UST students, faculty and staff are invited to the first event of the 2009-10 English Department Colloquium Series. Olga Herrera will speak on “For Those Who Cannot Out: Textual Differences in Three Editions of The House on Mango Street.”
A specialist in Latino/Latina literature, Herrera is a new full-time faculty member in the St. Thomas English Department. She will speak from 3 to 4 p.m. Friday, Oct. 2, in the O’Shaughnessy Room, Room 108, of the O’Shaughnessy-Frey Library Center. Light refreshments will be served.
In this talk, Herrera will look closely at The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros’ first collection of fiction, which challenges the conventions of both poetry and prose and was the book that placed the author on the literary map.
First published by independent publisher Arte Publico Press in 1984, it received widespread attention upon publication with Vintage Contemporary Editions-Random House in 1991. The different editions contain a surprising number of textual variations that, when considered as a whole, raise questions about the effects of the editorial process of a young author’s first manuscript. Herrera will examine several key examples of the variations of the two editions, and a reprint by Arte Publico Press, and consider their impact on the text’s innovative literary aesthetics.
The next English Department faculty member to speak will be Dan Jones, who will speak on “Salving the Wound: Into the Wild and Postmodern Masculinity” at the colloquium event on Friday, Nov. 20.
For more information about the colloquium series, call the English Department, (651) 962-5600.
