Northern Illinois University
Midwestern Conference on Literature,
Language, and Media
2008
February 29 - March 1, 2008
DeKalb, Illinois
Table of Contents:
Brief Schedule of Events
Welcome from the Co-Chairs
Keynote: Dr. Russ Castronovo (Friday)
Keynote: Dr. David Bevington (Saturday)
Detailed Panel Schedule: Friday
Detailed Panel Schedule: Saturday
Acknowledgements
Brief Schedule of Events
Friday, February 29
Registration will be open from 10:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m., Room 305, Holmes Student Center.
NOTE: All A panels are in Room 405 of the Holmes Student Center, B panels in 406, C panels in 505, and D panels in 506.
1:00-2:30 p.m. Panels
1A— Early Modern (Re)Constructions of Gender
1B— Blackness in America
1C— The Operation of the Father Figure in Three Contemporary
Utopias
1D— Outsiders Coming Home to America
2:30-4:00 p.m. Panels
2A— Postcolonialism Revisits the Classics
2B— Women as Objects and the Complexities of Their
Relationships in Fitzgerald, O’Connor, and Morrison
2C— The Textual Music of Modernism
2D— Bibliographic Concerns in the Early Modern Travelogue
4:00-5:30 p.m. Panels
3A—New Media and Civic Discourse
3B—Genderscapes
3C— The Politics of Racial Representation in Emancipation Era
African American Publications
3D— Commodification and Pollution in Postcolonial Morality
5:30-7:00 p.m. Panels
4A— Interest and Motive in Textual Studies
4B— Media Stories
4C— The Early Modern Female World
4D—Narratives of Gender Subversion
7:00-8:00 p.m. Opening Reception in Altgeld Hall, Room 203.
8:00-9:00 p.m. Keynote address by Dr. Russ Castronovo, Room 315, Altgeld Hall.
Saturday, March 1
Registration will be open from 8:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m., Heritage Room, Holmes Student Center.
7:00-9:00 a.m. Continental Breakfast in Heritage Room, Holmes Student Center.
NOTE: All A panels are in Room 405 of the Holmes Student Center, B panels in 406, C panels in 505, and D panels in 506.
9:00-10:30 a.m. Panels
5A— Shakespeare from Stage to Screen
5B— Thirdspace: Redemption and Reconciliation
5C— Sagas of American War
10:30-12:00 p.m. Panels
6A— Conversations about Race
6B— Contrastive Lexicology and Discourse Analysis
6C— Façades and Performativity in Media
6D— Shakespearean Contexts: The Theatre, the Street, the Critics
12:00-1:00 p.m. Lunch (light sandwich buffet), Heritage Room, Holmes Student Center.
1:00-2:30 p.m. Panels
7A— Politics in the Media
7B— Indirect/In-Between Approaches to the Victorian Text
7C— Mapping Africa/America
7D— Space and Thirdspace
2:30-4:00 p.m. Panels
8A— The Early Modern Virgin/Whore Dynamic
8B— Gender Directives of Medieval Romance
8C— The Political Romantics
8D— Inversion, Reversion, Perversion: Nineteenth-Century
American Literature
4:00-5:30 p.m. Panels
9A— Royalty, the State, and Power in Shakespeare
9B— Taking a Second Look: Twentieth-Century Textual Hybridity
9C— Family and Class Struggles in Modernism
9D— Examination of Dominant Traits in Postmodern Literature
6:00-7:00 p.m. Buffet dinner, Room 203, Altgeld Hall.
7:00-8:00 p.m. Keynote address by Dr. David Bevington, Room 315, Altgeld Hall.
Welcome from the Co-Chairs
We feel
compelled to
acknowledge the heartbreaking tragedy that took place on our campus
February 14
of this year. We thank our participants, our keynote speakers,
and our
volunteers for attending. We are still coming to terms with the
tragedy, and
it will be a long journey of rebuilding and healing. However, the
journey does
begin with the first steps, and in that spirit, the University moves
forward
with the MCLLM 2008 conference.
