Degree In English Literature Research Articles

Muhammed Said er-Reyhânî’nin “Yazarın Ölümü” Adlı Hikâye Koleksiyonunda Ölüm Teması

Modern Arap edebiyatı ile ilgili çalışmalarda Mısır, Suriye ve Irak edebi canlılığa ve ilmi kalkınmaya sahne olurken Fas edebiyatı yeni fikri akımlardan uzakta kalarak klasik Arap edebiyatına bağlı kalmıştır. Modern Fas edebiyatında Arap Edebiyatında ortaya çıkan ve gelişen yeni edebî türlerin geç başladığı görülür. Bunun sonucunda da yazarlar hata ve tecrübesizlik dolu bir süreçten geçerek, gerçek bir hikâye sanatına ulaşana kadar uzun zaman harcamalarına ve büyük mücadele vermelerine neden olmuştur. Fas’ta yeni hikâye 20. yüzyılın başlarında Ebû Şuayb ed-Dükâlî, İbn Şakrûn, Muhammed Gırrîd ve Muhammed Mûsâ gibi şahsiyetlerin makâme taklidi eserleriyle başlamıştır. Fas kısa öyküsünün gecikmesinde etken olarak birtakım faktörler bulunmaktadır. Fransız işgalinin, öykünün geç ortaya çıkmasında ve gelişmesinde büyük etkisi vardır. Faslı öykü yazarı Muhammed Said er-Reyhânî çeviri, iletişim ve gazetecilik alanında yüksek lisans derecesi, yazarlık alanında yüksek lisans derecesi ve İngiliz Edebiyatı alanında lisans derecesi almıştır. 2008'den beri "Fas Yazarlar Birliği" üyesidir. Reyhânî, Edebiyat konularında araştırmacı olmasının yanı sıra, yazarlık alanında da çalışmalar yapmıştır. Yazarın Ölümü adlı eseri daha önce kaleme almış olduğu Sabahı Beklerken ve Herhangi bir Yere Göç Mevsimi adlı öykü koleksiyonunun üçüncüsüdür. Eser 2010 yılında yayımlanmıştır. Yazar öykülerini oluştururken tek tek metinler olarak değil, bir hikâye grubu olarak yazmıştır. Diğer öykü koleksiyonunda bütün temaların aynı olduğu gibi bu koleksiyonundaki bütün hikâyelerinde tema aynıdır ve o da ölümdür. Reyhânî’nin Mevtü’l Müellif (Yazarın Ölümü) adlı bu eseri ölüm temasının farklı şekillerde ele alındığı on hikâye koleksiyonundan oluşan bir öykü kitabıdır. İlk olarak öykü koleksiyonu için bir başlık düşünen Reyhânî; bir çalışma alanı içinde yeniden üretilen tüm metinlerin bu başlıklarının etrafında toplandığı merkezi bir konu olduğunu ifade eder. Diğer koleksiyonlarında benimsediği bu tarz Yazarın Ölümü adlı bu öyküde de ana tema "son, ölüm ve kurtuluş" gibi başlıklar olarak görülmektedir. Yazar, Bir Umursamazlık Hâli öyküsünde güvenliğin ve dayanışmanın olmadığı toplumlarda ölümün istediğini, istediği zaman ve şekilde seçeceğini anlatır. Bütün Hayatımız Rahat İçin ve Bütün Ölümümüz Endişe İçin öyküsünde yaşam ve ölüm kavramlarını tersine çevirmiştir. Bir Zehirlenme Durumu zehirlenme ve ölümle cezalandırma hakkında kaleme aldığı öyküsüdür. Ölülerinizi Hayırla Anın öyküsünde zalim rejimde hükümdarın cenaze törenini anlatmıştır. Ölüm Döşeğinde öyküsünde ölümün son anlarını betimlemiştir. En Kötü Esirin En Kötü Sonu öyküsünde şerefli bir ölüm dersine ihtiyacı olan bir esirin, bütün onurunu kaybetmiş halde ölümü isteyecek kadar ölümün kendisi için yavaş olduğu durumu ele almıştır. Hayat Ölülerin İstediği Gibi, yazar bu öyküsünde insan yaşamındaki onurun eksenine ölümü koyar. İmparatorların Tarzında Ölüm öyküsünü intihar anındaki bir kişinin ölümünün hangi yolla olacağını seçimindeki düşünceleri ile oluşturmuştur. Beni Öldüren, Ben Hâlâ Hayattayım öyküsünde gerçekte yaşanmış bir olaydan hareketle siyâsî süikastın imkânsızlığını ortaya koymuştur. Yazarın Ölümü adlı öyküsünde Fransız yazar Barthes’in öykü anlayışından etkilenmiş olmasının sonucu olarak öyküden yazarı çekip okuyucuyu öykü ile baş başa bıraktığı bu son öyküsünde yazar gerçekten de ölmüştür ve yalnızca okur vardır.

