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IN ENGLISH (ENGLISH DEPARTMENT NEWSLETTER) |
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IN ENGLISH
Occasional Newsletter of the Whittier College Department of English Language and Literature Volume 4, #2, April 2004 Charles S. Adams, Editor
Reading/Events Schedule Update
The best way to keep up to date on the happenings in English and even related subjects is to regularly check the English Department Website, a new and improved version of which is now up and running courtesy some hard work by a number of individuals. Some faculty have put a good deal of individual information there, and the rest of us are doing our best to catch up as soon as we can.
That having been noted, keep your eyes out the remainder of this semester for readings by:
John Balaban, Poetry reading and booksigning by the poet and translator of Vietnamese poetry, April 8th, 7 p.m. Johnson House.
Christian Appy, Talk by oral historian of the Vietnam War, and author of Patriots: The Vietnam War Remembered from All Sides (co-sponsored with the History Department and the Cultural Center), April 13th, 7:30 p.m., Faculty Center.
Sam Hamill (Poet, Translator, and Poets Against the War activist), April 22, 7 p.m. Johnson House.
Andrew Winer and Charmaine Craig (authors of The Color Midnight Made and The Good Men), April 27, 7 p.m. Johnson House.
Tony Barnstone asks that all readers note that Johnson House tends to take a literary direction in its events, and that a look at his web schedule there might be instructive as to what else is out there (http://web.whittier.edu/academic/english/VISITINGWRITERS2003-2004.htm).
2004-2005 English Department Courses
Below is supplemental information from the faculty about some of the courses taught by English faculty members to aid in registration for the year. The details are always subject to change, but we hope this will help. Please see or e-mail the instructors for answers to questions these descriptions might raise. Fall
Intd. 101-102 (two semester sequence), “The Western Mind,” Bill Geiger. This is a team-taught course with Jack de Vries of the Theatre and Communication Arts Department. This course is an intellectual survey of European Civilization from the ancient world up to World War II, and provides a helpful matrix for understanding European literature.
English 124, “Modern European Literature,” Bill Geiger. This course, designed to satisfy the Introduction to Literature requirement, is a survey of important writers and movements from the early seventeenth century to 1955.
English 202, “Writing Short Fiction,” Dave Paddy. You will learn the fundamentals of writing short stories in a workshop environment. We will read a series of essays by experts on the craft of writing, and we will analyze published stories to have a better sense of how effective stories work. Most of our attention will be given to generating and improving stories of your own. In the workshop you will evaluate writing by your peers and have your own stories evaluated. A great deal of emphasis will be placed on the importance of revision in the act of creation. This is a fun and challenging course, and its success depends on your willingness to participate, be flexible, and be creative. Signature required—go to Department Chair, Susanne Weil
English 220, “Major British Writers to 1785,” Wendy Furman-Adams. The very ambitious purpose of this partially team-taught course (required for all English majors) is to introduce you to the major themes and writers in British literature from its beginnings, in the seventh century, until about 1785--in sequence and, insofar as time allows, in context. We'll begin with Beowulf and selections from The Canterbury Tales, the two most important (and utterly contrasting) works of the English Middle Ages, moving on to selected texts from the Renaissance, Restoration, and Eighteenth Century--ending with Samuel Johnson on the threshold of the Romantic Age. We will attempt to define some of the continuities and discontinuities in British literature, as well as to develop a clear sense of the movements and ideas that shaped its first 1000 years. In the second semester of the sequence--English 221--you will become acquainted with the second half of the story: British and American literature from about 1700 to the present. By the time you have completed the sequence, you will be ready for the study in depth provided by our 300-level courses, and should have some idea of the areas you will want to explore most fully. Thus all majors should take the sequence during their sophomore year.
