The Faulkner and Hurtson Conference 2014
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Faulkner and Hurston
A Conference Sponsored by the Center for Faulkner Studies
Southeast Missouri State University
Cape Girardeau, Missouri
October 23-25, 2014
Thursday, October 23
Registration (3 - 6 p.m.)
William Faulkner: A Chautauqua Performance
"Place, Race, and Books: A Literary Conversation with William Faulkner"
-John Dennis Anderson, Emerson College
Opening Banquet (6 p.m.)
University Center Ballroom
Welcome (7 p.m.)
Dr. William Eddleman, Provost, Southeast Missouri State University
A Tribute to L.D. Brodsky by Dr. Robert Hamblin
Keynote Address: "Backwoods Modernism: The Uses of 'Primitivist' Portraiture in the Works of Faulkner and Hurston"
John Lowe, Barbara L. Methvin Distinguished Professor of Southern Literature, University of Georgia
Reception for Professor Lowe (9 p.m.)
At the home of Robert and Kaye Hamblin, 313 Themis
All conference participants are invited to attend.
Friday, October 24
Registration and Coffee Service (8 a.m.)
University Center, 4th Floor
Panels and Presentations
Reading Gender in Faulkner and Hurston
8:45 a.m. - 10:15 a.m. in the Redhawks Room
Moderator: Laura Edwards, Southeast Missouri State University
"Race, Rape, and Respectability in Sanctuary and Their Eyes Were Watching God"
-Crystal Doss, University of Missouri-Kansas City
"A Study of the Geographical Factors in Female Characters in Light in August"
-Jing Bai, Harbin Engineering University, China
"Jesus, 'Hellborn' Children, and the River Jordan: Crossing Tropes of Division on the Backs of Black Males in Faulkner and Hurston"
-Ren Denton, East Georgia State College
Uses and Misuses of Religion
8:45 a.m. - 10:15 a.m. in the Heritage Room
Moderator: Paula McCormack, Southeast Missouri State University
"A Tale of Two Preachers: An Exploration of Competing Preaching Styles and Biblical References in Zora Neale Hurston's Jonah's Gourd Vine"
-Barry Hudek, University of Mississippi
"Faulkner's Biblical Narrative: The Wellhausen Hypothesis in Absalom, Absalom!"
-Justin Ness, Northern Illinois University
"Through a Colored Purple Lens: A Feminist (Re)reading of Their Eyes Were Watching God"
-Stephanie Ellis, Bridget Carlson, and Meghan Burnham, Middle Tennessee University
Faulkner and Hurston in Black and White
10:30 a.m. - 12 p.m. in the Redhawks Room
Moderator: Christopher Rieger, Southeast Missouri State University
"Faulkner and Hurston: Constructing Southern Identity in Photography and Literature"
-Joseph Millichap, Western Kentucky University
"Damn Horses, Banshee Trains, and Cadillac Kitties: Modes of Travel as Embodiments of Race and Female Sexuality in Light in August and Jonah's Gourd Vine"
-Amy Glaves, Kankakee Community College
"Not-so Tragic Mulattoes in Light in August and Jonah's Gourd Vine"
-Christopher Rieger, Southeast Missouri State University
History is Not Past
10:30 a.m. - 12 p.m. in the Heritage Room
Moderator: David Becker, Southeast Missouri State University
"Language and the Volcano: The Haitian Revolution and Historical Allegory in Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom!"
-John Padgett, Brevard College
"Contending with the Politics of Race: Faulkner and Hurston Deconstruct the 1954 Brown v. Board Decision"
-Elvin Holt, Texas State University
"Faulkner and Hurston in the Context of the Caribbean: A New Perspective on 'Cathay' and its Global Scope"
-Eiko Owada, Waseda University
Ecofeminist Approaches
1:45 p.m. - 3:15 p.m. in the Redhawks Room
Moderator: Clare Paniccia, Southeast Missouri State University
"Faulkner's The Wild Palms and Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God: The Labor of Love When the Levee Breaks"
-Andrew Leiter, Lycoming College
"An Ecofeminist Reading of Absalom, Absalom! and Their Eyes Were Watching God"
-Wen-ching Ho, Feng Chia University, Taiwan
"A Wilderness Affair: An Ecofeminist Reading of Go Down, Moses"
-Savannah DiGregorio, Middle Tennessee State University
Dysfunctional Families
1:45 p.m. - 3:15 p.m. in the Heritage Room
Moderator: September Hinkle, Southeast Missouri State University
"'Did you ever have a sister?': Caddy Compson's Silence in Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury"
-Megan Donelson, Middle Tennessee State University
"Contemporary Novelists and Faulkner's Dysfunctional Families"
-Terrell Tebbetts, Lyon College
"A Case of Family Dysfunction through the Generations: In The Sound and the Fury and Jonah's Gourd Vine"
-September Hinkle, Southeast Missouri State University
Class and Materialism
3:30 p.m - 5 p.m. in the Redhawks Room
Moderator: Jessica Koon, Southeast Missouri State University
"Flood Zones and Inundated Labor in Faulkner and Hurston"
-Ted Atkinson, Mississippi State University
"The Country Store in William Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom! and Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God: A Criticism of the South's Power Structure"
-Sidonia Serafini, Flagler College
"Money Talks: Social and Economic Currencies in Faulkner's Wild Palms and Zora Neale Hurston's Mules and Men"
-Caroline Miles, University of Texas-Pan American
The Feminine Other
3:30 p.m - 5 p.m. in the Heritage Room
Moderator: Eden Wales Freedman, Adams State University
"Les Hainamorations of Clytemnestra Sutpen and Janie Mae Crawford: Two Psychoanalytical Readings of Absalom, Absalom! and Their Eyes Were Watching God"
-Sandra Cox, Pittsburg State University
"'Yuh got tuh go there tuh know there': Engaging Race, Gender, and the 'Womanshenegro' in the Novels of William Faulkner and Zora Neale Hurston"
-Eden Wales Freedman, Adams State University
"An Ecofeminist Interpretation of As I Lay Dying and Their Eyes Were Watching God: Becoming the Earth or Being made the Earth?"
