University Libraries Presents: Writers Series

Posted on September 27, 2016 by Dana Haugh

Date: 09/27/2016

Time: 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm

Description

Mary Jo Bona: “Women Writing Cloth: Migratory Fictions in the American Imaginary”

Women Writing Cloth: Migratory Fictions in the American Imaginary investigates the relationship between literary representations of cloth-work and migration, demonstrating how American authors innovate on pre-modern stories of weaving women in order to explore the intricate connections between handwork, resourcefulness, and mobility. Bona argues that cloth-work serves as a textual signifier of mobility and preservation, constituting a revolt against a devaluation of cultural heritage and a distrust of the self. Bona develops a new framework for examining analogies between weaving and storytelling, the flow of needlework across place and time, women’s labor and status, and the power of cloth-work as both means and metaphor for cultural reintegration across borders.

Mary Jo Bona is professor and Chair of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Stony Brook University. A specialist in the field of multiethnic American literary and feminist studies, her authored books include: Women Writing Cloth: Migratory Fictions in the American Imaginary, By the Breath of Their Mouths: Narratives of Resistance in Italian America, Claiming a Tradition: Italian American Women Writers, and a book of poetry, I Stop Waiting For You. Bona is also editor of The Voices We Carry: Recent Italian American Women’s Fiction; co-editor (with Irma Maini) of Multiethnic Literature and Canon Debates; and series editor of Multiethnic Literature for State University of New York Press. She is past president of the Italian American Studies Association and served for six years on the board of MELUS, the Association of Multiethnic Literature of the United States.

Adrienne Munich: “Scramblers for Diamonds at the “Big Hole” in Kimberley, South Africa”
The 1867 discovery of a large diamond in what is now South Africa brought to Kimberley what one novelist called “mixed humanity” who together created the wonder of the largest hand-dug mine, eventually acquired by the DeBeers Company and suggestively titled “Big Hole.” Rare archival photos, letters, and a diary reveal those ordinary men who scrambled for diamonds at the mine. Photos document the hiring of African miners who came to afford a bride to reveal chilling images of the “civilizing mission.” A diary and letters from two ordinary Americans reveal the grinding daily quest of another ingredient of the mix. The archives show African and American alike risking their lives to acquire dazzling over-valued minerals. Rather than look at the historically renowned figures, such as Cecil Rhodes, the archives uncover images and words of common men who became part of the imperially-named “the scramble for Africa.”

Adrienne Munich is Professor of English at Stony Brook University with affiliated appointments in Art, Cultural Studies, and Women’s and Gender Studies. She is author of books and articles about Victorian literature and culture, among them Andromeda’s Chains and Queen Victoria’s Secrets, and articles about Victorian and modern symbolic economies. Recent books include two collections about the American modern poet, Amy Lowell, one about fashion in film, and articles about movies, early radio, and African diamonds. Her most recent publications are about apocalypse in Robert Browning, written with Nicole Garret of Stony Brook, and cultural meanings of a famous Indian diamond, called the Koh-i-Noor. Her current book project concerns the changing meanings of Victorian diamonds. She co-edits the Cambridge University Press journal, Victorian Literature and Culture.

Location: Special Collections Seminar Room, second floor, Frank Melville Jr. Memorial Library (room E-2340), Stony Brook University (directions).
Please note: food and drink are not permitted in the seminar room.

If you have any questions, please contact:

Kristen J. Nyitray
Head, Special Collections & University Archives
University Archivist
Associate Librarian
kristen.nyitray@stonybrook.edu
(631) 632-7119