HOFSTRA CULTURAL CENTER presents JOHN STEINBECK’S AMERICAS A CENTENNIAL CONFERENCE Thursday, Friday, Saturday March 21, 22, 23, 2002 Registration Program Cooperating Institutions: Center for Steinbeck Studies at San José State University John Steinbeck Society of Japan HEMPSTEAD, NEW YORK 11549 PRE-CONFERENCE EVENT WEDNESDAY, MARCH 20, 2002 7 p.m. Student Center Theater North Campus ROUND-TABLE DISCUSSION: “Reassessing Steinbeck in the 21st Century” Robert J. DeMott Brian E. Railsback Ohio University Western Carolina University Warren G. French Kathleen Hicks Tallahassee, Florida Arizona State University Mimi Gladstein Louis Owens The University of Texas at El Paso University of California-Davis Photograph by Hans Namuth, courtesy of the estate of Hans Namuth. Conference Directors Ruth Prigozy Susan Shillinglaw Professor of English Professor of English and Hofstra University Director of the Center for Steinbeck Studies San José State University Conference Coordinator Natalie Datlof Executive Director Hofstra Cultural Center Hofstra Cultural Center gratefully acknowledges the support of Hofstra University Bookstore A service of BARNES & NOBLE 2 Thursday, March 21, 2002 9 a.m.-5 p.m. CONFERENCE REGISTRATION Student Center Theater Lobby North Campus 10-11 a.m. OPENING CEREMONY Welcome Ruth Prigozy Professor of English Hofstra University Susan Shillinglaw Professor of English and Director of the Center for Steinbeck Studies San José State University Greetings Stuart Rabinowitz President and Andrew M. Boas and Mark L. Claster Distinguished Professor of Law Hofstra University Keynote Address Morris Dickstein Distinguished Professor of English Queens College/CUNY and The Graduate Center/CUNY “Steinbeck and the Great Depression” 11:15 a.m.-12:15 p.m. CONCURRENT SESSIONS PANEL I-A: STEINBECK AND PANEL I-B: CHARACTER STUDIES AMERICA AT WAR Warren G. French Mimi Gladstein Tallahassee, FL The University of Texas at El Paso “John Steinbeck’s ‘Self-characters’ on “Two John Steinbecks Go to War” Long Island” Lt. Col. James H. Meredith Jun Kaneko United States Air Force Academy Akita National College of Technology “Steinbeck and the Tragedy of the Akita, Japan Vietnam War” “Ricketts-like Characters and Wise Old Man in Myth” 12:15-1:45 p.m. BUFFET LUNCH and BIOGRAPHICAL PERSPECTIVES I Interviews with Budd Schulberg and Jackson Benson (See page 14 for registration form.) 3 Thursday, March 21, 2002 1:45-3:15 p.m. CONCURRENT SESSIONS PANEL II-A: THE MONTEREY PANEL II-B: ENVIRONMENTAL NOVELS PERSPECTIVES I Nina Allen Robert J. DeMott Suffolk University Ohio University “Tortilla Flat and the Death of Tradition” “New Wine/Old Bottles: Notes Toward The Grapes of Wrath Leland S. Person as Ecological Text” University of Cincinnati “The Monterey Trilogy: Steinbeck, Cornelius Browne Thoreau and the Ecology of Male Friendship” Ohio University “Two Views of the Sea: P. Balaswamy Steinbeck/Ricketts and Rachel Carson” Pondicherry University Pondicherry, India Mark Rankin “A Rabelaisian World in Monterey: Ohio State University The Carnivalesque Vision in “To a God Unknown as a Bioregional Novel” Steinbeck’s Cannery Row Novels” Lisa Schroot-Mitchum Reinaldo Silva Ohio University Universidade de Aveiro “Inter-Textual Dimensions of Aveiro, Portugal Sea of Cortez” “At the Crossroads of Naturalism and Racial Prejudice: John Steinbeck’s Imaging of Portuguese-Americans in Tortilla Flat” 3:30-4:45 p.m. CONCURRENT SESSIONS PANEL III-A: STEINBECK’S SENSE PANEL III-B: THE GRAPES OF WRATH I: OF PLACE CONTEXTUALIZING THE NOVEL Katharine M. Morsberger Allene M. Parker Claremont, CA Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and “Steinbeck’s California and the Cultural Robert E. Morsberger Work of The Grapes of Wrath” Professor Emeritus, California State Stephen J. Whitfield Polytechnic University Brandeis University “Deep Focus: History, Heritage, Hope, “The Politics of The Grapes of Wrath” Realism and Myth in Steinbeck’s Sense of Place” Kirk Curnutt Troy State University Montgomery Mary Brown “Talking Tom Joad: Steinbeck, Springsteen Indiana Wesleyan University and the Problem of Voicing the ‘Vox Populi’” “John Steinbeck’s Joads and Highway 66” Kozen Nakachi University of the Ryukyus Okinawa, Japan “Some Aspects of Steinbeck’s Nature Writing: A Reading From The Log From the Sea of Cortez” 4 Thursday, March 21, 2002 5- 6:15 p.m. CONCURRENT SESSIONS PANEL IV-A: STEINBECK AND PANEL IV-B: NEW VOICES THE BEATS Christopher Kocela Rosalee Stilwell McGill University Indiana University of Pennsylvania “Magic Materiality in Steinbeck’s The Winter of “Steinbeck’s Epideictic Rhetoric and Our Discontent” the Beat ‘Ethos’” Katharine Anne Rodger Mark Dunphy San José State University Lindsey Wilson College “Mapping an Expedition: Uncovering Ricketts’ “On the Road With John Steinbeck: Journal From The Sea of Cortez” The Beat