Level of Education of Students Involved
Graduate
Faculty Sponsor
Betsy Burow-Flak
College
Arts and Sciences
Discipline(s)
English Studies and Communication (ESC) and TESOL
Presentation Type
Oral Presentation
Symposium Date
Spring 4-25-2024
Abstract
Gabrielle Zevin says her novel Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, published in 2022, is about art, love, video games and time. The games that the main characters Sam and Sadie create reflect outstanding artistry, but they also capture their loving relationship, as it evolves, changes, bruises, and at times, scars. In spite of the challenges in their relationship, intertextual literary motifs and imagery from the epic novel The Odyssey and the Blaschka glass models housed in The Harvard Museum of Natural History in Cambridge, Massachusetts, illuminate their love. The Blaschka exhibit is also the gateway to Sam and Sadie’s journey as game designers, whose artful creations epitomize their evolving love; the artistry of the glass models and their uncanny resemblance to real flowers and fruit, however, are also a tribute to the art and beauty of imperfection. Scars become a symbol of identity for Odysseus at the end of The Odyssey, since they persist despite the bruising from his lived experiences and like these scars, Sam and Sadie’s artful games also persist as reflections of their evolving relationship. In spite of the novel’s immediate success and literary richness, its recent publication date means that there is little published scholarship on Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow. My essay Tomorrow’s Odyssey: Love, Scars, and Change published on the multimodal interface Scalar, contributes to this scholarship and will also serve as the basis for this presentation.
Recommended Citation
Mack, Maria, "Tomorrow's Odyssey: Love, Scars, and Change" (2024). Symposium on Undergraduate Research and Creative Expression (SOURCE). 1234.
https://scholar.valpo.edu/cus/1234
Biographical Information about Author(s)
María will graduates in 2024 with her MA in English Studies and Communication and TESOL certificate. María enjoys finding connections across languages, cultures and disciplines and has worked in the music industry as well as in various educational institutions in the US and abroad.