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Conferences,
Talks, and Distinctions
Students and Faculty from DePaul's
English Department are participating
in conferences around the country
and around the world!
From
Connecticut to Greece to Bermuda,
check out what your colleagues
have been up to...
Professors
Francesca Royster and
Paula McQuade
attended the The
Shakespeare Association of America
Conference in Bermuda in
March of this year.
Professor
McQuade gave a paper
entitled, "Desire
and Difference in Elizabeth Cary's
The Tragedy of Mariam."
Professor
Royster chaired
a panel on Filming Shakespeare
in the Global Economy (with talks
by Courtney Lehman and Peter Donaldson
). She also participated in a
seminar, called "Shakespeare
and the Principles of Pleasure"
where she gave a talk entitled:
"Gibbets and
Giblets: Theorizing the Pleasures
of Flesh, Danger, and Profit in
Shakespeare's Rose Rage."
The following is a short
synopsis:
"In The Chicago Shakespeare
Theater’s 2003 production
of Rose Rage, an almost 5-hour
condensing of Shakespeare’s
Henry VI Parts 1, 2 and 3, directed
by British director Edward Hall,
the extreme physical violence
of the War of the Roses is rendered
via the actions of butcher-surrogates
who torture pieces of meat, organs
and sometimes cabbage heads, resulting
in a dinner theater of sorts that
reaches its audience very palpably
through sight, sound and eventually
smell. The result is a disturbing
a mixture of pleasure and repulsion
that reveals the relationship
between the heightened and ritualized
action of theater, and the spectacle
of terror in a time of war. How
might we understand this performance
in the context of the recent use
of the spectacle of terror on
both sides of the current “war
on terror,” post-9/11, from
the initial World Trade Center
bombing to the tortures at Abu
Ghraib prison? How might the audience
be both implicated in these spectacles
of terror and revenge (and the
pleasures that they might take
in them) and moved to a place
of ethical and historical critique?
Might the temporary community
of the theater audience still
be a resource for social change?
How might we consider this possibility
for social change in the context
of commercial theater—in
this case, a theater located at
one of Chicago’s chief tourist
attractions, Navy Pier? In this
analysis I will be drawing on
recent writings on torture, terror
and ethics by Judith Butler (Precarious
Life)."
Professor
Anne Clark Bartlett
was invited to give a lecture to
the University
of Connecticut's graduate program
in Medieval Studies
Her presentation,
"Insular Pieties," explored
the human geography of the lives
of the saints in England in the
central and late Middle Ages.
Bartlett argues that the translation
of pre-Conquest of Saxon and Celtic
female saints functions as
a sort of literary "furta
sacra," a theft of relics.
Eleventh- and twelfth-century
clerics "englished"
the legends of pre-Conquest holy
women to promote their local cults
among the newly Anglo-Norman clergy
and aristocracy, to explain the
questionable presence of foreign
relics in English religious institutions,
and to reclaim a British legacy
of female piety and power for
England. Such strategic translations
result in conceptual nexus of
geography, gender, identity, and
ideology that can be called an
"insular imaginary,"
which betrays considerable political
and ecclesiastical anxiety over
the success of the Norman Conquest
in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.
As R. R. Davies points out, national
identities are "ultimately
mythological constructs: they
are defined as much, if not more,
by a commonly assumed identity,
mythology, shared cultural values
and attitudes, and state ethnicity
(however manufactured) as by borders
and institutions" (The Earliest
English Empire 199). Probing this
imaginary reveals two related
principles: first, that "no
woman is an island," though
they are often represented as
such, and second, that England
is not the only British Isle,
even though much late medieval
English hagiography would have
us believe that this is the case.
This
spring, Prof. Bartlett
also gave invited lectures at St.
Xavier
College (IL) and Aquinas
College (MI) on Lady Margaret
Beaufort, Caxton's
Blanchardyn and Eglantine (1489),
and the literature of statecraft
in late
medieval England.
MAEs
Kim Puchanski and Jennifer Hencin
will
each present at the Byron Conference
this April...in Greece!!!
