Skip to Content

The Horst Frenz Prize Citations 2017 HM

2017 Honorable Mention:

Be it known that Ethan Reed, of the University of Virginia, was awarded honorable mention in the competition for the 2017 Horst Frenz Prize for the best presentation by a graduate student at the annual conference of the American Comparative Literature Association, which, in 2016, was held at Harvard University.

An insightful and knowledgeable study of Derek Walcott's modern epic, Omero, which shows Walcott adapting the story to post-colonial concerns, and alluding to Joyce's tirades (though Leopold Bloom) against England and the imperial establishment. This excursus into Walcott's magnum opus mines the rich vein of allusion and cultural adaptation and shows the contemporary thrust of many of Walcott's variations on themes enunciated in Homer and in Joyce. In a well-conceived essay, Reed explores Walcott’s preoccupation with deeply seated Aegean and Antillean cultural parallels and contrasts. It also shows that, in his indebtedness to Joyce, a contemporary Irishman, and Homer, an ancient Greek,

2017 Frenz Prize Committee:
Eugene Eoyang, Indiana University (Chair)
Ron Bogue, University of Georgia
Steven Sondrup, Brigham Young University