The Words- May 2014
Sneak Peak at 2014-2015 Courses
By Jolena Zabel ’16
It has been a stellar year in the English Department. From the Welcome Back lunch in the fall (but actually, how amazing were those beignets?!) to the End of the Year Celebration, it’s been a year filled with fun events, free coffee, and the magical sort of camaraderie that can only happen on the second floor of Old Main.
As finals are upon us once again and the academic year is reaching its end, it is time to look forward to many new and exciting opportunities for returning English majors. English Department Chair Terry Krier is especially excited for the new school year. “We are so glad to have the band back together again!” she says. “Everyone who was on leave for some or all of 2013-14 will be back: Peter Bognanni, Daylanne English, Casey Jarrin, and Kristin Naca.”
Joining the already impressive ranks will be two visiting professors from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. This fall, Patricia Baehler will be teaching a course on 18th-century American Literature and Jennifer Baltzer-Lovato will teach British Romanticism. These are both courses that have not been offered at Macalester in a while. “As someone who adores Romanticism and its effects in our own cultures,” says Terry, “I am especially glad to get that rich movement back into our department.”
There will also be several new courses offered for the very first time by current faculty this fall. Lesley Goodman is teaching two: The Brontes, and Victorian Literature and the Global Imagination. “I wanted to emphasize that Victorian Lit and the Global Imagination is not only about the increasing sense of the wideness and interconnectedness of the world – it’s also about that as a problem of narrative representation,” says Professor Goodman. The Brontes course will also explore less-studied aspects of the literature. “I want to spend some time thinking about what they call ‘the Bronte myth’,” says Goodman. “Mostly Charlotte and Emily for being wild children, native geniuses, eccentric. There is a sort of mystery and fascination around their identities.”
Matt Burgess is also teaching a new course next semester titled Creative Writing Through Homer. Unlike most creative writing courses, the Iliad and the Odyssey are the only two books on the reading list. “We’re going to read less, but more deeply,” says Burgess. He believes that these texts in particular are often underread, but that Homer’s diverse writing techniques can be incredibly beneficial to growing writers. During the semester, the students in the class will write two stories and a poem, but the subject matter does not need to be related to the texts. “We’re going to use the toolbox of fiction-writing like we would in any other class, but we are going to look for those elements in Homer.”
There is certainly plenty to look forward to in the English Department, and Professor Krier encourages everyone to take advantage of the new opportunities. “It will be a terrific year for innovation and scope in our course,” she says.