In This Issue:

*Viva Inglese
     by Noelle Templeton

*???
     by Fannetta Jones

*???
     by Alex Nall

*Courses to Keep an Eye on Next Year
     by the World Renowned MC English Professors

*Mrs. Hudson's Tea
     courtesy of Professor Roberts

*Survey Says!

*Announcements!

*Words of the Month

*Mellinger Tutoring Hours

Viva Inglese

By: Noelle Templeton

     As English majors, we are taught to cherish language, respect its origins, and apply or bend its rules with care and consideration, but I did not fully appreciate the power of words until I was unable to communicate.  In August of last year, I fled Monmouth for Florence, Italy to study art and history through a program with the Associated Colleges of the Midwest (ACM) http://www.acm.edu/index.html.   I expected my semester abroad to hardly incorporate my English degree, other than the fact that Florence is the birthplace of Dante (whose church, by the way, is a single room filled with baskets of letters professing unrequited love and became my favorite location in the city).  Somehow, my study of the Italian language and culture has revamped my love for English; actually, it enhanced my respect for the power of words in any language.    
 Knowing only a handful of Italian phrases, I treasured those words while abroad, grew excited when I heard them in passing, used them too frequently to blend in, and delighted in the silly translations of Florentine idioms (upon seeing something wonderful, one might exclaim, “fa un buco!” or “dig a hole!”).  Of course there were daily misunderstandings and cultural faux pas, but I think the language was created just to mess with foreigners.  Why else would the phrases “to get lost” and “to get naked” sound distressingly similar?   
 The funny thing is, living in Italy has helped me appreciate the English language more, along with all of our expressions which are impossible to translate, like “off the top of my head.”  Some don’t make any sense to me but can delicately express and otherwise ugly situation:  “three sheets to the wind,” for example.  Many are quite lovely.  I especially like the saying, “to collect one’s thoughts,” both for the sound and the image.  English may sound more harsh and less chic than Italian, but it has just as many beautiful maxims and clever phrases as any other language.

Article

Today’s ‘Great Expectations’

By Alex Nall

    Our British Survey 2 class just finished reading Charles Dickens’ masterpiece ‘Great Expectations’ and upon its completion a feeling of satisfaction overcomes the reader. Although it is a bulky Victorian novel, Dickens’ novel is brimming with exciting characters, a plot that swerves with surprises and suspense and ultimately concludes on a hopeful note for the future. The story centers around an orphan named Pip and his transcendence into high society via a mysterious fortune that he is to inherit from an anonymous donator. Pip’s journey is not easy and Dickens does this to show the harsh reality of aging in a changing society. The novel is a bildungsroman, a novel that chronicles a protagonist’s coming-of-age. Pip fits this category quite nicely considering at the start of the novel he is a scared little boy who shamefully lies to his sister and his best friend, Joe Gargery, a simple-minded but loveable blacksmith. Pip soon transforms into a figure of high society when he comes into possession of a vast fortune, of which he is not to know the possessor of until he becomes of age (Dickens uses the benefactor’s identity to include a great mystery within the novel). With this transformation comes a degree of careless arrogance from Pip, a trait that eventually leads him into situations with the law, the love of his life and other characters in the novel. Other great characters in this novel include Miss Havisham, a spinster who lives in a rundown mansion and hasn’t seen the sun in years; Herbet, Pip’s best friend (And from the way Herbert speaks to Pip, you’d wish he was too), and an escaped convict that periodically shows up throughout Pip’s life. All of these characters intertwine throughout Pip’s adolescence and adulthood and arrive at a turning point, not only in each other’s lives, but the world’s as well.

One of Dickens’ themes in the novel is acknowledging the Industrial Revolution as a great event that forever changed the lives of workers alike, but at the same time was to be cautioned for the impending consequences that came with that societal change. Pip is a great representation of a country undergoing a transformation in its political, secular and economic fashion. However, it is Joe who ultimately gets the most important line in the novel. After paying a visit to his now-wealthy friend, Joe senses the embarrassment he has caused Pip due to his inability to read or properly present himself in front of London’s prestige. Speaking simply, Joe states “Life is made of ever so many partings welded together, as I may say, and one man’s a blacksmith, and one’s a whitesmith, and one’s a goldsmith, and one’s a coppersmith...I’m wrong in these clothes. I’m wrong out of the forge, the kitchen, or off th’ meshes” (215). It is in this one paragraph that Joe clearly illustrates Dickens’ criticism of class distinction- a part of life that changed for hundreds of people with the coming of the Industrial Revolution. Dickens wanted to make sure that readers of his time period understood that without workers, the state is nothing and while Joe may not be the sharpest tool in the forge but he knows where he belongs, as opposed to Pip who is still undergoing his great expectations.

Many students can share in Pip’s experience as our own country moves forward into a new decade full of possibilities for the future in the areas of economics, global politics and alternative ways of living. Dickens’ ‘Great Expectations’ is full of moments where readers can reflect on their own lives- whether they be a down-and-out Pip or an hardworking soul like Joe- and realize that even one hundred and fifty years after its original publication, ‘Great Expectations’ has many things to show them.