Necrology for Professor Fiona Tolhurst (1968–2021)

Necrology for Professor Fiona Tolhurst (1968–2021) K.S. Whetter Click for larger view View full resolution Fiona Tolhurst, bottom right; Evelyn Meyer, back to the camera; Molly Martin and Richard Sévère, top right; Barney Haney, top left; Joseph M. Sullivan, middle left; K.S. Whetter, bottom left: at the IAS conference at Würzburg University, 2017. Photo courtesy of David F. Johnson. Dr. Fiona Tolhurst died unexpectedly on 21 December 2021; she was 53. The death of a good friend or respected teacher or fine scholar is always hard, and Fiona was all of these things—and was these things to an extraordinarily wide range of people. But Fiona's death has hit many of us especially hard for coming when it did: in the midst of an ongoing global pandemic that complicates or negates conference travel, many Arthurians have been looking forward with more than usual enthusiasm to the days when we can all see one another again at a Branch meeting or Kalamazoo conference or the International Arthurian Congress. Suddenly, there is a conspicuous [End Page 3] absence in our Arthurian fellowship, an absence that echoes and enforces the poignant lament for lost fellowship spoken by Malory's King Arthur: 'nevyr shall I se you agayne holé togydirs!' Fiona Tolhurst pursued her undergraduate English literature degree at Rice University, graduating Magna cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa (1990); it was also at Rice that Fiona met her life-long love and husband, Christoph Neuendorf. From Rice, Fiona proceeded to a Mellon Fellowship and Princeton for her graduate training (earning her M.A. in 1994 and Ph.D. in 1995), eventually pursuing a Ph.D. thesis under the direction of the noted medievalist and Chaucerian John Fleming on what Fleming initially jokingly referred to as 'the trash literature of the Middle Ages': Arthurian literature. (Fleming's remark encapsulates what was, for much of the twentieth century, the dominant scholarly attitude towards romance and Arthurian literature, but Fleming was very supportive of Fiona and they worked well together.) After her Ph.D., Dr. Tolhurst worked one year at Texas A&M before taking up a tenure-track position at Alfred University, becoming one of the youngest female faculty members to achieve Full Professor. Fed up with American politics, Fiona and Christoph leapt at the chance to move to Switzerland for several years, where he worked in finance and she taught and continued her scholarship. When Christoph and Fiona returned to North America, Fiona secured a permanent position at Florida Gulf Coast University, where she was recently promoted (for the second time in her career) to Full Professor. At the time of her death, Fiona was Chair of the Department of Language and Literature at Florida Gulf Coast University. As a scholar, Fiona had many interests and published widely. She was a recognized authority on Geoffrey of Monmouth, particularly feminist approaches to Geoffrey, a topic on which she wrote numerous articles and book chapters as well as two monographs (see especially the commissioned chapter on 'Geoffrey and Gender: The Works of Geoffrey of Monmouth as Medieval "Feminism,"' in A Companion to Geoffrey of Monmouth, edited by Georgia Henley and Joshua Byron Smith [Brill, 2020], pp. 341–68; Geoffrey of Monmouth and the Translation of Female Kingship [Palgrave Macmillan, 2013]; and Geoffrey of Monmouth and the Feminist Origins of the Arthurian Legend [Palgrave Macmillan, 2012]). She also edited an important special collection of Arthuriana (8.4 [1998]) devoted to theoretical approaches to Geoffrey, a collection that she put together remarkably early in her career. She then co-edited a book of essays in memory of Maureen Fries (On Arthurian Women: Essays in Memory of Maureen Fries, edited by Bonnie Wheeler and Fiona Tolhurst [Scriptorium Press, 2001]), and also published articles emphasizing the extent of C.S. Lewis' Arthurian interests (including 'Beyond the Wardrobe: C.S. Lewis as Closet Arthurian,' Arthuriana 22. 4 [2012]: 140–66). Throughout her career she also consistently worked on medieval women, particularly [End Page 4] Eleanor of Aquitaine (including 'Catty Queen Consort, Lioness in Winter and Loyal Queen Mother: Images of Eleanor of Aquitaine in Film', in Medieval Women on Film: Essays on Gender, Cinema...

Challenging yet Rewarding! : Group-Work Video Essays in the English Literature Classroom

Because English literature degree programs are expected to produce graduates competent in speaking, reading, and writing, course works are usually designed to enhance these skills. However, in an increasingly globalized world characterized by IT usage, 21st century skills such as creativity, media and technology literacy are equally important. Such skills are often integrated through instructional approaches such as project-based learning. This paper reports on a study that examined the use of group-work video essay in an undergraduate English literature classroom at a public university in Malaysia. This study relied on an evaluation of the students’ video essays and an open-ended interview with the students. The findings reported a positive feedback from the students who mostly agreed that the video essay was similar to written essay; challenging where the technical aspects are concerned; yet immensely rewarding. The findings imply the desideratum of adopting the video essay as a coursework in the literature classroom provided that it is done as a project-based group-work effort, substantial marks are allocated, and technical training in video production is provided. The paper closes with recommendations for further research on incorporating the video essay as a course work in the literature classroom.

