New faculty member assumes MELUS editorship

Martha J. Cutter's interest in ethnic and gender issues in language and literature will expand beyond the classroom as she takes over editorship of MELUS , the journal of the Society for the Study of Multi-Ethnic Literature of the U.S.

Cutter, who joined the Department of English this fall as an associate professor, has a joint appointment with the Institute for African American Studies.

"I've always been interested in language - how language creates certain kinds of cultural identities, how it empowers certain groups of people, and how women and ethnic writers intervene in that," said Cutter.

MELUS has been based at UConn since 2000. The previous editor was Veronica Makowsky, vice provost for undergraduate education and regional campus administration and professor of English and women's studies.

Cutter's recent book, Lost and Found in Translation: Contemporary Ethnic American Writing and the Politics of Language Diversity (University of North Carolina Press, 2005), explores some of the issues facing ethnic American writers as they consider what is lost and what is gained in the translation of their work.

Some Mexican-American authors write in English and their works are translated into Spanish for Latinos living in the U.S. or in other countries, she noted. Others switch back and forth between languages.

Multilingualism is considered an advantage in Europe, and it has been used to advantage by some in the U.S.

"Some of our greatest leaders have been empowered by their use of many languages," she said. Martin Luther King, Jr. could call on standard English, black vernacular, and "Biblical" speech.

At the same time, bilingual education and concerns about the U.S. official language are political controversies.

"The U.S. has always had a fear of multilingualism," she said.

Cutter also has written about gender issues, exploring them in her book, Unruly Tongue: Identity and Voice in American Women's Writing, 1850-1930. In the 19 th century, when women were advised to be seen and not heard, some popular women authors were empowered by not following that rule, she said.

"I was intrigued by this contradiction," Cutter said.

As the editor of MELUS , Cutter plans to continue its trend toward exploratory and analytical essays about writers, and to make it "a plum for the field" of ethnic and gender literature. She would like to bring scholarship about lesser known writers into its pages, now that the field is well established.

Cutter, who was on the faculty at Kent State University for 11 years before coming to UConn, earned her bachelor's degree from Harvard and her master's and Ph.D. from Brown.

This fall she is teaching a survey of contemporary American literature for sophomores and juniors, and in the spring she will teach a course that pairs works by Toni Morrison and Spike Lee.