East Central University Modernist Colloquia: A Showcase of Student Research

Please join us in HM 347 for the ECU English and Languages Modernist Colloquia December 2, 3, and 6^th from 1-2pm. The members of the ENG 4543 Senior Seminar have been working hard developing their original research projects, many of them inspired by the archive trip to Tulsa University’s Special Collections. Please plan to attend one or all three days of presentations. Refreshments will be provided. Please contact rnichlsn@ecok.edu for more information.

Schedule of Presentations

Monday December 2: Modernist Nationalisms and the War at Home

Jennifer Wingard        “Bringing Irish Nationalism into the Modernist Movement”

Molly Trimmer           “Nationalist Narrators: A Study of British and Indian Nationalist Poets”

Marc Ruhnke              “Contextualizing the Princess Beatrice Camp Magazine”

Rodney Weaverling    “The Colonizer and the Oriental: Identities within Kipling and Forester”

Wednesday December 4: Modernist Influences

Robert Darling            “The Postcolonial Mansfield and Naipaul”

Kerri Wheat    “Lewis Carroll and Stevie Smith: An Influence on a Modernist Poet”

Amria Norman            “The Little Review and Ezra Pound”

Friday December 6: New Readings of A Passage to India

Emily Roberts  “Passage to India: Testing Relationships”

Jessie Randall  “Adela and The Cave”

Amber Huffman “A Peek through a Passage and the Bridge that Binds”

Can Pride and Prejudice Help This Bride?

"The Wedding Party" (ca. 1905) by Henri Rousseau

"A few weeks ago, Mark brought our attention to some current research indicating that reading literature increases empathy.

"Nice to know that if we need some relationship counseling, we can look to it as well. See the entertaining link below. :-)

"Jane Austen's classic is 200 years old, but longtime spouses and relationship experts alike stand by the principles it presents."

Click here to read more.
Thank you, Dr. McMahon, for the heads up.

Society just isn’t what it used to be (an excerpt)

"The Indians giving a talk to Colonel Bouquet . . . in Oct. 1764" by Benjamin West

I have certain strong bias, but often times I find myself divided on how I feel on a matter. I will feel strongly on one side, and quickly feel stuck in between because I can see both sides. It is a constant struggle, and makes it hard to blend in sometimes. I don’t feel like I belong sometimes, the “real American” views don’t fit mine. Who’s to say who is American or not? Like in the poem “I, Too”; “They’ll see how beautiful I am/And be ashamed--/I, too, am America” (lines 16-18). I am not political or religious, and I tend to lean more towards the artsy side. The constant fight with religion tires me, especially living in the “Bible Belt”. There is nothing wrong with religion, but didn’t the pilgrims come here to escape exactly what some people are doing now? It’s sad to me that something like religion can be turned ugly. There is so much corruption … As for American culture, we have done a lot. The industries we created, the Native American history and culture, jazz music, all sorts of amazing things to be proud of. How we are such a diverse nation is amazing, if only we could embrace it. There are so many amazing cultures to our history, yet we try to hide it behind sexual appeal instead. Everything is so focused on perfection we make ourselves miserable. Girls are taught to almost be ashamed of their natural feelings where boys are taught to embrace them. Then these girls grow into adults where sexual appeal is almost necessary. Our whole country if full of mixed signals and lessons that always contradict each other.

Ashley Bean

Loving Diversity One Step at A Time: My Story

By Jesse Wright
Ethnic Literature
Cultural Identification Paper, Excerpt

"Self-Portrait with Family" (1915) by Heorhiy Narbut

The final area of life that has really influenced me comes down to some of my understandings of culture that have been greatly challenged. I grew up in a home of white Americans, in suburbs full of white Americans. My first exposure to diversity really didn’t occur until elementary school, when I was going to a school in the middle of the longest running desegregation in history. I was in a place where people were forcing themselves to love others of different colors and beliefs, and I do firmly believe that that experience distorted my understanding of race relations and interaction. As I grew up, I saw people who feigned love for others, only to hate them behind their backs, all because of the color of their skin. I had to learn from my family and others that true love for another individual comes from within, and that it has no skin color. I did not have any preconceived notions of how to handle people of other cultures, I was just taught to love and love unconditionally. This lesson came after leaving Louisiana, and I am so glad I was able to learn it. Another part of that lesson was coming to the understanding that racism is still alive and well in a lot of areas in America. As it turns out, we really never were truly free from the plague of hate and race frustration. I hope that lessons I’ve learned will hit others as they have hit me, hopefully helping them to understand how good it feels to love truly and compassionately.