‘It’s a Woman Speaking’: Revising the Essay Canon
Please join us on Tuesday, February 25, at 4pm, in Austin 217 for a talk by Jenny Spinner, Associate Professor of English, St. Joseph’s University (and UConn English PhD, 2004). Spinner will be joined by Lynn Z. Bloom, UConn Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor Emerita, who will serve as respondent.
Spinner will discuss her decade-long feminist recovery project, designed to re-write the history of the essay to include the women who have been erased and omitted. That effort, which began years ago on UConn’s campus, resulted in the 2018 publication of Of Women and the Essay: An Anthology from 1655 to 2000. https://ugapress.org/book/9780820354248/of-women-and-the-essay/
Like their contemporary counterparts, women essayists in earlier centuries were prolific and successful contributors to the genre. This talk will explore some of the reasons for the long neglect of women--and women of color in particular--from the essay’s history and discuss some of the writers from earlier centuries who belong in that history (and on reading lists, conference panels, journal articles, dissertations, and syllabi).
Coffee and cookies will be served.
This event is sponsored by the English Department and the Humanities Institute.
For more information, contact: Tom Deans at tom.deans@uconn.edu