Date: Mon, 29 Jul 2002 07:46:17 -0700
Subject: Re: Literary Reading Suggestions


Dear Prof. Knapp,
    I would suggest a novel by the English modernist Mary Butts called 
_Ashe of Rings_.  It is about family interactions, has a gothic flare, 
and is psychologically interesting.  Butts lived and published among all 
the major modernists and her work is experiencing something of a 
renaissance.  Her only child held on to her papers for over 50 years and 
now Yale has them.  In 1999 Nathalie Blondel published a biography, in 
2000 I published the first full-length study of her work, last summer 
Penguin published one of her novels as a Penguin Classic, and just 
recently  her biographer published an edition of selections from the 
journals.  She is a difficult and complex writer who had her own family 
problems, was the great-granddaughter of Thomas Butts, patron of William 
Blake, and grew up surrounded by original Blake paintings.  Much of her 
work resonates with the mystical influence of Blake's work.  Just a 
suggestion.
   Good luck,
    Roslyn Foy
    Dept. of English
     Univ. of New Orleans
     rfoy-AT-uno.edu

John V. Knapp wrote:

>Hi folks --
> 
>For the fall semester, 2003, I am putting together a (brief) reading list
>for a doctoral-level seminar on family systems psychotherapy (fst) and
>literature here at NIU.  There must now be tens of imaginative works, both
>modern, contemporary, and earlier, that have had a reading (most of them
>published) employing fst -- many of them, like Lawrence's *Sons and
>Lovers* or *Hamlet* were obvious choices -- but I am always on the lookout
>for ones I haven't thought of.
>
>If any of you have suggestions for literary works (novels, short stories,
>plays, poems) in English that focus on family life or the detailed
>aftermath of characters' family life, please make some suggestions.  I
>would be most grateful.
>
>Cheers,
>
>JVK
>
>John V. Knapp
>
>Professor, Dept. of English;     
>Editorial Board, *Style;*        tb0jvk1-AT-corn.cso.niu.edu
>Northern Illinois University     http://www.niu.edu/english/jvk/knapp.htm
>330 Reavis Hall                  Office Phone: (815) 753-6632      
>Dekalb  60115  USA
>
>	To depreciate a Book maliciously, or even wantonly, is 
>	at least a very ill-natured office; and a morose snarling 
>	Critic may, I believe, be suspected to be a bad Man. 
>		Henry Fielding,  *Tom Jones.*
>
>
>
>  
>