{"id":815,"date":"2019-07-17T18:18:52","date_gmt":"2019-07-17T18:18:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wcsu.wpengine.com\/news-archives\/roadscholar\/"},"modified":"2019-07-17T18:18:52","modified_gmt":"2019-07-17T18:18:52","slug":"roadscholar","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/news-archives\/roadscholar\/","title":{"rendered":"RoadScholar"},"content":{"rendered":"
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WestConn students hit the road to learn about literature<\/p>\n

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DANBURY, CONN. <\/strong>\u2014 By retracing the footsteps of some of the country\u2019s finest writers, students at Western Connecticut State University are becoming road scholars.
\n A new course offered to WestConn undergraduates, \u201cRoad Scholar\u201d takes students out of the classroom to learn more about the lives of famous authors and playwrights who helped shape American literature by visiting their homes in and around Connecticut.<\/p>\n

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\n\u201cAs professors of American literature, we felt that WestConn is ideally situated in the very heart of the region in which American literature came of age and announced its presence,\u201d said WestConn English Professor Dr. Margaret Murray, who came up with the idea for the course with English Professor Dr. Donald Gagnon. <\/p>\n

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In Hartford, the students visited the homes of Mark Twain and neighbor Harriett Beecher Stowe. Stowe is best known for her anti-slavery novel, \u201cUncle Tom\u2019s Cabin.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\u201cThe officials at each site were complimentary about the students\u2019 reading, their experience with the texts, and their familiarity with the cultural and literary significance of the works and authors,\u201d said Gagnon. \u201cThey all realized the value inherent in making the authors and their works tangible, the product of not only genius but also of rich humanity. Our docent at the Mark Twain house even said he\u2019d like to register for the course!\u201d<\/p>\n

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The setting for playwright Eugene O\u2019Neill\u2019s \u201cA Long Day\u2019s Journey into Night\u201d is based on the living room of his home in New London. As WestConn student Dusty Zima walked through the home shortly after reading the play, he said it all came alive for him.<\/p>\n

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Zima, who will return to WestConn as a graduate student this fall, said the trips added to the experience that the reader has with an author \u2014 more than just reading.<\/p>\n

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\u201cOn the surface, it wouldn\u2019t seem like you get much,\u201d said Zima, who graduated in May. \u201cBut you see the things that inspired this play. O\u2019Neill\u2019s New London home is where
\n\u2018Long Day\u2019s Journey\u2019 takes place. It\u2019s believed to be inspired by the living room \u2014 to feel how small it is, especially with three kids. You really feel that it\u2019s his own work.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The undergraduate course focuses on several classic authors who lived within a few hours from WestConn. It gives students the opportunity to study great works of literature in the milieu in which they were created and to appreciate the personal, social and historical synergistic forces that helped shape these works.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou get a much more hands-on, tangible feeling of what the authors were trying to say in their work by visiting the places where they lived and wrote,\u201d said Zima. \u201cIt\u2019s a quite different thing to walk around where these authors lived. That\u2019s something you can\u2019t see in the classroom.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Visits included the Massachusetts homes of Edith Wharton, author of \u201cThe Age of Innocence,\u201d and Herman Melville, who wrote the classic whaling tale, \u201cMoby Dick.\u201d Students were required to read one or two works from each of six authors and write several response and research papers. Classes were held twice a week on campus.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMost of what we read was social commentary works, so it\u2019s important to know how they lived,\u201d said Zima. \u201cIt\u2019s surprising how little people know about the authors\u2019 personal lives and that was the whole conundrum of the class \u2014 did that help or hinder with the interaction of that author\u2019s work? I think it\u2019s helpful to know about the author\u2019s life. It\u2019s important to know what was going on in the culture when they were writing.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n Zima said it was a great all-around experience, as the students would bring lunches and talk about the readings during lunch or while riding to the different homes.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt was a classroom from the minute we left WestConn \u2014 it was like a traveling classroom,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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Western Connecticut State University offers outstanding faculty in a range of quality academic programs. Our diverse university community provides students an enriching and supportive environment that takes advantage of the unique cultural offerings of Western Connecticut and New York. Our vision: To be an affordable public university with the characteristics of New England\u2019s best small private universities.<\/em><\/p>\n

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WestConn students hit the road to learn about literature DANBURY, CONN. \u2014 By retracing the footsteps of some of the country\u2019s finest writers, students at Western Connecticut State University are becoming road scholars. A …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-815","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/news-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/news-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/news-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/news-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/news-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/news-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/815\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/news-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}