Lauren W. Callihan
RESEARCH
In Anne Carson's book-in-a-box, Nox, the speaker grieves the tragic loss of her brother. Daunted by the density of the course and my unfamiliarity with the topic, I found myself drawn to this particular collection's inescapable theme of loss. As I read Carson's work, I searched for a way into the text and arrived at a familiar theme I have researched heavily in prose: the experience of loss through the death of a loved one. In the beginning of this project, I began researching and discovered that an elegy is defined as a song or poem that expresses sorrow or lamentation, usually for one who has died. Nox is referred to an elegy for Carson's brother and with this, I had found my way into a thick and often undecipherable poetry collection.
Nox addresses the unexpected loss of Carson's estranged brother in the form of poetic translations, old family photographs, tattered cross-continental letters, and snapshots of a life once lived, but I found myself asking why? What is her purpose? She herself reveals she wasn't especially close to her brother, so I became consumed with following Carson's search for clarity. Each artifact reveals just how human her need for resolution is through the creation of Nox.
Through this project, I argue that Carson's reasons for writing her elegy are based in her search for an identity without her brother-- Carson is no longer a sister, so who is she? While the volume itself is quite complex, she is driven by her simple human desire for connection and identification spurred by the loss of a loved one. Through poetic translations of Latin epics, old family photographs, tattered cross-continental letters, and snapshots, Carson mourns a life once lived and an identity now lost.
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Exploring Anne Carson's Nox: Elegies and Histories
Trauma and Superstition in Huckleberry Finn
Through Dr. Susana Morris' "Slavery and the Literary Imagination" graduate seminar course, I was afforded the opportunity to research many methods of trauma that are associated with the American slave trade. Dr. Morris' seminars often focused on how we, as students, would teach the texts we had been assigned and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is an extremely controversial teaching text due to the dialect and vocabulary used by Twain, which carry an emotional history for many Americans.
As I approached this project, I considered different methods of not only finding my way into this text as a student, but ways to engage students with Twain's writings that deal with inflammatory language in productive rather than prejudiced readings. One element of the text that immediately drew my attention was Huck and Jim's use of superstition throughout the text and the common interpretations each character received based on their beliefs. Interestingly, Huck is often relieved of the responsibility for his beliefs based on his age, but Jim is often categorized as simple minded and child-like because of his involvement with superstition.
As a result of these inequalities between characters of different ages and races, I began researching possibilities for the treatment of Jim and Huck and arrived at Cathy Caruth's work in trauma studies, which defines mental trauma as an event which is not experienced, simply registered because it overwhelms the person to whom it happens. Both Jim and Huck experience mental trauma; Jim's trauma is rooted in his life as a slave and Huck is continually stalked, as well as verbally and physically abused by his alcoholic father.
In this project, I propose a reading of Twain's masterpiece that acknowledges more than race and age differences between the two character and I urge readers to take a closer look at how Jim and Huck's superstitions arise as a result of their abuse. As a student, this research allowed me to explore a text I had previously read in a new light and I gained a greater understanding for the tensions at work beneath the surface.
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Creative Commons in the English Classroom
I am interested in open education resources as an instructor and my research for this particular project covers the basics of what Creative Commons is and how this resource can be used in the English composition and literature classrooms. With the open education movement implemented across the globe, boundaries can be broken and education has the opportunity to longer be limited to the privileged, but viewed as an unalienable human right.
As a teacher, I am dedicated to open educational resources for all my students and anyone with a desire to access knowledge. Because of current copyright laws, many educational materials are available to only a very small percentage of the global population for an exorbitant price. With Creative Commons, MOOCs, and the Open Education Movement, students from all backgrounds, origins, and financial statuses have open and equal access to knowledge and this movement is necessary in today's rapidly expanding technological climate.
My research proposal is of small impact in comparison to a global scale, but I suggest that if instructors at Auburn University adopt open materials into their classrooms through sharing, remixing, and brainstorming amongst each other, both the students and instructors will experience a richer level of education than we previously thought possible.
As a result of this research, I have implemented open sources such as Purdue OWL and writingspaces.org into my composition curriculum and hope to continue finding new sources to aid my students' education at a lower personal cost.
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