English Department News

Fall 2017 Course Preview

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Welcome back from break, English majors! We hope you had fun adventuring, resting, and maybe even reading (Moby Dick, anyone?).

Now we’re back in the throes of Spring semester and need to think about next Fall! That’s right, it’s time for registration. Get ready for new classes and the return of our beloved Dr. Hersh and Dr. Weiger!

This preview of Fall’s Upper Division English courses isn’t any old course catalog; it has bonus insider info from professors about topics, perspectives, reading lists, and more. Check it out –

ENG 301 – British Literature
MWF  9:15  Swidzinski
Study over a thousand years of British literature – from its origins in Anglo-Saxon poetry to the development of the novel in the eighteenth century – looking at the social, political, and material contexts of literary form and genre. Readings include Beowulf, the Lais of Marie de France, More’s Utopia, Spenser’s The Fairie Queene, Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Behn’s Oroonoko, Haywood’s Fantomina, Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, and Equiano’s Interesting Narrative.
Dr. Swidzinski says this course “offers a great opportunity to study how the literary forms that we know and love emerged and evolved historically. Another important feature of the course will be what we might call its globalism… I’ve selected texts that highlight the ways in which English literature developed through its contacts (both real and imagined) with other cultures, languages, and traditions. So we’ll be reading “English” texts that span the globe and we’ll try to map (yes, literally ) the interconnected world they create.”

ENG 304 – American Literature: 1900 to present
MW  4:10  Larson
Take a close look at 20th century American literature in the context of historical, political, and cultural developments. This course is a new version of two previous survey classes: American Modernisms and Contemporary American Literature. 
Dr. Larson is excited that this class is a “new opportunity to find connections between the past century’s literature and the problems we still haven’t solved today, from the legacies of violence (Claude McKay’s “The Lynching”) to the cult of celebrity (Nathanael West’s Day of the Locust), to our uneasy relationship with righteousness (Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find”), to our quarrel with the universe (Thomas Pynchon’s “Entropy”).” 

ENG 309 – Fiction Workshop
M  7:10  TBA
Discover the principles and techniques necessary to developing your own original short stories, and analyze professional fiction for insights. Ask why we write fiction and in what ways we write it, thinking deeply about the role of fiction. Take risks by using classic elements of story to reach different ends. TBA’s can be risky, but this class will be worth it!
Juniors & seniors only. Pre-req: 300-level English/American course. 

ENG 311 – Advanced Writing
TR  2:30  Hannon  |  TR  4:10  McDonald
Develop your skills for writing and editing expository essays in a workshop setting, and examine the writing process by reading fine essays.
Dr. McDonald shares, “I really enjoy the Advanced Writing workshop. We have students from all different disciplines writing personal narratives and voicing their views on various subjects. As a student, you will learn a lot about your own writing.”
Fr. Pat says, “I love encouraging my students to see themselves as writers with distinct voices ready to make their mark in words and sentences… It’s all about going to those dark places (meaning: unfamiliar, tantalizing, surprising) in our thinking and in our imaginations to see what such spelunking reveals and prompts us to write.” Three essays he looks forward to reading in this class: Baldwin’s “Notes on a Native Son,” Woolf’s “Death of a Moth,” and Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant.”

ENG 317 – Composition Theory & Practice
M  4:10  Hersh
Combine theory and practice to discover how to best teach the writing process, including composition, rhetoric, and linguistics. 
Dr. Hersh previously said, “We not only discuss the qualities of effective writing, but explore the best ways to inspire effective writing in others… I love the interdisciplinary and collaborative nature of the course. Students who take English 317 come from every nook of UP’s academic world and are really invested in good writing. We all thus work together and share best practices for teaching writing.
Training for Writing Assistants. Pre-req: 3.0 GPA in writing courses.

ENG 337 & 337H – Modern/Contemporary Arabic Literature
MWF  1:35  McDonald
Read several modern Arabic literary works, emphasizing historical and cultural contexts, post-colonialism, forced migration, the Bildungsroman, Bedouin culture, and women in Arab cultures.
Dr. McDonald says, “It’s been a few years since I have been able to offer Arabic literature… the class usually ends up being populated by multiple majors. A new addition the class is Lebanese novelist Hanan al-Shaykh’s The Story of Zahra, which was banned in many Arab countries after its publication in 1986.”

