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Browsing by Author "Perschon, Mike"

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    Progressive feminism through James Bond
    (2015) Mosley, Eric; Perschon, Mike
    As one of pop-culture's oldest and most iconic movie characters, James Bond has both illustrated and influenced western culture for over 50 years. "Progressive Feminism through James Bond" analyzes the James Bond film series and its history conveying sexism and feminism. Emphasis is devoted to current Daniel Craig-era Bond films as being intentionally progressively feminist, an observation that has been overlooked and misinterpreted by audiences. By centering on a misogynist character, the James Bond film franchise serves as an invaluable means to observe changes in cultural attitudes towards feminism. The most recent 007 movie, Skyfall (2012), received widespread criticism from reactionary media and feminist academics alike for being explicitly sexist. The researcher challenges this criticism by analyzing changes made to the James Bond character and the roll of the Bond girl since Craig's debut in Casino Royale (2006). By criticizing the actions of a fictional character whose misogynist actions are part and parcel to his identity, feminist criticism has overlooked the intentions of filmmakers who have accomplished the seemingly impossible task of using a sexist character, James Bond, to convey aspects of progressive feminism. The research concludes that by ignoring and right out challenging many expectations of traditionally sexist Bond films, Skyfall is meant to convey a progressively feminist attitude. "Progressive Feminism Through James Bond" is an presentation adaptation of "Blue Beans, Skyfall's "Naked Man" and 'Why Craig-era Bond isn’t Bad for Feminists" an original research article written by presenter Eric Mosley available from Triple Bladed Sword: http://triplebladed.blogspot.ca/2014/01/blue-beans-skyfalls-naked-man-and-why.html
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    Sequestered spaces, and what is within and without in regards to Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series
    (2020) Letendre, Casey; Perschon, Mike
    Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series re-imagines the Napoleonic Wars in a world where dragons have always existed alongside human society. Temeraire focuses on its protagonist Captain William Laurence and his dragon, Temeraire. Laurence’s life is upended when he acquires Temeraire’s egg as a spoil of war and becomes the dragon’s captain. He is forced to leave the normal society he knew to enter the one crafted around dragons and working life within the Aerial Corps. Temeraire belongs to both the historical fantasy and alternate history subgenres. Understanding the interactions of these two subgenres is key to understanding the truly re-imaginative aspects of Novik’s work. Through these blended subgenres, Novik creates a world that allows for large amounts of agency to be given to her female characters without disrupting the historical setting that earns the series its place in the historical fantasy subgenre. The addition of dragons into our history leads to spaces sequestered specifically for dragons within British society; these spaces allow room for what can be considered fantastical characterizations of women when contrasted against morals held during the Napoleonic Wars of 1803 to 1815. The women of the Aerial Corps exemplify personal expression and agency that aligns with modern reader values; they are inherently at odds with their contemporary societal expectations. Novik begs the question of how the lives of British female officers can be justified to exist within the setting she has created for Temeraire, her answer being heterotopias - spaces that exclude and excuse these women from normal society.
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    Their own devices: steampunk airships as heterotopias of crisis and deviance
    (2021) Krentz, Courtney; Perschon, Mike; St. Amand, Amy
    Michel Foucault uses a sailing vessel as the exemplar of his theory of heterotopia because of its mobility. The lateral and vertical mobility of the steampunk airship indicates the potential for an even greater exemplar of heterotopia, particularly of Foucault’s defining principles of heterotopic crisis and deviance. These principles are explored onboard the steampunk airships of Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan trilogy and Gail Carriger’s Finishing School series, resulting in travel towards progressive social frontiers of gender and race. The protagonists of the Leviathan trilogy move from a position of crisis to deviance, as mediated through the friendship and romance of two representatives of warring factions. In contrast, the heroine of the Finishing School series moves from deviance to crisis as she navigates the vagaries of gender and racial identity. These airship heterotopias of young adult fiction, which not only descend geographically but also socially, cross liminal crisis spaces of class, race, gender, and identity to craft literary cartographies for these social frontiers, providing readers with literary maps for their uncertain real worlds of crisis.