English 223, “Greek and Roman Literature,” Wendy Furman-Adams. This course and the pair of which it is a part--"A Sense of Wholeness: Classical Philosophy and Literature"--is designed to give literature students a grounding in the humanities by going back to the beginnings of Western civilization in ancient Greece and Rome. The two courses cover a similar time period: from roughly the ninth century B.C.E. to the fourth century of the common era. But more important are the thematic connections between philosophical and literary texts, and the connection of both to their shared cultural matrix: to the Athenian polis; then to Rome as republic, empire, and finally as besieged political, and fledgling spiritual, center. As we look at these two complex and related civilizations, we will read a history as least as bloody and uncertain (and often as cynical) as that of our own times. But we will also find some remarkable writers--among them Homer, Sappho, Sophocles, Plato, Aristotle, Ovid, Virgil, and Augustine--seeking wisdom and solace in works that still possess their edge and relevance. And, just as important for English majors, these writers form the tradition within which most literature was made through the eighteenth century, and much of it even today. The pair will look at many points of connection between philosophers and literary writers, in their shared quest for a sense of wholeness in the life of the individual and of society. Because a classical background is so important to the study of later literature, this course is ideal for students in the second year and above. No prerequisites except INTD 100. English 310, “Linguistics,” Sean Morris.
‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe.
Lewis Carroll invented half the words in “Jabberwocky” himself, yet you still know how to say, correctly, “That mimsy rath loves to see a gimbling tove,” even if you don’t know what you mean. How is this possible? And how can we understand people who say, “This man is a tiger,” or “That course is a bear”? While we’re at it, where do different languages come from in the first place? And why is it so hard to learn a new one when you didn’t have any trouble learning the first? Does someone who speaks another language think differently? And what’s with English spelling? How come “knight” and “bite” rhyme, but “police” and “ice” don’t? Want to know? Tune in to English 310 and find out!
English 320, “Dante,” Wendy Furman-Adams. Even in our era of a vastly expanding canon, Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) is one of a handful of writers who make up the virtually undisputed "greats" of European literature. In a still-important twentieth-century essay, T. S. Eliot exaggerated only slightly when he wrote, "Dante and Shakespeare divide the modern world between them; there is no third. . . . The majority of poems one outgrows and outlives, as one outgrows and outlives the majority of human passions. Dante is one of those which one can only just hope to grow up to at the end of life" ("Dante," in Selected Essays [Faber and Faber, 1932]). Dante's epic journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise is most profoundly a journey inward, a journey in which all human beings are in some sense engaged. But if Dante's Commedia is (at least from an "essentialist" perspective) in some sense perpetually "relevant" to our lives, it is also the supreme literary reflection of a particular time and place: Florence, Italy, ca. 1300. Its huge cast of characters includes the popes, emperors, and nobles both of the past and of the poet's own day; and all three canticles are full of allusions to parties and debates, quarrels, schisms and battles that were of immediate importance to Dante himself. In the midst of nearly perpetual turmoil, Europe was undergoing a great cultural renaissance. And Dante was immersed not only in its politics, but also in its welter of secular and religious ideas. The Commedia is a fourteenth-century poetic Summa Theologica, a love poem, and a political manifesto. It is also a poetic cathedral with a place for both gargoyles and rose windows; deep darkness and unfathomable light. All aspects of European civilization illuminate Dante's thought and work, and the Commedia demonstrates vividly what a brilliant fourteenth-century mind made of the political, intellectual and aesthetic data of his time and place. But we will also explore the poem's canticles as Dante explored Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise: as places on a journey into the remarkably familiar human mind and heart.
English 321, “British Literature 700-1500,” Sean Morris. Monsters and heroes and saints, oh my! This course is part “Greatest Hits of Medieval England” and part “Secret, Shocking, Fun Texts of Medieval England.” We’ll read such classics as Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and some Canterbury Tales alongside lesser-known works like The Owl and the Nightingale, Havelok the Dane, and even Anglo-Saxon handbooks on punishment. These texts will give you the usual modern understanding of the Middle Ages, and will also show you where this paradigm falls short. Some texts will be read in Middle English—don’t worry, we’ll get you through it! (Who thought “getting medieval” could be so fun?) English 354, “Contemporary British Literature,” Dave Paddy. This course will look at a number of the major authors that have emerged in Britain since World War Two. We will be reading an exciting diversity of novels, poems, plays, and essays that will allow us to see what distinguishes contemporary British literature in an aesthetic sense, and we will read with an eye on how these texts have contended with central social issues of the era, especially the decline of empire, the redefinition of nation, devolution, and the ethnic transformations of Britain. We will give special attention to the development of Black British literature and the new national literatures emerging from Scotland and Wales. Authors to be considered include William Golding, Philip Larkin, Julian Barnes, Angela Carter, Graham Swift, R. S. Thomas, Niall Griffiths, Bernardine Evaristo, and Hanif Kureishi.
