Spring 2022
"I am not sure that I have speared that eel in the middle—that marrow—which is one's object in criticism."
—Virginia Woolf, Diary, 25 VIII 1930.
We are all spear-fishers, we book lovers and literary historians, extravagantly dependent on the whims of intention and imagination, appearance and reality—notions that tend to hamper and confuse. It’s never easy to spear one of Woolf’s squirming eels of meaning, especially when they’re such devilish shape-shifters. But still we press on, boats against the current.
The sheer difficulty and intellectual risk associated with creativity, nevermind the Herculean task of architecturing a novel, poem, or play, is where the problem starts. It’s true that loads of thinking and typing, and pure luck, can bring us to small but enlightening revelations. These are the things that get us closer to the Holy Grail of “What is this about in the deepest sense?” But even then, we can still hear the poet or the artist pleading, “No, that is not what I meant at all.”
But that’s fine, because even the makers themselves can never fully perceive what their work will mean, either to their contemporaries or to us in cultural galaxies far, far away. In any case, art has no goal, no mountaintop to achieve, and often seems to employ deception as a path to enlightenment. Appearances deceive. Art honors us with its difficulty and, if anything, encourages us to become moral and ethical sleuths. We hear things that Nick Carraway doesn’t twig to. We detect in the diction of King Lear or Macbeth truths to which they are tragically deaf. And we see.
So it is, in this 2022 issue of the Paper Shell Review, that five university undergraduates from around the globe are seeking new- found meaning and sense in famous books and poems by five brilliant writers. This is all great news. For here, in this slim, annual volume is a
sampling of what a future could be in a nation of people who wish to grasp the nettle of meaning. These five scholars have each been exposed to works of art that have plainly affected them deeply. But they refused to leave it at that. They wished to know why. And to tell us. Which is lovely.
First up in the issue, Isabelle Robinson, who read English and Creative Writing at Barnard College, looks at the style and cultural history of Alison Bechdel’s 25-year-long comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For. In sum, Robinson notes that “Bechdel anthologized the intricacies of lesbian life from all aspects of the lesbian community, lending her characters a veracity that was inspired by real people, places, and debates. . . .She gave the issues of radicalism and conformity an unmistakably human face.”
Second, Jem Shin, reading English and Economics at Wesleyan University, has written about the racially and sexually enigmatic character of Joe Christmas in William Faulkner’s Light in August. In fact, Joe’s murder at the end of the novel solves nothing for the town, and conversely seems to ensure that poor Joe Christmas’s reputation “as a figure who is limited to none of the conventional societal borders of race, gender, and sexuality will continue to haunt the town long after his death.”
Third, John Henry Merritt, an English major at Howard University, has been interrogating the intersection of racism and capitalism in Richard Wright’s novel The Man Who Went Underground. In it, protagonist Fred Daniels escapes the clutches of the white, authoritarian “aboveground,” by descending into an urban sewer. That is, “he exits the normative capitalist mode of thought that pervades all aspects of our everyday lives.”
Fourth, Ruby Bones, who is reading English Literature at Exeter University in England, has been considering a new way of understanding the work of Emily Dickinson, via her use of the rhythms and stylistics of hymns and sermons, modes of communication and delight so beloved by her Congregationalist audience in Amherst, Mass. “Dickinson does not write privately or publically, but rather for the people she knows. . . .She wanted these poems to be read—just probably not by us.”
And finally, Ashley Memije, an English major at McGill University, considers the underlying structures, memories, and images in Canadian writer Alice Munro’s short stories. “A truly Munrovian story is invested in life’s fragments,” says Memije, “seen not as limitations, but as jigsaw puzzles strewn before the portrait is pieced together.”
We pick up the pieces. And find ourselves in between.
Michael Olmert
Professor of the Practice
English Department, University of Maryland
College Park, MD
Journal Information
Editors-in-Chief
Greta Mun & Amy Zhong
Managing Editor
Delma Mbulaiteye
Cover Design
Katherine Mahoney
Graduate Advisor
Shalom Rosenberg
Reading Group Leaders
- Lily Dondoshansky
- Delma Mbulaiteye
- Greta Mun
Editorial Board
- Ella Detlefsen
- Aaron Hetzer
- Laura Kazdoba
- Sravya Kommuri
- Ananyaa Malhotra
- Kelsey Meis
Letter from the Editor-in-Chief
Our deepest thanks to...
