Through the study of art, literature, film, and popular culture, this course will explore how the idea of “motherhood” has been historically constructed in the United States. Foregrounding study in the matrifocal nineteenth century, we will examine the origins of the “American Madonna” and explore how she has haunted the American imagination since the antebellum period. This course will also consider writers and thinkers who willfully resist the idealization of motherhood and who present an alternative maternal discourse that more fully expresses the complex experience of women who are mothers.
For more information go to the American Madonna Web page or contact Dr. Wearn at mary.wearn@maconstate.edu
A HUMN 3999 Special Topics Course
SPRING 2008
Dr. Mary Wearn
T-TH 2:00-3:15
English major Jeannie Huff will be participating in the 2nd annual Undergraduate Conference on Medieval Studies and Early Modern Studies at Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania on December 1st. She was selected from a national competition to participate in this academic conference.
Huff’s paper “The Parody of Courtly Love as Exemplified in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night,” was originally written for her Literature of the English Renaissance class, which is taught by Dr. Karmen Lenz. Dr. Lenz, who emphasizes undergraduate research in her classroom, will travel with Ms. Huff to the conference.
“The Parody of Courtly Love as Exemplified in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night”
Twelfth Night is clearly a statement of the value of love that all of Shakespeare’s comedies seemingly celebrate. It raises ironic questions about the ways in which the difficulties of love are resolved in the Renaissance era. In Shakespeare’s examination of love in Twelfth Night, he explores the importance of love, and seems to question the ideals of love (namely “courtly love”) that the play endorses. He states, through the idea of gender confusion, that there lies the need to defy the rules of love that were maintained in the period in order to really understand what love is. The most obvious manifestation of this occurs in the love triangle of Orsino, Viola, and Olivia.
Heather Braun will present her research on Victorian writer, Mary E. Coleridge (1861-1907), the great-grand niece of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Dr. Braun will be circulating an excerpt of her scholarly work in advance of the presentation.
This Publish or Pasta event, hosted by Karmen Lenz, will be held on Friday, November 30th at 4:30 pm. For more information, contact Karmen Lenz (karmen.lenz@maconstate.edu).
