Brown University - Liber Brunensis Yearbook (Providence, RI)

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COLLEGE PROFESSORS, machinists, physi- cians in both our country and on its campuses are the victims of overspecialization. Mr. Donald Fanger believes that this social evil should be com- batted by an attitude of healthy generalization, and he actively promotes such an attitude at Brown through his new course in comparative literature, Encompassing the language and literature of three cultures, the course deals with the works of Balzac, Dickens, Dostoevsky and Gogol - the Romantic- Realists. The course gives students a chance to make extensive comparisons through intensive analysis of French, English, and Russian cultures. Such a course in the literatures of three people requires of the instructor an extensive knowledge of each and a background in the comparison of works from widely diverse societies. As an English major with an interest in Russian, Mr. Fanger received his B.A. from U.C.L.A. and his M.A. from the Slavic In- stitute at Berkley, California. Awarded his Ph.D. from Harvard in comparative literature in 1961, Mr. Fanger has successfully blended his preparation in English and Russian with a background knowledge in French. Mr. Fanger's widely published articles indicate his diversity; he has published papers on Beowulf, James Joyce and George Meredith, a lengthy study of Dostoevsky, and an article en- titled, Emergent Romanticism and la Literature Comparee. Mr. Fanger obviously cares little about the spe- cialists who are always ready to puncture the gen- eralizations so important to learning. He admits that generalizations may be wrong, but that the very risks taken in generalizing itself contribute greatly to learning and to intellectual awareness. Attacking hedgers and rationalizers, Mr. Fanger asserts that if you are not willing to take risks, you are missing a part of life. And people who are not willing to take intellectual risks are not intellect- ually alive.

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ORIGINALLY ATTRACTED to art as an undergraduate by his professors at Boston University and by the works at the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin, Assistant Professor Richard B. Car- penter has drawn a large number of Brown students to his courses on Italian Renaissance and Baroque art since joining the faculty in 1957. Having received his A.B. and M.A. from Boston University, Assistant Professor Carpenter was granted a Harvard fellowship to study in Europe for his Ph.D. Here he pursued his special interest in Fragonard. Although he has attempted, in an informal manner, to emulate the skill of the artists whom he studies, he retains the primary role of art historian. Besides lecturing in three courses, he works closely with students in his seminar where he teaches contemporary Americans to use their eyes for more than avoiding doors and ob- serving women's figures. One of his objectives is to break down the compartments which have been erected in one's personality by contemporary verbalized ideas, for in appreciating and understanding Baroque art, a response of the total individual is required. The dis- sociation of the student's personality must be healed in the synthesis of an intellectual eye, a capacity to see the brute reality of the world in a more direct fashion. His courses teach a greater reliance on the validity of perception and experience, a faith which science has sought to render obsolete. To complement his studies, As- sistant Professor Carpenter writes magazine articles and has sub- mitted a series of essays for publication on sixteenth and seventeenth century art. His hobbies include reading philosophy and theology, and he is also fond of hiking and swimming. Faculty TAKING FIELD excursions is one of the fa- vorite pastimes of Dr. Donald F. Eckelman, the new chairman of Brown's Geology Department. His past summer was spent exploring the Grand Tetons of Wyoming in search of pre cambrian rocks. Prior to this, much of his field work has consisted of ex- ploring the Southern Appalachian Mountains and the Rocky Mountains. He has written manv sci- entific articles concerning his work. Dr. Eckelman received his B.A. from Wheaton College in Illinois and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Columbia Univer- sity. After doing two vears of postgraduate work at the Lamont Geological Observatory, he went to Columbia and then came to Brown in 1957, After three vears of experience as a graduate teaching assistant, Dr. Eckelman decided to enter the teach- ing profession. Dr. Eckelman has won the admira- tion of virtually all of his students in courses rang- ing from Elementary Physical Geology to the Ad- vanced Petrology Seminar. He enjovs teaching be- cause it is a creative activity that involves other human beings, not only in passing on information, but also in creating the teaching framework that develops a student's mind. X

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IDEAS AND IMAGES in French literature and thought are the main concerns of Mr. Henry F. Majew- ski, Assistant Professor of French. In basic and inter- mediate French courses, he emphasizes major aspects of French language and culture. Of course we cannot convey a thorough knowledge of the whole field of French literature in a survey course like D11-12, says Mr. Majewski, instead Le hopes that in this course his students will develop a critical ability and will learn to understand and appreciate another culture. He feels that after taking French D11-12 a student should be able to read a French novel and criticize it intelligently for both style and content. . Mr. Majewski received his A.B., M.A., and Ph.D. from Princeton, and was formerly a Proctor Fellow in the graduate school and an instructor and assistant pro- fessor at Princeton. His doctoral thesis on the seldom- studied field of pre-Romantic theses led to a continuing interest in the late-eighteenth-century period, and he spent last summer in Paris doing research for a forth- coming article on one of the recurrent ideas which ap- pears in the literature of this period. This year, as the advisor of French Club, he enjoys meeting students in- formally, and he finds that Le Cercle Francais is a good place to teach something of the flavor of French civili- zation through programs and conversations. After all, he says, Literature is the creation of a particular people with their own distinet attitudes of mind, and it should not exist completely divorced from its background. JAMES O. BARNHILL, Assistant Professor of English and Associate Professor of Dramatics, has both professional and academic interests in the theater. Hav- ing played summer stock for the past ten years, Mr Barnhill has spent his past three summers acting at the Lakewood Theater in Skowhegan, Maine. A regular contributor to the Player's Magazine and to the New England Theater Conference Bulletin, he is vice-presi- dent of the New England Theater Conference and chairman of the stock committee of the American Edu- cational Theater Association, Here at Brown, Mr. Barn- hill teaches courses in voice and diction, public address and debate, as well as play production. The effective- ness of his work is shown by his enthusiastic students. A native of Mississippi, Mr. Barnhill received his B.A. from Yale, M.A. from New York University, and M.E.A. from the Yale School of Drama. During his undergraduate years he was quite active in the theater. Mr. Barnhill came to Brown in 1953 and has since be- come one of the directors of Sock and Buskin, the Uni- versity's undergraduate dramatic society. Because of his work in the theater, he feels that he can appraise the current professional theme with enough perspective to give an accurate view to his students The theater's relation to the English Department is satisfactory because it allows students interested in the fine arts to work in the bounds of a department which feels strong- ly about the theater as a serious endeavor. He is inter- ested in teaching dramatics sometime in the future, and would like to start a course in the five-year master's program directed toward secondary school teachers. But his goal for the present is the establishment of a fine arts center at Brown.