English 390, “Reading and Writing Postmodern Poetry,” Tony Barnstone. Students will read a variety of works in recent and contemporary American (and some international) poetry, and will be trained in both creative and critical responses to that work. This course collapses English 371, Contemporary American Poetry, and English 303, Advanced Poetry Writing, into one course, English 390, in which students can either choose a creative writing track (with a final poetry project required) or a literary track (with a series of essays required), though all students will do at least some critical and at least some creative writing during the semester.
English 400, “Critical Procedures,” Bill Geiger. This year Bill is using Mark Turner's The Literary Mind and Donald E. Hall's Literary and Cultural Theory as his two primary texts. Turner was somewhat daunting, but Hall has generated some very important and accessible conversations of critical theory. He intends to use Hall again next year and perhaps to choose an additional book.
January
English 365, “Hemingway and Eliot,” Bill Geiger back after a year, this January course is a comparison of two important modern writers who differed in several significant ways, and whose works help define each other.
English 390, “The Lord of the Rings: J.R.R. Tolkien and His Sources,” Sean Morris. “All those long years… you knew this day would come.” You’ve seen the movies. You’ve read the books. You may even have dressed up in the costumes. And now you have a chance to sit in a room with 30 people and talk about it. Tolkien was recently voted the most important author of the twentieth century, and in this course we will try to find out why, through discussion of his major works and their significance, and also through an investigation of the vast array of medieval sources on which he drew. We will also consider and evaluate the recent film adaptations, and take a brief look both at those languages that inspired Tolkien and at those he created himself. Required coursework includes daily readings and reading quizzes, an oral presentation, and two papers. The reading list for this course is very substantial, and I strongly advise getting a head start. The Fellowship of the Ring, at least, must be finished before the first day of class. Works by Tolkien: The Fellowship of the Rings, The Two Towers, The Return of the King (plus some of the Appendix material), The Hobbit, “Farmer Giles of Ham” (in The Tolkien Reader), 1 chapter of The Silmarillion, and 1 chapter of the Unfinished Tales. Works by other authors: Humphrey Carpenter’s J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography; Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; Sir Orfeo; Beowulf; Chaucer’s “The Pardoner’s Tale”; Snorri Sturluson’s Edda (some 100 pages); The Kalevala (a few chapters); The Volsungasaga (less than 100 pages); and “Fafnismal” (less than 10 pages). A preliminary syllabus is posted on my office door, and I have a sign-up sheet in my office, Hoover 209, where you’ll need to come have your card signed, as instructor permission is required. Don’t despair! The readings are long, but also fun. Sure, you didn’t get to take it the first time around, but this time we’ll have the extended Return of the King. “All you have to do is decide what to do with the time that is given you.” See you in January: “Forth, Eorlingas!”
Spring
English 120, “Introduction to Literature,” (“Heroes and Heroines”), Sean Morris. What makes a hero or heroine, why are we so drawn to them, and how have conceptions of what is heroic changed over time? In this course we will explore these questions as we also explore the basic methods for approaching literary texts, and the “Big Three” genres of English literature—poetry, drama, and fiction. The reading list includes: short, lyric poems (not necessarily about heroes), Beowulf, Marie de France’s Lanval, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, George Bernard Shaw’s Caesar and Cleopatra, The 1001 Nights, Thomas Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd, Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior, and, for dessert, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Muggles welcome!
English 120, “Introduction to Literature,” (“Lightness and Weight”), Wendy Furman-Adams. This section will consider the recurring theme of Lightness and Weight in a variety of literature--poetry, drama, and fiction. Plays will include Oedipus the King, Hamlet, and Bertolt Brecht's The Caucasian Chalk Circle. The course will end with Milan Kundera's wonderful philosophical novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Because the purpose of the course is to develop appreciation of the arts in the widest sense, it will require attendance at, and reviews of, on-campus plays and literary readings.
