With Good Reason Radio » Literature

Butterfly in the Typewriter

klibby — Sat, 26 May 2012 05:01:27 +0000

A Confederacy of Dunces, by New Orleans-born John Kennedy Toole, is one of the great stories of American literature. Published almost 12 years after his tragic suicide, the book went on to win the Pulitzer Prize and became a modern classic. Cory MacLauchlin’s (Germanna Community College) new biography of Toole, Butterfly in the Typewriter, tells two stories: one of the author himself, the other of his great novel. Also featured: Harry Crews, whose Southern Gothic novels conjured a world of hard-drinking and hard-living outsiders, died in April of this year. David Jeffrey (James Madison University) has interviewed Crews at length and is the editor of A Grit’s Triumph: Essays on the Works of Harry Crews.

Victorians Get the Google Treatment

cms4tf — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 05:00:30 +0000

Also featured: Juggling school, work, and family can be a challenge for people seeking higher education. Increasingly, students are getting classroom instruction in front of their home computers instead of at desks. Ed Banas (Northern Virginia Community College) and Terry Whisnant (Southside Virginia Community College) both teach college students remotely. Their experiences highlight some of the benefits and challenges of distance learning.

Travel for Transformation

em8x — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 17:06:58 +0000

The Camino de Santiago, a medieval pilgrimage trail in northern Spain, continues to attract tens of thousands of travelers each year. Among those are George Greenia (William & Mary, Virginia Foundation for the Humanities), who for years has walked the 500-mile route with his students. George studies the relationship between medieval and modern pilgrimages. He says that today’s American pilgrimages, like Underground Railroad tours, share something in common with medieval pilgrimages—transformation of the traveler. Also featured: Between 1898 and 1901, China experienced a movement marked by violent opposition to Western Imperialism. In the summer of 1900, a Christian missionary and explorer from Sweden escaped what became known as the Boxer Rebellion. To save his family and other Christian missionaries, Frans Larson led a caravan through the Gobi Desert and into Siberia. That explorer’s great-grandson, Henry Hart (William & Mary), recently retraced his great-grandfather’s trip through the Gobi.

Behind Bars

cms4tf — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 05:00:15 +0000

Also featured: Most incarcerated women are single mothers—and sole financial providers of one or more youngsters. Virginia Mackintosh (University of Mary Washington) says no kids are more at risk. She taught a parenting course for the mothers behind bars and leads some of her college students in a one-week summer camp for the children left behind.

And also: Southside Virginia Community College has started a pioneering program that enables inmates to obtain college credits, by creating a campus ‘pod’ within prison walls. It’s called “Campus Within Walls” and is made possible by funding from The Sunshine Lady Foundation. Chad Patton administers the program and says it is the product of an enormous amount of cooperation between the Department of Corrections, the Department of Correctional Education, and the Governor’s office.

Black in Cuba

tap2ae — Sat, 28 May 2011 05:01:36 +0000

Two years after his 1959 speech at the Havana Labor Rally Fidel Castro declared that the age of racism and discrimination was over. Geoffroy de Laforcade (Norfolk State University) and William Alexander (Norfolk State University) discuss the validity of Castro’s declaration in today’s Cuba. This summer, they will be leading students from the United States on an intensive study program in that country. Also featured: When poet Sheikh Kamarah (Virginia State University) left Sierra Leone to get his PhD in America, a civil war broke out that prevented him from returning home for 10 years. In his poetry collection, Singing in Exile and The Child of War, Kamarah writes about the Sierra Leone he knew as a child when it was renowned as the most peaceful nation in West Africa.

It’s All Greek To Me

tap2ae — Sat, 14 May 2011 05:01:25 +0000

Don Quixote, conqueror of windmills and readers’ hearts, was recently voted the best book of all time in a survey of 100 of the world’s best authors. It’s the tale of a Spanish knight who reads one too many chivalric romances and takes up a rusty breastplate and sword in search of adventures. Antonio Carreño-Rodríguez (George Mason University) fell in love with the book when he was 23 and admires Miguel de Cervantes, the author of the epic satire, who died on the same day as William Shakespeare. Also featured: Homer’s epic poems are the first major works of western literature. David Pollio (Christopher Newport University) says the themes of family, love, and death keep the Iliad and the Odyssey relevant for modern readers.