ENG 339 – Studies in Fiction
MW  2:40  Brassard
Focus on ‘being and becoming human’ in a study of representative novels from the British tradition. Readings will be entirely British literature from the 19th century to present; you’re guaranteed to encounter Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Hardy, and Woolf – bookended by Shelley’s Frankenstein and Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go.
Dr. Brassard promises, “Students should be expecting lots of reading but also engaging plots, exciting ideas, and inventive prose. Anglophiles are especially welcome, and anyone else intrigued by the intricacies of the British class system, the seemingly timeless battle of the sexes, and the pleasures of sinking into satisfying fictional universes.”

ENG 372 – Multi-Ethnic American Literature
TR  2:30  Hiro
Compare representative works by American writers of African, Asian, Latin American, American Indian, and Jewish descent, situated within historical issues of cultural continuity, immigration, assimilation, civil rights, and citizenship.
Dr. Hiro says, “Multi-ethnic American Lit is exciting but also overwhelming, because there’s just a ton to choose from in the rich traditions of writings by African Americans, Asian Americans, American Indians, Latino/Latina Americans, and Jewish Americans… We read a good amout of literature that voices a broader or intersectional identity… I’m always especially excited to teach Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies and Junot Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (both Pulitzer Prize winners, incidentally!)”

ENG 403 – Literature & Posthumanism
W  4:10  Weiger
Challenge yourself to imagine the world beyond/outside the “human,” attempting to understand what is meant by concepts like human, animal, subjectivity, agency, sympathy, and affect. Readings will include Haraway’s When Species Meet, Berger’s King: A Street Story, and Kapil’s Humanimal; plus films Grizzly Man and, new for this year, Arrival.
Dr. Weiger says, “Challenging ourselves to think about the ways in which being human is conditioned by what we believe to be inhuman, nonhuman, or posthuman is usually fun, but also comes with a good dose of what Haraway might call intellectual “indigestion:” an inability to sit comfortably with ourselves and our happenings. This is, nevertheless, what being a thinking animal requires. Come join us as we sit at the table with our nonhuman companions! The experience is sure to be as odd as Alice’s at the Mad Hatter’s tea party.”

Fall Online Registration is March 21st – 30th.

Life After The English Major

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            Listen. Listen closely. Can you hear it? It’s that ever-looming question of “English major? English… What are you planning on doing with that?” However, you don’t have to feel your stomach drop every time this question is asked, because the English Department is here to help. This coming Monday, February 6th, the UP English department is hosting its annual “Life after the English Major” event. With a panel featuring four different alumni with a combined experience of 22 years in the outside world, the event will give first year students and soon to be graduates alike a taste of what the future might hold.

            One of the alumni to attend is Alex Dickinson, who graduated in 2013. Now working as a writer for Instrument, a digital creative here in Portland that generates content for companies, Dickinson credits the English program with giving him the ability to see potential in his writing, as well as the tools to strive for growth. In his testimonial on the English Department Alumni page, Dickinson explained how his English degree prepared him for life after school: “The patience acquired from taking my time with my own writing in school, scrutinizing every word, to meet the high standards set by my instructors, showed me what it takes to make the best piece of writing possible. And that’s what’s required of a professional writer.”

            Sarah Bokich, Class of ’06, took a different path and now works as a Service Marketing Manager for FEI Company, a microscopy company in Hillsboro that uses hardware and software to take imrockingchairages of the incredibly tiny partials that make up the natural world. Although not working in a career devoted to writing, Bokich continued to pursue her passion for poetry after graduating from the University of Portland. Recently her chapbook of poems, Rocking Chair at the End of the World, was accepted by Finishing Line Press and will be released in February of this year.                         

            Alex Foy, Class of ’14, and Kelsey Fleharty, Class of ’10, will also be in attendance. Foy now works as a Brand Manager for OJ Skateboard Wheels, a company in Portland that specializes in rolling you towards the best skateboard wheels on the market. Fleharty, after graduation, attended law school at the University of Oregon and now works as an Associate Attorney at a firm in Portland. Offering a wide range of experience in a number of fields, these four alumni will bolster the hope you need to inform the doubters that yes, reading Emily Dickinson will help you after graduation, and yes, a humanities degree is giving you the best skills to enter into the wide, wide world of postgrad life. Or, at the very least, there will be cookies.

The Life After The English Major event will be held in Franz 015 on Monday, Feb. 6 at 5:45 pm.

