Judy R. Smith joined the Kenyon faculty in 1979. She teaches a broad range of classes in American literature and culture as well as classes in women's and gender studies. Her courses are regularly cross-listed in American Studies. Her scholarly interests include Hawthorne and Melville, American Victorian Literature and Culture, American Indian Literature and Culture, and the modernist art movements of the 1920s era.
Judy has served the College as chair of the English department, as chair of the Academic Standards Committee and as member of the Faculty Affairs Committee and the Curricular Policy Committee.
Areas of Expertise
American literature, American studies, women's and gender studies.
Education
1979 — Doctor of Philosophy from Indiana Univ Bloomington
1975 — Master of Arts from Indiana Univ Bloomington
1973 — Bachelor of Arts from Connecticut College, Phi Beta Kappa
Courses Recently Taught
ENGL 103
Introduction to Literature and Language
ENGL 103
Each section of these first-year seminars approaches the study of literature through the exploration of a single theme in texts drawn from a variety of literary genres (such as tragedy, comedy, lyric poetry, epic, novel, short story, film and autobiography) and historical periods. Classes are small, offering intensive discussion and close attention to each student's writing. Students in each section are asked to work intensively on composition as part of a rigorous introduction to reading, thinking, speaking and writing about literary texts. During the semester, instructors will assign frequent essays and may also require oral presentations, quizzes, examinations and research projects. This course is not open to juniors and seniors without permission of the department chair. Offered annually in multiple sections.
ENGL 200
Introduction to Fiction Writing
ENGL 200
This course introduces students to the elements of fiction writing. While each section of the course will vary in approach and structure, activities and assignments may include intensive reading, workshops, writing, short and flash fiction, and exercises emphasizing various aspects of fiction such as place, dialogue and character. Students should check the online schedule for specific descriptions of each section. Admission to this course is open, though students may not take this course in the first semester of their first year. Seats are reserved for students in each class year. Offered annually in multiple sections.
ENGL 270
American Fiction
ENGL 270
We will concentrate on American fiction of the 19th and the 20th centuries, tracing its development from Romantic to Modern. Some of the questions we will pose include: How do the American landscape and revolution figure in this genre? How do American writers translate the British Gothic impulse? How do major American cultural/political events — the Civil War, for example — contribute to changes in the genre? How do race, class and gender affect the way authors shape their fiction? We will read from a broad variety of short stories and novels by writers such as Hawthorne, Melville, James, Crane, Gilman, Ellison and Silko. This counts toward the 1700–1900 requirement. Open only to first-year and sophomore students who have taken ENGL 103 or 104.
ENGL 300
Advanced Fiction Writing
ENGL 300
This workshop will focus on discussion of participants' fiction as well as on exercises and playful experimentation. Principally, we will be concerned with how stories work at every level. As we consider narrative strategies and practical methods for developing individual styles, along with approaches to revising work, we also will read, as writers, a variety of outside texts. Check with the English department administrative assistant for submission deadlines. Prerequisite: ENGL 200, 202 or 204 or submission of a writing sample and permission of instructor. Offered annually.
ENGL 372
The Gilded Age
ENGL 372
This will be a study of American literature and culture from the Civil War to World War I, an era marked by American expansion, industrialization and the birth of modernism. Authors considered include James, Wharton, Cather, and Crane. This course meets the 1700-1900 requirement. Prerequisite: junior or senior standing; or ENGL 210-291; or permission of instructor.
ENGL 382
The Jazz Age
ENGL 382
We will study in its cultural contexts the remarkable literature that emerges from the so-called Jazz Age or Roaring Twenties, an era framed by the ending of World War I and the beginning of the Great Depression. We will pay particular attention to the ways in which authors of narrative and lyric sought a form to capture their transformed visions of what might be called their modern American selves. As we do so, we also will be discussing the parallel developments in other artistic disciplines, including music, fashion photography and painting. We will read widely, including works by Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Stein, Eliot, Dreiser, Cather, Larsen, Faulkner and Dos Passos. This course meets the post-1900 requirement. Prerequisite: junior or senior standing; or ENGL 210–291; or permission of instructor.
ENGL 473
Faulkner
ENGL 473
In this seminar we will conduct intensive and critically sophisticated readings of all of Faulkner's major works. We will pay special attention to issues of race and gender as we confront Faulkner's representations of Southern culture. We will read widely in critical and cultural theory and engage in theoretical discussions of narratology as we explore Faulkner's innovative and complicated narrative strategies. Prior reading of at least one major novel is highly recommended. This counts toward the post-1900 requirement. Permission of instructor required. Offered occasionally.