by Toni McNaron | Jul 9, 2026 | Toni's Blog
Curriculum Vitae Toni A.H. McNaronDistinguished Teaching Professor EmeritaDepartment of English EducationPh.D. University of Wisconsin-Madison English 1964M.A. Vanderbilt University English 1959B.A. University of Alabama English 1958 EmploymentAll Saints’ Episcopal...
by Toni McNaron | Jul 27, 2025 | Uncategorized
When I began to teach at the University of Minnesota (1964), many students told me they were the first in their family to go to college. As students in a Shakespeare course, they felt “stupid” because they had never seen one of his plays or read one of his...
by Toni McNaron | Mar 7, 2024 | Uncategorized
In 1964, when I began teaching English literature at the University of Minnesota, I lectured. That was how I’d been taught when in college, so I just started doing the same thing myself. I worked hard to make my lectures sprightly and engaging; students took...
by Toni McNaron | Jan 2, 2024 | Uncategorized
In 1860, the Victorian poet, Alfred Lord Tennyson, wrote a long poem entitled “Tithonus.” The title character is in love with Eos, goddess of the dawn, so he asks her to grant him immortality so they may stay together. She does that but forgets to include...
by Toni McNaron | Oct 18, 2023 | Uncategorized
I recently watched the 2003 movie “Stage Beauty” for the third time. It is about theater in mid-to-late seventeenth century England when women were not allowed to act on stage. Female parts were played by young male performers called “boy...