Answered Prayer

Answered Prayer Brian Volck (bio) —after George Herbert What foolishness to quarrel with your willor think I might contend with One so just.What engine might I build to breach the wallsof One whose spirit animates the dust? Yet still I voice my grievances and waitupon the bench to try my pending suit,not knowing what your sanction may entailthough certain your decrees are absolute. But then I hear my cries to You reversed,returned in kindness, not in kind, a tunelike thunder transposed to some gentler key,reproaching softly all that I presume. Your answer does not rectify my plightbut circles me in mercy, love, and power,a presence that lays siege to my own wallsand bursts the gate unto this sinner's tower. [End Page 320] Brian Volck Brian Volck is a pediatrician who received his undergraduate degree in English Literature and his MD from Washington University in St. Louis and his MFA in creative writing from Seattle Pacific University. He is the author of a poetry collection, Flesh Becomes Word, and a memoir, Attending Others: A Doctor's Education in Bodies and Words. brian.volck@gmail.com. Copyright © 2021 Johns Hopkins University Press

Cold Tea at the End of August

Cold Tea at the End of August Kristian Radford (bio) if you take care of the art your sister, Lifetakes care of the human part.—John Forbes I finish working (from home) for the dayand take my cup of tea (cooling now)and John Forbes's Collected Poems into the backyardthe cat following me out from a distance the clouds to the west are heavy and shark-grey— a little shocking after such a nice weekend—and the ground's still damp from this morning's rain (the chair, at least, has dried) Luna steps out nervously wary after yesterday's skirmish—she was sniffing around the corner of the yardwhen the burly cat from next door appeared suddenly atop the fenceglaring down with haughty fatnesssending her scrambling back into the house more gazelle than cheetah bounding loopily over the thick grass (lockdown gives nature time to rejuvenatebecause I can't go to the in-laws' house to borrow the mower) [End Page 102] she trots down the side of the house then reappearsdistracted now from reading I watch as she licks a damp spot on the concrete where the hose has drippedthen picks up one of the petals from the neighbours' cherry blossom tree (they began falling last week almost as soon as they appeared transient as snowflakes loosened by the wind)she chews a couple of times then swallowsnonchalant it's starting to cool down fast now (like my tea) and Luna has had enoughshe slips back inside watches me through the window just as the rain comes back to threaten John's oeuvre I swig the rest of the tea and repair to the couch where I write this poem and Luna comes overplants herself like a pumpkin in my lapboth of us urgently reaching for something we know is here, right now like a ripe fruit, or a baby ready to catch [End Page 103] Kristian Radford Kristian Radford was born in Sapporo, grew up in Adelaide, and now lives in Melbourne. His poetry and fiction have been published in Meanjin, Rabbit, Meniscus, Cordite Poetry Review, Communion, and other journals. He has a first-class honors degree in English literature from the University of Queensland, where he received a University Medal. He works as a secondary school teacher in the northern suburbs of Melbourne, teaching English and math. Copyright © 2022 Wayne State University Press

Oregonscape

94 OHQ vol. 122, no. 1 OREGONSCAPE Margaret A. “Mikki” Tint December 3, 1951–January 2, 2021 Mikki Tint was a stalwart member of the Oregon Historical Society (OHS) Research Library staff for over twenty-five years, from 1983 to 2008. A lifelong Portlander, Mikki earned a bachelor’s degree in English literature from the University of Oregon, followed by a Masters in Library Science. She first worked as a cataloger in the OHS film archives, helping get control over a large, rich, and highly regarded collection of films and video. Mikki and OHS Film Preservationist Michele Kribs were instrumental in creating the Association of Moving Image Archivists, and then hosting an international meeting in Portland for one hundred attendees. Mikki later joined the staff of the OHS photographs department as Assistant Photographs Librarian. Researchers, staff, and the general public seeking historical photographs would first be greeted by Mikki’s welcoming smile. Her keen perception and knowledge of the collections enabled Mikki to assist users in an efficient and friendly manner. Her work with the photographs of famed Portland Egyptologist Lindsley Foote Hall inspired Mikki to travel to Egypt. After retirement, Mikki continued to contribute by researching and writing the Oregon Historical Quarterly’s OregonScape feature from 2010 to 2016, highlighting interesting and sometimes obscure facts from Oregon’s past. Outside of OHS, Mikki developed an interest in taking photographs, going on photo outings with OHS Photographer Evan Schneider and OHS Manuscripts Librarian Kris White, and experimenting in the home darkroom the three built. Mikki also had an entrepreneurial side in the form of her successful beading business, Beady Little Mind, resulting in many staff wearing her lovely creations. With her best friend since college, Janet Trygstad, Mikki volunteered at Portland Center Stage and for other theater productions. Mikki’s greatest devotion, however, was to the Wild Rose Garland dance team, of which she was a founding member. Mikki’s love of traditional English dance was her inspiration for the group, which first performed in 1995. Dressed in historical costumes and holding brightly decorated half hoops, Mikki, Janet, and the team performed a variety of dances, including honoring the centuries-old tradition of heralding the arrival of spring or summer by performing at dawn on May Day. After her retirement, Mikki ensured that the personal connections forged among OHS staff continued by organizing monthly pub gatherings called Second Fridays. Recalling her kindness, generosity, quick wit, and the twinkle in her eye, we raise a glass to our beloved colleague and friend. — Sue Seyl, Former Director of Image Collections, Oregon Historical Society MIKKI TINT is pictured here in the spring of 2007 on Cape Kiwanda with a tripod and camera. She enjoyed taking photographs and took photo outings such as this one with her colleagues at the Oregon Historical Society. Evan Schneider ...