Why You Should Submit to NUCL 2017

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NUCL Logo

As you finish up those last few final papers or theses, you’ve probably heard about submitting those papers to NUCL, and that the submission deadline is quickly approaching. And that’s all well and good if you know what NUCL actually is.

But if you don’t, here is everything you need to know about NUCL and why you should really consider submitting – take it from someone who presented last year!

NUCL stands for Northwest Undergraduate Conference on Literature. NUCL is held at UP each spring and invites students from all over the greater Northwest (and, more recently, the entire U.S.) to present their academic papers to an audience in a conference setting. All submissions are read and chosen by a panel of UP’s esteemed English faculty and NUCL interns, and particularly compelling essays can win prizes during the conference. Not too thrilled with your academic essays? NUCL also has personal essay and poetry panels! There are special awards for these categories, too.

So why should you submit? I had the same question last January, when I was just a plucky freshman eager to be involved. I was encouraged by my English professor to submit my final essay to NUCL. I was surprised, but very flattered. I decided to go ahead and submit, even though I wasn’t sure if it would be accepted. But I was happily surprised that my paper was selected for a panel!

Then came the day of the conference. I am not someone who is particularly wild about public speaking, let alone reading something I wrote in front of a lot of strangers. Fortunately, everyone else at NUCL is in roughly the same boat. The environment is hugely welcoming and encouraging, and I quickly got over my stage fright during my presentation. The audience is engaged and respectful, and answering questions about my paper afterwards really increased a sense of legitimacy. Everyone takes the presenters’ work seriously, like we’re researchers and not just students.

So don’t wait until someone pokes you in the back – if you’ve got a paper, poem, or personal essay that you’re particularly proud of, why not take this incredible opportunity to share it? In addition to reading your work in front of an audience, you will get the opportunity to meet a ton of like-minded students from around the country who share your enthusiasm for the written word.

NUCL 2017 submissions are due by January 17th. The conference will be on March 25th.

An Interview with Peter Rock

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Peter Rock

Award-winning novelist Peter Rock is a University of Portland Schoenfeldt Distinguished Writer and our final guest in the Fall Readings and Lectures series.

Rock received his BA in English from Yale and has won numerous awards and fellowships for his writing, including Stanford’s Wallace Stegner Fellowship. He lives and writes in Portland, and teaches writing at Reed College. His most recently published book, Klickitat, is set in Portland and is about two sisters, one of whom mysteriously disappears. His next book, Spells, will be out in April 2017.

Rock’s fiction tends to place the reader into the minds of people often overlooked: outsiders, people living on the fringes of society, nomads in body or spirit. His books are often described as unique and intriguing, must-reads and can’t-be-put-downs. This comes from his skill and his writing process, which basically is Rock trying to answer his own burning questions about people, places, and life.

 Thanks for making time for this—I know you’re incredibly busy with your own students and your work. I was wondering if you were one of those child writers, growing up with your notebook under your arm at all times. When did you fall in love with writing? 
I’d say I was one of those children who was obsessed with reading. I mean, it started with my dad reading Ursula Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea to us; but then I was also really fascinated by the natural world.  I used to have a lot of these “Golden Nature Guides,” these little books—Mammals, Reptiles, etc—that were like little field guides, and I carried them everywhere with me.
My path to actually writing things is a little windy—which is to say that it forked and circled, not that it was governed by weather and turbulence (though that, too); I think I did some writing in high school and saw how I got attention for it, and then I kind of adolescently became infatuated with being a writer, as a sort of lifestyle, and that was probably influenced by writers I read at that time (Brautigan, Kerouac).  So I followed my education in such a way that I had very few marketable skills and then had to write…  And I fell in love with it, fall in love with it, differently all the time; when I realized how much it was about sitting by myself and daydreaming, not exactly a lifestyle or identity…

So maybe that’s how you come up with your ideas—just kind of follow your curiosity in those daydreams? I recently finished your book My Abandonment, and I really loved how you fleshed out the story of the father and daughter found living in Forest Park. I’d known about that true part before, and was kind of haunted by it. Your book has me feeling a sense of closure, although I know it’s fiction; it helps just to have the follow-up fully imagined out. Were you kind of haunted by that story as well, and did that drive you to write My Abandonment?
Trusting curiosity is a big part of the process, especially early.  Those things that draw us are pulling at something on our insides.  With My Abandonment (thanks for reading it), I was writing another novel (The Bewildered) where there was action in Forest Park, and while I was working on that book I was reading the newspaper articles about the girl and her father.  In the first article, they were found and relocated into a more civilized life; in the second, they’d disappeared; I kept waiting for that third article explaining where they’d went.  At first I tried to fold that story into The Bewildered, but that girl was a distraction, too interesting, just watching (in My Abandonment you witness various things—say, the kids on the water tank—that take place in the earlier book), so I took her out.  But then there never was a third newspaper article and my mind, the mind of a fiction writer, kept insistently asking, “What could have happened to those two?  How did they live like that for four years?  Where did they come from?  Where would their momentum take them?”