Scott Trudell and Christina Walter, for their confidence in undergraduate student work and for ensuring that the University of
Maryland is home to a thriving and welcoming literary community,
Karen Lewis, for kindly guiding our staff through the publication process each year,
Shalom Rosenberg, for his patience and encouragement, without whom this project would not have been possible,
The Center for Literary and Comparative Studies and the Department of English, for housing our publication, providing our funding, and allowing this project to have a worldwide reach,
Michael Olmert, for his continued commitment to the success of this journal and for always inspiring students with his words of wisdom,
Our editorial board, for providing their thoughtful input during the
essay selection process and for diligently reading, discussing, and
copyediting these papers amidst challenging times,
Sohayl Vafai, for founding this wonderful journal over a decade ago,
Each of our contributors, for their willingness to conduct deep
investigations into literary scholarship and for generously allowing us to feature their exciting ideas in this year’s edition,
And lastly, our readers, for enthusiastically engaging with literary
criticism and for making the Humanities an integral component of your educational journeys.
Sincerely,
Greta Mun
Editor-in-Chief, 2022
Staff Biographies
Ella Detlefsen is a freshman majoring in mathematics on the statistics track. Though she chose to pursue a STEM career, she still has an interest in literature and reads a lot during her free time. She wanted to be on the Paper Shell Review because she thought it would be a fun break from her classes and was a great opportunity to work alongside others who were also interested in the humanities. Ella gravitates toward sci-fi or biographies when looking for something good to read but being on PSR has also piqued her interest in analytical texts as well!
Lily Dondoshansky is a senior graduating in May 2022 with double degrees in English Literature and Government and Politics. After completing her Honors thesis on the serialization of children’s novels, Lily is hoping to work in publishing in children’s trade fiction. Lily is active in Jewish student life at the University Hillel and is nearing the end of her third and final year of tutoring at the University Writing Center.
Aaron Hetzer is a Cinema and Media Studies and Computer Science double major in his junior year. His academic interests include thinking about the commodity form as a media technology, genre cinema, and critical theory. In the future Aaron hopes to continue to explore these interests in a graduate program in Cinema and Media Studies, or Comparative Literature. He has also worked as an editor and content creator at several eSports publications including GAMURS, goldper10, and ProHype.
Laura Kazdoba is a sophomore English Major pursuing an Italian Minor. She is currently working on an English Honors undergraduate thesis about Children’s Rights and the ability of the government to interfere in the private spheres. After graduation, Laura hopes to go into editing and publishing for YA novels.
Sravya Kommuri is a junior studying Computer Science and Linguistics at the University of Maryland.
Ananyaa Malhotra is a sophomore English Language and Literature and Communications double major with a minor in Creative Writing. In addition to the Paper Shell Review, Ananyaa is also a writing tutor at UMD Writing Center and an entertainment writer for UMD’s satire magazine The Hare (she’s your go-to person for satirical horoscopes). When she is not drowning in writing assignments, Ananyaa enjoys eating Taco Bell, watching The Office, and complaining about cockroaches in her dorm room.
Delma Mbulaiteye is a graduating senior studying Biology and English with a general interest in Modern Literature. This is her second year at the Paper Shell Review and she’s loved the increased leadership as Managing Editor. She plans to integrate her love for writing and literature with her career desires in medicine. Thanks to all the amazing writers featured this year for letting us create a space for your works!
Kelsey Meis is a freshman (class of ‘25) in Letters and Sciences, looking to double major in Computer Science and Immersive Media Design. She enjoys Anne Rice novels and PC gaming. She envisions herself designing educational games and simulations for future generations of students as a career, but listening to alt rock and careening down Stadium Drive on a skateboard is her current specialty.
Greta Mun is a senior pursuing a double degree in English and Economics. She is immensely grateful to have served as the journal’s Editor-in-Chief during her final year at the University of Maryland. After graduation, she hopes to further engage with literary topics and humanistic issues, and she looks forward to relying on future editions of the Paper Shell Review as source material for some of these important conversations.
Spring 2022 Essays
General Essays
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