English prof is MSU Humanities Teacher of the Year

Contact: Maridith Geuder

A specialist in modern fiction, especially that of the Caribbean, is Mississippi State's 2003 Humanities Teacher of the Year.

Richard F. Patteson, an English faculty member at the university, will present an Oct. 24 public lecture as part of his recognition by the Mississippi Humanities Council. In addition to teaching and research, he directs the English department graduate studies program.

Presented annually at institutions of higher learning around the state, the award carries an honorarium of $500 and the opportunity to share humanities scholarship in a public setting with students, colleagues and other interested audiences.

Patteson's 3 p.m. presentation in the Colvard Union small auditorium is titled "The Resurrection of a Caribbean Dictator."

"I became interested in Caribbean literature about a dozen years ago," he said, noting that it represents an "extreme diversity" of indigenous, European, African, and Indian cultures. "I started reading, and before long, I was working on a book."

Patteson said he since has developed a graduate seminar based on his interest. He continues research into the works of authors such as Robert Antoni of Trinidad.

His MSU lecture will highlight three novels dealing with the 30-year dictatorship of the Dominican Republic's Rafael Trujillo. Each features Trujillo as a fictional character during key events of his brutal reign, ending with his assassination.

"All are excellent treatments that blend fiction and history," said Patteson, noting that he's been struck more than once by the similarity between Trujillo and a more recent dictator, Iraq's Saddam Hussein.

Anticipating the lecture, he said he feels "honored to receive the recognition by my colleagues and to have an opportunity to present some of my recent work to the university."

Patteson is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Trinity College who went on to complete a doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of three scholarly texts, "A World Outside: The Fiction of Paul Bowles" (1987), "Critical Essays on Donald Barthelme" (1992) and "Caribbean Passages: A Critical Perspective on New Fiction from the West Indies" (1998).

He currently is working on a book about Antoni, author of "Divinia Trace."

For more about Caribbean literature, Patteson's recommendations can be found at Amazon.com. Search under "books" for Robert Antoni, Pauline Melville or "Moses Ascending," to read Patteson's favorites.