The Visible Part of the Brain…

Last week I was at the National Conference for the PCA/ACA (Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association) in Washington, DC.  I took a break from presenting on my favorite topics of plagiarism and copyright to talk about science fiction, and presented on the hand-loss trope in science fiction.  I had the help of many of my … Continue reading →

Metaphorical Confusion

I thought I was finished with my dissertation proposal, but not so.  My advisors pointed out a major weak point in my thesis—I was conflating metaphor and literary device. That being one necessitates being the other, I mean.  It’s not the first time I’ve had blunders with the term “metaphor” though; in my Masters program, … Continue reading →

A Trip to the Poe Museum

Since my last post, I passed my comprehensive exams and wrote up, revised, wrote again, revised, and rewrote my proposal (and taught some classes).  So, it’s back to blogging for me.  To get a kick start back into the game, I visited the Philadelphia Poe Museum with my sister.  I’m going to be doing a … Continue reading →

What is Parody? Maybe The Simpsons know.

I thought this question would be easy—as a literature addict, parody seems pretty obvious and I could name countless examples, from The Onion to The Simpsons to Jonathan Swift.  Turns out, I’ve had the wrong definition of parody this whole time.  Well, according to literary theorist Linda Hutcheon, I did. I’ve always treated parody as … Continue reading →