Unexpected Visitor Research Articles

Indiana and Madame Bovary: Intertextual Echoes

In his book, Rereading, Matei Calinescu uses the felicitous term to evoke an experience that is no doubt familiar to most readers: there are texts that other texts, he observes, the sense that they appear in them as expected or unexpected visitors and even, one might say, as phantoms or specters, if such notions could be freed of their sinister connotations (xi). Richly metaphorical, Calinescu's phrasing alludes, not to something that exists in either work by itself, but to a perception that occurs when the two come together in the mind of a reader. (1) The relative dates of the texts are of little import, Calinescu adds: it is the one that an individual knows first or best that will seem effectively to haunt the other. Roland Barthes, in one of his provocative musings, voiced a similar notion when he confessed that, for him, l'oeuvre (59) was invariably that of Proust, to the extent that, while perusing something by Stendhal or Flaubert, for example, he might have the unexpected impression of suddenly finding Proust (58-59). George Sand's Indiana (1832) and Flaubert's Madame Bovary (1857) offer an intriguing illustration of such a souvenir circulaire (Barthes 59) or circular haunting (Calinescu xi). Whether one discovers them in the order of their publication or comes to the earlier novel only after the much more famous one, striking textual echoes in key sequences may very well bring the two together in the reader's mind. The sequences in question both lead toward scenes of seduction, although the actual outcomes are quite different. Emma Bovary is in fact seduced by Rodolphe Boulanger, at a time when she is especially vulnerable. The end of a platonic relationship with Leon leaves her all the more sensitive to what she sees as the dreary, sterile nature of her everyday lire. Rodolphe, de temperament brutal et d'intelligence perspicace (1:167), immediately sizes up the situation: Pauvre petite femme! Ca baille apres l'amour, une carpe apres l'eau sur une table cuisine (1:167). Sure that he can have Emma, his only concern is for what one might call, in today's military parlance, an exit strategy: mais comment s'en debarrasser ensuite? (1:167). The crude, dehumanizing tone of this monologue establishes a frame of reference against which the reader can subsequently appreciate (and judge) the finely crafted language that Rodolphe brings to bear on Emma during the comices agricoles. When he reappears after a strategic absence of six weeks, he does not have to wait much longer: once Emma has been able to procure the proper riding costume--an amazone (2)--the two set off on horseback for the forest where she will succumb to his advances. In Indiana, the sequence of events unfolds at Paris (chs. 5-6), in the apartments of Madame Carjaval, the heroine's aunt. Married to the brutish Colonel Delmare, Indiana has been introduced at a ball to an attractive young nobleman, Raymon Ramiere. (3) The two meet again a few nights later in Madame Carjavars salon, where in spire of the stultifying atmosphere Raymon manages to convey his feelings to Indiana, who promptly falls under the spell of his charm. Raised by a pere bizarre et violent (68), Indiana has grown up starved for affection, clinging to a dream: Un jour viendra ou tout sera change dans ma vie [...], ou l'on m'aimera, ou je donnerai tout mon cour a celui qui me donnera le sien; en attendant, souffrons; taisons-nous, et gardons notre amour pour recompense a qui me delivrera (69). Later passages will confirm what this one already suggests, that Indiana, like Emma Bovary, has what Raymon comes to call, derisively, a tete romanesque (217). A short time in the presence of M. Ramiere is enough to make Indiana believe she has met the man of her dreams: Elle le vit elle le desirait, explains the narrator, comme elle l'avait reve (71). Fearing instinctively for Raymon's safety, should Delmare become suspicious, Indiana feigns illness the following evening rather than attend another ball. …

Conjure and Christianity in the Nineteenth Century: Religious Elements in African American Magic

Shortly before the turn of the nineteenth Century, an amateur collector of Negro Spirituals and folklore recounted a conversation that she had had with an unidentified African American clergyman. According to the collector, the clergyman, “one of the most scholarly and noted ministers of the colored race,” admitted that, even as a professed Christian, he found himself “under the influences of voodooism” and other African occult practices. He explained that, as a young pastor, he had grown “completely discouraged” after numerous unsuccessful attempts to attract new worshipers into his congregation until one day an unexpected visitor happened his way:I was in my study praying when the door opened and a little Conjure man came in and said softly: “You don't understand de people. You must get you a hand as a friend to draw 'em. Ef you will let me fix you a luck charm, you'll git 'em.”