-Shinya Matsuoka, Ryukoku University, Japan
Reception & Viewing of Rare Book Room (5:30 - 6:30 p.m.)
Faulkner and Hurston exhibit from Kent Library's collections
Kent Library, Main Floor, West Wing
Saturday, October 25
University Center, 4th floor
Panels and Presentations
Faulkner's Influence
9:15 a.m. - 10:45 a.m. in the Redhawks Room
Moderator: Robert Hamblin, Southeast Missouri State University
"Mo Yan's Allegorical Writing and William Faulkner's Influence on Mo Yan"
-Jianmin Yin, Weifang University, China
"Mo Yan-ized Faulkner"
-Jilei Han, Weifang University, China
"William Faulkner and Evans Harrington: A Study in Influence"
-Robert Hamblin, Southeast Missouri State University
Solipsism and Alienation
9:15a.m. – 10:45 a.m in the Heritage Room
Moderator: Torey Stevens, Southeast Missouri State University
"Crossing Over into a New World: Water as a Symbol of Change for John Buddy and Quentin Compson"
-Torey Stevens, Southeast Missouri State University
"The Real and the Ideal: Thomas Supten and Janie Crawford and Their Search for Happiness"
-Brian Reed, American University of Nigeria
"The Unexpected Community: Cohesion, Alienation, and Modernism in Faulkner's Go Down, Moses"
-Daniel Anderson, Dominican University
Faulkner and Hurston and Pop Culture
11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. in the Redhawks Room
Moderator: Emily Vines, Southeast Missouri State University
"The Scandal of American Democracy: Zora Neale Hurston's Call and TV Writer Shonda Rhimes's Response"
-Laura Dubek, Middle Tennessee State University
"Getting Mother's Blues: Race and Music in Suzan-Lori Parks' Revision of Faulkner"
-Ryan Charlton, University of Mississippi
"'Jes a Man Gittin' Over the World': Parodies of 'Black Ulysses' in Sanctuary and Their Eyes Were Watching God"
-Tim Ryan, Northern Illinois University
Regional Performance and Storytelling
11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m
Moderator: Cassi Daugette, Southeast Missouri State University
"Fictional Names in Selected Literature by Faulkner and Hurston"
-Tommie Jackson, St. Cloud State University
"Performing Southernness in Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury and Hurston's Dust Tracks on a Road"
-Pat Bradley, Middle Tennessee University
"The Truth in Lies: Discourse Analysis of Zora Neale Hurston's Mules and Men"
-Loren Hov II, University of Oklahoma
"Native Ground Photography Exhibition" (1 - 2 p.m.)
Robert McDonald, Virginia Military Institute
At the Crisp Museum on the River Campus of Southeast Missouri State University, 518 S. Fountain St.
Reception with food provided by Crisp Museum
Transportation provided from front of University Center after the final panels
Dr. Robert McDonald is a professor of English and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at Virginia Military Institute. He has published a number of scholarly essays and books, including Reading Erskine Caldwell (2006). He has lately been pursuing creative work related to his academic interests in the literature and culture of the American South.
He has exhibited his photographs widely, and his newest book, Birth Place (2008), is a photographic study of the small Georgia house in which Caldwell was born. The photos exhibited for the Faulkner and Hurston Conference are part of his series "Native Ground: Landscapes of Southern Writers," featuring images from the homes of noted Southern authors that suggest how places inhabited might be imagined to shape vision and voice.
Cape Girardeau, MO 63701