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  Kevin Alexander Boon

   Associate Professor
   English Department



"If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention."
(National Organization for Women)

General Studies 211
(717) 749-6096
kab25@psu.edu
Fax: (717) 749-4125


Mont Alto Links



Favorite Music

Dar Williams, Joni Mithcell, Shawn Colvin, Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson, Jackson Browne

Favorite Film(s)

Citizen Kane, Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, Angel Heart.

Favorite Author(s)

Vonnegut, Faulkner, Palahniuk, Terry Pratchett, James Cain, Philip K. Dick, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Stanislaw Lem, Italo Calvino, Virginia Woolf

Favorite Painter(s)

Vermeer

Teaching

Literature, Writing, & Film

Education

Ph.D. English. University of South Florida. 1995

    M.A. English. University of South Florida. 1991

      B.A. Psychology. University of South Florida. 1983


        Publications


        Books


        Static Texts and Moving Pictures: The Screenplay as Literary Object. Wayne State University Press. (under contract). Book.

        Ernest Hemingway. Benchmark. (under contract). Book.

        F. Scott Fitzgerald. Benchmark. 2005. Book.

        The Human Genome Project: What Does Decoding DNA Mean for Us? (Issues in Focus). Enslow Publishers. 2002. Book.

        At Millennium's End: New Essays on the Work of Kurt Vonnegut. State University of New York Press. 2001. Book.

        Absolute Zero. Fort Schuyler Press. 1999. Book (Novel).

        Reading the Sea: New Essays on Sea Literature. Fort Schuyler Press. 1999. Book.

        An Interpretive Commentary on Virginia Woolf's The Waves. Mellen Press. 1998. Book.

        Chaos Theory and the Interpretation of Literary Texts: The Case of Kurt Vonnegut. Mellen Press 1997 Book


        Refereed Articles

        (partial list)


        "Heroes, Metanarratives, and the Paradox of Masculinity in Contemporary Western Culture." Journal of Men's Studies 13.3 (Spring 2005)

        "Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God as Aristotelian Tragedy: Janie's Flaw, Tea Cake's Defects, and the Illusion of Romantic Love." The Zora Neale Hurston Forum. (forthcoming 2005)

        "Men and the Nostalgia for Violence: Culture and Culpability in Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club." Journal of Men's Studies 11.3 (2003): 267-276.

        "Gilbert Sorrentino: Cataloging The Imaginative Qualities of Actual Things." Studies in Modern and Contemporary Fiction: Imaginative Qualities of Actual Things, by Gilbert Sorrentino. Ed. David Andrews. Series Ed. Robert McLaughlin. Dalkey Archive Press. 2002. Article.

        "Timothy Leary." The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives. V4 1994-1996 Scribners 2001 Book Chapter

        "Human 911: Spectacle & Tragedy." Creative Screenwriting. (2002): 68-69.

        "Episteme-ology of Science Fiction." The Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies. (2001) and Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts 2.4 (2001): 359-74. (joint European and American publication)

        "The Poetics and the Screenplay: Revisiting Aristotle." Creative Screenwriting. 8.3 (2001): 67-79.

        "In Defense of John Carpenter's Thing." Creative Screenwriting. (1999): 66-74, 44.

        "Dialogue, Discourse, and Dialectics: The Rhetoric of Capitalism in David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross." Creative Screenwriting. 5.3 (1998): 50-57.

        "In Debt to Dashiell: John Huston's Adaptation of Hammett's The Maltese Falcon." Creative Screenwriting. (Summer 1997): 99-115.

        "Publishing Group Projects: Decentering the Writing Classroom." Teaching English in the Two-Year College. 26.3 (March 1999): 262-268.