A Day with Yayah by N. Campbell

Campbell, Nicola. A Day with Yayah. Illustrated by Julie Flett. Tradewind Books, 2017.
 A Day with Yayah is a story that portrays a close relationship between a grandmother and her grandchildren. In A Day with Yayah, an Indigenous family makes a trip to British Columbia’s Nicola Valley to collect wild herbs and mushrooms. Along the way, the grandmother, Yayah, takes the opportunity to teach her grandchildren their language and to pass down her knowledge of edible plants and herbs. Yayah and her family are Nle?képmx (Interior Salish peoples), who are often referred to as People of the Creeks. Campbell draws on her own background for this story, having grown up in the same valley where the story is set.
 Illustrator and award winning Cree-Métis artist, Julie Flett, provides stunning, brightly coloured full-page illustrations. Flett’s detailed drawings complement the narrative, and her folk-style characters, with their jubilant expressions and bright clothing, emphasize the importance of knowledge transfer from one generation to the next.
 Over the years, the language of the Interior Salisham people has become endangered and Campbell introduces her readers to twelve words in the Salish language. These words appear within the dialogue of the story several times, giving children the chance to identify and connect with these words. The glossary at the end of the book is a very helpful addition and aids readers with pronouncing and translating the terms that are used throughout the story. The phrasing of the sentences and the inclusion of Salish words makes this a more appropriate read-aloud to younger readers, but it would also be suitable for independent reading for students in elementary school. This book is highly recommended for both school and public libraries. 
 Highly recommended: 4 out of 4 stars Reviewer: Lydia Thorne
 Lydia Thorne is a Public Services Librarian at the University of Alberta. She obtained a BA and an MA degree in English Literature before deciding to pursue her MLIS. Lydia’s favourite part about reading is that it allows her to travel all over the world - without ever having to leave her chair.

Safe Spaces

Safe Spaces

“Luck, Classic Coke, and the Love of a Good Man”: The Politics of Hope and AIDS in Two Songs by Michael Callen

“Luck, Classic Coke, and the Love of a Good Man”The Politics of Hope and AIDS in Two Songs by Michael Callen Matthew J. Jones (bio) “Feeling and emotion are fundamental to political life,” writes Deborah Gould. “There is an affective dimension to the processes and practices that make up ‘the political.’” A number of scholars, Eve Sedgwick, Ann Cvetkovich, Lee Edelman, and José Muñoz among them, have explored the roles of affect in queer politics by focusing on issues like representation, temporality, and memory.1 In particular, affect saturates the discourses, vocabularies, identities, communities, political responses, and art—the “epidemic of signification”—that parallels the biomedical AIDS crisis.2 In the 1980s the media, activists, and people with AIDS (PWAs) defined the health crisis in affective terms, primarily through negative feelings like fear, anxiety, desperation, frustration, and anger. “United in [End Page 175] Anger,” early HIV/AIDS activists were literally “fighting for their lives” against local, state, and federal governments, homophobia, and widespread panic about this new and deadly disease.3 This essay complicates the affective portrait of HIV/AIDS in the 1980s by considering the role of positive sentiments in the music and activism of gay singer-songwriter and prominent AIDS activist Michael Callen (1955–93). The affective vocabulary in Michael Callen’s work provides a crucial alternative to those that have perdured. What can we learn from his legacy? What is the role of hope in the sustenance of forms of activism? How does Callen’s turn to hope enrich LGBT history and that of AIDS activism? Since his death, Callen’s very queer music and his contributions to the culture of early AIDS activism have been largely forgotten. Although his recordings are available through various digital download and streaming services, neither his essays nor his speeches have been widely anthologized or reprinted.4 A frequent footnote in histories of HIV/AIDS, Callen has only recently been the subject of scholarly and historical works.5 In examining his hopeful sentiment, I contribute to a new curve in the “affective turn” in queer/feminist scholarship, one marked by its emphasis on hope, optimism, self-love, and community care.6 “Small Town Change”7 Born and raised in Hamilton, Ohio, an industrial suburb of Cincinnati, Michael Callen had never traveled beyond a fifty-mile radius of his hometown when he matriculated at Boston University in 1973. Upon completion of his undergraduate degree in English literature in 1977, he followed the Yellow Brick Road of Gay Migration to New York City. There, he thrust himself into the city’s vibrant gay sex culture. After a year of mysterious, debilitating, and increasingly exotic illnesses, Callen was declared immune deficient in 1981, a diagnosis his doctors amended after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) coined the term “Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS)” the following year. Galvanized by the prognosis of his imminent death, Callen committed himself to the fight for [End Page 176] gay rights and the war against AIDS. His remarkable “rise from complete obscurity to the forefront of national politics” occurred at a time when few PWAs publicly acknowledged their illnesses, fearing prejudice, stigma, and violence.8 Between his diagnosis and his death, Callen combatted the negligence of the Reagan and Bush administrations, the glacial pace of Ed Koch’s mayoral mishandling of the health crisis in New York, and the toxic combination of fear and ignorance characteristic of social, political, and media responses to AIDS. A community organizer, Callen established several important AIDS support service groups, including Gay Men with AIDS, People with AIDS Coalition—New York (PWAC-NY), and the Community Research Initiative (CRI). He worked alongside Mathilde Krim and Joseph Sonnabend, cofounders of what would become the American Foundation for AIDS Research (AmFar), participated in direct action protest with Larry Kramer’s AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP), and was even arrested while protesting in Washington, DC. A prolific author, Callen published three books in addition to hundreds of articles and speeches about AIDS. How to Have Sex in an Epidemic: One Approach (1983), a forty-page booklet coauthored with fellow PWA Richard Berkowitz and their physician, is widely considered the first safe...

