The Palliative Nature of Music in Louise Kennedy’s “Trespasses”

Category: Literature

Early in Louise Kennedy’s Trespasses, Gerry Devlin asks Cushla to accompany him to a friend’s house in Belfast for a party. On their way to the house, they encounter a checkpoint manned by young British soldiers. The young soldiers, one of whose “complexion was cratered with acne scars and his mouth smelled of Juicy Fruit,” interrogate and accost Gerry, taking him out of the car … Read More The Palliative Nature of Music in Louise Kennedy’s “Trespasses”

July 2, 2026 + Belfast, irish literature, Literature, Northern Ireland, syllabus, The Troubles, U2

Identity in Contested Space: The Troubles and the Invisible Border Syllabus

by Matthew Teutsch

Near the end of Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast (2021), a coming-of-age story set at the start of The Troubles in Belfast, the nine-year-old protagonist Buddy talks with his grandfather at the hospital. During their conversation, Buddy tells his grandfather that his family may move “over the water” because his dad found work in England; however, his mom tells him that if they move there then the English … Read More Identity in Contested Space: The Troubles and the Invisible Border Syllabus

June 30, 2026 + american literature, Dorthy Starchey, literacy, Literature, Pedagogy, reading, Stefan Zweig, walt whitman

The Power of Literature and Education in Our Lives

by Matthew Teutsch

Whenever I teach an early American literature survey course, I know that most students didn’t choose to take the course because they wanted to read American literature before 1865. Most students took the course because it filled their general education requirement and fit the time slot that they wanted for a course. It’s as simple as that. However, almost every time I teach the course, … Read More The Power of Literature and Education in Our Lives

December 11, 2025 + Josianh Henson, Literature, nirvana, R.F. Kuang, yellowface

The Stealing of One’s Voice in R.F. Kuang’s “Yellowface”

by Matthew Teutsch

Is it literary theft when Harriett Beecher Stowe takes Josiah Henson’s real-life story of escaping enslavement and crafts Uncle Tom’s Cabin? Or, is it literary theft when she does this and does not acknowledge Henson’s inspiration? Is it artistic theft when The Chariot have a riff on “The Deaf Policeman” that directly takes uses the same riff found in Nirvana’s “Tourettes”? Or, is it homage? Is it … Read More The Stealing of One’s Voice in R.F. Kuang’s “Yellowface”

December 9, 2025 + Literature, Quintilian, rf kuang, rhetoric, yellowface

Is It Literary Theft?: Looking at Writing in R.F. Kuang’s “Yellowface”

by Matthew Teutsch

I read R.F. Kuang’s Yellowface over the summer, with the intention of adding it to my “Lost Voices in American Literature” course. After reading it, I was very interested in the discussion that would arise when we finally discussed the book in class. I thought, on the first couple of days, that students wouldn’t say much and that we just look at the way that June … Read More Is It Literary Theft?: Looking at Writing in R.F. Kuang’s “Yellowface”

Interminable Rambling

The Palliative Nature of Music in Louise Kennedy’s “Trespasses”

Category: Literature