FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Darlene Robertson
937.769.1820
drobertson@mcgregor.edu
Antioch University McGregor Student Receives the Inaugural Steinbeck Research Award
Yellow Springs, Ohio–Kay Bosse, a current student in the Individualized Liberal and Professional Studies program at Antioch University McGregor is the National recipient of the inaugural Steinbeck Research Award in honor of the renowned Steinbeck scholar, Dr. John M. Ditksy. This August Kay will be conducting research at Bracken Library Steinbeck Archive at Ball State University. Her research subject will be -- Steinbeck and the Vietnam War.
Kay is a graduate of the Humanities program of Undergraduate Studies at Antioch University McGregor, and is currently working on her MA thesis titled The Cold War Theatre of John Steinbeck. She recently presented part of her thesis research at the American Literature Association conference in the form of a paper titled Steinbeck’s Last Joan.
This paper focuses on the relevance of the unpublished Steinbeck manuscript The Last Joan in relationship to the changing structure of American life during The Cold War. Housed in the Annie Laurie Williams Archive at Columbia University, New York, The Last Joan is rarely mentioned by Steinbeck scholars and biographers and then only in passing, or as ‘lost’ or ‘unfinished.’ The manuscript contains evidence that Steinbeck had growing concerns regarding the development of nuclear power and the erosion of personal freedoms within America and abroad following World War II. The importance of this work lies both in style and content. The play is another ‘experiment,’ this time blending the play novelette with film noir. In addition it provides evidence of Steinbeck’s gradual paradigm shift from community to the individual, as clearly personified in the use of Joan of Arc as the iconic hero. Steinbeck’s Joan boldly challenges the established power of America in general and the House Un-American Activities Committee in particular. Through the examination of this rarely discussed work, a new layer of Steinbeck scholarship is being revealed in this paper.
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