That’s just amazing, how trusting your curiosity about what could have been led you to creating a whole work of literature, which then helped satisfy my own (and I’m sure many others) curiosity about the girl and her father. My own backyard connects to Forest Park, so I really enjoyed reading about these places and trails just right outside. 
I think you were able to capture something about the Pacific Northwest in the way Caroline (the girl in My Abandonment) is bonded to the land, almost as if it’s part of her family. And in the end of My Abandonment, (which I’m not going to give away because everyone should read it for themselves) I found comfort in knowing Caroline would always have that special connection to the PNW land.  I’m really glad you gave her life instead of having her just being a side note in The Bewildered… I think My Abandonment was a great text for reading through a spatial lens, and I’m curious about if your research involved a lot of time in Forest Park just being with the land you were writing about. 
Ah, that’s sweet.  Thanks again for reading it.  Well, back then when I was writing My Abandonment I did spend a lot of time in Forest Park—both to find where the girl/father had lived, but also to just imagine how it would be [as] a girl who lived there.  And so I spent much time climbing trees, daydreaming, imagining that I was her, taking notes.  When I started actually writing that book I was down at Caldera, near Sisters, where I’d wander around and never have to talk to another person; one reason that central Oregon landscape becomes important in my book is because that’s where I was writing and being Caroline. 

Caldera is an artists’ residency, isn’t it? So you were able to just be alone like Caroline—that must have been perfect for this specific book. It might have been hard to write about like, Paris society or something, from that environment.
That’s so interesting, how you were “being Caroline.” Do you always enter into your characters that way? I’m picturing method acting, but maybe it’s not so extreme. Does it make you think differently the whole time, or just a few hours per day you devote to entering into that? 
There are probably parallels to method acting, but more than dressing as a girl (I did not) or speaking in a different voice (didn’t—though one benefit about being out at Caldera—yes a residency—was that I had days and weeks where I didn’t talk to anyone), it’s a question of figuring out the concerns and voice of a character, especially if she’s the narrator.  So the things (Randy the horse, the encyclopedias, etc.) that were present in her daily life were present in mine, the concerns about what she needed and wanted, and the way she talked/wrote (e.g. the refusal to use semi-colons, which are a particular weakness of mine), the small conversations she had with her father, the schedule and strategy of her days—all of that took a long time to build up and understand, but when I understood it I could slip in and out for hours at a time; and then I just followed it.

This has been fascinating. Thanks for making time for us, and for letting us into your head a bit about how you got into writing, and  how you continue to fall in love with it in different ways. I just have one more question: which of your own books is your personal  favorite—the one you’d like to read for fun if you hadn’t written it?
Ah, the personal favorite question is pretty impossible.  I imagine it’s a little like children—it feels wrong to choose, and my relationship to each is different, similarly conflicted.  One easy answer is that whatever I’m working on now is my favorite—right now I’m working on a novel called The Weather, which is about 1994, open water swimming, and floating in isolation tanks, ex-girlfriends, etc.  And Spells, which comes out in April and from which I’ll read.
The actually published ones?  I don’t know.  They’re so different, and many feel as if they were written by someone else, a distant relative.  It’s strange because some of them are being re-released this year; when I read from The Unsettling earlier this fall, when it came out (ten years after it was published), it was kind of uncanny.  I do like that book, as a collection of stories [it] shows so many different decisions, narratively and in terms of sensibility.
Like children, there may be one—My Abandonment—that gets more than her share of attention (e.g. questions, film being shot this spring so much back and forth with director/screenwriter, etc.) and that makes me want to say, “Well, you should meet The Shelter Cycle, which is more ambitious and connected, which I wrote after MA, and which cost me much more, taught me much more.”  But in the end, you know, I don’t have nor want that kind of control. The books just fly on out of me and my opinion or understanding of them is beyond vestigial.  Authors are the worst!