of the Beats Goes on in Travels With Charley” Kathleen Hicks Arizona State University Mari Miller-Lamb “John Steinbeck’s Land Ethic: State University of New York The Grapes of Wrath” at Old Westbury “Comparing and Contrasting Amanda Southworth John Steinbeck With Jack Kerouac” San José State University “Ruth Comfort Mitchell as California Writer” 6:30-9:30 p.m. COCKTAIL RECEPTION and BANQUET Greetings Stuart Rabinowitz President and Andrew M. Boas and Mark L. Claster Distinguished Professor of Law Hofstra University Welcome Ruth Prigozy Professor of English Hofstra University Conference Co-Director Susan Shillinglaw Professor of English and Director of the Center for Steinbeck Studies San José State University Conference Co-Director Banquet Speaker Thom Steinbeck Writer Oxnard, CA World premiere of jazz rendition of “The Turtle” by Flo Handy Cohn Katherine Cartwright, vocals San José State University Jazz Program Eric Doney, piano 5 Friday, March 22, 2002 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. REGISTRATION Student Center Theater Lobby North Campus 9-10 a.m. SPECIAL ADDRESS Louis Owens University of California-Davis “Deadly Kids, Stinking Dogs and Heroes: The Best Laid Plans in Of Mice and Men” 10-11:30 a.m. CONCURRENT SESSIONS PANEL V-A: REREADING STEINBECK PANEL V-B: STEINBECK’S REPUTATION ABROAD Laura Hapke Pace University Nathan M. Greenfield “Steinbeck’s Relation to Labor Themes” The London Times Education Supplement Gloucester, Ontario, Canada Penelope Moraitis “Steinbeck in Canada” University of Thessaly Volos, Greece Kiyoshi Nakayama “Alison Jaggar’s Theory of Alienation Kansai University and J. Steinbeck’s Female Characters” Osaka, Japan “Steinbeck:ê Beyond America” Eric Skipper ê Augusta State University Danica Cerce “Death in the Hills: The Mountains as University of Ljubljana a Place of Refuge and Dying for Ljubljana, Slovenia Steinbeck’s Latino Characters” “The Perception of Steinbeck’s Work in Slovenia” Alec Gilmore Kay Bosse West Sussex, England The Human Race Theatre Company “Did Steinbeck Have a Suffering Servant?: Dayton, OH What Does Isaiah Have to Say About the “The Ritual Language of To a God Unknown: Relationship Between Steinbeck and Ricketts?” In Performance” PANEL V-C: THE WORLDS OF WINTER Stephen K. George Luchen Li Brigham Young University-Idaho Kettering University “The Contemporary World of Winter” “The Mystic Oriental ‘Talisman’ in The Winter of Our Discontent” Carolyn Alexander Hagen Langhorne, PA Scott Simkins “John Steinbeck’s The Winter of Our Auburn University Discontent: Structure Gone Haywire or “Recognizing and Recalibrating American Postmodern Predecessor?” Mythology or Holding on to the Talisman” Barbara A. Heavilin Taylor University “Hallow Echoes of Chivalry in Steinbeck’s The Winter of Our Discontent” 6 Friday, March 22, 2002 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. LUNCH FILM SHOWING: The Forgotten Village Box Lunch (See page 14 for registration form.) 12:30-1:45 p.m. CONCURRENT SESSIONS PANEL VI-A: MEXICO ON FILM: PANEL VI-B: PERSPECTIVES DURING ZAPATA AND THE FORGOTTEN VILLAGE THE COLD WAR YEARS (Film shown during lunch Jason M. Dew 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.) Indiana University of Pennsylvania Marcia D. Yarmus “Cold War Reflections in Travels With Charley: John Jay College of Criminal Justice/CUNY Steinbeck’s Lonely Evaluation of “John Steinbeck and Mexico: Intra-Imperialist America” From The Forgotten Village to Viva Zapata” Yuji Kami Terrance P. Christenson, Esq. Soka University Cooper, Erving, Savage, Nolan & Heller, LLP Tokyo, Japan Albany, NY “Steinbeck’s View of Man and Nature: “The Legal Battle With the New York State Centering on Travels With Charley in Search Division of Film Review Over Alleged of America” ‘Indecent’ and ‘Inhuman’ Scenes Contained Satoru Tagaya in Steinbeck’s 1941 Film The Forgotten Village” Baika Women’s College Dawn F. Colley Osaka, Japan University of Texas at El Paso “Reassessment of Steinbeck’s The Acts of “A Look at Steinbeck’s Portrayal of Zapata King Arthur and His Noble Knights” as His Purest Hero” Kim Moreland The George Washington University “John Steinbeck of Monterey, American Knight” 1:45-3:15 p.m. CONCURRENT SESSIONS PANEL VII-A: BIOGRAPHICAL PANEL VII-B: STEINBECK AS APPROACHES DRAMATIST AND NOVELIST Art Ring Peter L. Hays Campbell, CA University of California-Davis “Steinbeck’s Creative Bent” “Steinbeck’s Plays: From Realism to Abstraction” David Laws Gavin Cologne-Brookes Portola Valley, CA Bath College “A Virtual Tour of Steinbeck Country” Bath, United Kingdom “The Influence/Connections Between Steinbeck and Joyce Carol Oates” John Seelye University of Florida “Unlikely Transfusion: O’Connor’s Wiseblood Draws on Steinbeck’s Wrathful Vintage to Contrary Ends” 5 p.m. CHARTERED BUS TO NEW YORK CITY FOR OKLAHOMA! TICKET HOLDERS