Africana Studies & Irish Studies: Two Roads Diverged Program #1

Dr. Lauren Shohet essay on Christopher Cook

Dr. Lauren Shohet's reflective essay "The Unruly Pearl" is included in the catalogue for the show "Christopher Cook: A Sign of Things To Come," on exhibit at the Ryan Lee Gallery in Chelsea (527 W. 26th St) Oct 10-Nov 16. This English artist currently works mostly in graphite, a medium he describes as between painting and drawing. Dr. Shohet's essay considers relationships between Cook's work and the Baroque.

Cook, Paradigm Shift

Cook, At the Opera

"Modern British Novel" at the Barnes

Prof. Megan Quigley's "Modern British Novel" courses visited the Barnes Foundation at its new location downtown in Philadelphia on Saturday, Oct. 4th.  Seeing works by Matisse, Picasso, Soutine, Modigliani and many others helped to bring home the parallel stylistic experimentalism in fiction in the early twentieth-century.  What a great resource nearby!

Prof. Quigley's students at the Barnes

Literary Fiction and Enhanced Social Skills

After reading literary fiction (as opposed to popular fiction or serious nonfiction), people "performed better on tests measuring empathy, social perception and emotional intelligence."  Researchers say "the reason is that literary fiction often leaves more to the imagination, encouraging readers to make inferences about characters and be sensitive to emotional nuance and complexity." Click here to read more about the study.

One of the pieces of "literary fiction" cited in the study

English Table at 2013 Majors Fair

This year's poster

Nkiruka Umegbolu, Danielle Sekerak, Nelson Rice

Mary Grace Mangano, Lily Suh, Jenny Lee

Talking to prospective majors

The Wildcat in the Rye Experience

The following was written by Maria MacGeary, a student in one Prof. Jody Ross' fall classes, who attended the Catcher event.

More than seventy-five students gathered in the common room of Good Counsel on October 3rd to participate in a reading and discussion of J.D. Salinger's timeless novel, The Catcher in the Rye. The crowd spread across chairs and floorspace, even overflowing into the balcony above, to be a part of this event put on by the Villanova English Department.

Prof. Kamran Javadizadeh addressing the gathering. 

Professor Kamran Javadizadeh opened the evening with a short reading in which the novel's main character, Holden Caulfield, visits a museum. Reading The Catcher in the Rye again and again, according to Javadizadeh, is much like Holden's description of visiting the same museum displays; they remain unchanging, the same as always, despite the constant change experienced by the visitor. Each visit, each reading, offers opportunity for new interpretation, new perspective.

Following this brief introduction, the floor was handed to the six readers, students representing the Villanova English Department. The lectors alternated, reading chapter thirteen of the novel, one of the more provocative scenes in which Holden interacts with a prostitute in his hotel room.

The reading.

After the reading, the student leaders organized the crowd into discussion groups, posing questions about Holden as a character, symbolism, thematic elements, and Salinger's writing style.  Junior English major Emily Crooker, a lover of Salinger, told her group that the best thing about The Catcher in the Rye is the discovery of “a new meaning with every reading, whenever you return to it.”

Group discussion.

Crooker also said that the Department hopes to host more of these events in the future, discussing novels with widespread influence, such as The Great Gatsby. The intention is to make English more accessible to freshman, as well as promote information about the English Department and Major at Villanova.

Freshman Julie Piscina's copy of Catcher, which she has read more than 20 times!

Dr. Lauren Shohet at the International Conference on the Book

At the International Conference on the Book in Regensburg, Germany, Dr. Lauren Shohet gave a paper on artwork in southern-German churches that represents one medium (such as books, music, or pens) within another (such as paintings or sculptures). Her paper was entitled "Ink into Stone: Re-Mediation in Architectural Decoration of the Upper-Swabian Baroque."

One of the images Dr. Shohet discussed, a rococo statue of St. Elizabeth with a book