Faculty Directory
Kathryn Hume
Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of English
Contact:
218 Burrowes Building
University Park, PA 16802
Office Phone: 814-863-2342
iqn@psu.edu
www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/i/q/iqn/
Office Hours:
Not Teaching
Kit Hume started as a medievalist in Old English, Middle English, and Old Norse, but has become a specialist in contemporary fiction. Her books include Fantasy and Mimesis: Responses to Reality in Western Literature , Pynchon's Mythography: an Approach to GRAVITY'S RAINBOW , Calvino's Fictions: Cogito and Cosmos , and American Dream, American Nightmare: Fiction since 1960 . Contemporary authors she has published on include Kurt Vonnegut, Robert Coover, Italo Calvino, A. C. Clarke, Thomas Pynchon, Ishmael Reed, Salman Rushdie, William Burroughs, Kathy Acker, Richard Brautigan, William Kennedy, John Edgar Wideman, and Gerald Vizenor. She has also written Surviving your Academic Job Hunt: Advice for Humanities PhDs .
Publications:
Books:
- THE OWL AND THE NIGHTINGALE: The Poem and its Critics . Toronto : The University of Toronto Press, 1975. Pp. xiii+139.
- Fantasy and Mimesis: Responses to Reality in Western Fiction . London : Methuen , 1984. Pp. xvi+213. Translated into Korean ( Seoul : PurunNamu, 2000).
- Pynchon's Mythography: An Approach to GRAVITY'S RAINBOW . Carbondale : Southern Illinois University Press, 1987. Pp. xxiv+262.
- Calvino's Fictions: Cogito and Cosmos . Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1992. Pp. [x+] 212.
- American Dream, American Nightmare: Fiction since 1960 . Urbana and Chicago : University of Illinois Press, 2000. Pp. 359.
- Surviving your Academic Job Hunt: Advice for Humanities PhDs. New York : Palgrave-Macmillan, 2005. Pp. viii + 215.
Articles:
Contemporary Fiction, Fantastic Fiction
- “Romance: A Perdurable Pattern,” College English 36 (1974): 129-146.
- “C. S. Lewis' Trilogy: A Cosmic Romance,” Modern Fiction Studies 20 (1974-75): 505-517.
- “Visionary Allegory in David Lindsay's A Voyage to Arcturus ,” Journal of English and Germanic Philology 77 (1978): 72-91.
- “Robert Coover's Fiction: The Naked and the Mythic,” Novel 12 (1979): 127-148.
- “The Heraclitean Cosmos of Kurt Vonnegut,” Papers on Language and Literature 18 (1982): 208-224.
- “Medieval Romance and Science Fiction: The Anatomy of a Resemblance,” Journal of Popular Culture 16 (1982): 15-26.
- “Science and Imagination in Calvino's Cosmicomics ,” Mosaic 15 (December, 1982): 47-58.
- “Vonnegut's Self-Projections: Symbolic Characters and Symbolic Fictions,” Journal of Narrative Technique 12 (1982): 177-190.
- “Kurt Vonnegut and the Myths and Symbols of Meaning,” Texas Studies in Literature and Language 24 (1982): 429-447.
- “The Hidden Dynamics of The War of the Worlds ,” Philological Quarterly 62 (1983): 279-292.
- “The Edifice Complex: Motive and Accomplishment in Arthur C. Clarke's The Fountains of Paradise ,” Extrapolation 24 (1983): 380-388.
- “Italo Calvino's Cosmic Comedy: Mythography for the Scientific Age,” Papers on Language and Literature 20 (1984): 80-95.
- “Orpheus and the Orphic Voice in Gravity's Rainbow ,” written in collaboration with Thomas J. Knight, Philological Quarterly 64 (1985): 299-315.
- “Pynchon's Orchestration of Gravity's Rainbow ,” written in collaboration with Thomas J. Knight, Journal of English and Germanic Philology 85 (1986): 366-385.
- “Calvino's Framed Narrations: Writers, Readers, and Reality,” Review of Contemporary Fiction 6.2 (1986): 71-80.