English 221, “Major British and American Writers,” Bill Geiger. This will be a new course for Bill, and he is thinking about basing it on Henry James's theme of the contrast between European and American cultural expectations.
English 222, “Literature of the Bible,” Wendy Furman-Adams. Along with Greek and Roman texts, the Bible is one of the two great well-springs of European music, literature, and art. Biblical narratives have been given color and form by countless Jewish artists, as well as by Christian artists as diverse as Giotto, Fra Angelico, Botticelli, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, and Bernini; and "secular" modern artists like Mark Rothko and Paul Klee. Literary works ranging from Milton's Paradise Lost to Toni Morrison's Beloved are best understood in a biblical light. Moreover, the Bible is itself a work of art: a compendium or anthology of literary texts of incredible richness and variety. Within its covers we will find cosmology, epic, heroic and domestic tales, tragedy, lyric, and wisdom literature; narrative, parable, epistle, and apocalypse. Thus we will be looking at biblical narrative and images through two complementary lenses. Primarily, we'll look closely at the biblical texts themselves--a large and representative sampling from both the Hebrew Bible and the Christian New Testament--placing them in as full an historical context as possible. But at various points throughout the course, we also will be looking at literary reflections of those texts, and/or at images created in response to those texts by musical or visual artists. In doing so, we will be grappling with several questions: What are the points of similarity and contrast between visual and verbal ways of "seeing" divine (or any) reality? How have familiar biblical stories been understood at different points in history and in different countries--and how have those different understandings produced different works of art? What biblical texts have seemed most important and revelatory to artists at different points in art and literary history? And how have visual and verbal traditions influenced and affected each other, as artists in both have sought to convey their experience of an eternal, invisible God who has acted, visibly, within the ever-changing stream of human time? Because a biblical background is so important to the study of literature, this course is ideal for students in the second year and above. No prerequisites except INTD 100.
English 311, “The History of the English Language,” Sean Morris. (Paired with “History of Economics,” Greg Woirol) This is your language 1000 years ago: “Hwæt! We gardena in geardagum þeodcyninga þrym gefrunon, hu þa æþelingas ellen fremmedon.” What happened?!?! How did we get here from there? And while we’re at it, we still want to know why “police” and “ice” don’t rhyme, but “knight” and “bite” do. And why can you have two dogs, but not two sheeps or oxes? And why do they talk funny in other states, calling a “soda” a “pop” and other crazy things? Why? I will tell you why, if first you sojourn with me through… the History of the English Language. Welcome to H-E-L!
English 330, “British Literature 1640-1789,” Wendy Furman-Adams. Compared to some courses, the period covered in this course is not a long one: just under 150 years. Yet the period is a fascinating one because it leads directly to our own civilization (or the one just ending)--from the Renaissance to the "modern world." The later seventeenth and eighteenth centuries have been called many things: the Age of Reason, the Enlightenment, the "Age of Exuberance" (by my late great former teacher Donald Greene), and, perhaps most aptly of all, the Age of Revolution. Our period literally began with one revolution (the English Puritan Revolution) and ended with another (the French Revolution). But the period was revolutionary in every way imaginable. Politically--during this age of Locke, Rousseau, and the American founding fathers--the Divine Right of Kings gave way to the radical idea (so obvious, at least in hindsight, to Americans!) of the "social compact." Socially, the middle class (i.e. most of us) came into being as an active social force--giving rise, with their new mobility, to reform movements such as temperance and the abolition of slavery. Economically, an agrarian society gave way to unprecedented urbanization and to the rise of capitalism, with all its new opportunities and dangers. Educationally, opportunity both expanded and changed--giving rise to a "reading public" that for the first time included people of all classes, and women as well as men. Religiously, the relative unity and stability of the middle ages continued to fragment, giving rise to a relatively secular society, in which "the pursuit of happiness" came to mean not the search for ultimate reality (God), but personal happiness on this earth, in our lifetimes. Philosophically, the emphasis on authority that had been the hallmark of learning over more than a millennium gave way to a new empiricism--a new and urgent interest in discovering the foundations of knowledge itself, not so much in "reason" as in "experience." And in literature--under the stress of these revolutionary changes--writers used classical forms (like epic, ode, epistle, and satire) to express revolutionary new subjects and ideas. Women gained an unprecedented power as both readers and writers (a power not to be matched until the twentieth century). And the age gave rise, as well, to whole new genres--most importantly the newspaper, the magazine, the traveler's tale, and the novel (the name of which means, simply, new!). This course will be paired with Modern Philosophy. It is open to sophomores and above, but most appropriate for students who have already taken English 220. Preference also given to those enrolling in the pair.
