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Marquette (Taboo) Reads: Dr. Heather Hathaway

Photo by Matthew Bin Han Ong, Comm '12

Dr. Heather Hathaway, associate professor of English, has a passion for teaching courses in African American literature and ethnic American literature. She has also penned two books examining issues of American identity in literature — Carribean Waves: Relocating Claude McKay and Paule Marshall and Race and the Modern Artists (editor) — and is currently writing a book on the impact of mythologies of freedom and captivity on American literary history and culture.

In honor of Banned Books Week, Marquette Magazine asked Hathaway for her top taboo books and why they should not be banned. Hathaway says, "I suppose it will be no surprise to learn that I am not a fan of banning any book so ... I’ll list some banned books that have challenged me to think deeply — and, even better, differently — about something important."

Books that challenge her to look at the darker side of U.S. history:

"Beloved, by Toni Morrison; Absalom, Absalom, by William Faulkner; Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison, The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck; To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee.  These have required me to look at our national past squarely in the eye, without flinching as Morrison says, and have helped me better understand how we define ourselves as a community and why."

Books that show the darker side of humanity:

"Lolita, by Vladmir Nabokov; The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding; The Color Purple, Alice Walker; Native Son, by Richard Wright; The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Samuel Clemens. These have demanded that I consider the harmful ways we use power over one another. Reading them invites me to check my own moral compass."

Books that counter prevailing political or cultural norms:

"Animal Farm and 1984, by George Orwell; The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair; Tango Makes Three, by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson; The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger; One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey. These have been banned because they counter prevailing political or cultural norms, but I find them to be essential reading because they challenge me to think beyond my own limited worldview."

Books about banning books:

"Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury. This most ironically banned book proves the old, but accurate, cliché that 'knowledge is power.' If it weren’t, it wouldn’t be perceived as so dangerous."