We are grateful that you have chosen to support NIU by joining us in
making the
conference successful as we re-focus on the gifts of learning and
scholarship.
Thank you for being a part of the conference.
The keynote speakers we are hosting this year are Dr. David Bevington, Phyllis Fay Horton Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Humanities at the University of Chicago, and Dr. Russ Castronovo, Jean Wall Bennett Professor of English and American Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Dr. Bevington will present his address “Gender and Race in the Performance of Shakespeare’s Plays” on Saturday, March 1, in Altgeld Hall, Room 315.
Dr. Castronovo will present his address “Pamphlets, Propaganda, and Public Opinion: A Forgotten Critique of the Military-Industrial Complex” on Friday, February 29, in Altgeld Hall, Room 315.
We welcome you to the conference and hope that you thoroughly enjoy your time at MCLLM 2008.
Elizabeth Bowman and Christina Gilleran
Co-Chairs, MCLLM 2008
Dr. Russ Castronovo
“Pamphlets, Propaganda,
and Public Opinion:
A Forgotten Critique of the Military-Industrial Complex”
Dr.
Castronovo is the
Jean Wall Bennett Professor of English and American Studies at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison. His
work explores the
boundaries of the literary and political, especially globalism,
militarism, and
African American studies.
His most recent publications include Beautiful Democracy:
Aesthetics and
Anarchy in a Global Era, 2007, and Necro Citizenship:
Death,
Eroticism, and the Public Sphere in the Nineteenth-Century United States, 2001.
Friday, 8:00 p.m.
Altgeld Hall
Room 315
Dr. David Bevington
“Gender and Race in the Performance of Shakespeare’s Plays”
Dr. Bevington is the Phyllis Fay Horton Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Humanities at the University of Chicago, where he has taught since 1967, and adjunct faculty with the Center for Gender Studies.
His
multifarious
scholarship has engaged all aspects of medieval and early modern
English drama.
Recent publications include This Wide and Universal Theater:
Shakespeare in
Performance,
Then and Now, 2007; the Norton Anthology of Renaissance Drama
(senior editor), 2002; and The Politics of the Stuart Court Masque (editor
with Peter Holbrook), 1998.
Saturday, 7:00 p.m.
Altgeld Hall
Room 315
Detailed Panel Schedule: Friday
Friday, February 29
Registration open from 10:00-6:00 p.m., Room 305, Holmes Student Center.
NOTE: All A panels are in Room 405 of the Holmes Student Center, B panels in 406, C panels in 505, and D panels in 506.
1:00-2:30 p.m. Panels
1A— Early Modern (Re)Constructions of Gender
Chair: Dee Anna Phares, Northern Illinois University
Argamon, Shlomo, and Rebecca Chung. “‘All the Men and Women’: Automated Text Mining and Gender Construction in Shakespeare.” Illinois Institute of Technology, Department of Computer Science, and the University of Chicago, Department of English.
Kordecki, Lesley, and Karla Koskinen. “Staging Goneril: A Feminist Re-Appropriation of King Lear.” DePaul University, Department of English, and the University of Alabama, Department of Theater.
Mehdizadeh, Nedda. “Everyone Beware Livia.” George Washington
University, Department of English.
1B— Blackness in America
Chair: Kathleen Turner, Northern Illinois University
Dittman, Jonathon. “Medieval Concepts of Chivalry and Courtly Love in Charles Chesnutt’s The House Behind the Cedars.” University of St. Thomas.
Jardine, Susan. “Trading Places: The Reversal of Racial Positions in Richard Wright’s ‘Big Black Good Man.’” Northern Illinois University, Department of English.
Moore, Daniel. “On Em Dashes, Hyphens, and African-Americans: Aaron Douglas’s Contributions to The New Negro.” Queen’s University, Canada.
Simpkins, Chris Wilson. “Identity as Morality: The House Behind the Cedars and Perspective Theory.” San Francisco State University, Department of English.