Kim Puchanski:
"The Mental Traveling of
Byron and Blake"
Like
Odysseus, Blake and Byron were
Homeric travelers who explored
the relationship between innocence
and experience and the earthly
and spiritual worlds. While Byron
scrutinizes his many adventures
through foreign lands, Blake creates
foreign lands, mentally traveling
and creating myths that consider
earthly oppression. “The
Mental Traveller” from Blake’s
Pickering Manuscript (1801?) and
Canto III of Byron’s Childe
Herald’s Pilgrimage (1816)
use mental travel to allegorically
examine the oppressed state of
the human soul and the inability
of man to find enlightenment on
the cyclic earth. “The Mental
Traveller” reveals a vision
of the cyclic world were the poet
attempts to find Beulah—the
garden of paradise and spiritual
enlightenment, where life is generated,
on the “cold earth,”—only
to find it is unattainable when
using the eyes of the cyclic world.
Like the mental traveler, the
narrator of Childe Harold leaves
the “peopled desert”
of Albion and goes “Once
more upon the waters” of
earth while mentally traveling
through his imagination to find
enlightenment, only to find in
his adventures that it is impossible
to physically obtain it on earth.
As Blake and Byron both show in
these works, there is some hope
for enlightenment and usurping
reason, but only in the mind’s
eye. It is only through poets
and the imaginative use of the
mind-traveling inner eye that
man can understand the nature
of the cyclic world and find Beulah,
or enlightenment.
Have
you been to a conference you would
like to tell us about?? Please
share your experiences!
NEW
TO EXLIBRIS:
FEATURED COURSE
Summer
Session I - ENG 475-201:
Topics
in Literature: “Teaching
Women Writers,”
(June
13th - July 15th 2005)
Professor Anne Clark Bartlett,
Lincoln Park Campus
This course
explores how literature
written by women can be
taught most effectively
in secondary and postsecondary
educational settings. We’ll
read a wide range of short
stories, plays, poems, and
essays written by women;
consider traditional and
alternative literary canons;
develop lesson plans; evaluate
textbooks and pegagogical
resources; and appreciate
the “waves”
of feminist criticism that
provide interpretive frameworks
for literature by women.
Course requirements include
a teaching portfolio, presentations,
short essays, and active
participation in Blackboard.
“Teaching Women Writers”
serves as an Elective for
students in the MA in English
and in Writing. It should
be useful for practicing
and aspiring teachers, and
for anyone who wants to
think about the ways women
writers are taught.
Texts: Toril Moi, Sexual/Textual
Politics, Leslie Heywood
and Jennifer Drake, Third
Wave Agenda: Being Feminist
Doing Feminism, Susan Gubar,
The Norton Anthology of
Literature by Women: The
English Tradition, 2nd.
Ed., and other readings
TBA
Summer
Session II - ENG 449-501:
"Jefferson:
Writer, Critic, Art Historian"
(July
18th -August 19th 2005)
Professor Jonathon Gross,
Lincoln Park Campus
This
course will explore Jefferson's
major writings and career
in light of his interest
in the fine arts. We will
focus on the period when
Jefferson served as ambassador
to Paris, where he developed
a library that later became
the Library of Congress,
but we will also consider
the poetry he read while
he served as President of
the United States. What
insights about Jefferson
can we gain by reading his
literary commonplace book,
and some of the abolitionist
and feminist poetry he sent
to his grand-daughters?
(Hemans, Barbauld, Smith,
Opie, Moore, Rogers, Campbell).
What do the paintings of
Jefferson by Gilbert Stuart,
Houdon, and Peale reveal
about how Jefferson wished
to be perceived? What were
Jefferson's literary tastes
in prose (Sterne, Macpherson,
Lord Kames, Hugh Blair)
and how did his interest
in painting and architecture
reflect his political ideals,
articulated in "The
Declaration of Independence"
and "Notes on Virginia."
We will read a biography
of Jefferson by Joseph Ellis;
a canto from a Federalist
poem critical of Jefferson's
administration, by Thomas
Green Fessenden, called
"Democracy Unveiled"
("The Jeffersoniad").
The first half of the course
will focus on Jefferson's
historical time period;
we will close the course
by reading Toole's Confederacy
of Dunces, a novel that
takes place in Louisiana
and that allows us to consider
the charges of demagoguery,
vulgarity, and commercialism
leveled against Jefferson.
