Wes Anderson Issue from Texas Studies in Literature and Language

Please enjoy this interview about the work and study of director Wes Anderson and his films. The interview was conducted with Donna Kornhaber, guest editor, special issue: Wes Anderson TSLL 60.2 (2018): 1-227. 

Contents: Donna Kornhaber, “Wes Anderson, Austin Auteur”; Tom Hertweck, “The Great Frame-Up: Wes Anderson and Twee Narrative Contrivance”; Kim Wilkins, “Assembled Worlds: Intertextuality and Sincerity in the Films of Wes Anderson”; Kevin Henderson, “Failed Comportment and Fits of Discomposure in the Films of Wes Anderson”; Rachel McLennan, “‘That’s not enough’: Aging in Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom and Rushmore"; Rachel Joseph, “Wes Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums: Writing and Forgiveness”; Alissa Burger, “Beyond the Sea: Echoes of Jules Verne in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou”; Peter Sloane, “Kinetic Iconography: Wes Anderson, Sergei Parajanov, and the Illusion of Motion” 

Set from the film Isle of Dogs. Source: Isle of Dogs. Author: Paul Hudson

Could you share with us a ranking of Anderson’s films, starting with your favorite?

This is very hard, but here’s an attempt:

1. The Grand Budapest Hotel 
2. Moonrise Kingdom 
3. Fantastic Mr. Fox 
4. The Royal Tenenbaums 
5. Rushmore 
6. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou 
7. The Darjeeling Limited 
8. Bottle Rocket 

You’ll notice I haven’t included Isle of Dogs in the list; I’m still thinking it through.

What aspects of The Grand Budapest Hotel lead you to place it at the top of this list?

I think it’s the film where Anderson’s stylistics and thematics finally reach scale, so to speak—where he is able to build what is arguably his most complete and complex universe (his own country, quite literally) and tell one of his most narratively complicated stories, all without losing the thread of stylistic idiosyncrasy or repeated thematic concerns that mark all of his works. It is an epic Wes Anderson film, which for years seemed like an obvious contradiction in terms; though still invested in the fate of individuals, it operates on a world-historical plane. It is also the first film, I would argue, where Anderson gets serious about politics (something he continues in Isle of Dogs), which likewise seemed an impossibility from a certain view of his earlier works. Grand Budapest shows him taking his manner of filmmaking in directions that previously seemed unfeasible. 

Call for Papers - Texas Studies in Literature and Language Special Issue

Download the call for papers here.

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Call for Papers - The Velvet Light Trap Issue #82

Media Dialogues

Submission deadline: August 1, 2017

In The Dialogic Imagination, Mikhail Bakhtin posits that media are dialogic—that is, constantly in conversation with one another, relating to each other and altering each other. In contrast to dialectic paradigms, the dialogic doesn’t seek a closed resolution, but rather encourages communication as an ongoing process. For the 82nd issue of The Velvet Light Trap, the editorial board seeks submissions focusing on media dialogues—studies of how entities in media industries and cultures interact, how they are positioned, how they communicate, what they learn from each other, and what new issues their dialogues may introduce to the wider environment. Often it is the case that a study will hone in on a singular figure, concept, technology or industry. While this approach is certainly valuable in the focus and detail it can yield, it may overlook or overshadow the connections, histories, and circumstances which influenced that singular case. An excessive focus on individual actors, singular narratives, and institutional boundaries (whether these are industrial, national, or vernacular) may obfuscate the myriad continuities, hybridities and networks of collaborative meaning-making that shape media cultures. In short, we seek papers exploring and investigating processes rather than results. We invite submissions that primarily consider the links between media entities—conversations that are just as essential to the work as the individual players are. We may find this dialogues on a large or minute scale across a wide array of media fields. As such, we conceive of the dialogic within film and media studies broadly, and invite submissions from a range of potential approaches, topics, and areas of emphasis. Topics may include, but are certainly not limited to:

Textual dialogues: historically significant dialogue exchanges within a text; between characters in a narrative; aesthetics of the voice; between sound and image; interactive structures within the text; between text and audience; etc.

