Faculty Directory
Deborah Clarke
Professor of English and Director of Undergraduate Studies
Contact:
34 Burrowes Building
University Park, PA 16802
Office Phone: 814-863-9592
dxc15@psu.edu
Office Hours:
Tuesday 1:30-4and Thursday 9:30-11
Deborah Clarke is an associate professor of English and Women's Studies at Penn State . Her primary field is twentieth century American fiction, with particular emphasis on Faulkner and women writers. Her first book, Robbing the Mother: Women in Faulkner , explored the ways in which Faulkner's women characters reflect a tension between the body and language, between the literal and figurative, and how that tension characterizes his creative vision. Her second book, Driving Women: Fiction and Automobile Culture in Twentieth-Century America , deals with women and cars. It examines the intersection of American fiction -- primarily but not exclusively by women -- and automobile culture, arguing that issues critical to twentieth-century American society -- technology, mobility, domesticity, and agency -- are repeatedly articulated through women's relationships with cars. By investigating how cars can function as female space, reflect female identity, and reshape female agency, she looks to open up new angles from which to approach fiction by and about women and to trace new directions in the intersection of literature, technology, and gender. She is a member of the Executive Board of the American Women Writers Workshop and the Advisory Board for the Center for American Literary Studies. She holds a B.A. from the University of Michigan , Ann Arbor , and a Ph.D. from Yale University .
PUBLICATIONS:
Books :
Driving Women: Fiction and Automobile Culture in Twentieth-Century America . Forthcoming, Johns Hopkins University Press (https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title_pages/9170.html), 2007. (225 pp.).
Robbing the Mother: Women in Faulkner . Jackson : University Press of Mississippi, 1994 (xi, 175 pp.).
Articles :
- “‘It means three dollars': Following the Money in As I Lay Dying .” Approaches to Teaching As I Lay Dying . Ed. Patrick O'Donnell. New York : MLA. Forthcoming. (18 manuscript pages).
- “William Faulkner and Henry Ford: Cars, Men, Bodies, and History as Bunk.” Faulkner and His Contemporaries . Ed. Ann Abadie & Donald Kartiganer. Jackson : U Press of Mississippi , 2004. 93-112. Rpt. The William Faulkner Journal of Japan (April 2006): 86-103. Trans. Ikuko Fujihira.
- “Domesticating the Car: Women's Road Trips.” Studies in American Fiction 32.1 (Spring 2004): 101-128.
- “Women on Wheels: ‘A Threat at Yesterday's Order of Things.'” Arizona Quarterly 59.4 (Winter 2003): 103-133.
- “‘The Porch Couldn't Talk for Looking': Voice and Vision in Their Eyes Were Watching God. ” African American Review 35.4 (Winter 2001): 599-613. Rpt. Feminism in Literature , Vol. 1, 2004: Gale Publishing.
- “Humorously Masculine—or Humor as Masculinity—in Light in August .” The Faulkner Journal xvii.1 (Fall 2001): 19-36.
- “The Unvanquished : War, Gender, and Cross-Dressing.” Faulkner and Gender . Ed. Donald Kartiganer. University Press of Mississippi , 1996. 228-251.
- Rpt. Twentieth Century Literary Criticism , Vol. 141: Gale Publishing.
- “Of Mothers, Robbery, and Language: Faulkner and The Sound and the Fury.” Faulkner and Psychology . Ed. Doreen Fowler & Ann J. Abadie. University Press of Mississippi , 1994. 56-77.
- “`What there was before language': Preliteracy in Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon .” Anxious Power: Reading , Writing, and Ambivalence in Narratives by Women . Ed. Carol J. Singley & Susan Elizabeth Sweeney. Albany : SUNY Press, 1993.
- “Camus, Faulkner, Dead Mothers . . . A Dialogue.” Co-written with Christiane Makward. Fiftieth Anniversary Essays on Camus's L'Etranger . Ed. Adele King. London : MacMillan Press, 1992.
- “Gender, Race, and Language in Light in August .” American Literature 61 (Oct. l989): 398-413.
- “Familiar and Fantastic: Women in Absalom, Absalom! .” The Faulkner Journal (Fall 1986): 62-72.
Book Reviews and Review Essays :
- Fast Cars and Bad Girls: Nomadic Subjects and Women's Road Stories . Deborah Paes de Barros. In Studies in American Fiction (forthcoming).
