Dr. Jeff Koloze (English) has presented numerous papers on his primary research interest: how the right?to?life issues of abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia are treated in American fiction. Many of these papers have been published in conference proceedings and on the web. His first book (on abortion in twentieth-century American fiction) is forthcoming. Currently, Dr. Koloze facilitates communications, English, and humanities courses for the University of Phoenix through its Cincinnati and Columbus campuses. Previously, he had been adjunct and full-time faculty for thirteen years at several colleges and universities in metropolitan Cleveland, Ohio and in Springfield, Ohio, teaching undergraduate business writing, grammar, rhetoric, research, and graduate and undergraduate literature courses. He, his wife Joan, and their four children are active in the pro?life movement. Dr. Koloze can be reached by email at:
Contact: JeffKoloze@juno.com
Perhaps the absence of critical discussion about abortion in Canadian literature can be attributed to greater attention to other themes which have occupied writers since the foundation of the country; one hopes that the absence of critical commentary on abortion is not due to squeamishness or lack of interest. Perhaps the absence is a symptom of a more serious literary illness: evidence of a national literature which still has not yet "arrived." Critics have suggested that such an inherent inferiority complex controlled late in the nineteenth century and continued until the first third of the twentieth.
Date posted: 2009-06-30
Western readers find that Pak Wanso challenges them to view the world much differently. In "The Dreaming Incubator" those who should stand for women's rights and the freedom of choice act like those in China who implement population control measures by forcing mothers to abort. Moreover, Western democracies are laboring under a stifling political correctivity; one thinks of the efforts of some professional organizations which discount the existence of post-abortion syndrome even when research has documented its existence. Another significant challenge that Western readers must overcome is the familial breakdown which occurs when abortion infects the institution. The most significant challenge involves the subject of the short story. "The Dreaming Incubator" is not about political commentary or criticism of the economic system in Korea. It is not about a family struggling to cope with the disasters wreaked upon it by the Korean War. It is about abortion.
Date posted: 2009-03-29
Abstract: This paper considers five elements found in the nineteenth-century depiction of death scenes. Dying characters have the benefit of being in a comforting place before they die, and they have contact with a caring human being. Removal of pain of the individual dying is a significant concern; material goods, in contrast, are insignificant to the dying. Finally, spiritual solace can be found in the death scenes. After showing how these elements are depicted in significant passages in Dickens novels, the paper then documents how the elements can be discovered in early twentieth-century novels; by century's end, however, the elements were almost completely absent. The paper examines contemporary twenty-first century novels whose death scenes include the five elements and suggests that future research is needed before a literary trend of novels rediscovering the nineteenth-century standard can be established.
Date posted: 2008-07-06
I hold that the nineteenth-century Newman can say much to us in the twenty-first century regarding the vital purposes of the university not only in encouraging humanities knowledge, but also in strengthening the specialized, often scientific focus of many university programs. Moreover, I believe that Newman's framework for university education, although formulated with a Roman Catholic institution in mind, bears sufficient universal principles so that they can be implemented without creating undue tension between secular and religious interests.
Date posted: 2007-10-22
Modern Arabic literature on the three right-to-life issues of abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia is an area still unknown to most Westerners. Arabic works have been considered from the variety of literary theories still practiced in academia, to the chagrin of some. Many more Arabic works, especially those concerned with the life issues, need an analysis from a right-to-life perspective, and I intend to begin the discussion by focusing on fiction by contemporary Arabic authors whose works have been translated into English.
Date posted: 2007-07-22
My intention this year is to focus on two pro-life internet news sites: LifeIssues.net and LifeSiteNews.com. Moreover, besides considering the professional attributes which must attend any website which vies for public attention, it is necessary for the movement to establish a methodology for evaluating our own sites so that their credentials are recognized by all, especially students struggling to locate pertinent information on controversial topics and scholars conducting research. Thus, besides the general commentary which follows, I will identify those attributes of the websites which can account for their success and those which may need to be reevaluated.
