May 2, 2014

Title: James Joyce’s Dubliners (1914): Giving a City to the World.

This year (2014) marks the centennial of the publication of James Joyce’s classic collection of short stories, Dubliners. This collection of sketches was Joyce’s attempt to give Dublin to the world. The book is a paradoxically naturalistic and symbol-haunted depiction of Irish middle-class life in the early years of the 20^th century when  the Irish Literary Revival was at its peak, and the search for a national identity and purpose was paramount. Joyce’s style of “scrupulous meanness” in his stories offers an ironic critique to such longings. He would instead diagnose a more profound condition of paralysis beneath the emerging nation’s cultural ideologies. This colloquium will present Joyce within the contexts of his family, his artistic ambitions, and the Irish Literary Revival, while also presenting his multifaceted creative engagement with the passion, paralysis, and loneliness inscribed in a city.

Originally from Dublin (a long time ago!), Patrick O’Donnell holds a Ph.D. in Anglo-Irish literature from University College Dublin, and teaches composition and literature at Normandale. He is an enthusiastic participant in the on-going Colloquium Series.

April 18, 2014

"Monstrous Tendencies: Of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Who" 

Jen Miller, Patrick O'Donnell, and Lynette Reini-Grandell, Faculty in English

Fans of Doctor Who and Sherlock Holmes were pleasantly shocked when long-time Doctor Who writer and producer Steven Moffat began also writing for Sherlock, a 21^st century version of Sherlock Holmes starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman.  Moffat has been famously quoted as saying, “The Doctor is the angel who aspires to be human and Sherlock is the human who aspires to be an evil god.”  But is Moffat’s assessment correct?  Are Sherlock and the Doctor really that different?  And why do they both need sidekicks?  

JEN MILLER earned her Ph.D. in English from the University of Minnesota.  Before coming to Normandale in 2010, Jen taught at Valparaiso University, University of St. Thomas, St. Catherine’s University, and the University of Minnesota.  She teaches freshman composition, developmental writing, and a variety of literature classes.  In her spare time, she likes camping, watching Doctor Who and Sherlock, and trying to use her writing strategies to organize her life.

LYNETTE REINI-GRANDELL has been an English professor at Normandale since 2003.  She holds a B.A. from Carleton College and an M.A. and Ph.D. in English from the University of Minnesota. She teaches honors classes as well as a course on Sherlock Holmes and the Victorian Age.  She is also the faculty advisor of the Creative Writing Club.  Her first collection of poetry, which includes material inspired by her Finnish heritage, is called Approaching the Gate and will be published in October 2014.

 

April 11, 2014

In Place: What Remains? The Loss of Family and Family Farm in Memoir 

Kari Fisher, Faculty in English

Kevin Fenton and Jo McDougall came from fairly different backgrounds.  Fenton, a local writer whose day job is in advertising, currently lives in St. Paul, but grew up as the youngest child in Southeastern Minnesota. Fenton’s close-knit family struggled to pay the mortgage and make ends meet.  McDougall, a celebrated poet, is the older of two daughters who lived a relatively privileged life on a successful rice farm in Arkansas.  Both writers have written stunning memoirs that look without sentimentality or schmaltz at their upbringing on a family farm. Fenton’s Leaving Rollingstone: A Memoir and McDougall’s Daddy’s Money: A Memoir of Farm and Family examine what it means to lose a parent and a family farm.

Kari Fisher was drawn to both of these books while completing her low-residency MFA program in creative writing.  Her parents had built their retirement home on her great grandparents’ farm site.  As she worked on her creative thesis, she became obsessed with her mother’s stories of the family: from a patriarch who supposedly changed his name and left Germany charged with stealing the king’s eel to his son who lived nearby but didn’t speak to the father for more than forty years.  This presentation will feature readings, reflections, and research from these memoirs as well as discussing how our families and the places we’ve had to leave behind influence where we’re going.

Biographical Statement:

Kari Fisher teaches English at Normandale Community College. Although a native Minnesota, she’s lived in five other states and has quit counting her moves.  She and her family celebrate their fifth anniversary at their current home April 11. She’ll complete her MFA from Pacific Lutheran University (Tacoma, Washington) in Creative Writing this summer.