English 360, “The Origins of American Literature,” Charles Adams. This course examines texts that are at the foundation of American literary culture. One could view it as the proper start of our “sequence” in American literary history. It will give you a sense of where it all begins and how the early American writers set the agenda for all of those who come after. I am still thinking a bit about exactly what the readings will be, and will update in the fall on that. Perhaps it will suffice to say that there are texts that are religious, texts that are political, texts that are personal, texts that are funny, texts that are full of mayhem and violence, texts that reveal early concerns with the natural environment, and even more. We will try to find out what early Americans really were thinking about and doing in literature, as opposed to the myths our culture has about them, and understand the ways in which American literature today is formed on those foundations.
English 377, “Autobiography and American Culture,” Charles Adams. In the last few decades autobiography has been increasingly recognized as a literary form of considerable significance. It has been around a long time, but we have only really just started to try and understand it. This course starts from the premise that autobiography has been particularly important in American literary culture. We will read a variety of texts from writers with very different conceptions of how one should approach one’s own life history. I have not determined exactly which ones we will do yet, but in the past I have looked at Bradford, Franklin, Jefferson, Edwards, Knight, Rowlandson, Jacobs, Douglass, Whitman, James, Adams, Malcolm X, Kerouac, Rodriguez, Angelou, Kingston, Conroy, and a variety of others (these are just examples, not a reading list). This should suggest the wide array of interesting things one can find in the American version of the genre. I know we will be taking a look at Harvey Pekar’s graphic work and the film about him called American Splendor. We will do a little theory as well to try to figure out how it all works.
English 410, “Senior Seminar,” Charles Adams. I have been planning to do this seminar on Melville and Whitman. I am doing some reconsideration, but that is all pretty vague still. Assuming, however, that I stay with the original plan, we will look principally at Moby-Dick and sections of Leaves of Grass. In both cases we will use the Norton Critical Editions of these works so that we can talk about a good deal of background together. The premise of the course is that here are two writers living and working at pretty much the same time who find themselves responding to the ideas around them in quite striking and important ways. Their responses take different forms, and head in different directions. But they have had a most profound cultural and literary impact. A proper examination of them requires attention to detail and takes some time. Thus this is not a survey of their work, but a close examination of signal texts concerning important ideas. Sigma Tau Delta
Congratulations to the following students who most recently qualified for membership in our chapter (the Jessamyn West chapter) of the national English honorary society, Sigma Tau Delta.
Greg Bone, Taisha Bonilla, Vanessa Giovacchini, Justin Hand, Katie Hunter, Cathy Johnson, Shing Khor, Mark Palmer, Shannon Phillips, Gabriela Simeonova, Julia Uelmen, April Vela.
(To qualify for membership, students must demonstrate significant accomplishment over time in English courses. You do not need to be an English major to qualify.)
Newsom Award Winners
Congratulations to the following students who won in the fiction category: 1st Place Julia Uelmen “Rita de la Rosa” 2nd Place Justin D’Angona “Umi Says” 2nd Place Aaron Jaffe “The Star Keepers”
Congratulations to the following students who won in the poetry category: 1st Place Britni Sternquist “Trader Joes” 2nd Place Jessica Gardezy “The Truth About Wanting” 2nd Place Karen Barragan “Music Box” 3rd Place Aaron Jaffe “Family Portrait” 3rd Place Vanessa Giovacchini “Out of China”
The English department wants to thank all of you who entered in your Newsom entries. As you can see, we had some ties this year. The judges had a hard time making decisions since there were so many good papers!