Peter Rock will be reading in Franz 120 on December 1, 2016, at 7:00 p.m.

 

*Photo by Ida Rock.

An Interview with Willy Vlautin

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Willy Vlautin

Novelist Willy Vlautin is the next guest in our Autumn Readings & Lectures series hosted by the University of Portland’s English Department.  He has published four novels: The Motel Life (2007), Northline (2008), Lean on Pete (2010), and The Free (2014).  

For all the violence and tragedy that fuels the characters and storylines of his works, Willy Vlautin is one hell of a friendly guy. His band, alt-country quartet Richmond Fontaine, just recently back from their final European tour, have been playing the Portland scene for over twenty years. His novels—The Free being the most recently published—recall John Steinbeck and John Updike in their intimate portrait of day-to-day survival and mundane tragedy in the lives of ordinary people.

It’s easy to assume the people who rarely have their stories told don’t have a story to tell. The people who inhabit Vlautin’s stories are burdened by their choices. They’re burdened by their need and, often, their inability to escape. These are people who want to change, who believe change may be the only thing that can save their lives, and yet they do not. This is the magic of Willy Vlautin’s writing. It’s a sleight of hand, to show us we don’t know the people we think we know.

Between your records and novels, you’ve created enough fascinating (and tragic) characters to populate an entire seen-better-times logging town. How do you build these characters, and would you say it’s the characters that inform the stories and songs?
I think of things in stories first. A broad idea of story from start to finish. Inside that initial idea are the themes I’m interested in. From there I’ll get the characters. I’ll run into the first few and then they meet people after that and so on. Usually I write the first draft and then develop the characters more after each edit. Like getting to know someone, it takes a while. It takes time and interest and desire.

Living in the wake of Bob Dylan’s Nobel prize, it seems a lot of people are trying to to redraw the lines between literature and music as distinct modes of storytelling. As an artist working in both mediums, sometimes at the same time, as with Northline, do you see any real divisions? How has being a novelist informed your songwriting and how has songwriting informed you as a novelist?
They are much different crafts that’s for sure. Writing takes much more time in the nuts and bolts sorta way. You have to put down the pages. You have to get a character from Mexico City to Toronto and he’s driving. A lot of days pass, a lot of things happen along the way. Songs are like dreams, they have more mystery. Where the hell did that melody come from? How come when you add harmonies the song suddenly makes you want to cry? Music has magic, I really think it does. They are different mediums but they are both crafts and they both can transport you into a different world.

Earlier this year you just put out your last record with Richmond Fontaine (for the foreseeable future?), what do you see yourself working on in the near future? Will music take a backseat to writing, or do you have other projects in mind?
You’re right, RF just finished its last big tour. Next year I’ll start work on my new band The Delines. I’ll probably do that band and stay at home more and try and work on my novels.

Willy Vlautin will be reading at the UP Bookstore on Monday, November 28th at 7:30 pm.

 

*Photo by Dan Eccles, from the New York Times Sunday Book Review.

Lunch Table Preview: Swidzinski and Buck-Perry

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Swidzinski & Buck-Perry

This Thursday, October 27 is our next English Lunch Table!  Be quick to RSVP and score a free lunch and riveting conversation with Professor Swidzinski and Professor Buck-Perry.

I sat down with Swidzinski and Buck-Perry to get a preview of possible discussion for Thursday: Who are they really? What are they reading? What’s up with the Shakespeare authorship conspiracy? What’s the best Bowl at The Commons?

What do students need to know about you, especially if they’ve never had a class with you?
Swidzinski: “I’m the resident poetry person… I don’t have a favorite… but on this day at this hour it’s probably Adrienne Rich, because I was rereading some Adrienne Rich poetry.”
Buck-Perry: “I guess I’m the resident generalist [for teaching ENG 112], that’s why I teach nearly everything. I know a little about a lot.”
(Editor’s Note:  You should also know, Swidzinski always has a killer shirt-sweater combo, and Buck-Perry was proclaimed “a life saver” by a grateful Bio professor who said he owes his career to her.)

