Welcome to the Spring 2002 edition of NewsNotes
In this issue:
- Call for Papers
- The Third Mesea Conference, Padua, Italy June 26-29, 2002
- Recipe for Living: Cooking Coast to Coast By Pauline Uchmanowicz
- MELUS-L - Instructions for Subscribing & Posting to the list
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CALL FOR PAPERS
MELUS Journal: Special
Issue on Katharine Newman and Ethnic American Literary Studies
Call for Submissions
Due December 7, 2002
Proposals or completed essays are invited for a special issue of MELUS, the quarterly journal of the Society for the Study of Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States. Two $500 cash prizes will be awarded for the best articles published in this issue, scheduled for publication in late 2003. It will honor Katharine Newman who is widely acknowledged as the moving spirit behind the founding of MELUS in 1972 and who passed away in 2001.
Our objective in bringing
out this special number is to preserve and expand Professor Newman's legacy
by attempting a retrospective evaluation of the role played by MELUS during
the past three decades in the ongoing redefinition of American Literature,
by taking stock of developments in ethnic and cultural studies since the
1960s, and also by gathering a number of tributes to and/or reminiscences
of Katharine Newman in a special section. Especially welcome will
be essays on multi-ethnic American Literature addressing
Proposals and submission
(4,000 words or less) may be directed in duplicate to either of the following
by 7 December 2002 (with revised and finished versions by 31 January 2003).
C. Lok Chua
Professor of English
M.S. #98, Calif. State University
Fresno, CA 93740
559-278-4928
FAX: 559-278-7143
chengc@csfresno.edu
Amrijit Singh
Professor of English
Rhode Island College
Providence, RI 02908
401-456-8660
FAX: 401-334-4778
amrit378@earthlink.net
Call for papers for possible
collection of essays on using the tradition of ethnic literature as the
locus for teaching children's literature
Due September 1, 2002
Please send detailed abstract
(no more than 5 pages) dealing with teaching ethnic children's literature
through the optic of its ethnic context. We are interested in papers
about African American, Asian American, Native American, or Mexican American
literature with specific references to the literary traditions of that
particular culture. Paper may include but are not limited to the
following topics:
Ø analyses of specific
ethnic children's texts
Ø application of a
literary tradition of a particular culture as evident in children's literature
Ø analyses of ethnic
literary traditions
Abstracts are due September 1, 2002. Completed papers will be due January 15, 2003.
For more information, contact:
Yvonne Atkinson
Assistant Professor, English
CSU San Bernardino
5500 University Parkway
San Bernardino, CA
92407
(909) 880-5837
yatkinso@csusb.edu
Michelle Pagni Stewart
Associate Professor, English
Mt. San Jacinto College
28237 La Piedra Rd
Menifee, CA 92584
(909) 672-6752 ext 2553
mstewart@msjc.edu
The Third MESEA
CONFERENCE - click link for details & registration information
http://www.mesea.org/index1.htm
Università
degli Studi di Padova
Padua, Italy
June 26-29,
2002
Sites of Ethnicity: Europe and the Americas
This conference
will highlight the comparative aspects of ethnic sites between the Americas
and Europe or within the Americas.
Recipe for Living: Cooking
Coast to Coast
By Pauline Uchmanowicz
Established in 1973, the Society for the Study of Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the United States (MELUS) has recently published a collection of recipes dedicated to founder Katharine Dealy Newman (1911-2001). Featuring contributions from current members and showcasing their cooking styles and heritages coast to coast, The MELUS Family Cookbook (Morris Press) extends the definition of American cuisine. Global in scope, practical in design and educational in content, this compilation offers cooks an opportunity to similarly expand their international culinary horizons.
Full disclosure compels me to admit that I helped peddle the book, which includes my own instructions for making lasagna with red sauce, at the annual MELUS convention in Seattle. Like many contributors, I submitted my selection in narrative form, explaining process and method by telling a personal story. Learned by watching elders stirring pots over hot stoves as they tossed in ingredients by instinct, most dishes described in the manual were inherited through oral tradition. This presented ambitious editor Avis Kuwahara Payne, an independent scholar from New Mexico, with the task of teasing out and translating into standard cooking terminology never-before written down recipes. Stylistically, her approach-to combine belletristic composition with step-by-step process-analysis-is much in vogue in culinary writing of late, as attested by a Best American Essays 2001 selection authored by Charles Bowden, which sandwiches explicit instructions for salsa cruda and risotto between literary musings.
