The beat generation has been examined as a social movement, literary period, and political statement from many different scholarly perspectives. Through the method of rhetorical criticism I tease out an implicit theory of rhetoric from the writings of the principal beat generation founders—namely Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac. Offering a r…[Read more]

This essay explores the meaning of Kenneth Burke’s notion of the “poetic corrective” from his book Permanence and Change by examining the ideas of William Carlos Williams, a lifelong friend and frequent correspondent with Burke. Williams’s poetry is also examined as a potential model for the “poetic corrective,” which I suggest is what Burke might…[Read more]

This essay explores the meaning of Kenneth Burke’s notion of the “poetic corrective” from his book Permanence and Change by examining the ideas of William Carlos Williams, a lifelong friend and frequent correspondent with Burke. Williams’s poetry is also examined as a potential model for the “poetic corrective,” which I suggest is what Burke might…[Read more]

Draft

Lecture/class notes on Modernism. I’m sharing my teaching notes (rough) for works that may be helpful to others and are widely taught.

Lecture/class notes on Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. I’m sharing my teaching notes (rough) for works that may be helpful to others and are widely taught.

Lecture/class notes on Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience.” I’m sharing my teaching notes (rough) for works that may be helpful to others and are widely taught.

DRAFT of introd chapter of work following the trail of allusions, consequences, etc. that ensues from considering Hawthorne’s discovery narrative in “The Custom-House” as fully implicated in the narrative-arc of events begun with Hester Prynne’s revelation of her elaborate embroidery in 1642.

This paper offers a synthesis and critique of the existing academic literature on Gene Luen Yang’s AAmerican Born Chinese and an overview of Asian American alternative comics. It examines the range of literary and linguistic sources which Yang draws upon in his collage of Chinoiserie and Japonism. It presents the argument that existing criticism h…[Read more]

In English, some participles have already become prepositions. The author noticed in her work as a technical editor that most of her writers seemed to perceive the participle using as a preposition already although it is not listed as such in the dictionary. The paper gives the evidence and rationale for making such a claim. It offers a window on…[Read more]

Slideshow to accompany presentation of essay “Participles Becoming Prepositions—Some Arcane Information for Editors” (http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M6KP7Z)

This essay focuses on the woman’s page in the Grain Growers’ Guide, edited between 1912 and 1917 by Francis Marion Beynon. I approach this material with questions that have become prominent in rhetorical studies of women’s writing. How were women called forth to speak, and what were their motivations to participate in public debate? How did woman…[Read more]