Date posted: 2006-10-17
This paper is concerned with an evaluation of what films have to say on one of the most urgent issues of our culture, the right-to-life issue of abortion. Time constraints and the quantity of material available on the first life issue do not allow a comprehensive examination of the other two life issues (infanticide and euthanasia). Thus, I will focus on two major abortion films, Alfie (1965) and The Cider House Rules (1999). More importantly, what right-to-life criticism can say about these films is substantial and can indicate how other films on the life issues can be reviewed.
Date posted: 2006-06-15
Of all the perspectives from which one can view abortion, I have considered the woman's (more correctly, the mother's) view and the unborn child's view, but I have never looked at the literary evidence of abortion from the man's or the father's view. I was delighted, then, to see that this year's conference of the American Men's Studies Association could challenge me not only to investigate the literary evidence of men in American abortion fiction (restricted to major works of the twentieth century), but also to summarize what the literary evidence can suggest for men in this new, twenty-first century.
Date posted: 2006-05-29
This paper addresses two corollary issues which should be the concern of any life-affirming researcher. Developing adequate research on cloning involves two activities: first, a discovery of principles of basic research for the twenty-first century student and, second, an explosion of certain myths held by library science professionals or those whose political correctivity precludes an honest evaluation of resources which oppose cloning.
Date posted: 2005-12-24
My intention in this paper was to perform a literary archaeological dig on certain science fiction works. I hope that some interested academic or student may accept a challenge to investigate the following two questions. First, do the premises which form the base of science fiction literature in the early twentieth century support such literature produced post-war and towards the end of the twentieth century? Second, can it be determined that the early twentieth-century foundations still support science fiction works produced in this new millennium or have they been eradicated in favor of other foundations? Researching these questions is not merely an academic question, for answering them may help us determine not only how to respond to, but also how to prevent attacks on human life.
Date posted: 2005-07-12
While discussing multicultural works is now standard practice in academia, my particular research interest has always been how the right-to-life issues of abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia are portrayed in American literature. Hopefully, this exploration paper of how African-American literature considers abortion will be interesting, especially when we first investigate what sociological studies have to say about the extremely high abortion rate among African-American mothers.
Date posted: 2005-03-16
When I spoke about federal legislation, I told the crowd that the terms that they will hear the most in the media will be "obstruct", "obstructionism", and "obstructionist". Many chuckled, for they know that those words are becoming integral elements in the political lexicon for 2005.
Date posted: 2005-01-24
Du Bois is nebulous when he asserts the antiquity of the Sorrow Songs: they "are indeed the siftings of centuries; the music is far more ancient than the words". ... It is significant that the structure of the Gorzkie Zale devotion has remained constant over the centuries. After an introductory hymn, various intentions based on episodes of the Passion are announced to the participants.
Date posted: 2004-10-19
A review of the scholarship shows that, curiously (after thirty years of abortion legal throughout the nine months of pregnancy and an even longer history of abortion agitation), discussing the right-to-life element of various works has not been a direct concern of most scholars. ... Since it has not been a matter of scholarly concern, poems on the life issues themselves are often difficult to locate. They are "out there"; once in a while, a newsletter will mention this or that poem about one of the life issues, typically abortion. Poems on the life issues have been written, continue to be written, and will be written for as long as the first civil right to life is still hanging in a judicial and legislative limbo, but where are they?
Date posted: 2004-08-15
Before analyzing details of a possible paradigm of the typical adolescent abortion novel, we must consider an important presumption of this paper. Why should we even care what our students read when they were teens when they are now in college or university? After all, we who are on the faculties of colleges and universities have much more important matters to lecture about and cannot worry about what our students read when they were still teens. While there are definite civil rights and biological rights involved in answering this question, I will propose a more pedagogic response, based on some recent classroom experiences with adult abortion fiction. The following example of literature discussion will demonstrate why we should care.
Date posted: 2004-08-12
Baer's fictional account of a loss and rediscovery of faith would appeal to the "lost boys" in today's culture as much as the strength of the female characters would appeal to today's young women who have rejected the inordinate claims of a desacralized feminist movement. Baer's novel can help both genders to say with Bryce that they have "quite a bit to re-learn".
