Koloze, Jeff J.
66 Articles at Lifeissues.net

Dr. Jeff Koloze (English, Kent State University) is president and founder of Koloze Consultants. Before his retirement under STRS (Ohio) in 2014, Dr. Koloze was Associate Professor of English at the Cleveland, Ohio Campus of South University. His most recent administrative position was Campus College Chair for the College of Humanities, the College of Natural Sciences, and the College of Social Sciences from 2005-2011 at the Columbus, Ohio Campus of the University of Phoenix; in 2009 he was appointed one of twelve senior research fellows for that institution. Dr. Koloze has taught communications, undergraduate and graduate English, and humanities courses since 1989 at several colleges and universities in the Cleveland, Columbus, and Springfield, Ohio metropolitan areas. His primary research interest is the presentation of the right-to-life issues of abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia in literature; most of his publications are available in conference proceedings and on the web. He has presented over fifty papers before academic and professional organizations, most recently at Harvard University and at Ryerson University (Toronto). Author of An Ethical Analysis of the Portrayal of Abortion in American Fiction: Dreiser, Hemingway, Faulkner, Dos Passos, Brautigan, and Irving, Dr. Koloze invites colleagues and students to join him on LinkedIn and other social networking services. He can be emailed at DrJeffKoloze@att.net. Dr. Jeff Koloze President, Koloze Consultants 10019 Granger Road Garfield Heights, Ohio 44125-3101 216-262-3511 LinkedIn profile: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dr-jeff-koloze/22/555/b37 Twitter: @DrJeffKoloze University Faculty for Life: http://www.uffl.org

Contact: DrJeffKoloze@att.net

Articles

Katixa Agirre's "Mothers Don't" (Open Letter, 2022)

Agirre's 161 pages constitute a well-constructed work of fiction, examining the case of a mother who drowned her twins in a bathtub.

Date posted: 2023-08-19

Jennifer Haigh's "Mercy Street" (HarperCollins, 2022)

Following the template of "girls gone wrong", Jennifer Haigh has written a wonderful depiction of abortion zealots gone wrong, a novel which should encourage readers to continue to rejoice in their ordinary, heterosexually (re)productive, and pro-life lives.

Date posted: 2023-08-17

Heather Marshall's "Looking for Jane" (Atria Books, 2022)

What would have been a great story about a child conceived from rape being reunited with her birth mother is reduced to pro-abortion propaganda with a needless lesbian twist.

Date posted: 2023-08-16

George Gmitro's Equality@Big Cypress (Viable Press, 2023): a review by Dr. Jeff Koloze

Whether fighting slavery or its modern equivalent (abortion), Gmitro's novel set in antebellum America illustrates the courage needed to effect social change.

Date posted: 2023-08-05

Vickie Weaver's "Billie Girl" (Leapfrog Press, 2010)

A typical anti-motherhood and pro-euthanasia narrative, Weaver's novel almost makes the reader happy that the godforsaken eponymous main character commits suicide at novel's end.

Date posted: 2022-12-03

Aimee Herman's "Everything Grows" (Three Rooms Press, 2019)

Preachy novel of a lesbian teen's pornographic mind, pass this up and read Dickens or Hawthorne instead.

Date posted: 2022-12-03

M-E Girard's "Girl Mans Up" (HarperTeen, 2016)

A typical teen abortion novel with transgender stuff thrown in for no sufficient reason except to try to make a longwinded narrative sexy, read only if you must write a report for school or college.

Date posted: 2022-12-03

Bernardine Evaristo's "Girl, Woman, Other" (Black Cat, 2019)

A lugubrious yet creative novel intended to illustrate that black lesbian feminists and transgender persons eventually achieve social success, the reader would be more interested in the ultimate success of heterosexual normativity among persons with gender dysphoria.

Date posted: 2022-12-03

Transgender Fiction and the Right-to-Life Issues:

After reviewing some contemporary scholarship which attempts to connect transgenderism and the right-to-life issues, this study applies the five questions of right-to-life literary theory to recent fictional work concerned with transgenderism and abortion and euthanasia.