Conjure and Christianity in the Nineteenth Century: Religious Elements in African American Magic

Shortly before the turn of the nineteenth Century, an amateur collector of Negro Spirituals and folklore recounted a conversation that she had had with an unidentified African American clergyman. According to the collector, the clergyman, “one of the most scholarly and noted ministers of the colored race,” admitted that, even as a professed Christian, he found himself “under the influences ofvoodooism” and other African occult practices. He explained that, as a young pastor, he had grown “completely discouraged” after numerous unsuccessful attempts to attract new worshipers into his congregation until one day an unexpected visitor happened his way:I was in my study praying when the door opened and a little Conjure man came in and said softly: “You don't understand de people. You must get you ahandas a friend to draw 'em. Ef you will let me fix you a luck charm, you'll git 'em.”

Aliens 'R' Us: A Critique of D4

John Dixon | Aliens 'R' Us: A Gritique of D4 John Dixon Boston University Aliens 4R' Us: A Gritique of D4 Video availible from Twentieth Century Fox. NewYork City receives an unexpected visitor in the epic adventure film Independence Day. It did not take people long to realize that Independence Day would be the hit movie ofthe summer. It earned $100-miIIion in only six days, surpassing the nine-day record set byJurassic Park in 1993. Since then, commentators have been trying to explain its popularity. Some have attributed its success to the perfect opening-day timing and the shrewd marketing campaign ; others to the way it satisfies the public's supposed deeprooted desire to unite against a common enemy. In a variation on this latter point, many people I have talked to have called it jingoistic, mere propaganda for the "New World Order," and have objected to its stereotyped portrayal ofwomen,Jews, and gays. Others, though, have praised its multicultural vision, pointing to the featured roles it gives to minorities. There is clearly truth in all ofthese takes on the movie. But I don't think any one ofthem satisfactorily explains why the film is so popular . Why has it struck such a chord with the public at this time? I'd like to try my hand at answering this question. I confess to having cheered involuntarily on a number ofoccasions during the film, so ifnothing else, the following can be considered an attempt at self-analysis. This movie has appeared at a moment ofwidespread anxiety about job security in a culture in which downward mobility is experienced, particularly by men, as personal failure and impotence. The male characters introduced in the opening scenes all speak to this anxiety. There is Jeff Goldblum as David, an MIT-educated satellite technician whose former girlfriend Constance (Margaret Colin), fed up with his lack of ambition, has left him to become an adviser to the President. There is Randy Quaid as Russell, a boozy former Vietnam pilot now working as a crop-duster and suffering mental problems since he was abducted and molested by aliens. And finally there is Will Smith as Capt. Steven Hiller, an Marine pilot who has failed to realize his dream of becoming an astronaut. He is in a relationship with Jasmine (Vivica Fox), a black, single mother who works as a stripper (apparently the only job left for Hollywood working-class 92 I Film & History Regular Feature | Film Reviews moms!). His fellow pilot tells him, "Nowyou're never gonna get to fly the space shuttle ifyou marry a stripper!" Even President Whitmore (Bill Pullman) is worrying if he has the right stuff. The press accuse him of being too boyish to stand up to Congress. The arrival of the aliens sets a plot in motion in which all the above characters will eventually triumph over their inadequacies. At first, however, the alien invasion only exacerbates their sense ofimpotence , rendering the nation powerless at the hands of an inscrutable force. Breaking offfrom their "mother ship," the alien crafts descend from the moon, vast, dark ovals which spread out across the globe, taking up positions over all the major world capitals and hijacking the global satellite system to coordinate their attack. All human efforts to establish contact with the aliens fail. On cue they commence destroying cities, moving from one to another, blasting them with a ray from the underbelly of the craft. Their sole governing purpose, we learn, is to travel from one planet to another, consuming all available resources. I think this vision generates such an effective sense of dread because of the strong element of paranoia in it. In a state ofparanoia we invest the external world with all our worst tendencies and qualities to maintain the fiction of our own wholeness and perfection. In this movie the aliens are a paranoid projection of the nation's destructive and threatening aspects. In their blind pursuit of self-interest, their global reach and control of satellite communication, their capacity to paralyze nation states, and their environmental destructiveness, the alien crafts bear an uncanny resemblance to multinational corporations (which include Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation , which owns Fox, which...

