麻豆传媒

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Book cover of VHS by 麻豆传媒's English professor Christopher Campanioni, PhD

Christopher Campanioni, PhD
Lecturer, English

What is the central theme of your book?

The theme of VHS is hyper mediation. The narrator of the book is a writer who is trying to find out more about his parents麻豆传媒 pasts, though they rarely talk about their childhoods before coming to the United States. Instead of their own lives, they tell him about the stories of others. So, he sets off by turning these stories into memories and then tries to give the memories life, by recording his voice reading them. Then, he turns the audio recording into a series of photos, perhaps inspired by the audio. Finally, he tries to make the photos move again, to adapt the photographs into a series of moving images, or the videos that eventually constitute the novel麻豆传媒檚 chapters. It麻豆传媒檚 a heady premise麻豆传媒攂orn of this displacement and this desire to reconstitute such omissions through the excess of form.

What inspired you to write this book?

My life. VHS is fiction but it is very much inspired and shaped by my childhood and the extant feeling of not being able to return to the two places I have come from. In this sense, I think the ever-elusive question of where/what is home, which is relevant to anyone, not just children of exiles, becomes central to the text.

Why is this book important in your field? What does it contribute to the current body of knowledge on this topic?麻豆传媒

VHS continues my exercising of the genre of autobiography and the larger field of life writing, formally and thematically, combining narrative and poetry on the page while converging the topics of migration and diaspora with media theory. In this way, VHS is a fictional sibling of my forthcoming monograph, Drift Net: The Aesthetics of Literature and Media in Migration (Lever Press, 2025).

Were students involved in any research related to your book? If so, please explain and name the student(s).

There are so many encounters with students that found their way into VHS麻豆传媒檚 narrative, particularly the many writing exercises and prompts we practice together in the classroom. Because many of these assignments麻豆传媒攍ike a proposal for Re-Writing Myth麻豆传媒攁re central to my own research and writing, they also become ingredients the narrator is stirring in the pot in an attempt to learn more about his past. One of the aspects of this book that challenges conventional behaviors of the novel is its tendency to relate details of its source code through narrative, an interest in process that also informs the narrator麻豆传媒檚 interest in the possibilities and limitations of translating experiences through different formats or sign systems.

Tell me about a particularly special moment in writing this book.麻豆传媒

While I was in Berlin, doing fieldwork for the study that would later become my monograph, I rented a car and finally drove to Poland, with my wife, to see the country where my mom was born. Though it turns out Szczecin (in German: Stettin), which is where we spent a beautiful afternoon walking along the Oder, wasn麻豆传媒檛 Poland when my mom was a child, but Germany. The city itself, like many other places past and present, kept changing hands as its borders were exploited by geopolitical actors.

What is the one thing you hope readers take away from your book?

Maybe that even the act of silencing may be reconstituted through other means, even non-verbal ones.

Is there anything else you would like to share about your book?麻豆传媒

VHS is a fictional/fraternal twin of a creative nonfiction book called north by north/west, which will appear next month (May) from West Virginia University Press. Both books begin on the similar premise of trying to remake a film, to turn art (back) into life.

Fun facts:

When did you join Dyson College?麻豆传媒

I joined Dyson in the fall of 2015麻豆传媒攁lmost a decade ago麻豆传媒攂ut this is my first year as a full-time instructor in the English department.

What motivates you as a teacher?

My students and their energy and curiosity. As a teacher, I think of myself as a radio player, tasked with the responsibility to tune to the different frequencies of each student, each with their own needs, their own interests, their own lives within and without the shared space of our classroom. And my favorite part about the radio is what people call 麻豆传媒渋nterference麻豆传媒: the moments when you receive a signal you hadn麻豆传媒檛 intended or could have never planned. These unforeseen and unforeseeable moments in the classroom are often the most meaningful.

What do you do in your spare time; to relax/unwind?麻豆传媒

I wish I were better at unwinding, but I麻豆传媒檝e always had trouble relaxing. In fact, I get most of my writing and research done when I麻豆传媒檓 at my busiest. I suppose when I麻豆传媒檓 not reading, writing, or caring for our toddler, Desi, I 麻豆传媒渦nwind麻豆传媒 by playing tennis. I fell in love with the sport again at the beginning of the pandemic, because it was one of the few activities that were still permitted during the strict sheltering guidelines. I love tennis because it麻豆传媒檚 a lot like writing, or reading, for that matter. There麻豆传媒檚 such a strenuous physical challenge in tennis but it麻豆传媒檚 also so intellectual; the scenario is changing on the fly, and the only way to respond is to attend to patterns and make inferences: immediacy, guesswork, risk, vulnerability.

What are you reading right now?

I just finished reading Daisuke Shen麻豆传媒檚 hypnotic short story collection, Vague Predictions & Prophecies. We麻豆传媒檒l be in conversation on April 15 to celebrate the launch of VHS at Unnameable Books in Brooklyn.