{"id":894,"date":"2016-10-24T12:19:14","date_gmt":"2016-10-24T16:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/?p=894"},"modified":"2016-10-24T12:19:14","modified_gmt":"2016-10-24T16:19:14","slug":"monday-missive-october-24-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/blog\/2016\/10\/24\/monday-missive-october-24-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"Monday Missive – October 24, 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elections and Literature<\/strong> — With Secretary Hillary Clinton campaigning on our campus this past weekend and with the election just two weeks away, I’ve decided to devote this week’s Monday Missive to the connections between elections and American literature.\u00a0 Over the years, many authors have written stories and novels that deal with the drama and tensions associated with elections.\u00a0 For today’s Monday Missive, I will comment on two:\u00a0 Grace for President, <\/em>a children’s book written by Kelly DiPucchio, and All the King’s Men, <\/em>a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Robert Penn Warren.<\/p>\n

\"grace-for-president\"<\/a>Grace for President <\/em>came out in 2008, and it deals with a third-grade girl named Grace who asks her teacher why the United States has never had a female president.\u00a0 Grace decides to campaign for the role of president in the school’s mock election, and in the process she and her classmates learn a great deal about America’s electoral college system.\u00a0 What makes this book stand out, however, is not the lessons it teaches about our system of electing presidents.\u00a0 Rather, what makes this book appealing to me is the central character.\u00a0 Grace is strong, funny and inspiring.\u00a0 Grace for President <\/em>has a special connection to Charlotte, for the Children’s Theatre of Charlotte is currently performing a musical based on this story.\u00a0 This musical had its world premier here in Charlotte on October 21, and there are performances scheduled through November 6, 2016.<\/p>\n

All the King’s Men <\/em>originally came out in 1946, and it is partially inspired by the political \"all-the-kings-men\"<\/a>career of Huey P. Long, a former Governor of Louisiana.\u00a0 In Warren’s novel, however, the character is named Willie Stark.\u00a0 In writing this novel, Robert Penn Warren reflects on the messiness of American elections.\u00a0 In many ways, Stark is a cynical and manipulative politician, but he is not a two-dimensional villain.\u00a0 Warren uses the backdrop of an election to reflect on philosophical and even theological concerns.\u00a0 Warren shows how elections can draw out some of the underlying conflicts that shape American culture and discourse.\u00a0 In 1949, the novel was made into a film, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture.<\/p>\n

My guess is that I am the first person to pair up Grace for President <\/em>and All the King’s Men,<\/em>but as I see it both books move well beyond the nuts-and-bolts aspects of elections.\u00a0 Although intended for completely different audiences, these books both explore the human side of elections, and both are great books to read during this election season.<\/p>\n

Kudos<\/strong> — As you know, I like to use my Monday Missives to share news about recent accomplishments by members of our department.\u00a0 Here is the latest news:<\/p>\n

Paula Eckard<\/strong> recently presented a paper titled “Mountaintop Removal, Methamphetamine, and Appalachian Homeland Insecurities in The Evening Hour” <\/em>at the Canadian Association for American Studies Conference in Fredericton, New Brunswick. \u00a0Matthew Rowney <\/strong>recently presented a paper titled “De Quincey’s Stairs” at the International Conference on Romanticism in Colorado Springs.<\/p>\n

Lara Vetter<\/strong>‘s edition of H.D.’s By Avon River<\/em> (2014) received a very positive review inAmerican Literary Scholarship.<\/em><\/p>\n

Upcoming Events and Deadlines<\/strong>\u2014 Here is information about two upcoming events:<\/p>\n

October 28<\/strong> —\u00a0 The English Department meeting will take place on Friday, October 28, from11:00 to 12:30 in the English Department Conference Room.\u00a0 The English Learning Community will have a faculty meet and greet in the faculty\/staff lounge following the department meeting.<\/p>\n

October 28<\/strong> — The UNC Charlotte University Writing Program’s Fall Conference will take place on October 28, 2016. Here is the link to register:\u00a0https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/uwpconference\/registration-2016\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Quirky Quiz Question<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 When writing All the King’s Men, <\/em>Robert Penn Warren drew inspiration from The Faerie Queen<\/em>?\u00a0 Who wrote The Faerie Queen?<\/em><\/p>\n

Last week’s answer: Robert Zimmerman<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Most people have heard of Bob Dylan, but this is not his original name.\u00a0 Does anybody know Dylan’s original name?<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elections and Literature — With Secretary Hillary Clinton campaigning on our campus this past weekend and with the election just two weeks away, I’ve decided to devote this week’s Monday Missive to the connections between elections and American literature.\u00a0 Over the years, many authors have written stories and novels that deal with the drama and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":202,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-monday-missive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/202"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=894"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":898,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894\/revisions\/898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}