Date posted: 2022-11-15

Case Study of Contemporary Abortion Fiction:

This study examines Lisabeth Posthuma's Baby & Solo, a contemporary abortion novel (2021) geared for the young adult audience. After applying principles of some of the major literary theories used to explicate literature, the five questions of right-to-life literary theory are used to evaluate the life-affirming content of the work.

Date posted: 2022-06-25

Lisabeth Posthuma's Baby & Solo (Candlewick Press, 2021)

A well-written odyssey of a male teen who befriends a teen mother who rejects abortion, Posthuma has generated a fast-paced novel that transgender and pro-life activists can enjoy without being bashed over the head with woke or leftist nonsense.

Date posted: 2022-06-24

Bonnie Pipkin's Aftercare Instructions (Flatiron Books, 2017)

Despite the pro-abortion author's efforts to make the abortion business Planned Parenthood shine, pro-life readers can cite this book as evidence of the many negatives of the abortion behemoth - aspects that Planned Parenthood's Marketing and Public Relations departments can never erase.

Date posted: 2022-06-23

Heppermann's "Ask Me How I Got Here"

Although a feeble teen abortion account, pro-lifers can use this "novel" (so-called) to show how post-abortion syndrome affects a young woman who lacks orthodox religious faith.

Date posted: 2022-04-13

Contemporary Literary Theories, Problems with Those Theories, and Why Students of Literature Will Benefit from Right-to-Life Literary Theory

Abstract: After summarizing contemporary literary theories used in colleges and universities, this paper highlights both the positive aspects of the literary theories and their gaps and deficiencies. The paper then demonstrates how right-to-life literary theory is a more comprehensive foundational tool to help readers appreciate and critique literature before they apply the standard literary theories. A passage from Nicki Minaj's rap song "Autobiography" (abortion), an excerpt from Thomas Rydahl's novel The Hermit (infanticide), and a portion of the Teri Schiavo television episode from Family Guy (euthanasia) will be examined, using the five questions of right-to-life literary theory. This paper corresponds with the companion PowerPoint presentation used in the video for the LifeTech 2021 conference. The organizers of the 2021 LifeTech conference posted the video presentation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqBZ2_KHV_c.

Date posted: 2021-11-08

Senator Josh Hawley's The Tyranny of Big Tech (Regnery, 2021)

Senator Josh Hawley reviews the history behind the emergence of Big Tech and how the industry is stifling Americans' free speech rights. This review mentions the implications of the Big Tech monopoly on the pro-life movement and includes pertinent quotes.

Date posted: 2021-10-21

Ellen Glasgow's Barren Ground (1925): a reevaluation of a classic feminist novel.

Ellen Glasgow's 1925 classic work of feminist fiction is reevaluated from the perspective of a contemporary pro-life literary theorist.

Date posted: 2021-10-09

Philip Bobbitt's The Shield of Achilles: War, Peace, and the Course of History (Alfred A. Knopf, 2002)

Philip Bobbitt's masterly work on statecraft can assist pro-life activists to understand what Bobbitt identifies as the newest form of government, the "market-state" (replacing contemporary nation-states). Pro-lifers will find that Bobbitt's insights into the role that businesses could play in such market-states apply to Big Tech social media monopolies and other global companies which promote anti-life views. This review provides numerous relevant quotes.

Date posted: 2021-09-28

Mustafa Akyol's Reopening Muslim Minds: A Return to Reason, Freedom, and Tolerance (St. Martin's Essentials, 2021)

Mustafa Akyol's scholarly treatment demonstrates that Islam desperately needs intellectual reform. This review suggests that Akyol's work can be useful for Catholic evangelists working with Muslims and incorporates numerous citations and quotes.