Ben Read (1945–2016)

Benedict (Ben) Read, who died on 20 October 2016, was chairman of this journal's editorial board between 1997 and 2013. The magazine has always been a flagship of the Public Monuments and Sculpture Association, of which Ben, in 1991, had been one of the founder members. In his foreword to the first issue of the journal he dated preliminary discussions about the need for such a publication back to the time when the Henry Moore Centre for the Study of Sculpture had been set up in Leeds in 1982. Participants in that discussion included the then director of the centre, Terry Friedman; Charles Avery, ex-Deputy Keeper of Sculpture at the Victoria and Albert Museum; Peyton Skipwith of the Fine Art Society; and the businessman and sponsor, John Lewis. All of them would have been in agreement about the need for this to be a scholarly publication, although the question would later be asked whether a less academic approach might not better accord with the wishes of the PMSA membership. The year in which Ben placed those discussions was the year in which his Victorian Sculpture was published by Yale University Press. It was his magnum opus and a scholarly endeavour that made clear on which side of that debate he would be.Ben was born in 1945, the youngest son of Sir Herbert Read, the writer and critic who, from the 1930s onwards, became the nation's chief spokesman and interpreter for modern art, including not only abstraction and surrealism, but also the work of Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth. Far from taking a stand against his father and his artistic preoccupations, Ben always had very fond memories of him, and, particularly in the 1990s, welcomed a revived interest in his life and work. Ben's first degree in English literature at Oxford University might account for his way with words, but a second BA course in the History of Art at the Courtauld Institute more conclusively hit the spot and determined his future path. What did his father, author of To Hell with Culture, think about this choice of subject? Herbert Read was a man of many aspects. He had worked at the Victoria and Albert Museum and been chief editor of the Burlington Magazine. Clearly he was amused, and during a walk with his son, listed all the foibles of the leading art historians of the day. Of Ben's period options, Gothic and Victorian, the latter was definitely indicative of Ben's need to find an area and period of scholarly expertise that he could call his own, outside the shadow of his father's work. Herbert Read, however, died in 1968, a year into Ben's course, and did not live to see the full extent of his son's aesthetic apostasy, his being drawn away from art's 'grass roots' by the siren song of high Victorian art - the sirens in this case being Albert Moore, Frederic Lord Leighton and their continental equivalents. In this, as in the Catholic upbringing and the attendance at Ampleforth School of Ben and his siblings, may be detected the influence of Lady Read, Margaret (nee Ludwig), known in the family as 'Ludo'. She was a viola player of mixed Scottish and German extraction, and was probably responsible for steering Ben's musical taste in the direction of the Romantic repertoire, in particular Berlioz and Mendelssohn. These beliefs and tastes combined with a lifelong love of football (especially his beloved Arsenal), Belgian beer, German sausages and cheese to form a curious cocktail, the gastronomic ingredients of which were indulged with moderation because of a diabetic condition diagnosed in childhood.It was Sir Alan Bowness, then in charge of nineteenth-century and modern studies at the Courtauld, who persuaded Ben to attempt a history of Victorian sculpture. To this were devoted the twelve years following his graduation in 1970. During the whole of this period, he was employed in the Courtauld Institute's photographic libraries, though dedicating increasing amounts of time to teaching and supervising postgraduate work. In an interview published in Sculpture Journal in 2014 in a special issue on Victorian sculpture, he recalled many of the contributory circumstances, whether people or events, which had helped him finally to put paid to Julius Meier Graefe's assertion that in nineteenth-century Britain there had been no plastic art to speak of. …