What are you looking forward to sharing with students at this lunch: any good books or cool topics?
B-P: “I see this lunch more as getting to know students, not them getting to know us… I just finished The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan.”
S: “I heard that was really good!”
B-P: “Such a book of suffering.”
S: “Right now I’m reading… James Shapiro’s A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599.”
(Here we diverged on a brief tangent about the Shakespeare authorship conspiracy.)
B-P: “I want to hear about how their experience is going. I’m curious about their year.”
S: “What I like is getting a sense of where students are coming from and what they want to do and are looking forward to, not just while they’re in class.”
B-P: And what kind of questions they have. Like how we and our experience might help them.”

What’s your favorite thing to eat at The Commons?
B-P: “I like the Global. And Bowls… I’m a sucker for [the mac salad] opposite the chicken.”
(We discuss the best qualities of various Bowls. In depth.)
S: “I normally just get… I’m usually hungry. Also the department is paying for it, so… I don’t just get a sandwich, I get a plate or a bowl of something… I’ll get the lobster.”

This Lunch Table is on Thursday October 27th, 12pm. 
The first 4 students to RSVP by email to Swidzinski/Buck-Perry/Brassard will be treated to lunch by the English Department.

Spring 2017 Courses: A Preview

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With the unveiling of Spring 2017 courses on Self-Serve, and numerous assignments to continue putting off, it seems to be the perfect time to cozy up with a warm pumpkin product and see what the English Department is preparing for next semester.

ENG 311 – Advanced Writing
TR  12:55  McDonald | TR  2:30  McDonald | MW  4:10  Hannon
In the words of Professor McDonald, Advanced Writing is “a writing workshop with a focus on process.” Guided by Father Pat or Professor McDonald, and supported by peer workshops, students will develop their own voices and unique narratives. The course draws upon different authors and historical writing styles, essays about the writing process, and specific workshops such as “Writing Stunning Sentences,” and “Writing Flash Non-Fiction.” At the end of the semester, each student will create a portfolio of original writing. This is an incredibly valuable experience; senior Kate Garcia attests that, “this class taught me to feel comfortable sharing my writing with others and how to accept and implement constructive criticism. I doubt I would have the level of passion that I do for writing if it weren’t for this class.”

ENG 326 – Shakespeare: Rep Plays
M  4:10  Swidzinski
Shakespeare: Representative Plays will be a comprehensive study of the Bard’s poetic and dramaturgical roles, his rich historical and socio-political scene, and the diverse interpretations made by his early modern to post-modern audiences. The course will be taught by Professor Swidzinksi, described by sophomore Caroline Holyoak as a thought-provoking instructor who, “approaches his job with the enthusiasm of someone who genuinely loves what he’s teaching.” Students will have the opportunity to read eight plays (Richard II, Richard III, Henry IV, Henry V, As You Like It, Hamlet, King Lear, and The Tempest) along with Shakespeare’s Sonnets. Professor Swidzinski will also be incorporating film adaptations of Shakespeare into the course, like Orson Welles’s renowned Chimes at Midnight.

ENG 343 – Studies in Non-Fiction
MWF  10:20  Hannon
Studies in Non-Fiction, taught by Father Hannon, is primarily an “intensive analysis of the methods, modes, and manipulations of nonfiction prose.” In such a realm, the tensions of storytelling – such as “truth and falsehood,” and “representation and reality” – are often hard to distinguish without philosophical guidance.  In ENG 343, students will draw upon the support of both Father Hannon, who, in the words of Bekah Kolb, “encourages self-reflection in a warm, collaborative space,” along with nonfiction works such as essays, memoirs, political documents, documentaries, and reportage.
Ultimately, students in this course will gain a deeper understanding of the non-fiction narrative’s unique complexities and ethical tensions.

ENG 346 – Modern British Literature 1900-1945
T  4:10  Brassard
This is one of Professor Brassard’s favorite courses to teach, as she considers the early twentieth century to be both “jarring” and “tremendously exciting” in regards to literature. Unofficially subtitled “Gender, Class, and Sexuality in Modern British Literature,” this course will focus on the changing ideological narratives in an era of rapid technological, social, cultural, psychological development (not to mention the two World Wars.) The reading list will include Forster’s Howards End, Shaw’s Pygmalion, Ford’s The Good Soldier, First World War Poetry, Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, Bowen’s To the North, Rhys’s Good Morning, Midnight, Auden’s poetry, Orwell’s essays, and Mansfield’s short stories. According to senior Jackie Ott, Professor Brassard’s teaching style centers on collaboration, critical reflection, and “the fulfillment of individual expression.”