"A Model New England State": Northeastern Antislavery in Territorial Kansas, 1854-1860

"A Model New England State": Northeastern Antislavery in Territorial Kansas, i854-i860 Gunja SenGupta One crisp Saturday morning in October 1854, the news of an unexpected visitor filled the pioneer settlement of Lawrence, located about six miles above the mouth of the Wakarusa Creek in Kansas territory, with excitement . Over two months earlier, the founding fathers and mothers of that preeminent center of free-state activism had left old America to make their home in the territory, organized in May 1854 under the highly combustible Kansas-Nebraska Act. They traveled west under the auspices of a corporation later known as the New England Emigrant Aid Company (NEEAC), dedicated to securing freedom to Kansas and dividends for its bondholders through the organized emigration of free labor.1 The cause of the commotion in Lawrence that Saturday morning was a surprise visit by the first governor of Kansas territory, the Hon. Andrew H. Reeder, a Douglas Democrat from Pennsylvania. Samuel C. Pomeroy, general agent of the NEEAC, addressed a few words of welcome to the distinguished guest from a hastily erected platform. Pomeroy invited Reeder to share the treasures of their beloved town, which consisted not of "wealth . . . computed by dollars and dimes" but of "the facilities for high intellectual and moral culture," planted by the fathers of New England in "the infancy of the [American] Republic," to stand as the I wish to thank my dissertation adviser Clarence L. Mohr and committee members Lawrence N. Powell and Richard B. Latner of Tulane University for their valuable help with my 1991 dissertation on which this essay is based. I am, however, solely responsible for any weaknesses that remain. ' Samuel A. Johnson, The Battle Cry of Freedom: The New England Emigrant Aid Company in the Kansas Crusade (Lawrence: Univ. of Kansas Press, 1954; rpt., Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1977). Civil War History, Vol. XXXIX, No. 1, · 1993 by The Kent State University Press 32CIVIL WAR HISTORY "great bulwarks of Freedom and Happiness." The NEEAC agent continued , "We come to you with the Bible in one hand, and the spellingbook in the other, with the purpose of laying the one upon the altar of a Free Church, and the other upon the desk of a Free School."2 Pomeroy's words summed up significant elements of the Kansas crusade 's appeal among middle-class white Northerners. Refracted through the lens of leading antislavery players in the embattled territory, the contest for a free Kansas emerged as more than an attempt to defeat slavery at the polls. It was inspired by a larger social vision that sought to weave the threads of Protestant civilization and republican liberty bequeathed by New England's Pilgrim fathers into a uniquely northeastern tapestry of "Americanism" over the morally and economically vulnerable West. Three New York and New England-based organizations helped shape that perception of the issues underlying "Bleeding Kansas" in the free North: the American Missionary Association (AMA), the American Home Missionary Society (AHMS), and the New England Emigrant Aid Company. These institutions represented between them the two major strains in American antislavery thought, namely a religioushumanitarian impulse relatively free of overt racism and a tradition of concern for the economic welfare of white America based on the ideology of free labor.3 Although the northeastern evangelicals and entrepreneurs represented different degrees of radicalism on the antislavery spectrum, they ultimately based their divergent religious and economic critiques of the South's "peculiar institution" upon a common belief in "an improvable , and progressively improving world." Engendered by economic changes associated with the capitalist transformation of Northern society, the notion of progress was accompanied by increasing pride in the values of that society and implied their dissemination among backward peoples. This "civilizing" mission translated into the middle-class northeasterners ' desire to fashion all "deviant" groups—such as western pioneers, 2 The Herald of Freedom, Jan. 13, 1855 (hereafter cited as the Herald). The Herald was the official organ of the NEEAC in Kansas. Even though it never achieved a very wide circulation in the territory, it remained the principal source of Kansas news to readers in the Northeast and hence played an important role in shaping that section's image...

An Unexpected Visitor: Charles Barrington at the Cape in 1737

(1981). An Unexpected Visitor: Charles Barrington at the Cape in 1737. South African Historical Journal: Vol. 13, No. 1, pp. 20-35.

Unexpected visitors to the Seychelles

Unexpected visitors to the Seychelles

A Review of Taylor Mac's 24-Decade History of Popular Music Marathon

This review considers Taylor Mac's 24-Decade History of Popular Music Marathon which took place at St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn, New York from October 8 to October 9, 2016. Using Jacques Derrida's theory of "l'avenir," best translated as the "unexpected visitor" I analyze a variety of the components found in the performance including, queer dramaturgy, song selection, choreography, audience participation and costumes. My critical review examines the concert which pulled liberally from the American songbook, using popular music from 1776 to 2016 in an attempt to collectively exorcise the specters of the patriarchy and exonerate the oppressed in what Mac deemed a “radical faerie ritual.”

The Unexpected Visitor in Ibsen's Late Plays

The Unexpected Visitor in Ibsen's Late Plays