1C— The Operation of the Father Figure in Three
Contemporary Utopias
Chair: Sarah Erickson, Northern Illinois University
Ingram, Abigail. “Fathers in Always Coming Home: The Importance of Paternity in a Feminist Utopia.” Eastern Illinois University.
Tyler, Arwen. “Cognition and Fatherhood: The Application of Ideals in The Coast of Utopia.” Eastern Illinois University.
Van Amerongen, Kristina. “The Effeminate Male in The Gate to Women’s Country: Androgynous Fathers in Sheri Tepper’s Utopian Novel.” Eastern Illinois University.
1D— Outsiders Coming Home to America
Chair: Alisa Smith-Riel, Northern Illinois University
Adair, Josh. “House Museums or Walk-In Closets? The (Non)Representation of Gay Men in the Museums They Called Home.” Northern Illinois University, Department of English.
Barko, Cortney. “Preserving an Idealized Past: Photographs of Harlem’s Architecture in Museums.” Northern Illinois University, Department of English.
Hodnik, Gina. “‘Does it stink like rotten meat?’: Examining the
Aesthetic Quality of Langston Hughes’s Radical Poems.” Northern Illinois University, Department of English.
2:30-4:00 p.m. Panels
2A— Postcolonialism Revisits the Classics
Chair: Robert Self, Northern Illinois University
Baab, Kelsie. “Women’s Supernatural Abilities in Morrison’s Beloved.” Northern Illinois University, Department of English.
Banerjee, Suchismita. “Redefining the ‘Magical’ in the Realm of Mama Day.” Wright State University, Department of English.
Erickson, Sarah. “‘You Want India, Without Having to Deal With
Indians’: Bride and Prejudice’s Hybridity Responds to Globalization.” Northern Illinois University, Department of English.
2B— Women as Objects and the Complexities of Their
Relationships in Fitzgerald, O’Connor, and Morrison
Chair: Keith Gandal, Northern Illinois University
Canavan, Anne. “Divine and Demonic: A Supernatural View of The Great Gatsby’s Daisy Buchanan.” Northern Illinois University, Department of English.
King, Amy. “Good Country Ideology and the (De)Construction of the Self.” Northern Illinois University, Department of English.Smith-Riel, Alisa. “The Reality of Race and Relationships in Toni Morrison’s Sula.” Northern Illinois University, Department of English.
2C— The Textual Music of Modernism
Chair: Cortney Barko, Northern Illinois University
Bosse, Walter. “‘You can’t two time’: American Jazz and Expatriate Social Sets in Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises.” University of Cincinnati, Department of English.
Ryan, Tim. “‘The Whole Round Country Is Overflowed’: The Great Mississippi Flood in Faulkner’s Fiction and the Delta Blues.” Northern Illinois University, Department of English.
Wade, Laura Scott. “Maggie’s Struggle for Sexuality and Self in Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.” DePaul University, MAE Program.
2D— Bibliographic Concerns in the Early Modern Travelogue
Chair: David Gorman, Northern Illinois University
Beier, Benjamin. “Golden Bookends: The Letters of Utopia.” University of Dallas.
Ramert, Lynn. “Travel Paradigms of the Seventeenth Century: William Shakespeare and Thomas Coryate.” Indiana University, Department of English.
Toms, Jennifer. “England in the Margins: The Editorial Practices of
Richard Hakluyt and Samuel Purchas.” Michigan State University, Department of English.
4:00-5:30 p.m. Panels
3A—New Media and Civic Discourse
Chair: Jessica Reyman, Northern Illinois University
Benson, John. “Rethinking Originality: Authorship, Pedagogy, and Remix Culture.” Northern Illinois University, Department of English.
Hatcher, Andrew. “Blogging and Public Discourse in a College Composition Course.” Northern Illinois University, Department of English.
Loynes, Ericka. “A Faceless Facebook: An Analysis of Hillary Clinton’s Online Political Language.” Northern Illinois University, Department of English.