ENG 356 – American Literature 1914-1945
MWF  1:35  Larson
It seems that ENG 356 is not unlike ENG 346 in terms of historical and ideological tumult. For American literature, the period includes the Harlem Renaissance, the Great Depression, the two World Wars, and unsurprisingly, various questions about identity, society, artistic expression, and innovation. Dr. Larson, characterized by senior Tyler Tennant as being “thoughtfully insightful and thoroughly engaged in students’ discoveries,” is already looking forward to starting the discussion. He explains, “Ever since high school, I’ve been fascinated by this era’s primary contribution – a movement called modernism – and so I’m eager to plunge back into its puzzles and possibilities.” Students of American Literature 1914-1945 will be delving into such works as Willa Cather’s The Professor’s House, Ernest Hemingway’s In Our Time, William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night, as well as the writings of Stein, Frost, Hughes, and Eliot.

ENG 471 – American Romanticism
TR  2:30  Orr
American Romanticism, taught by Dr. Orr, will be a critical exploration into the American discourse and one’s dynamic place in nature, society, systems of faith, the workforce, the home, and the nation. Texts will include Emerson essays, Melville’s Moby-Dick, Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter and The Blithedale Romance, the writings of Dickinson and Whitman, and perhaps Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Having taken American Romanticism the last time it was offered, alumna Ana Fonseca explains that, “What’s great about being in class with Dr. Orr is you look around and realize that there is probably no one in the world more excited than he is about this one text (ahem, Moby-Dick) or that one part (the part where Ishmael talks about the whiteness of the whale)… you realize how cool and wonderful it is that there is someone who this piece of writing brings a real giddiness and a real bounce in his step to, and that you get to be a part of it too.”

Founders’ Day 2016 Preview

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by Morgan Mann

With no classes before 4pm this Founders’ Day, it may be tempting to stay home and finally start all those essays (or maybe just watch Netflix).  Here’s a better idea:  stop by the Founders’ Day presentations!  Join the English community and see what your peers have been working on.  Founders’ Day celebrates the academic achievements of graduating seniors:  a great group of students that represent the unique perspectives and hard work of the English department.  Show your support by attending the sessions, or checking out all the posters throughout the day.

Here’s a play-by-play of this year’s Founders’ Day English presentations, with a little hint of what you can expect from the contributors themselves.  Which one are you most looking forward to?

11:15-12:05 @ Franz 026

“Queer Ecology in Whitman’s ‘Calamus’ and Blanco’s ‘One Day’”  |  Griffin Hay

“Delivering Voltage to Tempered Voices: An Exploration of Feminist and Linguistic Challenges in Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill’s ‘Fuadach’”  |  Lucy Kelly

“I’ll be discussing a contemporary Irish poet named Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill who engages fairy abduction tales to discuss issues pertaining to gender and, more importantly, the resurgence of the Gaelic language (or “Irish” as those in Ireland call it) in her poem “Fuadach.” My presentation will provide listeners with context on the poet herself, Ireland’s political, mythical, and linguistic histories, and my argument about the function of the poem itself. You’ll even learn a little Irish including how to say Naula’s last name :)”

“Art, Trash, and Collecting: The Treatment of Objects in Kazuo Ishiguro’s ‘Never Let Me Go’”  |  Danielle Childs

“My presentation is on the treatment of objects in Never Let Me Go, a novel that has been classified as speculative fiction though it is, at heart, about the all too familiar problem of how societies tend to cannibalize out-groups.  I consider the book to have an intense preoccupation with things and my presentation explores how critical lenses might be employed to interpret their significance in the novel.”

538790_465393443474496_1269893488_nDanielle Childs

2:15-3:05 @ Franz 006

“Its Melancholy, Long, Withdrawing Roar: A Traveler’s Journey to the Heart of England’s Small Island”  |  Leah Walters

“A self-proclaimed Anglophile travels to England for the first time and along the way she follows in the footsteps of her favorite travel novelist Bill Bryson in his novel ‘Notes From a Small Island’ in a 10 day solo journey from England’s Southern banks to her Northern border. In her own notes from her travels she discovers, after so many years loving all things British, what it truly means to be from and to love that small Island.”

“On Gratitude: Extolling and Problematizing One of the Most Touted Virtues of our Generation”  |  Erika Murphy

“I’ll be speaking on gratitude, with the hope that people come away with a more genuine, and thus problematized, experience of gratitude.”

