A Presentation of the English Department's William J. and Yvonne Hyde Colloquium Series.
Dr. Tom Pribek, English Department faculty member, will initiate the English Department's 2013-2014 William J. and Yvonne Hyde Colloquium Series with a presentation entitled "The 'Tell-Tale' Narrator: Oral Literature of the 19th Century and an Appreciation of Edgar Allan Poe." Recitation, reading out loud to an audience, is no cliché of 19th-century period movies: it was so popular that a separate genre of book was published, the "elocution" anthology, containing a textbook for "vocal culture" and literature appropriate for oral reading. What the movies probably get wrong is portraying this reading as too decorous, too dignified, too "Victorianized." The books' emphasis on dramatic reading suggest, in fact, that whether reading at home or for a public audience, people really performed. Knowing this, we can better comprehend some of Edgar Allan Poe's innovations with short fiction: short, in particular, he insisted upon. Moreover, his use of 1st-person narrators for his monsters/villains does more than just bring an audience closer to a criminal psychology – still a favorite device of the thriller – it gives him a literal voice, in the same room as his listener: a turn of the screw no movie or private reading can accomplish. If successful, the highlight of this presentation will be Dr. Pribek's reading of "The Tell-Tale Heart," with, he hopes, a few new turns of the screw and insights into that story we all know. The presentation runs from 2:30-3:30 p.m. on Friday, September 27th, in 113 Wimberly Hall. The event is free and open to the public. To arrange for disability accommodations, contact [email protected] or call 785-8295.