March 14, 1996 ¡EEditor's
Note ¡@
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Once again it's been a pleasure to assemble news and views gathered from a
good number of alumni and instructors for this, our third edition of the Alumni
Newsletter. To spur communication, the Newsletter asked readers to respond to two
questions, the first of which was, Why would people in Taiwan want to read English and
American literature anyway? Responses offer a breadth of opinions and a variety of
nuances. Words of students and colleagues renewed my own desire to somehow carve out more
time for this terribly important practice of reading good literature. I hope you too will
enjoy a sampling of the responses. The second question was an act of textual self-referencing: What is the future of this Newsletter? What are its strengths and weaknesses? How can it be improved? Our graduate institute is in its twenty-first year, but until two years ago we had no established organ with which to stay in touch with alumni, friends in academia, faculty present and past. I've wondered if there is sufficient interest to attract co-editors who would help me continue this effort in the future. As you'll see in the coming pages, we've received several suggestions for improvement, and hopeful support for this venture. From the beginning I had wanted the Newsletter to be a source of touchable encouragement for our current Master's degree students, who are keenly interested in "the inside information" of what classmates ahead of them, their own "school sisters and brothers" have accomplished. Is all the work necessary for an M.A. degree really worth it? The Newsletter is in part an answer to those concerns. Since our publication last year in January
of 1995, an impressive number of students have tackled key hurdles toward their new
degree. Seven students successfully completed and defended their theses. Warm
congratulations to Clara, Ellen, Jessie, John, Joyce, Maria, and Winifred. Thirteen
students passed their major comprehensive exams, and eleven their minors. That's great
news for all of us. I'm sorry to be so late, but from all of us here at Fu Jen, Happy Chinese New Year! May the Year of the Rat be a good one for you and your family. Yours with a smile, Father Bauer - -Director, Graduate
Institute of English
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| The graduate institute is pleased to greet a new faculty member to the English Department and, hopefully next year, to the M.A. course schedule. Our welcome is for Margarette Connor, a recent Ph.D. in English Literature from City University of New York. The focus of associate professor Connor's Ph.D. dissertation was the 17th century writer Aphra Behn, author of the early narrative (before De Foe's Crusoe) Oroonoko. The newsletter editor was informed that Behn was actually the first professional woman playwright, having written The Rover in 1677. If you thought Samuel Richardson and Henry Fielding had the earliest corner on spicy English romances, be informed that Aphra Behn's Love Letters to a Gentleman and Love Letters Between a Nobleman and a Sister preceded those fellows. The Graduate Institute looks forward to hearing more on Miss Behn and other areas of academic interest for Dr. Connor, Restoration drama, feminist criticism, and Irish Literature.¡» |