3B—Genderscapes
Chair: Diana Swanson, Northern Illinois University
Demske, Lisa. “Masculine Landscapes: The Gendered Cold War of Sylvia Plath.” Western Michigan University.
DiSanto, Anthony. “The Blizzard Queens: Polar Exploration, Generic Conquest, and the Alternativity of Women’s History in Ursula K. LeGuin’s Sur.” Northern Illinois University, Department of English.
Wachal, Christopher. “The Queer Pacific: Sexuality and the Post-Postcolonial in Shyam Selvadurai’s Funny Boy.” Loyola University, Department of English.
3C— The Politics of Racial Representation in Emancipation Era
African American Publications
Chair: Deborah DeRosa, Northern Illinois Univeristy
Hooks, Karin. “Following The North Star: Frederick Douglass’s Fashioning and Refashioning of Himself in His Newspaper Prospectuses.” Ohio State University, Department of English.
Pipes, Candice. “The Power of
Whiteness: Lydia
Maria Child and Amy
Post’s Construction of Authorial Identity in the Publication of
Harriet Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.” Ohio State University,
Department of English.
Thomson-Gillis, Heather. “The White Life for Two: The Construction of Race in Frances E.W. Harper’s Sowing and Reaping and The Two Offers.” Ohio State University, Department of English.
3D— Commodification and Pollution in Postcolonial Morality
Chair: David Sweet, Northern Illinois University
Bradford, Adam. “Paine’s Common Sense: Documenting Dependence on the Extra-Legal Doctrines of Christ.” University of Iowa.
Clancy, Christina. “Will It Blend? Pollution as Metaphor in Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things.” University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Department of English.
Schuetze, Sarah “Commodities in the Christian Market: The Economics of Jonathan Edwards.” Cardinal Stritch University, Department of English.
5:30-7:00 p.m. Panels
4A— Interest and Motive in Textual Studies
Chair: David Gorman, Northern Illinois University
Kingery, Emily A. “May Contain Nuts: Authorship and the Use of Annotation in Works by Vladimir Nabokov and Mark Yakich.” Northern Illinois University, Department of English.
Knight, Bill. “MacLeish in McLuhan’s World: Poetry about the Press.” Western Illinois University, Departments of English and Journalism.
Theune, Michael. “Structure and Surprise: A New Approach for Poetry Writing Pedagogy.” Illinois Wesleyan University, Department of English.
4B— Media Stories
Chair: Christoph Lindner, Northern Illinois University
Damsz, Brent. “Critique of The Secret: How the New Age Film Operates as an Infomercial.” Northern Illinois University, Department of English.
Gemmel, Gina M. “Narratology and the New Breed of Sitcom.” Ohio State University, Department of English.
Miller, Robert M. “The Warner Brothers British Studio 1931-1943: A Long-Hidden Asset of Classic Hollywood.” Northern Illinois University, Department of Communication.
Petrovic, Paul. “‘You don’t wanna hear my message’: Counteracting a Monologic Language in Watkins’ Punishment Park.” Northern Illinois University, Department of English.
4C— The Early Modern Female World
Chair: Lise Schlosser, Northern Illinois University
Inbody, Megan M. “‘I’ll dispose them as it likes me best’: Courtesans as Agents of Empire in Tamburlaine.” Michigan State University, Department of English.
Al-Ghalith, Asad. “Restoration Comedy Heroines: Progress Towards Self-Awareness.” Al-Ahlia University, Department of English.
Nowocin, Laura. “‘Triumph Women!’: A Feminist Reading of Nashe’s The Unfortunate Traveler.” Miami University, Department of English.
Phares, Dee Anna. “‘she’s brought a bed’: The Child-bed as Domestic Stage on the Stage.” Northern Illinois University, Department of English.
4D—Narratives of Gender Subversion
Chair: Christopher Blankenship, Northern Illinois University
Guyant, Valerie L. “It’s All In the Blood.” Northern Illinois
University, Department of English.