- “ Gravity's Rainbow : Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Mythology,” in Intersections: Fantasy and Science Fiction , ed. George E. Slusser and Eric S. Rabkin (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1987), pp. 190-200.
- “La commedia cosmica di Italo Calvino: una mitografia per l'età della scienza,” Nuova Corrente 34 (1987): 85-106 (a translation of “Italo Calvino's Cosmic Comedy: Mythography for the Scientific Age”).
- “Calvino's La memoria del mondo : The Forgotten Record of Lost Worlds,” in Calvino Revisited , ed. Franco Ricci, University of Toronto Italian Studies 2 (Ottawa: Dovehouse Editions, 1989), pp. 85-102.
- “Views from Above, Views from Below: The Perspectival Subtext in Gravity's Rainbow ,” American Literature 60.4 (1988): 625-642.
- “Eat or be Eaten: H. G. Wells's Time Machine ,” Philological Quarterly 69.2 (1990): 233-251.
- “Grains of Sand in a Sea of Objects : Italo Calvino as Essayist,” Modern Language Review 87.1 (1992): 72-85.
- “Sensuality and the Senses in Calvino's Fiction,” MLN 107 (1992): 160-177.
- “Repetition and the Construction of Character in Gravity's Rainbow ,” Critique 33.4 (1992): 243-254.
- “Ishmael Reed and the Problematics of Control,” PMLA 108.3 (1993): 506-518.
- “Taking a Stand while Lacking a Center: Rushdie's Postmodern Politics,” Philological Quarterly 74.2 (1995): 209-230.
- “William Burroughs's Phantasmic Geography,” Contemporary Literature 40.1 (1999): 111-135.
- “Vonnegut's Melancholy,” Philological Quarterly 77 (1998): 221-238.
- “Books of the Dead: Postmortem Politics in Novels by Mailer, Burroughs, Acker, and Pynchon,” Modern Philology 97.3 (2000): 417-444.
- “Brautigan's Psychomachia,” Mosaic 34.1 (2001): 75-92.
- “Voice in Kathy Acker's Fiction,” Contemporary Literature 42.3 (2001): 485-513.
- “The Semiotics of Fantasy in William Kennedy's Fiction,” Philological Quarterly 79.4 (2000): 523-548.
- “Robert Coover: The Metaphysics of Bondage,” Modern Language Review 98.4 (2003): 827-841.
- “Quest Romance in Science Fiction,” in A Companion to Romance , ed. Corinne Saunders ( Oxford : Blackwells Publishing, 2004): 488-501.
- “ ‘Dimensions' and John Edgar Wideman's Mental Cosmology.” Contemporary Literature 44.4 (2003): 697-726.
- “Black Urban Utopia in Wideman's Later Fiction,” Race and Class 45.3 (2004): 19-34.
- “Narrative Speed in Contemporary Fiction.” Narrative 13.2 (2005): 105-124.
- “Speed, Rhythm, Movement: A Dialogue on K. Hume's Article ‘Narrative Speed'.” With Jan Baetens. Narrative 14.3 (2006): 349-355.
- “Gerald Vizenor's Metaphysics.” under consideration (44 pp).
- “Diffused Satire in Contemporary American Fiction.” Accepted by Modern Philology (43 pp).
Professionalism
- “Department Politics as a Foreign Language,” Chronicle of Higher Education , January 31, 2003, B5.
Middle English (and Anglo-Latin):
- Leprosy or Syphilis in Henryson's Testament of Cresseid ?” English Language Notes 6 (1969): 242-245.
- “Why Chaucer Calls the Franklin's Tale a Breton Lai,” Philological Quarterly 51 (1972): 365-379.
- “The Pagan Setting of the Franklin's Tale and the Sources of Dorigen's Cosmology,” Studia Neophilologica 44 (1972): 289-294.
- “ Amis and Amiloun and the Aesthetics of Middle English Romance,” Studies in Philology 70 (1973): 19-41.
- “The Formal Nature of Middle English Romance,” Philological Quarterly 53 (1974): 158-180.