Date posted: 2021-09-26

Fiction of the New Killers: Girls, Teenagers, and Other Misguided Female Feminists in Contemporary Young Adult Fiction on Abortion, Infanticide, and Euthanasia

This project evaluates abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia novels by contemporary feminist authors (Elizabeth Keenan, Carrie Mesrobian, Margaret Owen, Dianne Touchell, and Sharon Biggs Waller) according to the principles of right-to-life literary theory and provides further general commentary of those novels to assist pro-life readers in their own work of critiquing anti-life literature.

Date posted: 2021-08-08

Jeff Koloze's Review: Girls on the Verge

This review analyzes Sharon Biggs Waller's Girls on the Verge (Henry Holt, 2019), which depicts the efforts of a teenager who uses abortifacients at first, but, once those drugs fail, eventually has a surgical abortion. The review evaluates the novel's anti-life language, which pro-life readers will find useful to illustrate that dehumanization remains a necessary literary tool to support abortion.

Date posted: 2020-10-30

Making Abortion, Infanticide, and Euthanasia Funny: Determining Whether Five Principles of Comedy Derived from Ancient Writers Apply to Attempts at Humor by Contemporary Comedians

Abstract: After reviewing sources on comedic theory from the ancient world to the present, this research collates five principles which constitute comedy as a category of literature distinct from tragedy. This study then determines whether the principles apply to contemporary instances of humor attempted by professional comedians on the life issues of abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia.

Date posted: 2020-07-30

When Culture Is Challenged by Art: Pro-Life Responses in the Art of T. Gerhardt Smith to Cultural Aggression Against the Vulnerable

This paper examines three paintings by T. Gerhardt Smith as pro-life responses to the life issues of abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia: Sorrow Without Tears: Post-Abortion Syndrome, Femicidal National Organization Woman's Planned Parentless Selfish Movement, and Killer Caduceus. After identifying foundational principles of art aesthetics from a Catholic perspective, the paper determines that Smith's paintings are consistent with ideas enunciated in St. John Paul II's Letter to Artists (1999).

Date posted: 2019-11-22

Critical Disability Studies and Fiction on the Right-to-Life Issues: Carlos Fuentes' Christopher Unborn (1987), Lois Lowry's The Giver (1993), and the Million Dollar Baby Franchise

After supplying examples of the jargon-laden academic discussion of critical disability studies, this paper summarizes major ideas which constitute the literary theory. Critical disability studies is the newest literary theory which students of literature can use in their analysis and appreciation of literature. Although surprising, since one would think that disability critics would be vocal in their criticism of politicians who support the killing of the handicapped person (whether he or she is unborn or born), searches on academic databases for critical disability studies on the three right-to-life issues yielded dismally few results.

Date posted: 2019-07-23

Right-to-Life Issues in Contemporary Gay and Lesbian Literature

Abstract: This research examines several instances where the right-to-life issues of abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia are mentioned in gay and lesbian fiction. There is enough evidence to suggest that the literature comports more with, if not an overtly pro-life philosophy, then at least a life-affirming one. Finally, this study demonstrates how using the five questions of right-to-life literary theory can provide an opportunity for persons with same-sex attraction to align themselves with the pro-life movement, which is more compatible with their efforts to seek authentic love.

Date posted: 2018-06-16

Gmitro's Novel Viable@140: a Perfect Counter to the Anti-life Fantasy Fiction of Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale

This review argues that George Gmitro's novel Viable@140 counters the dystopia of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. Through its unique plot, Gmitro’s novel allows the reader to understand and appreciate the role of the father in an abortion decision.

Date posted: 2017-07-28

Right-to-Life Issues in Contemporary Bioethics Fiction

This study reviews literary works from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries which concern bioethical aspects involving the foundations of the right-to-life issues of abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia. After considering definitions of "bioethics" from various sources, the paper derives three general principles from the literary works and examines how each of these principles is depicted. Finally, the research highlights fictional works which include ethical standards developed by religious sources, filling the ethical void created by most bioethics fiction.