Production dialogues: between and amongst above- and below-the-line workers; between producers and directors; between producers and studios; between performers and producers; between technologies and practitioners; etc.

Industrial dialogues: between exhibitors and distributors; between different media industries, as in global or cross-media productions or adaptations; state-of-the-industry analyses, and analyses of state-of-the-industry conversations; between production cultures and economic contexts; etc.

Intellectual dialogues: correspondence (real or imagined) between theorists; interventions or explorations in the space between disparate literatures; intellectual histories of terminology; debates in media historiographies; etc.

Public dialogues: between media makers and audiences; between different publics about media objects, technologies, industries, business models, or ethics; reconsiderations of public media systems and infrastructures; between social networking site owners and users; etc.

Dialogues at intersections of identity: conversations at the intersection of race, ethnicity, gender, sex, sexuality, regionalism and nationalities; etc.

Submissions should be 6,000–7,500 words (approximately 20–25 pages double-spaced), formatted in Chicago style. Please submit an electronic copy of the paper, along with a one-page abstract, both saved as a Microsoft Word file. Remove any identifying information so that the submission is suitable for anonymous review. The journal’s Editorial Board will referee all submissions. Send electronic manuscripts and/or any questions to thevelvetlighttrap@gmail.com. All submissions are due August 1, 2017.

About the Journal

The Velvet Light Trap is a scholarly, peer-reviewed journal of film, television, and new media studies. Graduate students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Texas-Austin coordinate issues in alternation. Our Editorial Advisory Board includes such notable scholars as Charles Acland, Richard Allen, Ben Aslinger, Caetlin Benson-Allott, Mark Betz, Corey Creekmur, Michael Curtin, Kay Dickinson, Bambi Haggins, Scott Higgins, Mary Celeste Kearney, Jon Kraszewski, Lucas Hilderbrand Roberta Pearson, Nicholas Sammond, Jacob Smith, Jonathan Sterne, Cristina Venegas. VLT's graduate student editors are assisted by their local faculty advisors: Mary Beltrán, Ben Brewster, Jonathan Gray, Michele Hilmes, Lea Jacobs, Derek Johnson, Vance Kepley, Shanti Kumar, Charles Ramírez Berg, Thomas Schatz, and Janet Staiger.

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Entry Interview with the New Editors of Texas Studies in Literature and Language

The summer of 2016 saw Douglas Bruster and James Cox step in as the new editorial team of Texas Studies in Literature and Language. In the following interview, we speak with them about their scholarly backgrounds and the plans they have for TSLL, a journal of literary criticism published quarterly by the University of Texas Press. 

To learn about previous issues, submission guidelines, subscriptions, and other matters relating to TSLL, visit University of Texas Press online at utpress.utexas.edu/journals/texas-studies-in-literature-and-language.

James Cox

James, you have a strong research interest in contemporary Native America novels and ethnic American literature, and you co-edited Studies in American Indian Literatures for five years. Could you tell us a bit more about yourself and your academic background?

James: While my first book was on late-twentieth century novels by Native writers, my research covers Native American writing from 1920 to the present. Most recently, I’ve become interested in recovering Native writers from the middle decades of the twentieth century and thinking about the formal, critical, and political reasons that they remained overlooked or neglected despite, in some cases, having strong national or even international reputations during their lives. My second book, The Red Land to the South, followed some of these writers into Mexico, where they encountered indigenous groups that inspired them to think about how to help their home communities upon their return. The trans-indigenous critical approach of this second book influenced my work as co-editor, with my long-time friend Daniel Justice of the University of British Columbia, on The Oxford Handbook of Indigenous American Literature.

Douglas Bruster

Douglas, your expertise lies in Shakespeare. You have written and edited numerous books on his plays, and earned international attention for helping prove his contribution to another playwright’s work.

Douglas: I've been lucky enough to find work doing something I love, which is to read, study, and teach some of the best writing in our language. People sometimes have a hard time believing that there are still mysteries about Shakespeare and his works after all this time, but we really know very little about this great writer. Some of my current research involves dating his plays and poems, with an emphasis on determining the earliest part of the canon—what he wrote in the late 1580s and early 1590s. With desktop computing, we're able to perform increasingly sophisticated analyses of his words. In time, we're likely to gain a clearer picture of his working life than we have now.

