Creative Retelling in a Virtual World: First Year Final Projects from Simon Fraser University’s GLS 2020 Cohort

These are a selection of short Creative Retellings based on the Modernist principle of drawing on the past and “making it new.” The projects take inspiration from critical essays and texts, ranging from Sophocles to Anne Carson, that comprise the introductory course sequence for students entering Simon Fraser University’s Graduate Liberal Studies Program. Like their creators, whose first year coincided with a global lockdown, the projects assumed an intimate and distinct relationship with technology and digital forms, and a Modernist irreverence in their reflections on society, alienation, and the desire to connect. Presentations Tessa Perkins Deneault: Tapping through Time: A Postmodern Pastiche of Themes in LS801 My retelling is a postmodern pastiche of some themes encountered in the texts of LS801. I selected songs that share themes with works we read and then used those to inspire some original tap dance choreography. I created a compilation video, which was recorded during zoom meetings with myself – an arguably postmodern method. The compilation includes short dances to “If I Die Young” by The Band Perry, which shares themes with Antigone; “Impulse” by Charlie Parker – who is one of Sonny’s favourite musicians in Sonny's Blues; “Forbidden Fruit” by Nina Simone, inspired by Goblin Market; Tennessee Ernie Ford’s “16 Tons,” which evokes themes from William Morris' Useful Work vs. Useless Toil; “You’re Beautiful” by James Blunt which shares themes with Death in Venice; “Clocks” by Coldplay, referring to Mrs. Dalloway; and the grand finale, “We Didn’t Start the Fire” by Billy Joel, which contains themes of modernism. The image shown before “We Didn’t Start the Fire” is a cardboard replica house that artist Chris Larson created only to burn down, symbolizing the end of modernism. Richard Fisher: ANTIGONE: THINK AGAIN A creative re-telling of Sophocles' Antigone in the form of an advertising campaign. Diane McGee: Rank Modernism: Generating responsive echoes to old texts using Google This project is a response to a Creative Retelling assignment and the imperatives of lockdown. In the spirit of the Modernists’ exploitation of the past, rejection of convention, and the invention of new forms, I plugged titles from our course syllabus into Google. From the search results, I extracted words or phrases, in sequence, from lines visible in the site descriptions, moving in descending order of rank, culling this language, allowing only minimal adjustments to punctuation, until I felt a complete piece had formed. What emerged from this experimentation were poetic compositions imbued with strong, often humorous echoes of their progenitor, or flash fiction which assumed a life of its own. Finally, as post-modernists assert, the medium is the message, so the retelling took shape as a digital presentation for conveyance on Zoom. Linda Quibell: Flowers for Clarissa (Mrs. Dalloway) In June 1923, Clarissa Dalloway crosses London to buy flowers for her society party. In April 2021, I attempt to cross Seattle under lockdown, to buy flowers for no reason other than pleasure. A pandemic video touching on our hesitant opening to beauty. Vanessa Rigolo: In the Pines I have modified the words to the Appalachian murder ballad "In The Pines" to tell the story of Sophocles' Antigone. To make it new and bring it in to the 21st century, I recorded it as a TikTok. Teresa Stolarskyj: Things Fall Apart at the Elephant and Castle A re-telling of Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, with London's Elephant and Castle mall as allegory for a colonized African village. Just as in the imperial period, capital today continues to drive judgment about who is worthy, who belongs, and who holds power. As community and tradition is waylaid in the pursuit of profit, things fall apart. The tragedy is that they never really had to. Music: "Elephants and Castles" by George Martin & His Orchestra, 1968. Griffin Tedeschini: Fever Dream In Anne Carson’s Autobiography of Red, at the end of the story we see Herakles and Ancash together. Fever Dream is a poetic exploration/retelling of Ancash’s journey, of his escape from, and eventual rising above of Herakles' toxic "love". His redemption is set within the backdrop of the opioid crisis in the Downtown East Side of Vancouver. I chose this as I’m curious why Ancash chooses to stay with Herakles, who is the real monster of the narrative. It begs the question – can love sometimes be as destructive as it is seductive? Lynda Prince: “The Morning After”Description: Secrets consume and isolate. What if Carson’s character Geryon truly did belong to a race of people who survived the volcanoes of Peru? People who tucked themselves into the world, hiding their truths. How did they integrate; did their secrets define them? Do they live among us? Did Clarissa Dalloway’s secrets define her? At what cost? What if her secrets were revealed? Lynda explores the metaphorical and supernatural bond that Geryon and Clarissa (may) share. Taking the story out of the hands of a single story teller, Anna Morse’s animation offers an alternate perspective and visual dimension to this portrait of internal exile.

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