Park, Chaeyoon. “The Happy Ex-Future Queen: Sovereignty and
Succession in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline.” University of Illinois—Urbana-Champaign, Department of English.
Phillips, Patrick. “‘God gave her the power to make a picture’: The
Authorship and Artistry of The Story of Avis.” University of Kansas, Department of English.
Scott, David. “Female Narratives, Identity & Social Structures in
Jane Eyre and Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit.” Boise State University.
Detailed Panel Schedule – Saturday
Saturday, February 29
Registration will be open from 8:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m., Heritage Room, Holmes Student Center.
7:00-9:00 a.m. Continental Breakfast in Heritage Room, Holmes Student Center.
NOTE: All A panels are in Room 405 of the Holmes Student Center, B panels in 406, C panels in 505, and D panels in 506.
9:00-10:30 a.m. Panels
5A— Shakespeare from Stage to Screen
Chair: Alexandra Bennett, Northern Illinois University
Barnes, Todd Landon. “Innervating Hamlet: Richard Burton’s Electronic Body and The Wooster Group’s Digital Stage.” University of California-Berkeley, Department of Rhetoric and Film Studies.
DiSanto, Anthony. “‘Something Rich and Strange’: Textuality, Adaptation, and Authorship in Prospero’s Books.” Northern Illinois University, Department of English.
Macdonald, Colin. “Leopards in the Temple: Technology, Gender, and Cold War Politics in MGM’s Shakespearean Adaptation, Forbidden Planet.” University of Pittsburgh, Department of English.
5B— Thirdspace: Redemption and Reconciliation
Chair: Bradley Peters, Northern Illinois University
Elliot, Okla. “Lyric Monsters: The Humanizing Process of Lyric Language in Antjie Krog’s Country of My Skull.” Ohio State University, Department of English.
Hageland, Katherine. “Thirdspace in Chaim Potok’s My Name is Asher Lev.” Northern Illinois University, Department of English.
Peckham, Rachael. “Identity Anxiety and the Power and Problem of Naming in African American and Jewish American Literature.” Ohio University, Department of English.
5C— Sagas of American War
Chair: Rachel Holtz, Northern Illinois University
Fuchs, Troy. “Lucien Stryk’s Poems Examine War as a Rite of Passage for All.” Northern Illinois University, Department of English.
Traisnel, Antoine. “Writing in the name of: Hawthorne’s ‘Chiefly About War Matters.’” Université de Lille 3/Brown University, Department of English.
Valenti, Nicholas. “It’s Not Easy Being Green: Growing into a Soldier’s
Experiences in Tim O’Brien’s Going After Cacciato.” Northern Illinois University, Department of English.
10:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m. Panels
6A— Conversations about Race
Chair: Tim Ryan, Northern Illinois University
Farmer, Sara Bagby. “Creating the African Diaspora: Global Cultural Translations in Edwidge Danticat’s The Dewbreaker and Paule Marshall’s Praise Song for the Widow.” Indiana University-Bloomington, African American and African Diaspora Studies.
Hipskind, Katelyn M. “Entering the Ring: The Role of the Black Autobiography in Canon Reformation.” Indiana University, African American and African Diaspora Studies.
McCollum, Sarah. “Cruelty, Compassion, and Consumption in Seventeenth-Century Texts about Slavery.” University of Tennessee, Department of English.
6B— Contrastive Lexicology and Discourse Analysis
Chair: Gulsat Aygen, Northern Illinois University
Manakin, Vladimir. “Slavonic Languages in Contrast.” University of Illinois at Chicago, Department of Communication.
Al-Momani, Hassan Ali Abdullah. “The Psychological and Social Dimensions of the Media Discourse of Jordan.” Western Michigan University, Department of English Language and Literature.
Pennie, Lisa M. “Positive Linguistic Features in Presidential Speeches.” Northern Illinois University, Department of English.