Date posted: 2004-08-01
Sol Stern's monograph is severely underrated. I heard about Breaking Free last year. I thought that I would investigate why some people do not support the right that parents have to choose what schools their children will attend. I also wanted to know why Stern's book was so controversial.
Date posted: 2004-06-30
I'm glad that I had the chance to read these stories. Zaenglein certainly offers some bizarre reading on contemporary issues. While I hope that the Twilight Zone nature of these stories will not come true, I know that the real world is so bizarre in its disrespect for life that the fictional may become the reality.
Date posted: 2004-06-27
Much of the debate about human embryonic stem cell research involves an effort to persuade the public that such use is ethical. Certainly not all human embryonic stem cell research is fallacious, but I will focus on certain works which contain such errors in thinking. Higher education is keenly aware that most students lack critical thinking skills. I have perceived this lack among my own students over the past fourteen years, and I can testify to students' lack of critical thinking skills on controversial issues, such as the use of stem cells derived from abortions.
Date posted: 2004-06-01
How can I summarize my ideas that "A Raisin in the Sun" can still be as controversial for today's students as it was in 1959? Perhaps it would be best to answer the first rhetorical questions posed: "Would Mama be a member of the National Right to Life Committee?" The obvious answer is "yes." More importantly, however, Ruth, the woman who was most in danger of having an abortion, would also be a member of the Committee. It is she who intimates most immediately the horror of abortion and the hope which springs from new life given the opportunity of a new environment. Hopefully, our students will benefit from a discussion about the placement of a controversial and contemporary issue in one of our most beloved dramas of all time.
Date posted: 2003-12-01
What do my colleagues in humanities say when they write about the right-to-life issues? Hopefully, within the following pages the answers I provide will prove satisfactory. Here is my perspective on recent humanities scholarship dealing with the three right-to-life issues of abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia.
Date posted: 2003-08-18
We know that good argumentation depends on logos and a proper mixture of pathos, presented by someone with unimpeachable ethos.
Date posted: 2003-07-03
Literary theorists bring their various approaches to the study of literature to argue for the inclusion of women's experiences -- except that the unborn woman is excluded. Literary theorists bring their approaches to literature to validate the experiences of marginalized groups in society such as homosexual men, lesbians, minorities, non-Western authors, etc. -- a good thing to do, basically. But pro-lifers who are marginalized by an anti-life media or an anti-life academic power need not apply. I will discuss pertinent aspects of these literary theories and interweave the applicability of the theory to the discussion of pro-life issues in literature.
Date posted: 2003-06-26
Studying one's national literature is as important as determining the cost of certain missiles or whether armed forces should or should not be delivered into an area of conflict. In fact, I think that literature studies are of prime importance.
Date posted: 2003-06-23
Beezar. Bizarre. No, beezar is a great metaphor for the fiction I encountered in preparation for this paper. The fictional works to be discussed represent some of the more beezar currents in abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia and are culled from my research work in right-to-life issues in American fiction of the past century.
Date posted: 2003-06-20
If European fiction dwells on disastrous historical events which have shaped that continent's history, then American writers will someday have to face a similar disaster which hit their nation: the Roe v. Wade decision of 22 January 1973. Up to now, many anti-life American authors have viewed the Roe decision as a blessing. Baldwin says that "most Americans do not yet know what anguish is". What can generate anguish? An economic disaster? A catastrophic war? How unfortunate it would be if these were the only ways that American writers would come to realize how great a disaster the Roe decision was.
Date posted: 2003-06-18
Contemporary music sings about drugs, life in the ghetto, life in the suburbs, rebellion, and sex -- the same topics that people who thought they were pioneers of a new music in the 1950s sang about, or the pioneers of the new music of the 1960s, 1970s, and now the rappers. My initial research showed that abortion is, while not a major theme in rap music, at least a significant topic.
Date posted: 2003-06-07