Crane Memorial Lecture to examine the role of journalism in exposing social corruption and crisis

Crane Memorial Lecture to examine the role of journalismin exposing social corruption and crisisOctober 12, 2004Edward Byrnesedbyrnes@syr.edu

Cultural historian Cecelia Tichi, the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of English at Vanderbilt University, will deliver the Stephen Crane Memorial Lecture at 4 p.m., Oct. 21 in the Kilian Room, Room 500 of Syracuse University’s Hall of Languages. Her talk, titled “Firewalls and Burning Issues: American Literature and Social Crisis,” will examine the role of fiction and journalism in exposing social corruption and crisis.

“Stephen Crane was famous for incorporating journalistic techniques of observation into his fiction. Cecelia, a scholar of not only literature but also contemporary culture, explores how contemporary trends in journalism are directly descendant from Crane’s work,” says Susan Edmonds, associate professor of English. “Her research illuminates the ways in which writers make us all aware of the crises in our society.”

Tichi is the author of six scholarly books and the editor of several others, including “Reading Country Music: Steel Guitars, Opry Stars, and Honky-Tonk Bars” (1988). Her books include “Shifting Gears: Technology, Literature, Culture in Modernist America” (1987) and “Electronic Heart: Creating an American Television Culture” (1991). Her most recent book, “Exposes and Excess: Muckraking in America 1900/2000,” was published by the University of Pennsylvania Press last year.

Tichi’s articles on a variety of topics and authors have appeared in journals such as American Literature, American Literary History, and The Boston Review. She is also the author of three novels: “Jealous Heart” (1997), “Cryin’ Time” (1998), and “Fall to Pieces” (2000).

She received her master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University and her doctoral degree from the University of California-Davis in 1968. She taught at Boston University before moving on to Vanderbilt in 1987, where she teaches 19th- and 20th-century American literature, focusing on aspects of culture from consumerism and social critique to country music.

Crane, who attended SU in 1891, is best known for his Civil War novel, “The Red Badge of Courage.” Crane was a member of the Delta Upsilon Fraternity while at SU, where he is said to have drafted his novel “Maggie, A Girl of the Streets.”

The Stephen Crane Memorial Lecture Series was established in 2001 and is co-sponsored by SU’s English Department and the Dikaia Foundation of the Syracuse Chapter of Delta Upsilon Fraternity.