Cynthia Wong

Cynthia Wong
Professor
English

Mailing Address:
Department of English
Campus Box 175 
P.O. Box 173364
Denver, CO 80217-3364

Physical Location:
1061 Ninth Street Park, Office 202
Denver, CO 80217

TUESDAY/WEDNESDAY/THURSDAY
12:00-4:00
Email for Zoom appointment


Cynthia F. Wong teaches modern and contemporary literature and narrative theory. She studied Psychology and English at the University of the Pacific (B.A.) and medieval and modern literature at the University of Chicago (M.A.); her Ph.D. is from the University of Milwaukee-Wisconsin.
Her research focus is on a study of space and geography in world literature, and she is recognized as one of the key North American scholars of Nobel-winning British author Kazuo Ishiguro. She is the author of Writers and Their Work: Kazuo Ishiguro (3rd edition, 2019) and has co-edited a volume of Ishiguro interviews (2008) as well as one of critical essays (2015). She received the CLAS Excellence Awards for Teaching (2004) and Research (2016)


Education:

Ph.D.   University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, English Literature & Modern Studies           

M. A.   University of Chicago, English Literature

B. A.   University of the Pacific, double majors in English and Human Development

Non-degree summer programs at the University of Hawaii-Manoa and the School for Criticism and Theory at Dartmouth College.


Publications:

“Eloquence and Empathy in A Pale View of Hills and An Artist of the Floating World.” New Collected Essays on Kazuo Ishiguro, Eds. Kristian Shaw and Peter Sloane, Manchester UP, 2023

“‘Emotional Upheaval’ in An Artist of the Floating World and The Buried Giant.” The Cambridge Companion to Kazuo Ishiguro. Ed. Andrew Bennett. Cambridge UP, 2023.

Writers and Their Work: Kazuo Ishiguro.  Great Britain: Northcote House (1st Edition 2000, 2nd Expanded Ed,, 2005, 3rd Expanded Ed. Liverpool University Press, 2019).

“Narratives of Dislocation in Yamashita, Kogawa, and Otsuka.” Karen Tei Yamashita: Fictions of Magic and Memory. Ed. A. Robert Lee. University of Hawaii Press, 2018.

“Towards a Poetics of Empathy: Literary Fiction as a Transformative Experience.” Published in proceedings by The European Conference on Education, “Educating for Change.”  Brighton, United Kingdom, 2017.

“Introspective Fictions: Geocriticism and the Worlds of Kazuo Ishiguro and Jhumpa Lahiri.” Australasian Languages and Literature Association (AULLA). Worldmaking: Literature, Language, Culture. T. Clark, E. Finlay, and P. Kelly, eds. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 179-188. 2017.

Co-edited with Hülya Yıldız.  Kazuo Ishiguro in a Global Context. Surrey, England: Ashgate Publishing, 2015.  Acquired by Routledge 2016.

“‘Ignorance, Imagination, Illusion and Truth’: Kazuo Ishiguro’s Fictional Spaces.” Hülya Yıldız-Bağçe, Özlem Türe Abacı, Şule Akdoğan, and Şermin Sezer, eds. Kazuo Ishiguro and His Work: Proceedings of the 19th METU British Novelists Conference. Ankara, Turkey: Middle East Technical University.  1-12. 2012.

“Asymmetries: Narratives of Loss and Forgiveness in the Novels of Amy Tan.” China Fictions. A. Robert Lee, ed. London: Rodopi. 57-78. 2008.

Co-edited with Brian W. Shaffer. Literary Conversations with Kazuo Ishiguro. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.  2008.


Presentations:

“A Cruel Kindness: Klara’s ‘Slow Fade,’” presentation at the Symposium for Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun, held by Zoom. University of Bristol, UK, 2021.

“Closing Reflections: Looking Ahead with Ishiguro,” panelist, Kazuo Ishiguro and International Crisis: A Global Seminar held by Zoom with international colleagues hosted by the University of Sussex, UK, 2020. 

“'Cathartic Magnificence’ in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Fiction,” Keynote Speech for the International Conference for 21st Century Perspectives on Kazuo Ishiguro. University of Wolverhampton, UK, 2020.

“Ishiguro and Brexit,” chair of panel at the International Conference for 21st Century Perspectives on Kazuo Ishiguro. University of Wolverhampton, UK, 2020.

“Olga Tocarczuk and Peter Handke, Nobel Laureates for 2018 and 2019,” CLAS public presentation for the 2019 “Nobel at Noon” Series, Office of Research Services, UCD, 2019.

"Poetic and Vigilante Justice: The Precariat in Shirley Hazzard's The Transit of Venus and Natsuo Kirino's Out." Australasian Universities Language and Literature Conference. Australia, 2019.

“Towards a Poetics of Empathy: Literary Fiction as a Transformative Experience.” European Conference on Education. Brighton, United Kingdom, 2019.

“Nobel Authors in the Literature Classroom: 2017 Laureate Kazuo Ishiguro and the Case for Conscious Empathy.” Asian Conference on Education & International Development. Kobe Japan, 2018.

“Van Gogh’s Red Lacquered Box” (poem) and “Before” (lyric essay). Reading creative non-fiction for the Alice Maxine Bowie fellowship year. Lighthouse Writers Workshop, Denver Colorado. 2016.

“Prose Sonnet.” Creative piece read at ASSEMBLY: Asian Pacific Islanders in the Literary World.  Lighthouse Writers Workshop. 2016.

“Narrative and Empathy in Postwar Japanese Literature: Ishiguro, Murakami, and Kogawa.” 7th Asian Conference on Education, “Education, Power, and Empowerment: Transcending Boundaries.”  Kobe Japan. 2015.

“Kazuo Ishiguro and Contemporary World Literature: A Primer.”  And, “Book Talk on Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go.”  Presented to the Community at Lighthouse Writers Workshop, in anticipation of Ishiguro’s talks in Denver Colorado. 2015.

“Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore in a Post World War II Context.” Graduate Seminar on Non-Western Contemporary Literatures at Middle East Technical University, Ankara Turkey. 2014.


Area of Expertise:

Modern and Contemporary World Literature, Kazuo Ishiguro, Literature of Antarctic Exploration, Narrative Theory


Courses Taught:

Contemporary World Literature

Nobel Authors

International Perspectives in Literature and Film: Contemporary Japan

Critical Writing

Introduction to Literature

20th Century Fiction