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Michigan College English Association’s conference on Saturday, October 5, 2019 at Michigan State University

Please join us for the Michigan College English Association's conference on Saturday, October 5, 2019 at Michigan State University in East Lansing. The conference themes are “Borders, Walls, and Bridges.” Our featured luncheon speaker is Dennis Hinrichsen, the Lansing Poet Laureate. We are looking for papers about literature; composition; pedagogy; film; linguistics; technical writing; race, class, cultural, and gender studies; classroom management; evaluation; research; on-line instruction; and union/administration issues, as well as readings of creative writing. Proposals are due by September 24, 2019. Please send your name, university affiliation if any, e-mail address, audio-visual requests, time preference, and a 200-word abstract or sample of creative writing to Joyce Meier and Cheryl Caesar, Program Chairs, via email at meierjo@msu.edu and caesarc@msu.edu . To submit a panel proposal, please include the information for all members (4 maximum participants) in the same proposal. The 2019 Registration Form is at https://michigancea.org/2019/06/29/registration-form-for-the-sat-october-5-2019-conference-of-the-michigan-college-english-association/The 2019 Call for Papers is at https://michigancea.org/2019/05/01/call-for-papers-michigan-college-english-association-conference-on-saturday-october-5-2019/ Please note that our new MCEA website is http://michigancea.org/

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Review of the Novel Matilda by Roald Dahl

Matilda, a novel for children by Roald Dahl first published in 1988, focuses on a precocious young girl whose parents mostly ignore her.  Matilda attends an elementary school run by the abusive Headmistress Trunchbull, who hates children.  Writing with a lot of figurative language and repeated sounds, Dahl shows readers how Matilda changes her life and the lives of those around her by using her intellect and imagination. Mr. and Mrs. Wormwood “show no interest” in their daughter Matilda, despite her being both “sensitive and brilliant” (“The Reader of Books,” p. 10).  While Mr. Wormwood works selling cars that are wrecks and Mrs. Wormwood plays Bingo, they leave their daughter home alone every afternoon.  By the age of three, the girl has taught herself to read, and at age four, she asks her father to buy her a book (pp. 12, 23-24).  He refuses, suggesting that Matilda watch television instead.  But the child discovers the local public library and reads all of the children’s books there (p. 13).  Then the librarian, Mrs. Phelps, recommends good…

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