- “The Composition of a Medieval Romance: Walter Map's Sadius and Galo ,” Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 76 (1975): 415-423.
Old English
- “The Function of the hrefn blaca : Beowulf 1801,” Modern Philology 67 (1969): 60-63.
- “The Concept of the Hall in Old English Poetry,” Anglo-Saxon England 3 (1974): 63-74.
- “The Theme and Structure of Beowulf ,” Studies in Philology 72 (1975): 1-27.
- “The ‘ruin-motif' in Old English Poetry,” Anglia 94 (1976): 339-360.
Old Norse
- “Structure and Perspective: Romance and Hagiographic Features in the Amicus and Amelius Story,” Journal of English and Germanic Philology 69 (1970): 89-107.
- “Beginnings and Endings in the Icelandic Family Sagas,” Modern Language Review 68 (1973): 593-606.
- “The Thematic Design of Grettis saga ,” Journal of English and Germanic Philology 73 (1974): 469-486.
- “”From Saga to Romance: The Uses of Monsters in Old Norse Literature,” Studies in Philology 77 (1980): 1-25.
- “ Grettis saga Ásmundarsonar ,” an entry in the Dictionary of the Middle Ages , vol. 5 (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1985).
Book Reviews:
- Eyrbyggja saga , translated by Hermann Pálsson and Paul Edwards, Journal of English and Germanic Philology 73 (1974): 576-578.
- The Laxdoela Saga: Its Structural Patterns by A. Margaret A. Madelung, Speculum 50 (1975): 516-520.
- The Secular Scripture: A Study of the Structure of Romance by Northrop Frye, Style 11 (1977): 212-213.
- Modern Fantasy: Five Studies by C. N. Manlove, Yearbook of English Studies 7 (1977): 286-287.
- Curiosity and Pilgrimage: The Literature of Discovery in Fourteenth Century England by Christian K. Zacher, Journal of English and Germanic Philology 76 (1977): 123-125.
- Miðaldaæventýri Þýdd úr Ensku , ed. Einar G. Pétursson, Journal of English and Germanic Philology 77 (1978): 130-131.
- Erex saga and Ivens saga , translated, with an introduction, by Foster W. Blaisdell, Jr., and Marianne E. Kalinke, Journal of English and Germanic Philology 77 (1978): 310-311.
- The Happening Worlds of John Brunner: Critical Explorations in Science Fiction , ed. Joe De Bolt, Modern Language Review 74 (1979): 192-193.
- The Game of the Impossible: A Rhetoric of Fantasy by W. R. Irwin, Modern Language Review 74 (1979): 680-681.
- Eilhart von Oberge's TRISTRANT , translated, with an introduction, by J. W. Thomas, Journal of English and Germanic Philology
- 78 (l979): 86-88.
- American Visionary Fiction: Mad Metaphysics as Salvation Psychology by Richard Finholt, Modern Language Review 75 (1980): 638-639.
- Strengleikar: An Old Norse Translation of Twenty-one Old French Lais , eds. Robert Cook and Mattias Tveitane, Scandinavian Studies 53 (1981): 468-469.
- Metamorphoses of Science Fiction: On the Poetics and History of a Literary Genre by Darko Suvin, Yearbook of English Studies 12 (1982): 347-348.
- Icelandic Enterprise : Commerce and Economy in the Middle Ages by Bruce E. Gelsinger, Scandinavian Studies 54 (1982): 259-261.
- Karlamagnus saga Branches I, III, VII, et IX , Norse text edited by Agnete Loth; French translation by Annette Patron-Godefroit, and editorial study by Povl Skarup, Scandinavian Studies 54 (1982): 256-257.
- The Literature of Terror: A History of Gothic Fictions from 1765 to the present day by David Punter, Modern Language Review 78 (1983): 152-153.
- The Life and Works of David Lindsay by Bernard Sellin, Yearbook of English Studies 15 (1985): 335-336.
- Robert Coover by Richard Andersen, Modern Language Review 80 (1985): 150.
