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Transition in Progress!  In 2011-12, the Department of English begins a new chapter in its history as a proposed new School of Writing, Literature, and Film.   Our proposed name change and reorganization  highlights the full spectrum of academic programs that characterize our  distinctive mission and impacts across the university in the fields of creative writing, rhetoric and writing, literary studies, and critical film studies. 

This transition does not affect the degrees we have offered as an English department. We will continue to offer the same degrees and courses in English, writing, and film studies, at the undergraduate and graduate levels. 

Book News- Award-winning author Marjorie Sandor, whose writing explores contradictory human desires and domestic spaces, will read from her newly-released memoir “The Late Interiors: A Life Under Construction” on Thursday, May 26, at Oregon State University.

The reading will be at 7:30 p.m. in the Valley Library main rotunda on the OSU campus, with a book signing to follow. It is free and open to the public, and is part of the new Literary Northwest Series, co-sponsored by the OSU MFA Program and the OSU Bookstore.

The book reflects on mid-life changes, examining the wonder and fragility of a new marriage, an old house, and a new garden threatened by unexpected urban development.  Booklist reviewer Carol Haggas wrote that Sandor “chronicles this tumultuous year in her family’s life with a lyric appreciation for tradition and change, adventure and comfort, desire and acceptance.”

Sandor, professor and director of the master of fine arts program in creating writing at OSU, is the author of four books, and won the 2004 National Jewish Book Award in Fiction and the 2000 Oregon Book Award for Literary Nonfiction. Her work has also appeared in numerous magazines.

Book News – The ways in which we understand and describe what it means to be a woman may have deeper roots than we think, according to a new book by Oregon State University’s Tara Williams.

In her book, Williams argues that some modern notions of femininity had their beginnings in the era of the bubonic plague of the late 1300s, and in the cultural shifts in its aftermath. “Inventing Womanhood: Gender and Language in Later Middle English Writing” was recently published by the Ohio State University Press. It is the first published book by Williams, an associate professor of English at OSU.

Williams, who is an expert on the medieval literature and culture, set out to explore why certain gendered words – such as “womanhood,” “femininity,” and “motherhood” were used for the first time during the English medieval period.

“Previously, the way women were described was mainly as a wife, maiden or widow,” Williams said. “After the plague wiped out such a huge amount of the population, opportunities opened up for women to expand their roles in society, and language had to be created to describe these roles.”

In addition, relationships were changing in this period and the rise of companionate marriages, as opposed to marriages arranged primarily for practical concerns or purposes, began to shift language.

“What it meant to be a wife was changing, and that whole pre-wife period became problematic,” she said. “Words had to be created to define women in these new roles.”

Williams said the word “manhood” is documented in English two centuries before “womanhood” ever makes an appearance. Even today, she said society struggles with what to call women.

“My personal pet peeve is the word ‘female,’ as in ‘There are females here,’” Williams, said, laughing. “Today, we still struggle to find the right words. Woman doesn’t always seem to apply, but neither does girl always fill that linguistic gap.”

The ongoing debate over gendered language – such as describing a room full of people as “guys,” or using terms such as “gal,” “ chick,” or “lady” can be traced to the Middle Ages – Williams said.

“We can see in the writings of authors such as Geoffrey Chaucer that people were working out how to use these new words, and what they really meant,” she said. “And I’m not sure we’re clearer today. Certain ideologies become encoded in language. So perhaps there is still a linguistic gap to fill when it comes to notions of womanhood.”