Sigma Tau Delta today! And Writers Club Next Week!

Don't forget we have a meeting of Sigma Tau Delta, the English honors society (open to everyone, members or non-members) today at 2:00 in Faust 159 (next to the Honors Office). Come meet fellow students and professors for casual conversation about all things English! 

Next Thursday we'll also have a meeting of the Writers Club at 2:30 in Horace Mann 331. Among other things, we'll be discussing one of Bryce Clark's short stories! Please e-mail jgrasso@ecok.edu if you want a copy of the story prior to the meeting (we encourage everyone to read it before hand if possible). 

Our next Writers Club meetings will be: March 19, April 9 (possibly), April 16, and April 30. 

Hope to see you at one or all of these events! 

A Poem for all English Majors...

In preparing a class about Percy Shelley's poetry, I remembered a funny poem I once read (using Shelley's poem, "Ozymandias") talking about how a math major became an English major for life. The poem is below--and I think most of you can relate to the sentiment! So much crazy stuff happens on the Third Floor!

Prof of Profs, 

by Geoffery Brock

I was a math major—fond of all things rational.
It was the first day of my first poetry class.
The prof, with the air of a priest at Latin mass,
told us that we could “make great poetry personal,”

could own it, since poetry we memorize sings
inside us always. By way of illustration
he began reciting Shelley with real passion,
but stopped at “Ozymandias, King of Kings;

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!”—
because, with that last plosive, his top denture
popped from his mouth and bounced off an empty chair.

He blinked, then offered, as postscript to his lecture,
a promise so splendid it made me give up math:
“More thingth like that will happen in thith clath.”

See you in class...and watch out for flying dentures! 

Capstone: Not an End, a Beginning

For many English majors, the ENG 4883: Publications and Portfolio Capstone course represents an end, not a beginning. And there’s something to that, to be sure. It’s called capstone for a reason. ENG 4883 is designed, in part, to facilitate the assembly of students’ senior portfolio. However, it does much more than that. In fact, it does things that are far more important than the assembly of the portfolio. 

Dr. McMahon and her Capstone Students at the Capstone Showcase last December 

Arguably, ENG 4883’s most critical function is not as a capstone, but as a foundation, or better yet, as stepping stone. ENG 4883 is designed to help ready English majors for the opportunities they will face after graduation. It helps them prepare resumes and write cover letters for jobs. It helps them understand how to present themselves effectively in personal statements, with an eye to the different situations for which those statements are produced, and the different audiences that will assess them. It helps students develop their confidence and competence as scholars. It acquaints them with the basic practices and expectations associated with attending conferences, giving conference presentations, and publishing in scholarly journals. It helps them locate these scholarly options. Moreover, it provides the supportive platform off which students can seize these opportunities. 

Not only does every student present original work in an on-campus showcase similar to an academic conference, students are encouraged to take their work on the road. And the majority of them do! For instance, in Fall 2019, seven of the eleven students enrolled in the class presented their work at an undergraduate or professional conference. And since the end of the fall semester, four more capstone students have had works accepted for conferences in 2020. 

Capstone isn’t just the pinnacle of your English coursework at ECU; it’s your step up to the place you want to go.

English Department Events This Week!

There are several big events in and outside the department this week! 

1. “American Studies in Ukraine” lecture by our visiting professor from Ukraine, Dr. Vysotskay, January 16 at 3:00 in HM 347. The lecture is free and everyone is encouraged to attend! 

2. Also on Thursday, the Ada Public Library's Let's Talk About It, Oklahoma will feature a book lecture/discussion on Homer's The Odyssey led by Dr. Joshua Grasso. The event is free and features a light meal between the lecture and discussion. 

3. NYT Live's Presentation of The Tragedy of Richard II, this Friday, January 17th at 6:30. This is a great opportunity to see Shakespeare on the London stage, as well as glimpsing some of the greatest British actors of our time performing the greatest writer in the English language! Don't miss out! 

Call for High School Essays--"The Ludwig Lesson"

Calling all High School Writers and Their Teachers! 

Submit essays for "The Ludwig Lesson," a Beethoven-Inspired Writing Contest! The contest is part of ECU's Beethoven at 250! Celebration this February 23rd and the Hallie Brown Fine Arts Center. The event is free to the public, and essay winners will get a chance to read their works before the audience! 

You can choose one of the following options for your essay (length is not important): 

Option A) Write about a specific piece of Beethoven's that you find truly inspiring and moving. It could be a single movement of a symphony or concerto or sonata. You might consider the opening of the Moonlight Sonata (No. 14), the slow movement of the 9th Symphony, the last movement of the 5th or the 7th symphonies, for example. You can explain how the music does what it does either technically or purely in terms of sound or emotion. 