Some Faculty News
Charles Adams: Charles will be on sabbatical in the Fall and January, working on his much-postponed book on baseball and American literary culture. Tony Barnstone: Tony’s book, The Art of Writing, has appeared in Syria, translated into Arabic, and is currently being translated into German. He recently had a poem printed in an anthology, Visiting Walt: Poems Inspired by the Life & work of Walt Whitman (University of Iowa Press, 2003), and gave a talk in March at the Associate Writing Programs Conference on how translation affects his creative writing. Wendy Furman-Adams: In Summer 2004, she'll join the faculty of an NEH-sponsored Institute on John Milton--a five-week intensive course for nationally selected high school teachers at the University of Arizona. She also will be writing an essay for a book on teaching Milton's shorter poetry and one for a festschrift in honor of senior Milton scholar Diane McColley. Bill Geiger: Bill is continuing writing his monograph on the religious ideas of Ronald Knox (1888-1957) and hopes to get half of its fourteen chapters finished by the end of this coming summer. Anne Kiley is having entirely too much fun traversing the globe with Semester at Sea, as those who saw her recent cover photo in the QC have already guessed. She has been teaching Postcolonial Novel and Travel Writing—and doing some travel writing of her own, including haikus. She’ll be back in time for graduation, though. Anne has announced that she intends to retire after next year. You will, of course, hear more of this at a later date. David Paddy: Reports have it that Dave returns home soon from Wales, where he has been doing research. He will be back, and in full dave form for the Fall semester.
Some Alumni NewsMark Barrett writes as follows (reprinted without his permission): I've been living in Brest, France since the end of September as an English language assistant. The first month was very difficult since I didn't know much French coming over here. But things have settled down and it is turning into a wonderful experience.Teaching is very difficult but rewarding and I'm working with children between the ages of ten and fifteen so they're a lot of work. I'm lucky to have been placed in two very good schools and all the teachers and staff here are very nice and helpful. I'm living with other assistants from England, Colombia, the U.S., Wales, Mexico, Germany, Russia, etc. so that's very exciting. I'll also have a chance to travel around most of Europe since I'll be here until the beginning of May. Do you have any suggestions on places to travel? What are some of your favorite places? I'm not applying to graduate schools this fall but I am planning on doing so next fall. I'm looking into English programs while I continue to write and I remember you saying there were a bunch of anthologies I would have to read for the subject GRE. I was wondering if you could tell me where I could find these anthologies so I could start reading them over here in case I choose to apply for English programs. Jenia Lazarova reports from Oxford: “I am midway through my winter trimester, doing research and taking classes. I am working in an electrophysiology lab, recording electrical activity from rat brain cells. It is more exciting than it sounds ;)” Ryan Fong reports a number of acceptances to graduate programs in English. It appears that a number of them are throwing money at him as well. We await more news. Alycia Sanders reports that she has some law school acceptances and they are throwing some money at her as well. But she also has some possibilities that have suddenly appeared in corporate communications that may derail those plans. Decisions, decisions. Rumors of sorts are in from folks like Tim Tiernan (back in San Diego from teaching English in Japan) and Amy Stice (living on the east coast, but does not say what she is up to). Alyssa Kahler is teaching English at the remote outpost of Whittier High School while finishing her credential work at the old Alma Mater. Anna Neese is now married: she and Josh have moved back to California from Boulder, where they became successful owners of a babysitting agency. They plan to open a California branch of their business once they decide where in the Golden State to settle down. Anna is preparing to take the GREs and planning to apply to graduate programs in English. Natalie Kubasek is working as a teacher’s aide and loving work with children. She’s also studying for the GREs and planning to apply to graduate programs in English. Adam Webster writes: “After loitering around the LA Theatre scene after graduation, I moved to Chicago in 1999 to start a theatre company out here. I write to say that I have (finally) completed my adaptation of Stephen Crane's novella Maggie, Girl of the Streets. I have incorporated a scene from an 1894 Irish melodrama, as well as material from Crane's love letters from the time period, to help round out the subtext.” Adam’s adaptation was slated for a late February production—more news as we get it! Last fall, Annalee Bretthauer reported, “I'm serving my last semester of student teaching. I'm at Saugus High School (my alma mater), working with Eileen Granfors, who was also my teacher for two years. She's a splendid model for me and I'm privileged to work with her. She's also been spreading my name around the district, so I'm hoping that my job hunt will be a little more fruitful than I had anticipated. ‘My hands are incredibly full right now! I teach two ninth grade English classes and one senior Shakespeare elective. The freshmen are great, but the seniors are a challenge. Just figuring out how to teach Shakespeare was an adventure for me at first, and then I had the added bonus of teaching seniors during first period (7-8 a.m.)! After a squeaky start with The Merchant of Venice, the kids are really in the swing now. They love Julius Caesar, which surprises me, but I'm not complaining. They had a blast acting out the assassination scene last week. If blood and guts gets them going, so be it!” Some Departmental NewsThe English department, along with the History department and the Writing Program, is delighted to welcome Linda Kelley as our new (as of November 03) department secretary. Linda comes to us from Cal Poly Pomona, where she managed an academic department with over 600 students. She’s keeping us organized. Please stop by the office and get acquainted with her! (Yes, she has a cat: his name is Meeko.)