Payne also did her homework
in soliciting recipe testers for the more complicated outings, such as
the intriguing Hindle Wakes, cold stuffed chicken with lemon and cream
sauce hailing from an Elizabethan cookbook. Requiring four major preparation
steps (stuffing, bird, sauce and garnish), San Antonio denizen Ellen Shull
used to make the 27-ingredient dish with high school students in connection
with reading four Shakespeare plays. Representative of its day in terms
of indulgence, Hindle Wakes recalls essayist Bowden’s mention in “The Bone
Garden of Desire” of an 1660 English recipe for “leg of mutton smeared
with almond paste and a pound of sugar and then garnished with chickens,
pigeons, capons, cinnamon, and, naturally, more sugar.”
Divided into eight main groupings,
including appetizers and beverages; soups, salads and vegetables; main
dishes and casseroles; and pies, pastry and desserts, The MELUS Family
Cookbook measures a convenient 5 1/2 by 8 1/2 inches. Spiral bound and
featuring laminated front and back covers, it falls open easily and stays
put at the desired page, unthreatened by wet or messy countertops. Each
double-sided, color-coded section divider is backed with a list of “Helpful
Hints,” collectively creating a Heloise meets Emily Post primer, for example
with advice on soaking, frying and chopping alongside of tips for reducing
odors when cooking. A quick-reference index augments Payne’s user-friendly
design, while press-furnished appendices provide a glossary of common herbs
and spices, measurement and equivalency charts and cooking terms. A particular
gem is the napkin-folding guide, demonstrating with easy-to-follow illustrations
techniques ranging from the simple “shield” to bouquet “lilies” (meant
to protrude from a glass).
Making my way through a string of Italian recipes in the main course section, I began with the quick, simple and inexpensive Fettuccine with Asparagus, akin to a recipe one might find in current industry darling Cooking Light magazine. Submitted by Margaret Rozga of Waukesha, Wisconsin, the tasty pick (inspired by her husband’s Italian mother) turned out perfectly as advertised in the instructions. (For slight variation, I chose spinach fettuccine.) I also made Escarole and Beans, offered by Fred Gardaphe, current MELUS program chair, who explains, “This dish was a Friday night staple in many Italian American households throughout the United States.” Vague on the amount of water called for, he admits the arduousness of reproducing the recipe exactly as his grandmother Donata Rotolo made it. Choosing great northern beans and presoaking them overnight in bay leaf as a slight variation, I decided to err on the side of less water in preparing the escarole, producing in the end porridge suitable for Goldilocks, whereas more liquid will result in a thinner yet still hearty soup consistency.
Replete with poems as well
as literary, cultural and historical facts, The MELUS Family Cookbook likewise
features cross-over recipes, such as Italian American Mashed Potato Pie,
which contributor George Guida attributes to the convergence of immigrant
Italians and Jews in the Borough Park neighborhood of Brooklyn (where my
own mother grew up). As further consequence of a related New York City
proximity, Judith Oster of Cleveland reports on the emergence of the “Jewish
ethnic” trend of “Eating Chinese.” Ethnic recipe seekers also will find
plenty to tempt the palate inflected with Eastern Indian, Mexican, Polish,
Caribbean and Portuguese accents, to mention but a few of the flags of
many country represented in this delightful and useful cookbook.
Available for $14 from MELUS
Cookbook, PO Box 562, Las Cruces, New Mexico 88004-0562, or by e-mailing
<recipes@zianet.com>, all proceeds from sale of The MELUS Family Cookbook
will go to the operation and special projects of the society, which seeks
to expand and promote the study of the evolving United States literary
canon.
Fettuccine with Asparagus
Source: Margaret Rozga
Serves 4
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 can (14-16 ounces) Italian
tomatoes with juice
1.4 cup chopped fresh parsley
3.4 pound asparagus, cut
into 1 to 1 1/2-inch pieces
1/2 pound fettuccine, cooked
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan
cheese
Fresh ground black pepper.
Directions: Sauté garlic in the oil. Add tomatoes and parsley. Boil approximately 8 minutes, breaking up tomatoes. Add asparagus and cook 10 to 15 minutes. Toss cooked fettuccine with the sauce and Parmesan cheese. Add fresh ground pepper to taste.
Escarole and Beans (Scarola
e Fagioli)
Source: Fred Gardaphe
Serves 6-8
1 to 2 heads escarole
1 pound cooked beans: fava,
navy or white
8 cloves garlic, mashed
1 cup olive oil
1 cup Parmesan cheese
6 eggs, slightly beaten
Directions: Clean and chop escarole. Bring a pot of water to a boil and add escarole. Strain half the water out and add beans. In a saucepan, fry garlic in olive oil until browned. Add saucepan contents to pot. Add Parmesan cheese and eggs. Simmer until eggs are cooked, stirring occasionally.
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