Date posted: 2017-06-24

Technological Aspects of a Pro-Life Bibliography

The major purpose of the LifeLit Institute, a non-profit research entity, is to manage the anthology of pro-life literature so that the general reading public, scholars, and students come to know and to appreciate the significant body of literature created by the Right-to-Life movement since the 1960s. It is the managers' hope that this site will maintain and promote this literature for the benefit of all.

Date posted: 2016-10-09

Biography and Abortion: Perception and Distortion of Reality in Accounts by Celebrity Aborted Mothers

This study reviews criteria established by the scholarship on biographical literary criticism and applies those criteria and an additional one, the cathartic value of biographical disclosure, to the abortion narratives of three celebrities: Gloria Swanson, Amy Brenneman, and Nicki Minaj.

Date posted: 2016-07-10

Life-Affirming Technology in Modern Art: Reviewing Major Works of the Abstract and Plastic Arts in Selected Museum Galleries and on Websites

It is worth noting that art is always pro-life in the absolute sense of life-affirming. After all, anyone who creates a work of art wants to convey something about his or her life, whether that is a positive or a negative message, and the mere act of communication is an affirming event.

Date posted: 2015-09-23

Abortion Distortion: Correcting Literary Criticism's Misreading of Early Twentieth-Century Abortion Fictio

It is no wonder, given the disheartening versions of abortion narratives of the early twentieth century, that Simone de Beauvoir and American abortion activists like Betty Friedan found such a fertile population in which to grow their life-denying version of feminism. Fortunately, both current research and the subsequent waves of pro-life researchers can develop the corpus of anti- and pro-life fiction to an even higher degree so that, besides enjoying the works as literature, society can learn from the mistakes of fictional characters in the past to protect and improve human life in the future.

Date posted: 2015-06-10

Abortion in Contemporary Literature:

What many in the technologically-saturated contemporary culture may not realize is that the traditional literary forms - books and other publications - still have a powerful influence on the culture. This paper argues a more radical and specific position regarding the connection between reading tastes and political opinion. The effect of contemporary literature on Americans' positions on a controversial issue like abortion may be not only grossly overstated, but also a significant factor in the increasing number of Americans who identify themselves as pro-life.

Date posted: 2014-10-28

Technology Meets Rhetoric:

Since this paper focuses on the rhetorical quality of anti- and pro-life websites, material will be presented in the following order. First, the paper will examine standards which IT professionals recommend for websites. Second, a summary of key aspects of the Aristotelian and Rogerian methods of argumentation will be presented. For greater audience participation, two quizzes will be conducted at this point in the presentation. Third, an interactive analysis of representative websites will be provided. Finally, time will be reserved for questions and answers.

Date posted: 2014-09-12

Select Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Assisted Suicide Fiction: Themes and Absences in the Works

This paper arose from several fears, all of which reside in the author: the fear of facing the reality that the contemporary issue called assisted suicide counters the proposition that the author is not living in the most perfect of all perfect worlds; the fear of reading literature whose narrative structures ineluctably end with a disturbingly sad denouement; the fear of what reading such disturbing literature would have on his psyche; the fear of confronting those whose arguments for assisted suicide seem unassailable; and the fear that the alternatives to assisted suicide are grand, yet pale philosophical tenets that cannot match the grander and stronger needles filled with toxic agents to end what some misguided person may think is a dreary life.

Date posted: 2014-07-14

Anthology of Right-to-Life Literature:

Very much of the literature [...] is unknown to the general reading public and little known even to students of American literature. Before any meaningful debate can take place on conflicting critical approaches and interpretations and on analyses of distinctive forms, structures, images, and themes, the literature itself will have to become better known. All too often, and for far too long, it has been a spurned or neglected part of our literary heritage. These words of Abraham Chapman apply to the pro-life movement in 2013 as much as they did to the 1968 audience reading his introduction of an anthology of African-American literature.

