English Department
Visiting Assistant Professor of English
On Faculty since 2008
Office: Blanchard 212
Phone: (630)752-5969
Email: Beth.Hubbard@wheaton.edu
Education
Ph.D. Fordham University, May 2008
M.A. Fordham University, May 2003
B.A. Wheaton College (IL), May 2000
About Elizabeth Hubbard
My research interests include contemporary American literature, African American literature, southern literature, and the relationship of Christianity to literature. However, I enjoy literature from almost any time period and place, and so getting to teach modern global literature has especially suited my varied interests. I have been repeatedly intrigued by the ways writers from completely different times and cultures articulate in such similar terms some of our most basic human needs and longings, what it means to be human, and what it means to love God and neighbor. When I’m reading just for fun, I’m often reading mystery novels or modern fantasy.
Personally, I delight in being with my husband and children, family, and friends. I also enjoy cooking and almost any outdoor activity (especially if woods, lakes, or mountains are involved).
Courses Taught
- Composition and Research [ENGW 103,104]
- Modern Global Literature [ENGL 105]
- Early American Literature: Beginnings through Romanticism [ENGL341]
Research
My research has focused primarily upon representations of the confidence artist in post-World War II American literature. In the works I explore, the con artists function as ambiguously restorative agents for the people upon whom they practice their deceptions, people who are incapable of experiencing love or freedom because in their embrace of the supposed scientific objectivity of the modern era, they have objectified themselves and others. Thomas Merton has written that “the problem of sanctity and salvation is in the fact of finding out who [we are] and of discovering [our] true sel[ves],” and the con artists in these works jolt their protagonists toward sanctity and salvation by initiating such a discovery and apprehension in their victims, even as they simultaneously deceive and injure. The jarring grace offered these characters parallels the experience of the Psalmist, who writes, “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes” (Ps. 119: 71). In the afflictions or pain the con artists cause, they ultimately direct their victims toward repentance and transformation.
Recent Publications and/or Presentations
Publications:
“‘Now We See in a Mirror Dimly’: The Mystery of Human Identity in Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” (article in progress)
“Blindness and the Beginning of Vision in ‘Good Country People.’” Flannery O’Connor Review. Forthcoming. 2011.
Presentations:
“The Failure of ‘the primordial prophylactic against fear’ and the Travesty of Masculinity in David Mamet’s House of Games” at the Northeast MLA Annual Conference. Buffalo, NY, April 2008.
“‘Better Things for Better Living Through Chemistry’: Recovering from the American Thanatos Syndrome in Don DeLillo’s White Noise” at the College English Association Annual Conference. St. Louis, March 2008.
“Reverse Passing and the Trouble with Representation in The Marrow of Tradition” at the American Literature Association Annual Conference. Boston, May 2007.
“Reading History in Reading in the Dark” at the Mid-Atlantic Conference of British Studies. Rutgers University, April 2006.
“Confidence Man or Man of God? The Aporia of the Trickster in ‘Good Country People’” at “O’Connor and Other Georgia Writers: A Scholarly Conference.” Georgia College & State University, March 2006.
“‘Pioneers on that New Frontier’: The Con Artist in Postwar American Fiction.” Fordham University “Grads Only” Conference, March 2006.
“White Noise: The Dread of Un/Belief and Life in the Mysterious” at “Constant Craving: Consumption in Literature.” Fordham University Graduate English Conference, April 2003.