Fall 'Trouble Begins' Lecture Series Continues Oct. 20
Elmira, NY (10/15/2021) — The fall 2021-2022 The Trouble Begins Lecture Series presented by the Center for Mark Twain Studies will continue Wednesday, Oct. 20, with "Complimentary Genius: The Sardonic Humor of Kurt Vonnegut and Mark Twain," presented by Richard Coronado of South Texas College.
The lecture will be online and is free to the public. Find more details at marktwainstudies.org.
Coronado will discuss the stylistic similarities between Vonnegut and Twain, who both used humor to tackle questions about human existence. Coronado believes the similarities are not coincidental but that Vonnegut was purposefully making a tribute to his predecessor.
Coronado teaches English classes at South Texas College. He has presented several papers on the work of Kurt Vonnegut, Katherine Mansfield and others. His literary interests include the philosophical novel, literature of the absurd and modern and postmodern poetry.
The Trouble Begins Lecture Series will continue on Wednesdays throughout October. Some are in-person presentations while others will be online presentations. All are free and open to the public.
October The Trouble Begins Lecture Series Schedule:
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Wed., Oct. 6: Online presentation, "Becoming Mark Twain," by Jeffrey Weissman (Listen to a recording HERE)
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Wed., Oct. 13: In-person presentation at 7 p.m. at Quarry Farm. Entitled, "Sick of War or just the War Stories? Reading the Harper's Weekly Civil War Stories with Mark Twain" and presented by Joe B. Fulton, Baylor University. (Listen to a recording HERE)
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Wed., Oct. 20: Online presentation, "Complementary Genius: The Sardonic Humor of Kurt Vonnegut and Mark Twain," by Richard Coronado, South Texas College.
- Wed., Oct. 27: In-person presentation at 7 p.m. at Quarry Farm. Entitled, "[T]ie some buttons on their tails, and let on they're rattlesnakes": Twain's Anti-sentimentality and Contemporary African American Satire" and presented by Sheri Marie-Harrison, University of Missouri.
About The Trouble Begins Lecture Series
In 1984, the Elmira College Center for Mark Twain Studies initiated a lecture series, The Trouble Begins at Eight lecture series. The title came from the handbill advertising Mark Twain's October 2, 1866 lecture presented at Maguire's Academy of Music in San Francisco. The first lectures were presented in 1985. By invitation, Mark Twain scholars present lectures in the fall and spring of each year, in the Barn at Quarry Farm or at Peterson Chapel in Cowles Hall on Elmira College's campus. All lectures are free and open to the public.
Media Attachments
An image of Kurt Vonnegut, who's stylistic similarities will be compared to Mark Twain during the Oct. 20 The Trouble Begins Lecture, which will be available online.