Jacob Denbrook
English 410
Senior Project Prospectus
Background
My most deeply rooted belief concerning contemporary short fiction—as well as novels, films etc.---is that character and relationship are the most important elements of storytelling. If one does not empathize, sympathize, or even detest a character than the power of the fiction is reduced dramatically. Of course it is a writer’s job---and a difficult one at that---to craft characters that a reader cares about. For example, we may want to escape by reading about an unrealistic spy and his ability to perform his job under extreme conditions, but we only truly connect with the fiction if we’re allowed to be close to the spy, if we’re allowed to see his vulnerabilities, his motives. To me, there are no sub-divisions of “character driven” versus “plot driven.” A story must be—at least mostly—driven by character to even be palatable.
Having said that, I believe the most interesting and studied character in Western history is Jesus Christ. I was raised Catholic and taught Christian morals from my earliest encounters with life, and thus I’ve always been fixated on the story of Christ, which is not only an engaging drama about suffering, sacrifice, love, contempt, but a purportedly proven historical event. I say purportedly, because I personally haven’t studied scholars’ theses on the historicity of Christ. My intentions are to study theses on the historical accuracy of the Gospels, but we’ll get to that later. My background with the Bible is in fact quite limited. By that, I mean I have not investigated the Bible with a critical eye, I’ve merely often been taught to believe in certain ideologies. I’ve been exposed to Biblical stories and am familiar with the basic story of Christ’s life and crucifixion, but I would like to delve further than just the surface. I have a background in fiction and storytelling, not only from my education here, but in simply living in a society having ingested stories all my life. Storytelling is the way to communicate, and the most personal way we learn about life.
Last, I’ve always had an affinity for the elegiac. One of my favorite stories is that of Norman Maclean’s account of his brother’s death in A River Runs Through It. On film, I love to watch Sean Penn’s deeply moving performance in Dead Man Walking, and the intense depiction of parents coping with a child’s death in In the Bedroom, or---on film and in pulp---J.R.R Tolkien’s elegiac Lord of the Rings stories. There’s a sense of unity when a writer addresses loss and devastation, which are emotions we’d often rather internalize. Of course, there’s not a more elegiac story than the story of Christ; in many ways it is the ultimate and original elegy.
Current Project
I hope to craft my own historical fiction starring Christ, and some of the key characters from his later life. My plan is to mold a story told from the point of view of Christ’s brother, Jessup, whom the Gospels fail to mention. I intend to investigate the familiar territory of familial competition, of how one would react to being so close to someone that is ostensibly perfect. I believe the tone of the piece needs to be humorous, but the lightness needs to exemplify the elegy; the piece might adopt a tone similar to that of Sherman Alexie, whose stories examine the closeness of humor and tragedy. I will also develop a side project, which I hope will trace my steps in developing the story and perhaps explore my own doubts and struggles with faith and logic, and assigning a meaning to life.
Plan for Bringing Project to Fruition
I intend to study a few authors, whose work I wish to emulate. I’ve thought of Norman Maclean for his ability to meld romanticism and elegy together. I’m considering Sherman Alexie for his perhaps tactless, but piercing criticisms and his ability to examine humor and tragedy. Tobias Wolff is one of the best contemporaries at observing and rendering human behavior. Of course, I cannot complete this project without sifting through the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts. I will also need supplemental material from Biblical scholars concerning the historical accuracy of the Gospels. As of now, I don’t know of that many reputed written works by Biblical scholars, however I intend to begin my search from Lee Strobel’s The Case for Christ, in which the journalist interviews Biblical scholars on the accuracy of the Bible and the relevance of Christianity. Hopefully some of these works will reveal to me more completely the context of Christ’s crucifixion, for example, some of the societal influences, cultural backgrounds etc. As for the plot and direction of my story, only further reading will develop those ideas.
Presentation
For a presentation, I believe it would be best to sample my fiction, and then share some of my non-fiction afterword on how I decided to craft the story. This project is more of an exploration into why I’ve believed what I’ve believed for the first 21 years of my life, although I don’t intend for my morals to interfere with the actual narrative, at least to my conscious ability.
Tentative Bibliography:
Alexie, Sherman. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. Perennial: New
York. 1994.
Maclean, Norman. A River Runs Through It. Chicago: U of Chicago Press (25th
Anniv. Ed.) 2001.
Strobel, Lee. The Case for Christ. A Journalist’s Personal Investigation of the Evidence
for Jesus. New York: Zondervan. 1998
Wolff, Tobias. In the Garden of North American Martyrs. New York: Ecco. 1982.
Zondervan NIV Study Bible. New York: Zondervan. 2002.