- Four Contemporary Novelists: Angus Wilson, Brian Moore, John Fowles, V.S. Naipaul by Kerry McSweeney, Modern Language Review 82.3 (1987): 726-727.
- In Defence of Fantasy by Ann Swinfen, and Magical Thought in Creative Writing by Anne Wilson, Modern Language Review 83.1 (1988): 179-180.
- Robert Coover's Fictions by Jackson I. Cope, Novel 22.1 (1988): 122-123.
- The Style of Connectedness: GRAVITY'S RAINBOW and Thomas Pynchon by Thomas Moore, Pynchon Notes , 18-19 (1986), 116-117.
- War Stars: The Superweapon and the American Imagination by H. Bruce Franklin, American Literature 61.3 (1989): 469-470.
- The Gnostic Pynchon by Dwight Eddins, American Literature , 63.2 (1991): 358-359.
- The Politics of Postmodernism by Linda Hutcheon, University of Toronto Quarterly , 61.1 (1991): 117-118.
- Constructing Postmodernism by Brian McHale, American Literature 66.1 (1994): 206-207.
- The Play of the Double in Postmodern American Fiction by Gordon E. Slethaug, Modern Fiction Studies 40.4 (1994): 859-861.
- Late Imperial Romance by John McClure, American Literature 67.1 (1995): 175-176.
- Painting with Words, Writing with Pictures: Word and Image Relations in the Work of Italo Calvino by Franco Ricci, University of Toronto Quarterly 72.1 (Winter, 2002/03): 545-546.
- Glorificemus: A Study of the Fiction of Walter M. Miller, Jr. by Rose Secrest. Utopian Studies 14.1 (2003): 258-259.
- Amy Tan by Bella Adams. MELUS 30.4 (2005): 181-184.
- Thomas Pynchon: Reading from the Margins . Ed. Niran Abbas. Studies in the Novel 37.1 (2005): 99-101.
Course Descriptions:
English 497G: “Professional Writing for Graduate Students”Course Aim: This course is not open to undergraduates. Its proper audience consists of advanced students in all disciplines of the university, preferably working on their PhDs. Its aim is to help these advanced students develop a clear, professional prose style. In addition to style, we will discuss organization, mechanics, formats, and any special problems pertaining to writing in your specialties. We will workshop ongoing projects that you are writing--proposals, theses, reports, articles. In addition, we will do a case, and will discuss difficult writing situations that arise during the semester. Some participants have wished to try out on the class letters of recommendation, letters of job application, CVs, letters that turn someone down for something. The basic project though is one that you are already working on.
Text: HANDBOOK OF TECHNICAL WRITING by Alred, Brusaw, Oliu (seventh edition) and a packet.
English 577: “Contemporary Fiction”This is a course in fiction written during the last twenty years. The books are drawn from American (including Native American, African American, Asian American, and Anglophone literature from various Spanish-influenced cultures), British, Subcontinental Indian, Anglophone African, Canadian, Antipodean—anything written in English. Where possible, novels exhibit various sexual orientations, religious concerns, and avant-garde as well as traditional literary techniques, and a spectrum of political orientations. Each week, a seminar participant is responsible for presenting the text of the week by offering a brief biography of the author and a selective bibliography emphasizing the work being read. Discussion will focus on ways of working with such a text and how one could usefully write an article on it. Everyone will write a minimum of two drafts of an article on one of these texts or on some other text that interests you. The last few meetings are devoted to workshopping your article.
English 597a: “Article Writing Workshop”
This course helps you work up one or more potential articles to the level needed for sending them out to journals. We do this through collaborative workshopping. Participants have come from English and Language departments, CAS, CompLit, and other humanistic programs.
In addition, you learn about professionalism—how journals are ranked, how departments and programs are ranked, how to structure your career, how university administrators “think” when looking at faculty records, what kinds of documents you will need for your job hunt, and what kinds of documents you will need to be able to produce during your untenured years as an assistant professor.
Prerequisites: one or more seminar papers worth working up as articles. A dissertation chapter is also appropriate.
