of acclaimed literary pieces, and Correia looks forward to applying the valuable lessons learned from this experience after graduation from UMD.
Zachary Braunstein is a Reading Group Reader that reviewed spring submissions for the Paper Shell Review. Currently, he is a junior Philosophy, Politics, and Economics and English double-major at the University of Maryland, College Park. His future plans are to go to law school.
Grace Marshall is a freshman studying English through UMD’s College of Arts and Humanities. She holds a concentration on Creative Writing underneath her English major, as well as a minor in Professional Writing. She loves her two golden retrievers, reading, writing, crafting, and dancing. Grace hopes to find a career in writing, editing, or publishing and wishes to tie her work to mental health advocacy. She believes strongly that the catharsis born from storytelling is a useful tool for easing anxiety. Grace has been recently appointed to be the Paper Shell Review’s Managing Editor for the 24-25 school year. She is super excited to be working alongside the team for the curation of the journal.
Hannah Campion is an English major with a history minor. She is active in the poetry club and enjoys writing and playing soccer. In the future she hopes to write fantasy and sci-fci novels.
Maxine Poe-Jensen is a freshman pursuing a double major degree in English and Classics. She is part of the Honors Humanities program and loves to read and write. In her free time, she loves hanging out with her friends, reading books on her Kindle, and taking trips into DC! In the future, she hopes to go to graduate school and pursue a career in publishing.
Nicholas Pietrowski is a senior English major. He is an avid writer of songs and fiction, striving towards major publishing.
Dr. Melvette Melvin Davis serves as the Faculty Advisor for PSR. She is also a Lecturer in the Academic and Professional Writing Programs at UMD. Prior to teaching at the university, she owned a publishing company and worked as an editor and publisher for over 10 years. Dr. Davis is a Prince George's County, Maryland native and enjoys Hallmark movies, Crumbl Cookies, and smoothies.
Spring 2024 Essays
General Essays
Articles copyright © 2024 the original authors. No part of the contents of this Web journal may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without permission from the author or the Academic Writing Program of the University of Maryland. The views expressed in these essays do not represent the views of the Academic Writing Program or the University of Maryland.