Jefferson's attitude towards
race and "whiteness"
will form an important leitmotif
throughout this course;
we will read poems by Phyllis
Wheatley, Melvin Tolson
(for a modern view of issues
addressed by Jefferson),
and Henry Louis Gates' The
Trials of Phyllis Wheatley
to consider Jefferson's
insights and shortcomings
as a literary critic--and
to consider ways in which
politics and aesthetics
informed one another in
his life and thought.
This
course fills the American
Literature or a nineteenth-century
British requirement for
the MA in English. It can
also be counted as an elective
in the MAE or the MAW
|
Document
Your Language Proficiency!
DePaul's
Academic Resource Center will begin
offering placement tests in foreign
languages for MA in English students
who want to document their study
of foreign languages for PhD programs
or for professional applications.
If you take the placement exams,
your score (and its equivalent in
years of study) will appear on your
MA transcript. You can document
proficiency in Arabic, Chinese,
French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian,
Japanese, Latin, Russian, and Spanish.
Please
see Professor Bartlett for further
details.
Conference
Opportunities!
At DePaul: “Inquiries
into Rhetoric and Christian Tradition,”
on May 20 and 21, 2005. Scholars
from throughout the United States
and abroad will present their work
on such topics as rhetorical epistemologies
and Christian world views; rhetoric,
Christian tradition, and the classroom;
women’s roles in the traditions
of rhetoric and Christianity; and
many others.
more
The Midwest Conference
on British Studies is proud
to announce that its fifty-first
annual meeting will be held at the
University of Notre Dame, Notre
Dame, Indiana, Spetember 22-25,
2005. Proposals due April 15, 2005.
More info including contact
information
Western
States Rhetoric and Literacy Conference
2005
October 20-22, 2005
San Francisco, CA
University of San Francisco
First Call for Proposals.
info
What
is the New Rhetoric?
University of Sydney, Australia:
September 2, 2005 to September 4,
2005.
Contact: Susan Thomas at susan.thomas@arts.usyd.edu.au
.
more
info
Originality,
Imitation, and Plagiarism: A Cross-Disciplinary
Conference on Writing
September 23-25, 2005 at the University
of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.
info
The
Humanities Center
would like to make you aware of
our spring events. We always welcome
class groups. All events are free
and open to the public. For more
information, contact the Humanities
Center at 773-325-4580.
see
schedule
Job
Opening:
St.Xavier
University is currently
looking for Adjunct English Faculty...must
have MA degree in hand by June.
more
info
ITT
Technical Institute is
currently looking for English Composition
Teachers for Online Programs.
more
info
Reading
Tutors Needed! CS&C-Julex
Learning is seeking experienced
candidates for their Reading Tutor
Position.
more
info
More Jobs:
Director
of Public and Media Relations at
St. Joseph's College in Indiana
and
Marketing
and Communications Intern Position
Ph.D.
Programs!
English
Graduate Program Michigan State
University PhD Program
The PhD program is flexible and
responsive to students’ research
interests. Students have the freedom
to organize a course of study oriented
toward completing the degree requirements
efficiently and maximizing their
professional training. To assist
students, the department of English
has established several doctoral
emphasis areas: Literatures of the
Americas, Medieval and Early Modern
Studies, Narrative Theory, Postcolonial
and Diaspora Studies, and Transatlantic
Modernities. More info –
www.english.msu.edu
Graduate
Study at the University of Tennessee
–
"We believe that the
Ph.D. in English and the Ph.D. with
Creative Dissertation offer outstanding
training in the many facets of our
discipline. In addition to breadth
of faculty expertise, we have been
cultivating particular areas of
strength in Medieval and Renaissance
studies, Modern and Contemporary
Literature and Culture, and Rhetoric
and Composition, as well as other
nexus points of research. Our nationally
recognized faculty work closely
with graduate students, providing
excellent instruction, mentoring
relationships, and research opportunities
that develop the intellectual and
professional potential of our students.
"Our Website
explains more about who we are
and how we support our students,
financially and intellectually,
in all of our M.A. and Ph.D. programs."
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