Option B) Write about any valuable lessons that can be learned from Beethoven's life, the times he lived in, his personal and political struggles, or his unique talents. You might consider his political radicalism, his enthusiasm and later disillusionment with Napoleon, or the psychological and physical challenges he faced. You might comment on how his life experience and his achievements are relevant to you personally and to modern society more generally.

E-mail entries to jgrasso@ecok.edu by February 9th! All entries will be acknowledged and the winners will be contacted no later than the 16th. 

The concert itself will feature performances by the ECU Wind Ensemble, Symphonic Band, British Band, Jazz Band, and Chorale. Also, Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 14, the "Moonlight" will be performed by the Winner of the Statewide Beethoven at 250 Contest. The date is February 23 @ 230 at the Hallie Brown Fine Arts Center.

E-mail jgrasso@ecok.edu with any questions! Good luck! 

Check out Alum Tyler Lee's (BA '11) new novel, Load Custom Character

One of our English major alums, Tyler Lee (Class of 2011), has recently published his second book of speculative fiction, Load Custom Character. It's already gotten quite a bit of buzz on-line and the reviews are pouring in--almost universally positive. Having had a chance to read it over break, I can attest that it's well worth your time. It follows the tradition of "people sucked into a fantasy world and forced to fight for their lives," yet without making it sound like a by-the-numbers approach. If you read or watched Ready Player One, you'll like this book, and you'll like how he subtly subverts the narrative so you're not getting quite the same story--indeed, he offers quite a few surprises along the way.

Not convinced yet? Read my brief Goodreads review below and support his book! Links to the review and the book are below:

REVIEW: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3107327298?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1

BUY THE BOOK: https://www.amazon.com/Load-Custom-Character-Tyler-Lee-ebook/dp/B0825DQGD8/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1RVERB1JWNOZ&keywords=load+custom+character&qid=1577987215&s=books&sprefix=load+custom%2Caps%2C199&sr=1-1

Congratulations to Ginger Johnson and Abby Nance!

Last week, two of our majors, Ginger Johnson (English/Math) and Abby Nance (English Teacher Cert.) successfully passed their Honors Thesis Defense! After completing a 70+ page thesis, both students were required to spend an hour discussing and defending their research before their mentor professor (Dr. McMahon for Ginger, Dr. Grasso for Abby), Dr. Benton (Honors Director) and two other professors, one from the English department and one from an outside department. The discussions were wide-ranging and tested how well the students understood the ramifications of their research, and how they might extend this research into further inquires and projects. Both Ginger and Abbey kept remarkably cool during the "grilling" and impressed their committee members with their knowledge, enthusiasm, and sheer willingness to play along. 

Ginger Johnson's thesis was entitled, "Lost in Pixelation: The Representation of Women From Book to Screen." As she writes in the paper, "This paper will be divided into three chapters to identify commonalities in the transformation of the aforementioned characters from text to screen. The first will look at the way in which each character’s role in the plot is affected to see ways in which their characters are used to push the plot of the story. Moreover, it will examine the way in which the characters are regularly transfigured into tropes such as damsels in distress, love interests, or friend. In the second chapter, relative strength of character will be examined. We will look at changes to the characters regarding intelligence, values, and individuality. Finally, in chapter three, image will be examined, particularly the way in which the transition from page to screen results in modifications to characters’ physical appearance and self-image."

Abby Nance's thesis was entitled, "How Jane Austen Re-Wrote Gothic Literature." Her abstract explains that, "From its beginning in the 1700s, there have been many examples of authors who participated in the writing of gothic novels, and there is one author in particular who contributed greatly to the gothic movement: Jane Austen. Austen is one of the most influential writers in the literary world, and she is mostly known for writing novels such as Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility, but she also wrote a more explicitly gothic novel called Northanger Abbey. Based on my research into gothic literature and into Jane Austen’s works, I have determined that Jane Austen used gothic themes throughout most, if not all, of her writing, and not only in those works that are explicitly gothic. Not only is Jane Austen’s work heavily influenced by gothic themes, but it is her rewriting of these themes that make her works something uniquely different from other gothic novels. Austen is able to use these themes to create a familiarity in her stories, while also changing them to create something new. This rewriting of the gothic is something we still do in our culture today, and Jane Austen is one of the biggest proponents of this movement through her many works."

Congratulations Ginger and Abby!