Lecture Ties in with 'A Christmas Carol'
The School of Fine Arts of Fairmont State University presents "Are There No Workhouses?:
The Social Background of Dickens's 'A Christmas Carol,'" a lecture by Dr. James Matthews
at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 1, in Multi-media Room A of the Ruth Ann Musick Library.
Matthews teaches courses at Fairmont State in 19th-century British literature and
children's literature. He holds an M.A. in history from Ohio State University and
an M.A. and
Ph.D. in English from Duquesne University. He wrote his dissertation on Victorian
ghost stories, including "A Christmas Carol," and has spoken before the North American
Dickens Fellowship on Dickens's use of fairy tale motifs. He is currently working
on the ways in which 19th-century British writers are influencing writers of contemporary
children's fantasy, such as J.K. Rowling. Matthews will focus his lecture on the material
conditions of poverty in the first third of the 19th century, to give a sense of the
urgency of Dickens's message in "A Christmas Carol" and will address social problems
of the time such as child labor, crime and efforts at public relief. This lecture
is free and open to the public.
Matthews will also be featured in a panel discussion with Dr. Angela Schwer, also
of the Department of Language & Literature at Fairmont State, about social and economic
problems of the Victorian Era. The panel discussion will follow the Sunday, Dec. 5,
Masquers and Town & Gown performance of "A Christmas Carol."
Schwer, Associate Professor of English, received her Ph.D. from the University of
Notre Dame in 1996, writing a dissertation on 19th century British missionary travel
narratives. She has taught at FSU since 1997, and participated in an National Endowment
for the Humanities Summer Seminar on Victorian Religion and Rhetoric in 2002.
Other performances of "A Christmas Carol" will be at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday,
Dec. 2-4, and Thursday through Saturday, Dec. 9-11, in the Wallman Hall Theatre on
the main FS campus. For tickets, call the Box Office at (304) 367-4240. After each
performance, volunteers from non-profit organizations will be collecting cash donations
to assist deserving families during the holiday season.