- Toni Morrison . Jill Matus. In The University of Toronto Quarterly 70.1 (Winter 2000/2001): 530-532.
- What Else But Love? The Ordeal of Race in Faulkner and Morrison . Philip M. Weinstein. In Modern Fiction Studies , 44.4 (Winter, 98): 1005-1008.
- Reconfigured Spheres: Feminist Explorations of Literary Space . Margaret R. Higonnet and Joan Templeton, eds. Amherst : U of Massachusetts P, 1994. In Legacy 13.2 (1996): 159-61.
- Faulkner and Southern Womanhood . Diane Roberts. Athens : U of Georgia P, 1994.
- In JEPG 95.4 (October, 1996): 580-81.
- Moorings and Metaphors: Figures of Culture and Gender in Black Women's Literature . Karla F.C. Holloway. New Brunswick : Rutgers UP, 1992. In MELUS 20.4 (Winter, 1995): 115-118.
- “Faulkner and his Critics: Moving into the 90's.” Review Essay. Arizona Quarterly (Spring 1991): 117-35.
Invited Talks:
- “My Mother the Car: Automotive Maternity and 20 th Century American Fiction.” Eastern Illinois University , 2006.
- “Automotive Maternity and American Culture.” University of Kansas , 2005.
- “My Mother the Car? Auto Bodies and Women's Bodies in Contemporary American Women's Literature.” Baldwin-Wallace College , 2003.
- “William Faulkner and Henry Ford: Cars, Men, Bodies, and History as Bunk.”
- Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference, 2002.
- “The Unvanquished : War, Gender, and Cross-Dressing.”
Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference, 1994.
Recent Selected Presentations:
- “Slow Reading Faulkner.”
- American Literature Association, 2006.
- “Automotive Citizenship: Gender, Ethnicity, and American Identity.”
- American Historical Association, 2005.
- “William Faulkner and Henry Ford: The Science of Making (and Unmaking) Modern Men.”
- Modern Language Association, 2004.
- “Race, Men, and Race Cars.”
- American Literature Association, 2003.
- “Visualizing Other Modernisms: Hurston and Faulkner.
- Modern Language Association, 2001.
Honors, Grants, and Awards:
- Resident Scholar Award, Fall, 2004
- Institute of Arts and Humanities, Penn State University
- Pavoucek-Shields Faculty Award, 2001
- Penn State University
- Summer Research Grant, 1997
- Office of Research and Graduate Studies, Penn State University
- Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award, 1996
- College of the Liberal Arts, Penn State University
- Excellence in Advising Award, 1996
- Undergraduate Student Government, Penn State University
- Research Fellow, Beatrice Bain Research Group, 1995-1996
- University of California , Berkeley
- George W. Atherton Award for Distinguished Teaching, 1993
- Penn State University
- Outstanding Woman Faculty, Pan Hellenic Council, 1990, 1993
- Penn State University
- NEH Summer Stipend Award for Robbing the Mother: Women in Faulkner , 1988
- Faculty Excellence Award for Teaching, 1987
- Eastern Illinois University .
- NEH Summer Fellowship for seminar, "Race and Slavery in American Literature," 1986
- At University of California , Berkeley
- Yale University Fellowship, 1980-1983
Course Descriptions :
UNDERGRADUATE:
“Economics and 20 th Century American Fiction”
This course will explore the intersections between economics and literature. We'll consider the ways that economic circumstances may shape gender, race, and ethnicity. What is the cost of American identity? We'll also consider the economics of publishing, of what it takes to get a book into print and how that changes over the course of the century. From the early century to the Great Depression to the current credit-card-laden culture, the story of economic possibilities and liabilities are reflected and shaped by literature. We'll be paying particular attention to issues of debt and credit, of how living beyond one's means functions as a literary trope.
