A professor in ODU's Department of English recently won a prestigious award for his writing and research about an 18th-century hymn.
画Lopenzina, professor of English literature, 是 awarded the Richard Beale Davis Prize by the Modern Language Association Forum on Early American Literature for his publication, "'In De Dark Wood: No Indian Nigh': William Apess and 'The Indian Hymn.'"
这个奖项, which Lopenzina说 he 是 "floored" to receive, 以戴维斯的名字命名, a native Virginian and renowned literary historian of the early South who won, among many other illustrious awards and recognitions, the National Book Award in 1979.
The Beale prize has long recognized scholars whose essays the Modern Language Association Forum deem the year's best, ODU English Professor Manuela Mourau said.
作为一名胜利者. Lopenzina joins a distinguished roster of preeminent Early American scholars whose ambitious, innovative and important work continues to push the boundaries of their field,她说.
The essay focuses on a little-known 19th-century Methodist hymn, referred as the "The Indian Hymn, " which opens: "In de dark woods, 没有印度高中, 让我看看希伯伦, 发出呼喊."
"The authorship of the hymn 是 most often attributed to William Apess, an ordained minister in the Methodist church and a member of the Pequot Tribe of Indians,洛彭吉娜说. "Apess 是 a tireless advocate for the rights of Indigenous peoples during the first half of the 19th century, delivering fiery orations in churches, 影院, meeting houses and lecture halls throughout the Northeast. He is the first Native American to write and publish a book-length memoir, his 1829 "A Son of the Forest," and the hymn appeared at the conclusion of this book."
然而, the idea that an advocate for Native people would write a hymn with derogatory imagery and their relationship with Christianity 是 puzzling to scholars, leading to Lopenzina's research and scholarship that ultimately won the Davis Prize.
"My research unveils the complicated history of this hymn, its actual authorship by a white Scottish immigrant from Nova Scotia, 还有那首赞美诗, far from being a favorite of Christian Natives as 是 often implied, 是, 事实上, cherished by white church-goers for whom it held a kind of minstrel-show appeal,他说. ”相比之下, my essay demonstrates the actual, 更有尊严, practices adopted by New England Natives in their complex negotiations with the religion of the settler state."
这个奖项, although dated 2020, 是 awarded in January 2022. 这个奖项s are given on a delay to give the awarding organization's judges time to read the many publications from the awarding year, Lopenzina说.
"I 是 very pleasantly surprised to receive this award, and I am grateful for the recognition from my peers,他说.
