Concentrations

Literature and Rhetoric, from the beginnings of higher education, helped define the course of university study, confirming the central, enduring question - what does it mean to be human. Literary artists respond, "So, 'You want to know what it means to be human? Let me tell you a story. Let me sing you a song." And so the fun begins for us who teach English.

Teaching undergraduates at Marquette has been my major work since 1976: it's been a wonderful experience. Regularly I've taught a two semester survey of American Literature along with sections of the First Year Writing course and upper divisions courses such as "American Literature from 1798 - 1865," "The Poetry of Robert Frost," "Catholic Imagination in Recent American Writing," and "Recent Midwest Writings." Specific research has been on Robert Frost, Edgar Allan Poe, and James Baldwin.

These many years have meant experiencing what the Frost poem describes as uniting "My avocation and my vocation/ As my two eyes make one in sight."

Courses Taught

American Literature
Rhetoric and Composition

Research Interests

Robert Frost
Edgar Allan Poe
James Baldwin

Publications

"Faith Dimensions of a Catholic, Jesuit Education." Jesuit Journeys. Fall 2011: 10-13.
"The Retreat Stories." Jesuit Journeys. (Winter 2009): 20-24.
"James Baldwin’s Vision of Otherness in 'Sonny’s Blues' and Giovanni's Room." College Language Association Journal. 32 (1988): 69-80.
"The Self-Consuming Narrator in Poe’s 'Ligeia' and 'Usher.'" American Literature. 60 (1988): 175-87.
"Robert Frost’s A Boy’s Will and Henri Bergson’s Creative Evolution." The South Carolina Review 21 (1988): 9-16.
"Robert Frost’s Sense of Choice in Mountain Interval." College Literature. 11 (1984): 258-68.
"Robert Frost’s Annotations to Henri Bergson’s Creative Evolution." Resources for American Literary Study. 13 (1983): 184-93.
"Robert Frost’s New Hampshire: Realm Not Region." Literature and Belief. 2 (1982): 83-92.