Prof. Christopher Shinn Featured on C-SPAN’s “American History TV”

Posted in Announcement  |  Tagged Department of English, Faculty, News

The English Department is proud to share that Professor Christopher Shinn had his lecture featured on C-Span’s “American History TV” program. The following is an excerpt from The Hoya‘s Ajani Stella’s article on the event:

“C-SPAN’s ‘American History TV’ program, which publishes academic discussions of United States history, recorded Professor Christopher Shinn’s lecture from his Summer 2024 class, ‘Pulp Fiction.’ Shinn’s class focused on reading and studying popular novels, and C-SPAN contacted him expressing their interest in filming an English professor for the program. 
“Shinn said [Truman] Capote encouraged readers to question the nature of violence in the United States and how cultures value ‘good’ violence, such as the use of the death penalty, as a just response to ‘bad’ violence.
“In Cold Blood gets at the core of our so-called beliefs in this nation that violence is necessary to regenerate society to save it from itself,” Shinn said during the lecture.
“The lecture highlighted Capote’s portrayal of violence in his genre-defining nonfiction novel, which depicts the brutal and nonsensical murder of the Clutter family of Holcomb, Kan., through the perspective of the two murderers waiting for their executions.
“Shinn said that although people in the United States tend to avoid conversations about retributive violence, it remains prevalent.”

Read the rest of Ajani Stella’s article, “GU English Professor’s Lecture Broadcasts on C-SPAN American History Program” on The Hoya‘s website, and congratulations, Professor Shinn!