Author: Amanda D'Angio

In my play analysis class, we read Margaret Edson’s Pulitzer Prize winning play W;t. I was fortunate enough to have previously read this play in my AP Literature class senior year as well. I hold this play near and dear to my heart for it pertains to the human experience; Edson proposes the question: which offers more self-fulfillment, gaining interpersonal connections with human beings or gaining solely knowledge? Demonstrated in both the cancer-ridden protagonist, Dr. Vivian Bearing, (a professor of 17th Century poetry, specifically that of John Donne) and Dr. Posner, (an oncologist in training) Edspn suggests that with great ambition also comes great consequences.

It was noted in my class how Edson may have purposely chosen Vivian to study metaphysical poetry to pair with the intensity of the medical world. There are sections of the dialogue in which Dr. Posner is clinically describing the state of Vivian’s health meanwhile Vivian is using the language of her own profession to describe her state at the same time. The medical field and the world of English, though seeming starkly different, both describe the human experience; in the case of Vivian, that experience is death. This play collaborates these two fields, similarly to Joe Moran’s suggestions in Interdisciplinarity.

Overall, the play furthermore delves into the brevity of the moment between life and death, something that has an effect on all human beings. This play is one of my favorites and the movie starring Emma Thompson is also quite good, I definitely recommend it.

My last post discussed the concepts of dimensions. This article suggests that the English major offers another dimension of knowledge.

http://chronicle.com/article/The-Ideal-English-Major/140553/

 

 

This week I saw Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar, and walking out of the theater I couldn’t help but draw parallels between that and Zulus. Like Zulus, Interstellar takes place in a future dystopian Earth corrupted by its past inhabitants. The planet can no longer sustain its population and it is up to the protagonist (Matthew McConaughey) to save the world, similarly to Alice Achitophel. What I found to be the most interesting about this movie is that it questions the human perception of time and space; are we limited to only three dimensions? To capture the essence of Zulus, one must look beyond the conventional “dimensions” of close reading. Pericival Everett includes so many minute details in his novel that may or may not contribute to the general understanding of it. For example, one may research every aspect of his chapter titles and may not understand Zulus in the least bit more. In Interstellar, the characters were looking so narrowly for the “key to survival” when the answer was broadly staring them in the face. The word dimension automatically associates itself with discipline in my head. As English majors, we look for answers beyond our own dimension/discipline. Anyway, I thought the movie was phenomenal and everyone should see it because it is so similar to Zulus!

Earlier this week, I had a professor guest lecture in my play analysis class about theater design. While I should have been paying attention to what he was saying about design concepts, I feverishly scribbled ideas regarding Interdisciplinarity. The professor informed us that a set designer must be well educated in the areas of art history, architecture, and color theory — he deemed it a “hybrid art form.”  Continue reading “Recognizing Interdisciplinarity”