6C— Façades and Performativity in Media
Chair: Michael Day, Northern Illinois University.
Bajorek, Nikolas. “And That’s the Way
It Is: Heteroglossia
and
Dialogism in Comedy Central’s The Daily Show and The
Colbert Report.”
Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania, Department of English.
Baxter, Nicholas. “Live Action Role Playing: The Construction of Fantasy Identities within a Theatrical Game.” Northern Illinois University, Department of Sociology.
Woods, Ian. “‘I’m not quite the very measure of a modern major . . . man’: South Park’s Randy Marsh and Contemporary Masculine Anxiety.” Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, Department of English.
6D— Shakespearean Contexts: The Theatre, the Street, the
Critics
Chair: Doris Macdonald, Northern Illinois University
DiSanto, Anthony. “‘He Cannot Illustrate Shakespeare’: Johnson, Garrick, and the Shakespearean Ideal.” Northern Illinois University, Department of English.
Haslem, Lori Schroeder. “Imperilled Children in London Street Literature and in Shakespeare’s Romances.” Knox College, Department of English.
Lambert, James. “An Antitheatricalist’s Night’s Dream: Nick Bottom and the Theater.” University of Iowa.
12:00-1:00 p.m. Lunch (light sandwich buffet), Heritage Room, Holmes Student Center.
1:00-2:30 p.m. Panels
7A— Politics in the Media
Chair: Philip Eubanks, Northern Illinois University
Brittenham, Rebecca. “‘An Englishman’s Home Invaded’: Invasion Rhetoric as a Tool for War Preparedness.” Indiana University - South Bend, Department of English.
Foland, Clare. “Negative Political Ads, Positive Election Results: The Successful Use of Media for Political Candidates.” Northern Illinois University, Department of English.
Schooley, Jeffery A. “Living With Ourselves: The Master and Memory in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and the Lacanization of Communion.” Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.
7B— Indirect/In-Between Approaches to the Victorian Text
Chair: William Baker, Northern Illinois University
Etlinger, Sarah. “Taste Crusade: Reading Resistance in Victorian Cookbooks.” University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Department of English.
Jiang, Yanmei. “(In)direct Agency in Nineteenth Century Women’s Fiction.” University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Department of English .
Volkova, Inna. “Political Underworld in George Eliot’s Felix Holt, the Radical: Problems of Historical Possibilities.” Michigan State University, Department of English.
7C— Mapping Africa/America
Chair: Leah Kind, Northern Illinois University
Fajardo, Adam. “The Construction of Black Identity in The Birth of a Nation and Borderline.” Indiana University, Department of English.
Jennings, Lisa. “The Sweet Enemy: Petrarchan Discourse in the Sonnets of Claude McKay.” Florida State University, Department of English.
Lockett, Evelyn. “Black American Press and France after World War I: A Taste of Equality and Recognition for Black Americans.” University of Montreal / University of Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne, Department of History.
7D— Space and Thirdspace
Chair: James Giles, Northern Illinois University
Gwinner, Donovan. “Mission, Sisterhood, and Colonial Mimicry: The Indigenous Heroines of William T. Vollmann’s Fathers and Crows.” Aurora University, Department of English.
Sorgun, Sabiha. “Space, Identity, and Spirituality: Thirdspace(s) in Diana Abu-Jaber’s Arabian Jazz.” Northern Illinois University, Department of English.
Turner, Kathleen. “Extremely Liminated & Incredibly Empty: Empty Spaces in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.” Northern Illinois University, Department of English.
2:30-4:00 p.m. Panels
8A— The Early Modern Virgin/Whore Dynamic
Chair: Ibis Gomez-Vega, Northern Illinois University
Bailey, Byron. “‘Stop Her Mouth’: Class Transgression, Female Sexuality, and Brotherly Violence.” University of Cincinnati, Department of English.
Holland, Jennifer. “Volatile, Voluble Virginity and the Concept of Active Chastity.” University of St. Thomas, Department of English.