“’Promise that you will sing about me’: Narration in Kendrick Lamar’s Music”  |  Ana Fonseca

IMG_0883Ana Fonseca

3:15-4:05 @ Franz 034

“Why Read?”  |  Brett Adams Tayler Bradley, Thomas Curran, Sasha Lower, Mayetta Martel, and Erin Stuart

This presentation looks at the necessity of reading and studying English in today’s world of technology.  Six ENG112 students of different majors answer the question “Why read?” and invite discussion.

Also, an unofficial part of the Founders’ Day experience:

6:30-8:00 @ UP Bookstore

Writers Magazine launch party

Come pick up this year’s edition of Writers, see our contributors present their wonderful creative work, and enjoy complimentary refreshments with good company.

A Preview of the Poetry of Eva Hooker

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by Hope Dorman

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On Monday, April 4th, the Garaventa Center and Department of English together are hosting “Godwit”, a poetry reading from Sister Eva Hooker. As a Writer in Residence and professor of English at St. Mary’s College in Indiana, she has some expertise in the subject, but her subject matter is what makes her reading so worth attending. Oftentimes, the writers we bring to campus have written long works and students have not had the time to read them before the reading – but Sr. Hooker is a poet, and some of her poetry is available online. Terrain.org has her poems “Three Woodpeckers” and “There is work to do within nothingness” published online. Let’s take a look to see why two groups worked together to bring Sr. Eva Hooker to campus.

The first poem, “Three Woodpeckers” is deceptively simple. Only 19 short lines comprise this work. The themes of nature, presented in the flora and fauna of the tree and the woodpeckers, may immediately resonate with those with a passion for nature such as many locals to the Pacific Northwest. There is a mention of a “Spirit”, leaving open to interpretation the presence of a religious or spiritual figure, which may appeal to our Catholic student body. The text itself begs lots of questions – why write about woodpeckers? Who is the voice? What do the woodpeckers represent? What is the poem saying about nature? These questions, and more, are meant for someone more experienced in poetry than myself to try to answer. Above all, this poem is a testament to the power of poetry and skill of Sr. Hooker to fit so much meaning into a short work.

The second poem, “There is work to do within nothingness” has a remarkably different form from “Three Woodpeckers”. It reads like a lyrical essay, making it more accessible for those of us inexperienced with poetry. Again, themes of nature are present in this work and frame the greater theme of space or nothingness. The imagery is stronger and evokes a clearer image of the setting – a lake, a paddle, a spider, granite stones, the juxtaposition of light and dark. Though there is more text, there are just as many questions to ask about this work as there are about “Three Woodpeckers”.

Because we are lucky enough to get a preview of the works of an upcoming writer, I hope you will take some time to read Sr. Hooker’s poetry After reading, join the Department of English and the Garaventa Center on Monday, April 4th at 7:15 PM in Franz 120 for “Godwit”!

Why You Should Go to NUCL

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by Jacqueline Ott

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English in the undergraduate realm is filled with uncertainty. Unlike our peers in biology, engineering, business, and nursing, we have no set path after graduation. Will we go to graduate school? What are our chances of getting a corporate job? Do we even want that corporate job? Right now we’re not sure—all we are sure of is that close reading gets you sometimes uncomfortably deep into a text and that the books lining our bedroom walls will be carried with us wherever we travel next, either in the recesses of our brain or in the cardboard moving boxes that’ll be our vehicle into the future.

And that’s why it’s nice, while we’re here now at least, to meet with likeminded people for a scene of camaraderie and the only thing the English major is really sure of—words. NUCL, or the Northwest Undergraduate Conference on Literature, is an annual conference held every year at the University of Portland. Now in its lucky thirteenth year, this year’s conference features students from around the continent, with presentations from contributors from as far as Ohio, Texas, and Calgary in Alberta, Canada. The conference offers panels to hear what our peers have to say on various subjects, from feminism and fairytales to how individuals deal with trauma in the use of collective history.

Contributing to events like this—showing up, asking questions, moving forward with ideas to gain a deeper understanding—is something that we, as students, should not take for granted. It’s something that not everyone has the opportunity to enjoy , and something that we may only have the chance to engage with these four years here at UP. That’s why I’ll be attending NUCL; I want a chance to engage with my peers, with their ideas, and with texts that exist outside my own field of vision. I hope to see you there too.