Lois Lowry: A Giver of Books for Children

Lois Lowry:A Giver of Books for Children Evelyn B. Freeman (bio) For my own grandchildren—and for all those of their generation—I try, through writing, to convey my passionate awareness that we live intertwined on this planet and that our future depends upon our caring more, and doing more, for one another.) (Lowry, “Biography”) Award-winning author Lois Lowry conveys this theme of connectedness through her more than forty books for children. Her body of work has contributed immeasurably to the field of children’s literature, delighting readers with her unforgettable characters and humorous stories as well as fostering conversation and deep thinking on serious topics. About Lois Lowry Lowry was born on March 20, 1937 in Honolulu, Hawaii. The middle child, she had an older sister, Helen, and a young brother, Jon. She describes herself as “a solitary child who lived in the world of books and my own imagination” (Lowry, “Biography”). Because her father was an army dentist, she moved often during childhood and lived in Japan for a few years. Lowry attended Brown University but interrupted her education after sophomore year to marry a naval officer; they had four children: two boys and two girls. When the family moved to Maine, she attended the University of Southern Maine, where she finished her degree in English literature and pursued graduate work. Lowry wrote professionally for magazines as a freelance journalist before she began writing books for children. During this time, she and her husband divorced in 1977. Lowry has experienced great loss in her life, and these experiences have influenced her writing. Her sister died of cancer at the age of twenty-eight, an incident that provided the basis for her first novel, A Summer to Die, published in 1977. This novel, which sensitively deals with the themes of death and serious illness, received the International Reading Association Children’s Literature Award (given for newly published authors). In 1995, her older son, Grey, an Air Force pilot, died in a plane crash at age thirty-six. Lowry writes about this devastating loss in her memoir, Looking Back (1998) and describes his death as “the saddest day of my life” (167). Then her partner of thirty years, Martin, died in 2011. Today, Lowry is a grandmother and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, but continues to spend time at her 1769 farmhouse in Maine. In addition to her renown as a writer, Lowry is also an accomplished photographer and one of her photographs appears on the book jackets of both The Giver (1993) and Messenger (2004). Readers can learn more about Lowry on her website: www.loislowry.com. Her Work Lowry is a prolific and versatile writer whose books span genres, children’s interest and reading levels, and tone. Her two books, honored with the Newbery Medal, are quite different. Number the Stars [End Page 34] (1989) is historical fiction while The Giver (1993) is a dystopian novel. Lowry is at ease writing books that are provocative, provide insight into historical events, or cause laughter and joy. She points out that her “books have varied in content and style. Yet it seems that all of them deal, essentially, with the same general theme: the importance of human connections” (Lowry, “Biography”). Lowry received her first Newbery Medal in 1990 for Number the Stars, the historical novel set in Denmark during World War II and based on the childhood experiences of Lowry’s friend Annelise Platt, to whom she dedicates the book. Told from the perspective of ten-year-old Annemarie, the book introduces readers to both the horrors of the Holocaust and the courage of those involved in the Danish resistance. Annemarie demonstrates strength and determination as she and her family save her best friend Ellen from the Nazis. According to Haley-James, “Lowry takes readers beyond themselves. In none of her books does she succeed in this to a greater extent than in Number the Stars (Houghton), a story in which she makes the abstract concepts of love, commitment, and courage visible and real” (423). The book also received the National Jewish Book Award and The Sydney Taylor Award. Lowry has created unforgettable characters with whom readers can readily...

Heroics of Teaching and Writing Women’s History

Heroics of Teaching and Writing Women’s History Eileen Brumitt (bio) The women who have contributed to this forum are my heroes. As historians who use gender as an analytical lens to study the Civil War, they open the field to students who would otherwise feel alienated from the topic. There is bravery in their act of rescuing voices of women and other marginalized groups and challenging us to reconsider the traditionally masculine nature of war. Though, as Massey tells us, the Civil War gave women the catalyst they needed to “leap from their spheres” and advance, and even though the abolitionist movement gave rise to the first wave of feminism in the United States, female historians are still forging a pathway into the crowded stream of masculine perspectives on the war 150 years later. It would be difficult for female historians not to identify with Massey on some level. But she also raises troubling questions. Did Massey dance through a sexist minefield of historical publication? Did she know that her work would create a foundation for later scholars that, as Thavolia Glymph points out, delegitimized the struggles of enslaved women? Did she leverage their stories for her own power in a field where she used every tool available to secure her place? Do we do anything similar? And are we fully aware of how our contexts affect our interpretations? I work at an institution that resembles Massey’s own Winthrop College for women. But while Winthrop shed its identity as a women’s college decades ago, my institution strives to be the women’s college of the twenty-first century. Yet the campus is no bastion of feminist thought. There are no women’s history courses offered to students, and the women’s studies minor has been canceled after a strategic amputation-like program review. In my composition courses, I teach Paolo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed, and my students discuss his description of education’s alienating effect. According to Freire, the oppressor uses education to force a singular interpretation of the world onto students, which denies their power to affect change. My [End Page 440] students grapple with this idea; we talk about how interpreting history from our perspectives gives us agency. Yet all the while, I realize that I am sending them on to history courses that privilege the usual perspectives on American history and the Civil War—perspectives that tend to overlook the significance of women and non-white individuals in American historical events. Sadly, I can’t change the slow-moving behemoth that is curriculum. Like Massey, I have to work within the limited framework available. Every essay in this discussion struggles with Massey’s identity as a scholar and with her work. She is an imperfect foremother. Unable to separate myself from my own identity as an educator at a women’s college, I would still like to think optimistically that to the women who followed her in the field and to her students at Winthrop, Massey was a heroic figure, rescuing some women from the silence of history and demonstrating that women’s lives are worthy of exploration. Eileen Brumitt Eileen Brumitt is the writing center director at Cedar Crest College. Eileen has earned a master’s degree in English literature and a master’s degree in history. Her academic interest is in nineteenth-century history and literature, and she writes about Civil War women and slavery. Copyright © 2015 The Kent State University Press

