I was able to attend the symposium on Friday morning in one the lecture rooms with the Criterion Winners. I was able to hear two of the presentations. The first (and I'm embarrassed to say that I wasn't paying enough attention at the beginning to catch her name) gave a fascinating lecture about the use of murder in the work of Edgar Allen Poe, Alfred Hitchcock, and Thomas De Quincy. De Quincy was influential in the ideas of Poe and Hitchcock, and all three were intrigued and even full of admiration for the art of killing, as they "saw murder as an artistic opportunity." The speaker talked about how murder is used in their literary works to improve or humanize the hearts of the characters. For example, in Hitchcock's Psycho, the character Norman believes that his murderous actions are preserving his heart's love for his mother. One of Poe's characters, Hop Frog, commits a murder of revenge for his own freedom and peace of heart.
This was the most helpful presentation for me in terms of progressing my own paper, which is an analysis of East of Eden. Because murder is such an important part of the original Cain and Abel story, it is also something that should be considered in this retelling. I loved the idea that murderous characters are trying to preserve or better a heart, whether their own or someone else's, since Cal's actions always come from a place of sincere desire to protect his own heart. This brought a new perspective to this book, which gives me other subjects to research.
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