What (Else) Have We Been Reading?
Charles Adams during the holidays read The Year 1000: What Life was Like at the Turn of the First Millennium by Robert Lacey and Danny Danziger. This was a great read that I picked up at Crown for a dollar. Read two more of Dorothy Dunnett’s historical novels. Then it was back to work. Paul Auster’s new novel is sitting on my desk with a number of other things. Tony Barnstone recommends the following books of poetry: Zodiac of Echoes by Khaled Mattawa, Nightworks by Marvin Bell, The Tormented Mirror by Russell Edson, Early Occult Memory Systems of the Lower Midwest by B.H. Fairchild, Boss Cupid by Thom Gunn, and some books he is currently reading in contemporary poetry include: The Devil’s Garden by Adrian Matejka, The Unrequited by Carrie St. George Comer, Nude Siren by Peter Richards, Buddha’s Dogs by Susan Browne, Insomnia Diary by Bob Hicok, American Sonnets by Gerald Stern, The World’s Tallest Disaster by Cate Marvin, Subject Matter by Baron Wormser. Wendy Furman-Adams Arthur Herman's The Scottish Enlightenment: The Scots' Invention of the Modern World--a Christmas gift from her Scottish cousin in England. As the cover blurb from The Guardian puts it, "Every Scot should read it. Scotland now has the lively and provocative history it deserves." Lively it is! Turns out for one thing that Highland Dress (along with most other Highland traditions) were invented wholesale by Sir Walter Scott on the occasion of a state visit by George IV in 1822. Hoot man! Bill Geiger: Bill is reading two books for pleasure right now: Sir Peter Hall's Cities in Civilization and Norman Lebrecht's The Maestro Myth. Hall's study is a superb account of the major cities in European and American history, and Lebrecht's book is an interesting account of the rise of the symphonic and operatic conductor in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Susanne Weil: Just finished Perma Red, a very interesting novel of Native American reservation life. She’s also reading through the latest critical biographies of Mark Twain, Dangerous Intimacy and The Singular Mark Twain. Why Did You Get This?
The purpose of this newsletter is to keep students, faculty, and friends informed about the wide variety of activities the Whittier College English Department is engaged in. If there are events of a literary nature that could use a bit of publicity through this vehicle, send information about them to the English Department office. We cannot guarantee when or if they will appear, but it never hurts to try! All errors and misrepresentations are the fault of the editor, who apologizes in advance. If you get this and do not want it, or if you did not get it but see a copy and want future issues, please let our new department secretary, Linda Kelley (x4253 or see e-mail list below) in the department office know.
How to E-mail Us
Some of you have asked how to get us by e-mail, so here are some addresses:
Charles Adams: cadams@whittier.edu Tony Barnstone: tbarnstone@whittier.edu Wendy Furman-Adams: wfurman@whittier.edu Bill Geiger: bgeiger@whittier.edu Linda Kelley (department secretary): lkelley@whittier.edu Anne Kiley: akiley@whittier.edu Sean Morris: smorris@whittier.edu David Paddy: dpaddy@whittier.edu Susanne Weil (Department Chair): sweil@whittier.edu or sespewild@aol.com Katherine Haley Will (President): president@whittier.edu
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