Following up a bit on our discussion yesterday of the somewhat disturbing 'narrowmindedness' of the NMSU English Department and its principal theoretical orientation, I would like to draw your attention, for example, to ANDREA YOUNG's 1996 Master's Thesis dealing with an analysis of George Washington Cable, William Faulkner and Anne Rice, all of whom have written extensively about Creole Life in New Orleans.
Ms. YOUNG, a then 24 year old female student from Minnesota, who dedicated her thesis to HERSELF, was actually PAID by the English Department to travel to New Orleans, live there, and investigate current racial attitudes which may or may not be reflected in the writings of Cable, Faulkner and Rice.
Her thesis, which can barely pass as 'literary critique', is full of thinly disguised racial epithets, favorable references to Louisiana race laws, slurs, innuendo and analysis that could easily pass for material known to have surfaced in a certain former KKK member's recent Louisiana congressional campaign.
We should look at her thesis together...it's appalling that people like Dean Pettibone of the Graduate School and the English Dept. Head would approve of such an analysis. Yet, you see, this is NMSU where reactionary currents and unthinkable policies still exist...often, as in the case of this thesis, on the very surface of things.
We'll get together again soon, as you suggested.
Yours,