Local News

MBU and Maryville Students Join for Literary Discussion

September 27, 2007

By Craig Bodenschatz

Maryville University English students will join MBU’s literary studies group at Borders Oct. 23 to discuss John Steinbeck’s “Grapes of Wrath.” The event is open to all who wish to participate.

Dr. Mary Bagley, chair of the English department at MBU, will guide the event, and Dr. John Marino, former MBU professor of English who is now at Maryville, will also contribute to the proceedings. These meetings offer local scholars and aspiring literary aficionados the opportunity to listen, learn and converse on classic works with others from the community.

“This is our fourth or fifth meeting now,” said Dr. Bagley. “Last year’s were very successful, and we had around 50 people attending [some nights]. With Maryville coming too, there should be an even better turnout.” Parkway South High School students are also active participants in these events.

This event will examine Steinbeck’s classic Pulitzer Prize-winning, Depression-era novel, “Grapes of Wrath.” This novel is the story of Tom Joad, a paroled murderer, who journeys to California during Roosevelt’s New Deal and during the Midwestern Dust-Bowl. The works of Robert Frost and Shakespeare’s Hamlet have also been studied in the literary meetings.

The discussion will begin at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 23 at Borders bookstore on Olive. Borders provides a special hall for these occasions. Psi Psi, MBU’s branch of the English Literature Honors Society, Sigma Tau Delta, sponsors the meetings.

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