Ronald Bieganowski, S.J.
Associate Professor

Literature and Rhetoric, from the beginnings of higher education, helped define the course of university study, confirming the central, enduring question - what does it mean to be human. Literary artists respond, "So, 'You want to know what it means to be human? Let me tell you a story. Let me sing you a song." And so the fun begins for us who teach English. 

Teaching undergraduates at Marquette has been my major work since 1976: it's been a wonderful experience. Regularly I've taught a two semester survey of American Literature along with sections of the First Year Writing course and upper divisions courses such as "American Literature from 1798 - 1865," "The Poetry of Robert Frost," "Catholic Imagination in Recent American Writing," and "Recent Midwest Writings." Specific research has been on Robert Frost, Edgar Allan Poe, and James Baldwin.

These many years have meant experiencing what the Frost poem describes as uniting "My avocation and my vocation/ As my two eyes make one in sight."

Teaching Fields

• American Literature
• Rhetoric and Composition

Office Location & Contact

• Coughlin Hall, 334
• 288-1956
• fr.bieganowski@marquette.edu

Office Hours

• Fall 2007 - Spring 2008
• Leave of Absence - can be reached at 414-288-1956 or through email fr.bieganowski@marquette.edu

Teaching Schedule

Research Interests

• Robert Frost
• Edgar Allan Poe
• James Baldwin

Selected Publications

• "Robert Frost’s New Hampshire: Realm Not Region." Literature and Belief. 2 (1982): 83-92.
• "Robert Frost’s Annotations to Henri Bergson’s Creative Evolution." Resources for American Literary Study. 13 (1983): 184-93.
• "Robert Frost’s Sense of Choice in Mountain Interval." College Literature. 11 (1984): 258-68.
• "James Baldwin’s Vision of Otherness in 'Sonny’s Blues' and Giovanni's Room." College Language Association Journal. 32 (1988): 69-80.
• "The Self-Consuming Narrator in Poe’s 'Ligeia' and 'Usher.'" American Literature. 60 (1988): 175-87.
• "Robert Frost’s A Boy’s Will and Henri Bergson’s Creative Evolution." The South Carolina Review 21 (1988): 9-16.

Honors/Awards

• N.D.E.A. Grant, 1968
• American Philosophical Society Grant, 1981.