Research:

J. Stephen Pearson

Research Interests: Ethnic U.S. Literatures, Pre-Modern Western and World Literature, Spirituality and Literature, Sacred and Devotional Literature, Drama, Short Story Cycles, Comic Literature

Publications:

** = Article was developed from a Conference Presentation

Refereed Journals:

** The Monkey King in the American Canon: Patricia Chao and Gerald Vizenor’s Use of an Iconic Chinese Character, Comparative Literature Studies 43.3 (2006): 355-374. An examination of how Chao and Vizenor rewrite Journey to the West in their own novels: Chao uses the Chinese story to critique the Chinese American patriarchy, while Vizenor uses it to critique the westernization of China.

** St. Catherine of Genoa: Life in the Spiritual Borderlands, Magistra: A Journal of Women’s Spirituality and History 12.2 (2006): 55-73. (Dissertation chapter) An examination of how Catherine’s life as a medieval female mystic can be examined through modern ideas of borderlands writing: her position between the worlds of heaven and earth but also her position as a woman in a patriarchal church.

Other Journals:

** Diasporic Monasticism and Inclusive Hospitality in Kathleen Norris’s The Cloister Walk, Benedictines magazine 61.2 (2008): 28-37. (Dissertation Chapter) An examination of how Norris’ depictions of Benedictine monastic life can be usefully analyzed using concepts of diaspora, as the monks maintain a worldwide culture that nevertheless allows for local variations but also creates a radically-inclusive hospitality.

Book Chapter:

** Conflicts between Christianity and Korean Shamanism in Nora Okja Keller's Comfort Woman, Mother Tongue Theologies: Poets, Novelists, and non-Western Christianity, ed. Darren J. N. Middleton (Eugene: Pickwick-Wipf & Stock 2009) 157-171. An examination of how Keller’s novel depicts the syncretism and conflicts between Korean shamanism and American Christianity in the life of the title character.

Conference Presentations:

National Conferences:

A Divine Hope for a Borderlands People: Angelico Chavez’s New Mexico Stories, Society for the Study of Multi-Ethnic Literatures in the United States, Spokane, WA, (2009). How Chavez’s stories use religion to give hope to an oppressed New Mexico population.

Mystical Realism in Angelico Chavez’s New Mexico Stories, American Comparative Literature Association, Cambridge, MA (2009). How Chavez’s use of miracles and typological connections belongs more to Tillich’s theological category of “mystical realism” than to literary “magical realism.”

Minorities Gone Missing:  Day of Absence and A Day without a Mexican, Popular Culture Assoc./American Culture Assoc., Atlanta, GA (2006). How Ward’s play and Arau’s movie explore the roles and contributions of minority cultures by having them mysteriously disappear.

Inter-religious Confrontations in Comfort Woman, College English Assoc., Indianapolis, IN (2005). How Nora Okja Keller’s novel demonstrates historical conflicts between Christianity and Korean shamanism.

The Monkey King in the American Canon, American Comparative Literature Assoc., State College, PA (2005). How Patricia Chao and Gerald Vizenor rewrite Journey to the West.

Molière and Atomic Family Values, Soc. for Literature and Science, Atlanta, GA (2000). (Thesis chapter) The disruptive effects of modern scientific ideas (esp. atomism) when applied to family life.

Astronomy and Order in The Arabian Nights, Soc. for Literature and Science, Norman, OK (1999). How two of Shahrazad’s story sequences use analogies to astronomy and cosmology to help restore Shahrayar’s judgment..

Regional Conferences:

Christians as Minorities in Kierkegaard’s Instant and Luther’s On Temporal Authority, Southeastern Commission for the Study of Religion, Chapel Hill, NC (2009). (Taken from two dissertation chapters) Comparison of Luther and Kierkegaard’s notions of the church as a minority culture within a christianized society.

The Hebrew Bible as Living Epic: Bede and the Creation of the English People, Southern Comparative Literature Assoc., Raleigh, NC (2007). Discussion of Bede’s use of Hebrew history narratives in his literary creation of the English people.

Kathleen Norris’ The Cloister Walk: Monastic Diaspora and the Humanism of Inclusive Hospitality, Southern Comparative Literature Assoc., Athens, GA (2006). (Dissertation chapter) How the diasporic qualities of Benedictine community create and inclusive, hospitable environment for all peoples.

Inter-religious Confrontations in Comfort Woman, Southeast Conference for Christianity and Literature, Anderson, SC (2006). How Korean shamanism and American Christianity collide in the life of a Korean war survivor and immigrant.

Saint Catherine of Genoa: Life in the Spiritual Borderlands, Renaissance Symposium, U. of Mississippi, Oxford, MS (2005). How Catherine’s life and mystical experiences can be examined as a medieval form of borderlands.

A Deleuzian Reading of Richard Rolle, Southern Comparative Literature Assoc., Columbia, SC (2004). (Dissertation chapter) How Richard Rolle’s life and mystical experiences can be read in terms of Deleuze’s notion of minor literature.

The Monastery as Diasporic Space in Kathleen Norris' Cloister, Conference of the Grad. Assoc. of Multicultural Studies, Athens, GA (2004) (Dissertation chapter) How Norris’ depiction of Benedictine community can be analyzed as a form of diasporic culture.

Senecan Violence in Hrotsvit's Plays, Medieval Assoc. of the Pacific, Claremont, CA (1999). Similarities between the dramaturgy of Hrotsvit and Seneca, and how these similarities fit Hrotsvit’s religious purposes.

Invited Presentations:

Multiculturalism and World Literature, TA Roundtable on World Literature, U. of Georgia, Fall 2006. Explored David Damrosch’s notions of World Literature and how they affect the way we teach World and Multicultural Literatures.

Temporary Instructor, Honors Asian American Literature, U. of Georgia, Spring 2004. Filled in for a professor on sick leave.

The Apology of Socrates, Western Literature 1, U. of Georgia, Spring 2001. Subbed for a colleague; focused on the ways Socrates’ narrative of his search for the wise man undermined the Athenian cultural structures.

Verse Technique and Staging Practices in Shakespeare’s Plays, English Composition 1, U. of Georgia, Spring 1998. Presentation on new theories regarding rehearsal processes in Shakespeare’s day and how the versification of the script could guide actors.