UW-L English Studies Blog

A Presentation by Dr. Konas: "The Bipolar Expedition: next to normal and Its Abnormal Path to the Pulitzer Prize" - December 2, 12:00-1:00, 1303 Centennial Hall

Please join us

Friday, December 2, 2011
12:00 - 1:00 p.m.
Centennial Hall
Room 1303
for Dr. Gary Konas' Presentation 

 "The Bipolar Expedition: next to normal and Its Abnormal Path to the Pulitzer Prize." 

Synopsis: next to normal, which opened on Broadway in 2009, began over a decade earlier as a 10-minute class exercise for composer Tom Kitt and lyricist Brian Yorkey. The musical was expanded and revised during subsequent productions in Washington State, Off-Broadway, D.C., and finally Broadway. It won three Tony Awards and enjoyed a surprisingly long run, considering that it is about a bipolar housewife--not exactly standard musical fare. It followed yet another tortuous path to winning the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. My multimedia presentation will attempt to convey the strengths of the show to an audience that has yet to see it in person. All are welcome to attend!

 

 

"Triplets, Sidewalk Chalk, and Squirrels: A UW-L Folktale" - December 2, 2:30-3:30, Wimberly 113

A Presentation of the English Department's William J. and Yvonne Hyde Colloquium Series.

Continuing the 2011-2012 William J. and Yvonne Hyde English Department Colloquium Series, please come and enjoy a UW-L folktale created by students in Dr. David Hart's "World Literatures: Migrations of Folklore" class. It features squirrels (not thrown at people), sidewalk chalk, and a princess in distress. The presentation runs from 2:30-3:30 p.m. on Friday, December 2nd, in 113 Wimberly Hall. The event is free and open to the public. To arrange for disability accommodations, contact english@uwlax.edu or call 785-8295.

Dr. DeFazio's book, The City of the Senses, published

Dr. Kimberly DeFazio’s book, The City of the Senses, has been published by Palgrave.

Through an analysis of a wide range of literary and cultural texts—from Wordsworth’s The Prelude and Dickens’s Hard Times, to Lost in Translation, Crash and Ikea—The City of the Senses argues that the city is essentially a material place where people live, work, and participate in social practices within historical limits set not by sensory experience or cultural meanings but material social conditions. 

Further information about the book can be found here: 
http://us.macmillan.com/thecityofthesenses/
KimberlyDeFazio

 

 

"Yeats's Shakespeare and Joyce's Objection: Two Dogmas of Cosmopolitanism" - November 11, 2:30-3:30, 113 Wimberly

A Presentation of the English Department's William J. and Yvonne Hyde Colloquium Series.

Continuing the 2011-2012 William J. and Yvonne Hyde English Department Colloquium Series, Adam Putz, IAS in English, will present his research on the influence of Shakespeare in Dublin during the Celtic Revival on W. B. Yeats, the figurehead of this movement, and James Joyce, an early critic of its nationalist excesses. In his objection to Yeats’s Shakespeare, Joyce offers an answer to the crisis of authenticity undermining the concerted effort undertaken by cultural figures during the Revival "to speak on behalf of the Irish" after the fall of Ireland’s "uncrowned king," Charles Stewart Parnell. The presentation runs from 2:30-3:30 p.m. on Friday, November 11, in 113 Wimberly Hall. The event is free and open to the public. To arrange for disability accommodations, contact english@uwlax.edu or call 785-8295. For more information please visit http://rhetor.blogs.com/english.