“Mobility and 20 th Century American Fiction”
This course examines novels of mobility in 20 th century North American literature. Books will likely include Kerouac's On the Road , Viramontes' Under the Feet of Jesus , Kingsolver's The Bean Trees , Reed's Flight to Canada , Silko's Ceremony , and Kogawa's Obasan , among others. I'm interested in exploring the ways that mobility functions as a means of claiming American identity and how that is shaped by gender, class, and ethnicity. Who has the luxury of going on the road? Further, we'll look at various forms of mobility including migration, escape, dislocation, relocation, and looking for work; while mobility has been a central facet of American literature, that does not necessarily mean lighting out for the territories with a sense of potential and possibility. Ultimately, I hope you come away from the course both with a sense of the role mobility has played in American literature and an understanding of how it shapes current American culture. To that end, the final few weeks may focus more on cultural texts such as movies, advertisements, etc. Requirements: a lot of reading, several short papers, a group project, and spirited participation
“Contemporary Women's Fiction”
This course will focus on contemporary American women's fiction. We'll read a wide range of novels and consider the material from a variety of perspectives, examining a wide range of themes: family dynamics, history, war, language, ethnicity. In particular, we'll focus on the intersection of private and public in determining women's lives and identities. Given that women have so often been relegated to the “private sphere,” to what extent does the larger public context impact them? How are women's lives shaped by politics, work, consumer culture, technology, etc.? Is it possible to maintain a “private” self in the late 20 th century? Books will likely include Kingsolver's Poisonwood Bible, Allison's Bastard out of Carolina , Morrison's Beloved , Naylor's Mama Day, Silko's Ceremony , Keller's Comfort Woman, Smiley's A Thousand Acres, Cisneros' The House on Mango Street, Sapphire's Push . Requirements: two papers, one group presentation, final exam, and active class participation.
“American Novel: 1900-1945”
In this class you're going to read some of the best American novels ever written—by people such as Edith Wharton, Willa Cather, Nella Larsen, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Zora Neale Hurston, and Richard Wright, along with a few others. We'll consider these works both as a product of their time, examining the context in which they were written, and also in terms of what they say to us at the start of the next century. We'll look at issues of race, gender, history, politics, language, family, place, and storytelling. In particular, we're going to look at these texts as love stories—not in the traditional sense, but in exploring the possibility of love in the modern world. The reading load will be heavy but the books are fascinating. Two papers, a midterm, and a final. Attendance and participation are required.
GRADUATE:
“Citizenship and 20 th Century American Women's Fiction”
This course will survey 20 th century American women's fiction with an eye to exploring the issue of political/national identity: what does it mean to be American and female? How is citizenship constructed? We'll look at immigration, ethnicity, race, region, and class. To what extent is national identity shaped by gender? How do other forms of identity intersect and/or compete? The bulk of the reading will be the primary texts, but we may read some secondary works as well. We'll begin with Cather's My Antonia and Larsen's Quicksand, and continue through Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible . The rest of the novels come from a wide range of contemporary writers: Allison, Kingston , Viramontes, Garcia, Erdrich, Morrison, Feinberg, Mukherjee. The reading load will be heavy but wonderful. One long paper, one short paper, and one oral presentation and possibly one group presentation will be required. Spirited participation is a must.
“Faulkner and his Literary Legacy”
In this course we'll read Faulkner and then trace out some of ways his legacy has been passed on to other writers, both southern and non-southern. We'll begin with four or five of Faulkner's major novels, examining them from a range of perspectives. Next, we'll look at Richard Wright's Black Boy , and the ways he sees himself as both a product of and a response to the white south. Then, we'll move to some contemporary texts, possibly including such southern writers as Walker Percy, John Dufresne, Dorothy Allison, and Lee Smith, along with non-southerners Louise Erdrich, Toni Morrison, and William Kennedy. Among the many questions we'll be exploring are whether there is (or should be) such a thing as “Faulknerian,” and if so, what it means. To what extent do contemporary writers work in the shadow of Faulkner? How is his presence and/or influence felt, and how is that linked to issues of race, gender, and geography? How useful is it to use Faulkner, or any “great writer,” as a measure of 20 th century American literature? Requirements include at least one class presentation, a long paper, and possibly a short paper. Spirited participation is a must.
“Economics and Women's Fiction”
This course will examine 20th century American women's fiction and its relation to economics, specifically, issues of credit. From Edith Wharton on, money becomes an increasingly significant concern as more women seek economic independence. We'll consider how credit—what it means, who gets it, its repercussions—functions as a link between the literature and mass culture. How much does female identity cost? In what ways does the fiction reflect and/or reproduce the economic conditions of women's lives? Requirements include a lot of reading, at least one oral presentation, and a 15-20 page paper. Spirited participation is a must.