Date posted: 2013-10-05

Latino Literature on the Life Issues:

Now that Latinos are the dominant minority in the United States, and are becoming much more integrated into American society, one can expect a deluge of narratives on the first life issue of abortion. Moreover, as Latinos become further integrated into American society, their exposure to the remaining two life issues (infanticide and euthanasia) could follow the sociological trend of other ethnic groups which - secularized, focused on material comforts, and bereft of their ethnic identities - adopted infanticide and euthanasia positions contrary to those of their cultural and religious heritages. Alternatively, if Latinos retain their positive and life-affirming values, then the anti-life philosophy which seems ascendant in American society may find a worthy adversary in a culture that has promoted respect for family and life for the past five hundred years and has demonstrated no inclination yet to abandon those values.

Date posted: 2012-08-07

Lisa De Niscia's Momentary Mother:

Lisa De Niscia's 2011 novel Momentary Mother is a fine example of fiction describing the post-abortive mother. Those who support abortion will not appreciate the main character, Lulu, who, as her name symbolizes, is a wonderful illustration of how Post-Abortion Syndrome radically affects mothers who choose to exercise their right to abort their unborn son or daughter.

Date posted: 2012-01-31

Contemporary Jewish Fiction on Abortion:

This paper collates several major ethical considerations from responsa concerning abortion as pronounced by rabbinic authorities from various branches of Judaism. The paper then examines twentieth- and twenty-first century Jewish-American novels and short stories which concern abortion, discusses the absence of the major ethical principles in the literature, and offers insights regarding the application of the principles. The trajectory of future Jewish-American fiction vis-à-vis these ethical pronouncements will be suggested.

Date posted: 2011-06-18

Terminology to Assault Human Life and Life-Affirming Responses

Pro-lifers have long known that the success of the anti-right-to-life movement has depended on a change in language before any technology could be used to kill a human being. This axiom has been a consistent theme in pro-life literature from the foundation of the movement in the 1960s. Another axiom is automatically coupled with it: that technological advances could just as easily work for the protection of human life as they could for its dehumanization and destruction.

Date posted: 2010-09-20

Literary Analysis of Abortion in the Short Story "Explosions"

Abstract: This paper reviews demographic considerations of abortion and the one-child policy in the People's Republic of China which form the basis for contemporary literary works which concern abortion. After a brief discussion of other fictional works, the paper focuses on abortion passages in the short story "Explosions" (1985) by Mo Yan. The literature is reviewed using formalist explication and aspects of reception theory.

Date posted: 2010-08-14

Abortion in Canadian Literature:

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

Pak Wanso's "The Dreaming Incubator":

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

Death Scenes in Literature from the Nineteenth Century to Current Fiction

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

Newman's The Idea of a University and Engineering Programs in Today’s Universities

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

Abortion in Modern Arabic Literature

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

Investigation of Two Pro Life Internet News Services

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

Cinematic Treatment of Abortion:

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

Men and Abortion: Twentieth Century Literary Examples and Their Application to Contemporary Men

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

Educational Resources on Cloning for Contemporary Students

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

Twentieth-Century Science Fiction Literature and the Right to Life Issues of Abortion, Infanticide, and Euthanasia

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

Abortion in the African-American Community:

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

How to Obstruct Obstructionist Anti-Life Democrats

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

Sorrow Songs and the Paschal Narrative:

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

Poetry on the Right-to-Life Issues of Abortion, Infanticide, and Euthanasia:

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

Adolescent Fiction on Abortion:

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

Love Story for a Secular World

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

Breaking the Political Correctivity of the Public School Monopoly:

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

Bizarre Tales for Our Bizarre World:

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

Logical Fallacies in the Literature on Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research

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

"...We a People Who Give Children Life"

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

Academic Perceptions of Abortion:

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

A Pro-Life Character:

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

Right to Life in Literary Theory:

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

United States Is to Violence as Canada Is to Peace

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

Bizarre Fiction on the Right-to-Life Issues

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

European Abortion Novels:

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

Abortion and Rap Music

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