Behind Bars

tap2ae — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 05:01:40 +0000

Written in another time and in another country, the Russian classics — Tolstoy, Lermontov, and all the rest — are still relevant today. Andrew Kaufman (University of Virginia) and his students are proving that by teaching masterpieces of Russian literature to incarcerated youth. The readings prompt discussions: What makes for a “successful” life? How I can be true to myself? What is my responsibility to others? Given that I will die, how should I live? Also featured: Most incarcerated women are single mothers—and sole financial providers of one or more youngsters. Virginia Mackintosh (University of Mary Washington) says no kids are more at risk. She taught a parenting course for the mothers behind bars and leads some of her college students in a one-week summer camp for the children left behind. And also: Southside Virginia Community College has started a pioneering program that enables inmates to obtain college credits, by creating a campus ‘pod’ within prison walls. It’s called “Campus Within Walls” and is made possible by funding from The Sunshine Lady Foundation. Chad Patton administers the program and says it is the product of an enormous amount of cooperation between the Department of Corrections, the Department of Correctional Education, and the Governor’s office.

Travel for Transformation

klibby — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 05:01:13 +0000

Beyond the Islamic Golden Age

klibby — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 05:01:59 +0000

Scholars from around the world gathered recently for George Mason University’s forum Beyond Golden Age and Decline: Muslim Societies and Global Modernity, 1300-1900. Some of the scholars joined With Good Reason to talk about the legacy of Muslim societies in today’s world. Giancarlo Casale (University of Minnesota) says in its heyday, the Ottoman Empire was a land of opportunity with many parallels to modern-day United States. Cemil Aydin (George Mason University) is researching the intellectual history of the idea of the Muslim World . Also featured: From ketchup to bluejeans–Susan Douglass (George Mason University) reminds us things we consider around us every day are the result of complex global trade from this period.

Victorians Get the Google Treatment

tap2ae — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 05:01:57 +0000

How many Victorian books would you have to read to know the Victorians? What if you could read all 1.7 million? Fred Gibbs (George Mason University) co-created a project that does just that. Using digital tools, he can search and then chart how frequently certain words—like “God,” “love,” and “science”—appear in all of 19^th-century British literature. His new approach to literary analysis provides some fascinating insights into the minds of the Victorians. Also featured: Juggling school, work, and family can be a challenge for people seeking higher education. Increasingly, students are getting classroom instruction in front of their home computers instead of at desks. Ed Banas (Northern Virginia Community College) and Terry Whisnant (Southside Virginia Community College) both teach college students remotely. Their experiences highlight some of the benefits and challenges of distance learning.

Spoken Soul: Black English in the Classroom

tap2ae — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 05:01:01 +0000

Accents can be endearing – but they can also limit chances for professional and academic success. Southern students and African-American students are often marginalized in the classroom because of their dialects. Anne Harper Charity Hudley (College of William & Mary) is the co-author of a book to help educators work with language variations – to make sure students don’t suffer for the way they talk. And: John Russell Rickford (Stanford University) has written a book on the topic: “Spoken Soul: The Story of Black English”. Also featured: The Affrilachian Poets are celebrating 20 years. Frank Walker coined the term in 1991 after he came away from a literary event frustrated by the exclusion of African American writers from Appalachian literature. Theresa Burriss (Radford University) is an expert on the Affrilachians and an honorary member of the group.

Poetry in a Recession

tap2ae — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 14:49:58 +0000

Poetry has long been used to celebrate love and family, but it has also always documented the dark times in human life. Bob Hicok (Virginia Tech) worked for twenty years in the automotive industry. His poems explore the lives of family and friends coping with economic devastation in Michigan. Also: Many scholars have believed that nonsense literature in the vein of Lewis Carroll or Edward Gorey is a strictly English language innovation. But Kevin Shortsleeve (Christopher Newport University) has a new book documenting nonsense literature from all over the world. And: Lisa Russ Spaar (University of Virginia) explores how a familiar place changes through time in her poem Empty Nest. Spaar is the recent winner of a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a frequent essayist on the subject of how poets’ personal examinations intersect with a desire to understand humanity.