Why were you drawn to take on the editorship of Texas Studies in Literature and Language?

James and Douglas: The journal is a very important piece of department and university history as well as one of the only non-specialist journals that publishes across historical eras, critical and theoretical divides, and national boundaries. We wanted to take up the challenge of editing such a journal.

What do you have in store for TSLL? How do you anticipate the journal changing?

More info

We’ve redesigned the journal’s exterior and interior to give it a new, fresh look. Readers will see this rather dramatic change upon first picking up—or clicking on—the journal.

We intend to publish a rich and diverse selection of articles across eras and fields, and we have recruited some new editorial board members—Alexander Dick, University of British Columbia; Devoney Looser, Arizona State; Rafael Pérez-Torres, University of California, Los Angeles; Randy Schiff, University at Buffalo; Bart van Es, Oxford—to join us, our editorial assistant (currently Megan Snell), and the board members who are continuing their service.

We have also initiated a publishing internship program for undergraduate English majors. The students in that position (Hannah Blaisdell and Emily Varnell this year) will help us develop a more robust social media presence.

Will the focus of TSLL shift to any previously unexplored areas of literature? 

Here two special issues bear mention. Our Modernism and Native America special issue will bring into the pages of the journal some new material, as will a special issue on filmmaker Wes Anderson.

In recent years, TSLL published special issues on Samuel Beckett (51:1), James Joyce's Ulysses (51:4), and the author J. M. Coetzee, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2003 (58:4). A 100th anniversary volume (54:1–4) devoted issues to conference papers from the Texas Institute for Literary and Textual Studies, a posthumous work of ecocriticism by a colleague in the UT English department, and Turkish letters. Could you say more about your upcoming special issues?

We mentioned the special issue on Modernism and Native America forthcoming in 59.3. In addition to provocative essays from Eric Gary Anderson (George Mason), Kirby Brown (Oregon), Michael Tavel Clarke (Calgary), Charles Rzepka (Boston University), and Melanie Benson Taylor (Dartmouth), the issue will include an oft-cited but not closely read letter-cum-drama manifesto from Cherokee author Lynn Riggs to his friend, the Pulitzer Prize winning dramatist Paul Green. We’re excited and grateful to have received permission to publish it from both the Riggs and Green estates. In the next two volumes, we’ll have special issues on Wes Anderson and Victorian Environments, edited by our department’s Donna Kornhaber and Allen MacDuffie, respectively.

For the latest information on Texas Studies in Literature and Language, follow the journal on Facebook and University of Texas Press Journals on Facebook and Twitter.

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Charles Ramírez Berg Wins Hamilton Book Awards Grand Prize

The University of Texas Press is very pleased to announce that Professor Charles Ramírez Berg has won the Hamilton Book Awards Grand Prize from the University Co-op Awards program.

This is the 20th annual presentation of the award, named for Professor Robert W. Hamilton, the Minerva House Drysdale Regents Chair-Emeritus in Law, who served as chairman of the board of the University Co-op from 1989 to 2001. Below are the 2016 Hamilton Book Awards grand prize winner, runner-up prizes, and nominations.

Grand Prize Winner

The Classical Mexican Cinema: The Poetics of the Exceptional Golden Age Films

By Charles Ramírez Berg

More info

In one of the first systematic studies of style in Mexican filmmaking, a preeminent film scholar explores the creation of a Golden Age cinema that was uniquely Mexican in its themes, styles, and ideology.

Praise for the book

”The Classical Mexican Cinema is a gorgeous book, so full of stills and frame blowups deftly illustrating Berg’s narrative that it is an immersive experience…An invaluable resource for all students and lovers of cinema, this book would also make a superb course text.”

—Choice

”. . . this is a closely-argued, highly illuminating study of Mexican cinema, brimming with original insights, and highly recommended.”