Несрећни развод граматике енглеског језика од енглеске књижевности

The disciplines of literature and linguistics have separated: it is possible for a student to earn a degree in English literature without having any linguistic expertise, and more specifically without knowing anything significant about the grammar of the English language. In part this is because of the increasing professionalization and scientific orientation of linguistics. But here I focus on a different issue: that even highly educated scholars of English typically hold mostly mistaken beliefs about English grammar. Education in the subject ossified more than 200 years ago. First, unsupportable claims about the structure of the language — artifacts of indefensible analyses — are still widely assumed; and second, ‘ghost rules’ that never correctly characterized the language are still commonly trusted. To illustrate the insupportable analyses I consider the definitions of lexical categories like noun or verb, the analysis of the infinitival marker to , and the misclassification of prepositions. To illustrate ghost rules I discuss split infinitives, restrictive which , genitive antecedents for pronouns, stranding of prepositions, and singular antecedents for they . I conclude with a brief plea for reunification of literary and linguistic studies.

Alternate Realities

8 WLT SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2015 new books Alternate Realities by Chelsea Greer Nin Andrews Why God Is a Woman BOA Editions This collection of poems depicts a magical island where women are the dominant sex. In this world, women have always ruled as man’s superiors, subjecting the males to their sexist laws. A young man finds himself exiled from the island, having been unable to live under such an oppressive rule, and bitterly contemplates why God had to be a woman. André Alexis Fifteen Dogs Coach House Books To pass the time, the gods Hermes and Apollo make a bet on whether or not animals could find true happiness after being given human intelligence. Thus, they give human consciousness and language to a group of dogs and watch as the pack is torn between following the old ways of the dog and embracing the new ways offered by their broadened minds. (See page 56 for a full review.) Quintan Ana Wikswo The Hope of Floating Has Carried Us This Far Coffee House Press A group of castaways, tired of the burdens of love, lust, and longing, decide to burrow underground and abandon their human forms in order to avoid human suffering. To live a full life, must they live like humans, or can they find happiness in abandoning their humanity? Antoine Volodine Post-Exoticism in Ten Lessons, Lesson Eleven J. T. Mahany, tr. Open Letter In a post-apocalyptic future, “post-exoticism ” writers have been jailed and are slowly dying off. After the last of these writers finally passes away, journalists try to rediscover the true essence of the post-exoticism movement, and in doing so, they explore the power of literature as a revolutionary force. Notebook Chelsea Greer is a former WLT intern with a degree in English literature. ...

Richard Lisle Bennett

Richard Lisle Bennett was a passionate and skilled general practitioner, whose particular clinical interests were the welfare of the most vulnerable and marginalised people in society. He was a man...

Four Poems

May–August 2014 • 43 photo : nick fedele Four Poems Jeongrye Choi Catkind cats don’t grow to be tigers as a rose unfurls the blossom thorns fiercely wait there are tigers in all cats petals roll like small, unfolded tongues yellow eyeballs dizzy as moonlight running through centuries cats in their silver sleep grind teeth and clench claws cherishing the wild dreams of blood look inside any cat and there! the apricot of a tiger’s eye, shuddering like an apricot tree crouched in by an eagle now going on its way why are the strawberries so sweet probably to propagate their kind asks to be tasted then planted again and again people are devouring the pelvic curves of strawberry in their own ways shrewd, hiding stories in their seed each story disappearing like strawberries, there is another you inside you who laughs for the sweetness of strawberries a baseball geek, a dictator, a drunk stubborn while sons and daughters yell without reason you, you, and you, a suite of gifts that cannot be received just consider yourself from a distance, that you wearing the shirt and tie cancer cells hidden by an “I’m okay” hiding whims and unbending ideologies, “I love you” a small force that works like a cold, can be treated with a bowl of broth or sex, “I love you” only arrives when hiding inside other sentences because 44 worldliteraturetoday.org photo : hiram pascoal Jeongrye Choi has published seven award-winning books. Her poems have appeared in journals across the world, and in 2006 she participated in the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. Together with Wayne de Fremery and Brenda Hillman, Choi cotranslated an Englishlanguage collection of her poems, Instances (Parlour Press, 2011). She has a PhD from Korea University. Dan Disney is an assistant professor with Sogang University’s English Literature Program. Un Gyung Yi is a PhD candidate in English literature at Sogang University. Daye Jeon is completing her master’s degree in English literature at Sogang University. from east to west window a woman is hanging out laundry she has toiled, but still isn’t clean enough you are the one who chose this sunlight moves from east window to west the woman considers shifting the laundry you are the one who chose this not knowing it would be this way the sunlight hanging on the window will leave soon there was once a Spring, once sometimes a poem can be only just so despite all efforts it feels wrong but there can be no anger a coat that must be worn in any case be courteous, stay clothed things once frozen have melted now those which were enmeshed are freed, and this was meant to be, must be, had to be this way what good can be done saying things like this anyway there’s him on the radio, the younger brother joyriding in the Piano Academy’s bus becomes the pianist on the radio the mountains far from my old house are now gray apartments in my new house is coincidence the ardor of destiny a force touches, then confluence, that’s how I am here wandering lost on the streets, six years old and one note against another coincidence and destiny flirting with each other the shadow from the opposite building arrives on the western window a tired body coming darkly home from work Why Am I Writing Your Travelogue You leave by Aeroflot. Abandoning the ground. Penetrating the clouds. I watch vacantly. You who are no longer seen. Then seen again. Aeroflot. The word floats in the air. I see it clearly after it’s gone. Then I hear your flight is delayed. Waiting and waiting. Nothing. No word of anything . No food or water. No money. The airport. They took away my passport. Put me on a bus. And now they are taking me somewhere. I don’t know but the snow outside is piling up. Nobody knows where this place is. A shabby hostel finally. Filthy blankets. Frozen faucets. Bugs. No one should take Aeroflot. The only thing Aeroflot has done for me is yell. What’d I do wrong. Dragging me for...

