A
Modern Evelina
By MaryEllen Troendle
Lit 325: Restoration/18th
Century Literature
April 23, 2015
Total Word Count: 838
Original Word Count: 717
Abstract: In this essay, I create a revision of Evelina in modern
forms to express the effects of modality on interpretation of the text.
Critical Question: How has modality effect the way that
readers experience a text?
Prompt: I don’t believe
that I used one of your prompts.
Emme
Troendle
Professor
Marvin Lansverk
Literature
325
23 April 2015
A
Modern Evelina
The
novel Evelina by Frances Burney is constructed in an epistolary format. This
format was designed to create a novel through the letters—eyes and emotions--of
a 17 year old girl making her way into society. In my creative essay for the
class, I address what an “epistolary novel” would look like using modern modes
of communication. One of the largest questions I ask about the novel’s format
concerning modality is: what is it we want to mean, and what modes and genres
are best realized for that meaning? The first thing to note is that the mode
that we use can influence how the meaning is transmitted and received to the
reader of the message. In the rise of the novel, authors are developing
different ways of making a novel in different modes. Epistolary novels are
unique in that they send and receive messages, but the reader doesn’t receive
detailed narrative unless the author incorporates that in the writing. The mode
influences how we understand the novel, and in my essay I attempt to mimic what
that would look like in a modern mode—snapchats in video format.
The
snap chats are from a range of characters, and the intention in composing a
piece with a range of characters was to capture the range of voices that a
reader witnesses in Evelina. The trickiest part was to create a dialogue that
would mimic the type of events as well, and that’s when it hit me---modern
mode, modern format, and modern experiences. By changing those three elements
but sticking to “the young girl making her way into society” allowed me to contrast
the characters and romanticized elements of the novel to a quick rendition of
messages in Evelina.
Kress
argues that, “The specificity is the same at one level: the affordance of the
logic of time governs writing, and the affordance of the logic of space governs
the image. Within that there is the possibility of generic variation. And
generic variation of the ensembles, in each case, provides an overall
difference of a significant kind” (47). So basically, how we place text and
images, even if we have the same material, can affect the overall message of
the piece. I believe that I am creating a modern mode of communication that
plays with a modern way to send messages. Essentially, Kress pushes her point
out to the statement that all genres are mixed genre, but then “what is a
“genre”, a pure genre; how and where does it occur; and how do we recognize
it?” (52). This is a question that the novel has been trying to answer since
the 18th century.
When
it came down to composing my piece, I referenced my old friend McCloud. He says
“when pictures carry the weight of clarity in a scene, they free words to
explore a wider area…on the other hand, if the words lock in the meaning of a
sequence, then the pictures can really take off” (McCloud 157-159). The writer
and artist must find a balance that meets his steps to a creation of art, and
are ultimately left to the creator’s instincts (161). There is twice as much in
play when the artist is working with images and words versus one or the other.
What I found the most helpful when I was composing my short video was when
McCloud breaks down the six steps to the creation of the art, and how the
reader comes into contact with the comic. I found the six steps very accurate,
but rather “expected” especially when it came to the appropriate
balance/procession of steps. I like how he lays out the step 1 through 6,
explain the struggles, and then says that people should be a slow and steady
purpose from end to beginning (183). I found this very true in my own progression
of the short video. I knew what medium, I knew “why am I doing this”, but I
have been struggling with step 4, structure. I keep asking “what should I
include? What should I say, what is the best way to articulate my argument?”
Composition has been so difficult for me. Playing with structure has been the
most time consuming. Now that the project is done, I hope that I successfully
built a video that will express all the things that I mentioned earlier.
Works Cited
Kress, Gunther. Literacy in the New Media Age. New York: Routledge,
2003.
McCloud,
Scott. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. New York. HarperCollins
Publishers. 1994. Print.
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