Williams, Kate. “‘Women on the Market’: The Exchange of Hamlet’s Ophelia.” Eastern Michigan University, Department of English.
8B— Gender Directives of Medieval Romance
Chair: Nicole Clifton, Northern Illinois University
Brovelli, Christine. “Mothers, Daughters, and the Courtesy Text: Middle English Lay le Freine.” Northern Illinois University, Department of English.
Kranz, Nickie. “Seduction and Sorcery in Middle English Secular Lyrics.” Minnesota State University-Mankato, Department of English.
Mills, Hannah. “Medb, Lady Bercilak, and Morgan le Fay: Positive Influences for Women.” Northern Illinois University, Department of English.
8C— The Political Romantics
Chair: Jeffrey Einboden, Northern Illinois University
Edwards, Brian. “Darwinian Shelley: Convergent Culture and Science in Prometheus Unbound.” Northern Illinois University, Department of English.
Hayes, Tim. “‘The Eternal Viper, Self-renew’d’: William Blake and the History of Revolution.” University of Missouri-Colombia.
Kolkey, Jason. “‘Without Contraries is No Progression’: Blake’s Morality in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.” Northern Illinois University, Department of English.
8D— Inversion, Reversion, Perversion: Nineteenth-Century
American Literature
Chair: Mark Van Wienen, Northern Illinois University
Johnston, Darlene. “Alcott’s Troubling Prostitute.” Ohio Northern University, Department of English.
Scheutze, Sarah. “‘Privately—I’ve seen her’: A Close Reading of Privacy in Gilman’s ‘The Yellow Wallpaper.’” Cardinal Stritch University, Department of English.
Sears, Shannon. “The Godless West: Exile in ‘The Blue Hotel.’” Michigan State University, Department of English.
4:00-5:30 p.m. Panels
9A— Royalty, the State, and Power in Shakespeare
Chair: Clare Foland, Northern Illinois University
Hendrickson, John. “A Broken Savior: The Flawed Christ Figure in Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure and The Tempest.” Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Department of English Literature and Criticism.
Klomp, Neal Robert. “Power and the Individual Measured.” Illinois State University, Department of English.
Konkle, Amanda. “‘What’s in a Name?’: Richard II and Shakespeare’s Elizabeth.” Miami University of Ohio, Department of English.
Thomas-Brashier, Adam. “‘A Glass Where You May See the Inmost Part’: Shakespeare’s National Self-Reflection in Hamlet.” University of Missouri-Kansas City, Department of English.
9B— Taking a Second Look: Twentieth-Century Textual
Hybridity
Chair: Ibis Gomez-Vega, Northern Illinois University
Hipp, Daniel. “Ian McEwan’s Atonement: Novel and Film and the Translation of Narrative Deception.” Aurora University, Department of English.
Miller, Bonnie. “Questioning the Notion of Hybridity: Feminist Solutions to Contradictions in Unity and Diversity.” Northern Illinois University, Department of English.
Rzepka, Amber. “Textual Differences in A.S. Byatt’s Possession.” Northern Illinois University, Department of English.
Stevenson, Sharon. “Why Does the Hero Eat Roses?” Central Michigan University, Department of English.
9C— Family and Class Struggles in Modernism
Chair: John V. Knapp, Northern Illinois University
Hatcher, Andrew. “(De)Historicizing The Octopus: Frank Norris and Class Consciousness.” Northern Illinois University, Department of English.
Jonnes, Denis. “Inge’s Orphans: Postwar Family Dynamics in The Drama of William Inge.” University of Kitakyushu, Japan, Department of Anglo-American Studies.
Markle, Christopher. “The Struggle for the American Soul: Issues of Class and Success as Seen in the Work of Philip Barry, Elmer Rice, and Clifford Odets.” Northern Illinois University, School of Theater and Dance.
Wade, Laura Scott. “‘I Am the Flesh that Always Affirms’: The Serpent and the Dove in Ulysses’ ‘Penelope.’” DePaul University, MAE Program.