Max Finder Mystery Collected Casebook by C. Battle and R. Pérez

Battle, Craig and Ramón Pérez. Max Finder Mystery Collected Casebook, Vol. 6, 2012. Toronto: Owlkids Books. Series created by Liam O’Donnell. Print. Max Finder comics will be familiar to readers of OWL magazine, where the comic strip has been a regular feature. The strip, originally created by Liam O’Donnell, is anthologized in the series Max Finder Mystery: Collected Casebook. The sixth volume in this series features the work of writer, Craig Battle and illustrator, Rámon Pérez, and includes ten illustrated stories, two textual stories, tips for holding a Max Finder mystery party and advice for teachers. Each strip sets up a perplexing mystery that youngster Max Finder and his friends unravel with keen observations and intricate deductions. Readers must study the details in the story and illustrations in order to match wits with the sleuths. It’s a bit like Encyclopedia Brown meets Where’s Waldo. The puzzles are not easy to figure out, and it takes discipline not to flip ahead to the answer. The dedicated reader, though, learns to exercise powers of careful reading (and seeing) not normally required for tweets and texts. The stories feature: a diverse cast of heroes and villains that seems designed to appeal to girls and boys; memorable situations (e.g., two competing house parties on the same night); and elements of contemporary culture (e.g., gaming tournaments). Readers are led to consider motive and opportunity, and look for logical inconsistencies. The collection is a convenient format for Max Finder fans who really want to dig in and flex their brains. It could also be an introduction to OWL magazine for some. Recommended: 3 out of 4 starsReviewer: John HuckJohn Huck is a Metadata and Cataloguing Librarian at the University of Alberta. He holds an undergraduate degree in English literature and maintains a special interest in the spoken word. He is also a classical musician and has sung semi-professionally for many years.

Orchards by H. Thompson

Thompson, Holly. Orchards, New York: Delacorte Press, 2011. Print. Orchards is a poetic novel written by Holly Thompson. It tells the story of Kana Goldberg, an American girl, half-Jewish and half-Japanese, who is sent to spend the summer with her mother’s family in Japan working on their mikan farm. (Mikan is a type of Japanese orange.) A school-mate, Ruth, has committed suicide and Kana is a member of the group of girls who had excluded and locked horns with the girl over a boy, not realizing at the time that she suffered from bi-polar disease and that she was reaching out to the boy for support. The book is less about Kana accepting responsibility for her involvement in the confrontation with Ruth than it is about mending relationships and the process of Kana overcoming her anger and feelings of guilt. The book challenges us to set aside our own pre-conceived notions about bullying and consider the idea that everyone is vulnerable to depression, and that what gets sensationalized in the media as bullying is not always a black and white case of cruelty, but is sometimes a case of misunderstanding that escalates in dramatic fashion when emotions are mixed in. Kana’s fixation on Ruth and the pressure of a community that blames her and the other girls constitute an invisible burden that puts her at risk of the unthinkable, too. “Suicide can spread like a virus,” Kana’s grandmother warns. Kana’s ‘exile’ to a strange country turns out to be a chance to ground herself amongst her family, make peace with the presence of death in life, find confidence in who she is, and learn how to make a difference in the world of the living. Readers expecting a remorseful narrative may feel unsatisfied, but because the book reads quickly and the language is pleasurable, they may also decide to re-read it for a second impression. The reason it reads quickly is that Thompson has chosen to tell the story in a kind of free-flowing verse. Stanzas of varying lengths define sentence-like sequences, with the breaks between stanzas replacing the conventional sentence demarcators of full stops and capitalized first words. Line breaks play the role of commas, controlling the flow without impeding it. These syntactic arrangements complement the imagistic and uncluttered style of the writing, giving an inward, contemplative feel to the story. Because it is a subtle book, it would be most suitable for an older teen who is perceptive and has literary sensibilities. Recommended: 3 out of 4 starsReviewer: John HuckJohn Huck is a metadata and cataloguing librarian at the University of Alberta. He holds an undergraduate degree in English literature and maintains a special interest in the spoken word. He is also a classical musician and has sung semi-professionally for many years.

BOOK REVIEWS

BOOK REVIEWS

Drummer Girl by K. Bass

Drummer Girl by K. Bass