Modern Language Association Convention in Chicago

IS Janet Ruth Heller Modern Language Association Convention in Chicago We fill the Conrad Hilton with culture. In one ballroom, scholars analyze Jane Austen, While across the hall, Norman Mailer Does a striptease as he reads from his latest novel. A panel of experts on the twentieth floor Debates whether to teach radical-changing verbs To conservative freshmen taking Spanish 101. On the roof, an earnest critic Examines the importance of wind chill factor In ancient Icelandic sagas. Linguists compare the communication skills Of higher and lower mammals While colorless green professors sleep furiously. Many flock to the Waldorf Room For an open-bar reunion of German majors Who graduated from Harvard in 1924. In the corridors, the unemployed Pace back and forth or slump Against the walls. They revive for the interview, Unpacking their credentials like peddlers. University presses offer once-a-year bargains On textbooks and fiction, Selling ideas wholesale. ...