History of English at Cornell
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Item A Conversation with Jonathan CullerCuller, Jonathan; Adams, Barry B. (Internet-First University Press, 2015-09-10)During his 38 years on the Cornell faculty, Jonathan Culler (successor to M. H. Abrams as Class of 1916 Professor of English) has served as academic administrator as well as teacher and scholar, first as Director of the Society for the Humanities and subsequently as Chair of the English Department, Chair of the Comparative Literature Department, and Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. His undergraduate teaching has included Freshman Humanities seminars, as well as large lecture courses treating literary texts as more than self-reflective explorations of the act of creating novels and poems. Much of his teaching at all levels has involved his scholarly interest in critical theory, which he has pursued since his pre-Cornell days at Cambridge and Oxford, where he also engaged in a form of academic administration quite different from what he has found at Cornell and other American universities.Item A Conversation with Kenneth A. McClaneMcClane, Kenneth A.; Adams, Barry B. (Internet-First University Press, 2015-07-27)Professor Kenneth McClane reflects on his experience as a Cornell freshman, as a member of the Arts College undergraduate College Scholars Program, as a graduate student in the Cornell English Department, and as the distinguished W.E.B. Du Bois Professor of Literature at Cornell. He shares memories of growing up in a Harlem household that entertained prominent participants in the civil rights movement of the 1950s and '60s. He describes his experience as a poet and autobiographical essayist, as well as a teacher in Cornell’s creative writing program (which happened to include assignment to an office in Goldwin Smith Hall once used by Vladimir Nabokov), and reflects on his role as a member of two Cornell presidential search committees conducted by the Cornell Board of Trustees.Item A Conversation with Alison LurieLurie, Alison; Adams, Barry B. (Internet-First University Press, 2015-07-27)As a member of the Cornell English Department, Professor Lurie has taught courses in literature as well as writing. These included treatment of such topics as children’s literature and children in literature that had not been appropriated by colleagues with advanced degrees, which she lacked. Several of her acclaimed novels have academic settings, reflecting her declared preference for writing about what she has experienced personally, but she debunks the notion that characters in her 'War Between the Tates' are based on Cornell faculty members. She speculates that if she had been ten years older than she is, she would never have been allowed to do any teaching in the Department, and if she had been ten years younger, she would have been allowed to do so much sooner.Item A Conversation with Jim McConkeyMcConkey, James R.; Adams, Barry B. (Internet-First University Press, 2015-06-02)James McConkey, is Goldwin Smith Professor of English Literature Emeritus at Cornell University. Known for his meditative nonfiction narratives, James McConkey began teaching at Cornell in 1956, as an assistant professor in the English department. He wrote fiction until the early 1960s, and retired in 1992 as Goldwin Smith Professor of English Literature Emeritus. McConkey is the author or editor of 14 books, including Court of Memory, Stories from My Life with the Other Animals, To a Distant Island, and The Anatomy of Memory. His research and teaching interests are Creative writing (poetry and fiction), Modern literature and prose, Modern fiction, particularly British.Item M. H. Abrams at Cornell University - Videos and Multimedia PresentationsAbrams, M. H. (Internet-First University Press, 2010)The videos and audio files presented here are contained in the DVDs that are part of the Book "M.H. Abrams at Cornell University". The videos and audio files encompass interviews, lectures by M.H. Abrams, tributes and poetry readings.