This year's OSU-M literary journal, the Cauldron, will be released at the beginning of fall quarter '07. The deadline for entries is May 25th. Submission categories include short story, creative non-fiction, one-act plays, music lyrics, atrwork and photography, and critical essays. Submit one hard and one digital copy to the Writing Center in Ovalwood 276, along with a completed submission form.
Those of you who have enjoyed reading the Immaculate Cauldron in the past, or have even had pieces published, might have some ideas about what you'd like to see in this year's issue. We're revamping the journal, so any and all suggestions are welcome. We're also happy to hear ideas for a new name. Please feel free to use this forum to share your thoughts. Look forward to hearing from everybody!
The blog has been quiet for a while, and our Blog Queen is preoccupied this weekend celebrating her graduation (Congratulations, Trish!), so I thought I'd suggest a thread. I was just reading an online article on the changing canons of American Literature.
(http://www.theamericanscholar.org/archives/wi07/goingnative-dickstein.html)
The author talks about what he read as an undergrad and compares that list of authors and titles to what's being read in colleges and universities today. He also talks about how much earlier on, no American literature was read in universities, including American ones, because it was felt to be provincial and not serious. Of course, if you go even further back, and hop over to England, you find that even English literature used to be excluded from university study. It wasn't as serious as classical literature, and didn't really need to be taught.
So, here are my questions for you. Do you think there are certain works that OUGHT to be read by everyone (inside or outside university)? Is it important, say, that you know Hamlet, Paradise Lost, Middlemarch, Leaves of Grass, Moby Dick, The Waste Land, (etc. etc. -- the list is up for debate)? Or should we just pick and choose what suits our taste? Another way of putting this, I suppose, is to ask whether what we read is just our own way of passing the time, something we enjoy in leisure hours, or whether it is part of some common culture, something that connects us? Or, turning toward the OSU-M curriculum, should English courses be more structured, introducing certain great books and writers, major periods and movements and so on, or should they aim to offer as much variety as possible, letting students develop their own areas of focus?
This is all VERY complex, and there are loads of ways of plunging into this debate, but take your pick. I'm interested to hear your thoughts, and I bet your colleagues are too!
Hope everyone will be coming to our potluck and movie night this Thursday! Join us 7:45pm in Ovalwood 251, and bring your favorite dish. We'll be watching Stranger Than Fiction starring Will Ferrell and Emma Thomspon. If you're planning on bringing something, please tell us here so everyone can plan accordingly. Look forward to seeing everyone there!!