Courses to Keep an Eye on Next Year

Fall 2009

English 180: Introduction to Literature (Willhardt)

English 210: Creative Writing- Practice in the writing and critical analysis of imaginative literary forms, especially poetry and fiction. (Bruce)

English 220 British Survey- Beginning with the canonical alliterative epic Beowulf and continuing through the works of Samuel Johnson in the eighteenth century, this course covers roughly ten centuries of British literature. Our goals in this course are twofold (at least): to provide a chronology of (mostly) canonical British literature and to develop a sense of literary historicity as well as to think deeply about literature rooted in cultures simultaneously comparable to and disparate from our own. The poetry and drama of times distant—in Old English (Beowulf), Middle English (Chaucer), and early modern English (Shakespeare)—challenge us to consider the value of studying literature: what are the values of literary study as a window into other lives, times, and cultures? What is the value of literary analysis as a mirror—providing insight into our own desires, motives, and subjectivity?  For more information, see http://personal.monm.edu/mmb/English-_220/index.html please note that this site has not been updated for the Fall 2010 course. (Belschner)

English 224: Survey of American Literature I— This course is the first, introductory survey focusing on the myths, poetry, political essays, and fiction written from the Colonial American era through the Civil War. This course will emphasize literary, cultural, and historical movements through our study of short stories, essays, and poetry by influential and important early American writers. We will address major themes and movements in American literature and also, hopefully, gain an understanding of how American identity has been defined, interpreted, and re-interpreted through American literature to the Civil War. (Bruce)

ENGL 347: African American Autobiography and Fiction  (Watson)

ENGL 348: Modern British Novels (Hale)

TEDP 371 (Roberts)

Spring 2010

English 180:  (Roberts)

English 200: Introduction to English Studies— This course is a gateway to the English major. It is designed to introduce majors and minors to the broad range of scholarship and practice within the discipline of English. Included will be emphasis upon close reading and research skills, as well as overviews of the history of the discipline, creative writing, literary criticism and theory, and vocational paths. (Hale)

ENGL 201: Grammar (Roberts)

ENGL 210: Creative Writing (Bruce)

ENGL 225: American Survey II (Watson) 

English 250 Shakespeare on Film- This one-credit course is only available to those students who are already enrolled in Shakespeare's Tragedies and Romances. Bi-weekly, students will view a film version of the play discussed in 362; students will meet for an hour on opposing weeks to submit a journal entry and discuss the film.  Films may include Parker's Othello, Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet, and Greenaway's Prospero's Book among others.  Also, Julie Taymor (Titus) is releasing a new version of The Tempest in 2010!  Students will be introduced to film theory and criticism. The additional reflection on the films will definitely enhance understanding of the plays--and these are exciting, innovative adaptations to boot!  This one-credit course does not count as a full course toward the major requirements and awaits the final approval of the faculty Curriculum Committee. (Belschner)

English 301:  Advanced  Composition— Better entitled “Literary Nonfiction” this course is a complement to the two creative writing courses offered by the Department.  A craft course, we will work on understanding the various subgenres of literary nonfiction by reading widely and writing copiously.  The idea is to learn to tell true stories, but tell them as if they were fiction, keeping in mind ways to generate character, scene, plot, and that most elusive of all elements, style. (Willhardt)

ENGL 349: Hawthorne and Melville (Watson)

English 350 Seventeenth Century Poetry and the Self

"Cogito ergo sum"--"I think, therefore I am."

The first half of the term will be devoted to poets including but not limited to William Shakespeare, John Donne, Andrew Marvell, Katherine Phillips, and Robert Herrick, and the second half of the term will focus predominantly on John Milton's Paradise Lost.  Close readings of the poetry will consider the new sense of self--of interiority--that appeared in the seventeenth century and that prefigures the Cartesian self: "I think, therefore I am".  This sense of self creates new types of relationships between individuals and the sacred, between marital and sexual partners, and between readers and authors that strongly impacts how we understand our selves in relationship to God, our partners, and our literature today. We will also compare earlier visual art to seventeenth century art for signs of this change in the sense of self. (Belschner)

ENGL 361: Shakespeare’s Histories and Comedies 

English 362 Shakespeare's Tragedies and Romances-This course will explore the themes and characters of Shakespeare's most exciting plays including Othello, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and The Tempest.  Class discussion will emphasize the major questions of these plays--What motivates Iago? Why doesn't Hamlet act sooner?  What is wrong with Romeo?--as well as closely examine the language, structure, genre, historical context, and major themes of these plays.  Students will watch a film or two but those students interested in immersing themselves in Shakespearean film should also enroll in English 250 Shakespeare on Film.  The midterm project will be a film interpretation of a theme or scene and the final project will be a formal essay. Please see http://personal.monm.edu/mmb/Shakespeare/index.htm for more information; note that the site has not been updated for Spring 2011. (Belschner)

ENGL400: Senior Seminar  (Willhardt)
 

Survey Says!!!!

 Who is your favorite female writer?

Shirley Jackson, at the moment.                   

-Alex Kane

announcements!!!

Support your classmates in the theatre's production of Sweeney Todd. Showtimes are April 15-18th. 7:30pm April 15th-17th, 2pm April 17th & 18th. Tickets are $6, $5 for Students $ Seniors, $4 MC ID

Sulci meets every Thursday at 9pm in Mellinger.

Words of the Month
Do you know what they mean?
if not, look 'em up, use 'em well!

Isotropic

Pyroclastic

Stichomythia

Defenstration

Alex Nall
anall@monm.edu

Noelle Templeton
ntempleton@monm.edu