        Presentations

        "The Tragic Flaw in Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God." Zora Neale Hurston Society Twentieth Anniversary National Conference. Baltimore, PA. (June 17-19, 2004)

        "Discourse, Class, and Capitalism: Active Dialogue in the Screenplays of David Mamet." Second International David Mamet Conference. London, England. (June 10-12, 2004)

        "Achilles Paradox: Hero Worship and the Paradox of Masculinity in Contemporary Western Culture." Popular Culture Association / American Culture Association Joint National Conference. New Orleand, LA. (April 15-19, 2003)

        Book Publishing. Member of panel discussion for Penn State Mont Alto faculty on book publishing. (December 3, 2002)

        "My Father's Fists: Male Identity and the Nostalgia for Violence in Fight Club." Presentation delivered at American Literature Association Annual Conference, Long Beach, CA. (June 1, 2002)

        "I Am Jack's Author: The Novels of Chuck Palahniuk." Section Chair. American Literature Association Annual Conference, Long Beach, CA. (June 1, 2002)

        "Gilbert Sorrentino and the Postmodern Catalogue." Faculty Colloquy, Penn State Mont Alto.Presentation. (November 20, 2001)

        "The Screenplay as Literature." Faculty Colloquy, Penn State, Mont Alto.Presentation. (April 9, 2001)

        "19th--Century Dreams." NYCEA Conference on American Dreams and Dreamers. Saratoga Springs, NY. Section Chair. (Spring 2000)

        "Human Rights Violations and the Crisis in Kosovo." Cross-disciplinary Panel discussion. SUNY Maritime, New York, NY. Panel Member. (April 19, 1999)

        "Re(De)fining Race and Re(Dis)counting Human Sexual Difference, or I Ain't Got No Body and No Body Has Got Me." NYCEA Conference on Literature and Transnationalism: Immigration, Migration, Diaspora. New York. April 1999

        "Performing the Story to Explore Life." NYCEA Conference on Literature as Journey. New York. Section Chair. (Fall 1998)

        "Virginia Woolf and the Sea." NYCEA Literature of the Sea Conference. SUNY Martime, New York, NY. Section Chair. (March 1998)

        "The Resurrection of Dracula: Repetition and the Construction of Significance in Das Bild." International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, Ft. Lauderdale, FL. Presentation (March 1993)

        "Reading the Internal and External Spaces of Film." ICFA-14, Ft. Lauderdale, FL. Section Chair. (March 1993)

        "Death in the Dialectic Between the Semiotic and the Symbolic: Greenaway's Drowning By Numbers." Florida State Comparative Literature & Film Conference, Tallahassee, FL. Presentation January 1993

        "Sex, Violence, and the `Shower Scene': Hitchcock's Psycho." International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, Ft. Lauderdale, FL. Presentation. (March 1992)

        "Overlooking Structure in The Shining." Florida State University Conference on Literature & FilmPresentation February 1992

        "A Coffin for the Five-Paragraph Theme: A Post-Structural Performance." Florida College English Association Conference, Daytona Beach, FL. Presentation January 1992

        "Asleep with Books" (pen & ink), "Natalie" (charcoal), "Pennsylvania Gothic" (mixed media). Faculty and Staff Art Show. The Museum of Temporary Art. Penn State, Mont Alto, PA. Art Showing August 18, 2000-September 10, 2000.

        Poetry Reading. Thirsty Ear Poetry Series. Creative Presentation. (April 18, 1996)

        "A Small Sacrifice." Fiction Reading YMCA Writers Voice, Writers Harvest, University of Tampa, Tampa, FL. Creative Presentation Nov. 1, 1995

        "Mrs. Mallory's Mummified Dog." Fiction Reading. GSA Symposium, U of South FL., Tampa, FL. Creative Presentation April, 1994



        Awards, Honors, & Distinctions

        Honorable Mention 1995. USF Fiction Contest. "A Small Sacrifice." Tampa, FL. .

        First Place 1994. Department of English Poetry Award. "Railroad Men." U of South FL.Tampa, FL..

        First Place -- Anspaugh Fiction Award. 1993. "Mrs. Mallory's Mummified Dog. Tampa, FL..



        Professional Memberships

        Modern Language Association

        New York College English Association