The Question: Why We Read and Write Literature

Major thanks to the philosophy department's Sharon Ryan, who put together a great video and essays from English department faculty and grad students answering The Question: Why we read and write literature. The video and some essays are posted here. See what motivates us as scholars and artists to engage with the worlds of literature.

Michael Austin's new book on the Founding Fathers

A former professor of mine, Michael Austin, has a new book on how the Founding Fathers have been redeployed by the right wing as a kind of stick to shut down reasonable debate. The title of the book is That's Not What They Meant!: Reclaiming the Founding Fathers from America's Right Wing.

I post this to TCH partially because we have people who work on early American lit, but also to kind of reprise some of the issues raised in Adam Komisaruk's Public Spheres Seminar from last Spring, and related less directly to Ryan Claycomb's Fall Seminar on uses of the past (though not British postmodernism). You can watch the After Words interview with Michael where he talks extensively about how the idea of the Founders functions rhetorically in contemporary public politics and in the public sphere of the Early Republic. Of course, history is used continually in the public sphere as a source of authority for certain points, but Michael's book points to a flaw in the rhetorical use of 'The Founding Fathers,' namely that there was no such thing as 'The Founding Fathers' as a kind of "collective hive mind" as Michael says in the interview. However, Michael also notes that shifting the discourse to 'some' or 'many' Founding Fathers would destroy the power of the rhetorical appeal. In other words, any position that evokes a hive mind collective of Founding Fathers relies on a logical fallacy for its authority, but despite the fallacious quality the position is incredibly effective (dangerously so, Michael argues) for limiting the sphere of what can 'legitimately' be considered in public policy.

You can follow the blog that lead up to TNWTM! here, and Michael's newest blog attempting to encourage civil and rational debate about contemporary political issues here.

Stiff Dick and other Appalachian wonders

Illustration by L. Leslie Brooke in The
House in the Wood and Other Fairy
Stories  (London, 1909)

Stop me if you've heard this one.

Once upon a time,

...this orphan boy's a going along, traveling, [and] he had him a paddle.  Walking along, [he sees] seven of these big old green flies a settin'.  And he upped his paddle and killed seven at the lick.  He traveled on, and then he went and had a buckle put on his belt and had it printed on his buckle,

Stiff Dick:
Killed Seven at a Lick.

First thing he knowed, he got to the king's house, and he went in and stayed 'til dinner.  And the king, he got done eating and he happened to notice this on his belt.  When he got done eating, he said, "You must be a terrible warrior."  Says, "Here it is on your belt: 'Stiff Dick:  Killed Seven at a Lick.'"

Says, "You're the very man I've been looking for.  I've got a job for you.  There's a unicorn and a lion and a wild boar in these woods that destroyed--no telling the people and stock that they destroyed.  I never could run acrost no man brave enough to destroy 'em--til you."

Some of the tenants might recognize this as a cognate of the Grimm Brothers' "The Brave Little Tailor," but this version was collected in 1939 from Samuel Harmon of Maryville, Tennessee.  And it's one of many traditional European folk- and fairy tales that migrated to the U. S., and specifically to Appalachia, that Carl Lindahl of the University of Houston will be focusing on with participants in the English Department's 20th annual Summer Seminar in Literary and Cultural Studies.

Even if you're not participating in the whole seminar, though, you can find out more about these narrative gems when Prof. Lindahl kicks off the seminar with a public lecture titled "The Magic of the Eternal Frontier" this Thursday evening, June 9th, at 7:30 p.m. in 130 Colson Hall.

Please join us for the lecture and stick around for a reception afterward.  Honorary belt-buckle to be awarded to the attendee who can eat seven Flying WV cookies in one lick.

If you're feeling more low-brow, check out this 1938 Mickey Mouse version.

BTW, the hero of Harmon's story never quails at the prospect of catching giants or killing unicorns.  Get it together, Mickey!

Registration deadline for the Summer Seminar is nigh!

Tenants and friends, just a reminder that the deadline to register for the English Department's 2011 Summer Seminar in Literary and Cultural Studies is tomorrow, April 29th.* 

This summer's topic is "American Magic: The Fates of Folk and Fairy Tales in the Appalachians," and the seminar will run from June 9-12.  Carl Lindahl of the University of Houston, whose scholarship in both medieval literature and folklore has been highly praised, is the seminar leader. 

The seminar explores the Appalachian märchen tradition, with emphasis on the disjunctions, gaps, and misunderstandings in much of the work on these traditions:  in particular, we'll consider why most of the documented examples of such tales come from men, when women seem to have been the more active tellers of these stories, and also why West Virginia is underrepresented in collections of Appalachian märchen.

If your only exposure to Appalachian folktales is through Richard Chase's Jack Tales, join us to discover how much more complex and varied this tradition really is.  This is a non-credit seminar, so you only need to do the readings and enjoy the discussions--no papers, no exams, no stress.

Details and a downloadable registration form are available here.  Grad students in the English Department can register at the discounted rate of $125!

*Well, OK.  Realistically, we can probably take registrations for another week or so. But please, don't delay!

Fashion With The Tenants

I'm thinking if the tenants ever start a kick ball team (can we? please, please?) we'll have to invest in some jerseys--and what better than tees based on literary characters?

The LA Times recently did a round up on literary shirts, (read it here) but the stand out seems to be these sports team style shirts (flip through the company's look book here).

I've seen these on a couple different blogs so far (from the fug girls and also academic cog)

but figured it was still worth sharing here. I'm especially in love with the Bartelby insignia--that good ole' Scrivener, but the Captain Ahab and Poe (the number 13, naturally) have their own charm.