English Undergrad Program 2011

Today I went to the English Undergrad Program to check out some of the speakers (and to also earn some extra credit!). I went to Panel 12, which involved two speakers, Jenna Enright and Dara Fennell.

Jenna Enright read her short story, "Sitting Outside a Coffee Shop in Paris, France." This short story contained the life a woman that was in her early ages of adult hood. She went through life doing daily tasks that she thought she was supposed to do because of her age, such as drinking coffee and cappuccino at coffee shops. She never really took the time to wonder why she was doing these things. The woman thought that she should live her life by performing normal tasks of peers so that she would not stand out. She started to question her daily routines when she ran into a man a few times at the coffee shop. Throughout the story the woman leaves us questioning what is really happening in her life and what she is imagining happening. It also ends leaving the readers, or listeners, open minded to what happened.

Dara Fennell read her research paper, "A Love-Hate-Zombie Relationship?: Gender Equality in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies." Out of the two readings this one was more interesting to me. I found it more interesting because I read the book Pride and Prejudice in high school, and I was unaware that this new book was written from it. Her paper was discussing how the prejudice between men and women change throughout the book. In the beginning of the book men and women are both able to defend themselves from zombies by carrying weapons around, such as daggers and swords. The women typically carried around daggers, and the men usually carried around swords. One rule that the women had to follow was that they could only defend themselves themselves from zombies until they are married. After marriage it was the job of the men to defend the women from zombies. The women were also not able to carry daggers with them anymore. The story ends with the main couple working together to fight off zombies, which was against prior rules. Throughout the book they overcome their "pride and prejudice" and realize that they are equally involved in their relationship.

I think this is a great thing that the English department does for the students. It teaches them how to write for an audience, and also allows them to get feedback from their peers and professors. I know that some of the students were also taking their writing to bigger conventions in other locations, so this would be a very good practice for them. I had a good time hearing different forms of writing from the other students as well.

Adios!