—View Finder

Charles Ramírez Berg is Joe M. Dealy, Sr. Professor in Media Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, where he has won every major teaching award. He is the author of several books, including Latino Images in Film: Stereotypes, Subversion, and Resistance and Cinema of Solitude: A Critical Study of Mexican Film, 1967–1983.

Runner-Up Prizes

• Communism in Pakistan: Politics and Class Activism 1947-1972 by Kamran Asdar Ali (I.B.Tauris)
• Forgotten Citizens: Deportation, Children, and the Making of American Exiles and Orphans by Luis Zayas (Oxford University Press)
• The Good Immigrants: How the Yellow Peril Became the Model Minority by Madeline Y. Hsu

The University Co-op is a not-for-profit corporation owned by UT Austin students, faculty and staff.

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The Making of a Book Cover Design

We asked our talented Production Fellow, recent UT graduate Angelica Calderon, to give us a glimpse into the cover design process for one of our forthcoming Spring 2014 titles. Our Production Department is award winning, so soak up some of the graphic wisdom from this up-and-coming design star! Take it away, Angie:

In the few months I've been here as the Production Fellow at UT Press, I've learned a few helpful things when it comes to designing and typesetting books, covers, and jackets.

1.

Never key in text. Ever.

2.

Before you start fleshing out ideas, immerse yourself in what the book is about. Become familiar with the content and images inside. This usually helps inform the stylistic approach. You wouldn't write an essay without understanding the prompt first, just like you wouldn't tackle an intricate food dish without reading the recipe a few times. (I should hope so, at least.)

3.

Practice safe design—use a concept. (This is one I picked up from Riley Triggs, one of my design professors at the University of Texas at Austin Department of Art & Art History. Thanks Riley!)

Here's an example of how I've put these lessons into practice. One of my first projects here was to design the cover for Native Evangelism in Central Mexico by Hugo G. Nutini and Jean F. Nutini. I started by reading the summary of the book as well as information given to us by the author about the direction they want the design to take. I took notes on that, and then started making thumbnail sketches of ideas in terms of layout and typography.

Then I started mocking those sketches up on Adobe InDesign. The process is fairly linear; one idea will spark another and take me to the next. 

Announcing a Major Publishing Initiative: The Texas Bookshelf

The University of Texas Press announces a major new initiative unprecedented in publishing—The Texas Bookshelf. This project will be the most ambitious and comprehensive publishing endeavor about the culture and history of one state ever undertaken. The Texas Bookshelf will comprise sixteen books and a companion website launching in 2017, all to be written by the distinguished faculty at The University of Texas at Austin. The first book will be a new full-length history of Texas, followed by fifteen books released over five years on a range of Texas subjects—politics, music, film, business, architecture, and sports, among many others. (Authors and subjects listed below)

The Texas Bookshelf authors.
Photo by Michael O’Brien (Hard Ground, 2011)

John Steinbeck wrote in his 1962 book Travels with Charley: In Search of America, “I have said that Texas is a state of mind, but I think it is more than that. It is a mystique closely approximating a religion.” Texas has long been a source of international fascination for writers, thinkers, musicians, artists, and innovators alike. This vast and varied state occupies a unique and sometimes controversial place in conversations about our nation’s cultural, economic, and political history, yet at the same time embodies something essential about the American experience. Today’s Texas, like America itself, is vital and diverse, a place whose rich heritage and Wild West romanticism are constantly being recombined with its modern entrepreneurial spirit, reflected in its personalities and national politicians—including three U.S. presidents—and the global boom industries of film, music, high tech, energy, and the growing sustainability movement. 

Drawing on the state’s brightest writers, scholars, and intellectuals, the engagingly written narratives of the Texas Bookshelf will reveal the many fascinating stories that have played out in Texas from pre-Columbian times to the twenty-first century.

Director of Princeton University Press Peter Dougherty calls the project “inspired” and says, “The Bookshelf is ambitious in aim, authoritative in authorship, and panoramic in scope. I think it brilliantly merges the resources of the University of Texas with a vision as big as Texas itself. The Bookshelf sets a new standard and establishes a new genre for university presses and publishers everywhere.”