Eminent professor of English at California State University, Stanislaus, Dr. Jesse Wolfe doesn’t just teach literature and creative writing, but also writes and publishes his own poetry and scholarship. “Both are important to me,” he explains, “and both are connected to what I do in the classroom.”
This unique combination of pursuits has recently earned Wolfe the University’s Outstanding Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity (RSCA) Award.
The inspirations for Wolfe’s creative writing
Wolfe has published many standalone poems in prestigious publications as well as his first chapbook, En Route, in 2020. These important contributions to the world of poetry are part of what the award recognized.
“Poetry has been my main creative medium since I was a teenager,” Wolfe explains. “Now that I’m in my 50s, I think differently, and I hope more insightfully, about the shapes that people’s lives take—their plans for the future that do and don’t get fulfilled, their gratitudes and regrets about the past, the ways their relationships evolve over time, and how they can always stop and appreciate the present.”
In addition to his own life experience, Wolfe also finds inspiration from teaching English, which immerses him in great literature. Luckily for the world, California State University, Stanislaus, has provided a supportive space for his creative endeavors. “I’m glad that I get to do my own creative work as well, and that my school sees value in it,” Wolfe says.
Of course, scholars are typically known for their scholarly contributions, and Wolfe’s distinguished works of nonfiction make him no exception.
Wolfe’s scholarship
Wolfe was also chosen for the award due to the two important books he has contributed to the field of comparative literature. Cambridge University Press published the first, entitled “Bloomsbury, Modernism, and the Reinvention of Intimacy,” in 2011. The second, “Love, Friendship, and Narrative Form After Bloomsbury: The Progress of Intimacy in History,” came out in January 2023; the paperback is scheduled for release on July 25, 2024.
“That book is a work of literary criticism and social history,” Wolfe says about his second scholarly volume. “It took me eleven and a half years to write, and I learned a ton doing so. It discusses six novelists I admire and whose works I’ve taught in many classes, so it represents my ongoing labor of love as a reader, teacher, and scholar.
“For example, one novelist I discuss is Michael Cunningham, whose 1998 novel ‘The Hours’ tells a three-part story about women living in the 1920s, 1940s, and 1990s struggling with depression and thinking about love. It was adapted into a terrific movie in 2002 and was inspired by Virginia Woolf’s brilliant 1925 novel, ‘Mrs Dalloway.’ So in my chapter on Cunningham, I get to talk about Virginia Woolf’s book, his book, and the movie, as well as related topics such as psychiatry and the history of marriage. Continuing to be a student – by remaining curious and learning new things – makes me a better teacher, so big research projects like this one are good for me professionally as well as personally.”
Wolfe learned many things about intimacy as a historical process in the course of writing this book. “Many taboos have waned since, say, 1900: taboos against getting divorced, being single, having a same-sex partner, or having an interracial intimacy, for example,” he says. “This is mostly good: people are freer to construct intimate lives as they want to, and this freedom is more likely to make them happier than sadder.
“But it’s a mixed blessing. The end of ‘mandatory marriage’ (between about 1850 and 1960 almost everyone got married and stayed married) leaves some people adrift. And loneliness is a big problem today. The authors I discuss in my book all explore these topics insightfully.”
What’s next for Wolfe
Far from sitting on these impressive laurels, Wolfe is currently working on two new projects.
“I’m working on a book of poetry titled ‘Nothing to Be Sorry For,’ which, as its title suggests, explores people’s feelings of guilt and forgiveness toward others but especially toward themselves,” he explains. “In this book, like in ‘En Route,’ I aim to create a mosaic of characters: men, women, old people, young people, rich and poor people. That way I’m mostly not writing about myself, although I certainly draw on personal experience when it can enhance a poem.”
Wolfe is also hard at work on a third scholarly book titled “African American Modernism and Ideas of Progress.” “It examines how five great Black writers since the 1930s, plus the filmmaker Spike Lee, examine racial progress (and its limits/failures) in the context of American progress (and its limits),” he says. “I hope that it speaks to our current moment in useful ways, with the help of these wonderful writers and thinkers whose works I’ll examine.”
A living example of the Liberal Arts
“I love being an educator, and I hope that universities can continue playing the positive role in the lives of many people that they have played in my life as a student and teacher,” Wolfe says. “They can be a source of creative inspiration, intellectual growth, and camaraderie.”
An inspiring teacher who practices what he preaches, Wolfe provides a living example of the liberal arts’ positive role in today’s society.