9D— Examination of Dominant Traits in Postmodern Literature
Chair: Paul Petrovic, Northern Illinois University
Cowgill, Geoff. “‘All English Now’: The Elusive Quest for Identity in Postcolonial Novels of Immigration.” Eastern Illinois University, Department of English.
Lutz, Rachel. “Thank Heaven for Little Girls: The Female Child in Martin Amis’s Worlds Gone Wrong.” Eastern Illinois University, Department of English.
Pickering, Jessica. Eastern Illinois University, Department of English.
Taylor, Corey. “Q: Temporality and Identity in Postmodern Fiction.” Eastern Illinois University, Department of English.
6:00-7:00 p.m. Buffet dinner, Altgeld Hall, Room 203.
7:00-8:00 p.m. Keynote address by Dr. David Bevington, Altgeld Hall, Room 315.
Acknowledgements
The Midwestern Conference on Literature, Language, and Media was established to strengthen Northern Illinois University’s graduate English program, and to encourage unity and support among academics of all career stages, including established and senior scholars, especially for the benefit of graduate students. Even after the devastating tragedy of a day like February 14, 2008, or other tragic days that have passed into history, we must choose to continue in that work, with the invaluable support of our colleagues and our community. Today, we are more than ever deeply grateful for that enduring support, including, for MCLLM 2008:
* Dr. David and Peggy Bevington * Dr. Russ Castronovo * Anne Petty Johnson, Mark Pietrowski, and everyone in the office of LA&S External Programming * Dr. Betty Birner * Dr. Philip Eubanks * Dr. Christoph Lindner, our faculty advisor * Associate Dean Bradley Bond and the Graduate School * Dr. Bradley Peters * Dr. Doris Macdonald * Dr. David Gorman * Jan Vander Meer * Bonnie Anderson * The English Graduate Student Association * The Department of English faculty and staff * Karen Patton and the Graduate Colloquium * Dr. Amy Levin, Rebekah Kohli, and the Women’s Studies Program * Dean Christopher McCord and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences * Dr. Steven Ralston and the Department of Communication * Dr. John V. Knapp and Style Journal * Byron Anderson and the University Libraries * Rutledge/Taylor & Frances Group * all of our conference presenters.
We also thank the MCLLM 2007 co-chairs Cortney Barko, Angela Grimaldi, and Kathleen Turner for their generous assistance, including Cortney’s artistic poster designs and Kathleen’s help with our website. We are grateful to Alisa Smith-Riel and Tony DiSanto for all their support, Valerie Guyant for her wit and wisdom and hard work, Lise Schlosser for her encouragement, Sarah Greenwood and Rachel Holtz for their assistance, and everyone who helped with the abstract reading.
We thank those faculty members and graduate students from our department who gave of their time, energy, and enthusiasm to support the professional development of this conference, and especially the panel chairs: Dr. Gulsat Aygen, Dr. William Baker, Cortney Barko, Dr. Alexandra Bennett, Chris Blankenship, Dr. Nicole Clifton, Dr. Michael Day, Dr. Deborah DeRosa, Dr. Jeffrey Einboden, Dr. Philip Eubanks, Sarah Erickson, Clare Foland, Dr. Keith Gandal, Dr. James Giles, Dr. Ibis Gomez-Vega, Dr. David Gorman, Rachel Holtz, Leah Kind, Dr. John V. Knapp, Dr. Christoph Lindner, Dr. Doris Macdonald, Dr. Bradley Peters, Paul Petrovic, Dr. Dee Anna Phares, Dr. Jessica Reyman, Dr. Timothy Ryan, Lise Schlosser, Dr. Robert T. Self, Alisa Smith-Riel, Dr. Diana Swanson, Dr. David Sweet, Kathleen Turner, and Dr. Mark Van Wienen.
Elizabeth Bowman & Christina Gilleran
Co-Chairs, MCLLM 2008