WESTWATER, Agnes Martha 1929-

(Martha Westwater, Sister Agnes Martha; Martha Early, a pseudonym)

PERSONAL: Born January 3, 1929, in Boston, MA; daughter of Joseph J. (a steel contractor) and Martha (Early) Westwater. Ethnicity: "White-Irish-Scotch." Education: St. John's University (Jamaica, NY), B.S. (cum laude), 1957, M.A., 1962; Dalhousie University, Ph.D., 1973. Politics: Democrat.

ADDRESSES: Home—17 Hutchinson St., Dorchester, MA 02124. Offıce—Massasoit Community College, 1 Massasoit Blvd., Brockton, MA 02302-3996. E-mail— [email protected].

CAREER: Roman Catholic nun of the Sisters of Charity, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada; teacher of English in Catholic educational institutions in New York, NY, 1950-57, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 1957-62, Arvida, Quebec, 1962-66, and Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, 1966-67; Mount St. Vincent University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, faculty member, 1967-74, professor of English literature, 1974-98; Massasoit Community College, Brockton, MA, adjunct professor, 2000—. Sisters of Charity Intergenerational Learning Program (for single parents and children), founder; Nova Scotia Literacy Council, member.

MEMBER: Modern Language Association of America.

AWARDS, HONORS: Grants from Canada Council and Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada, beginning 1974; D.Hum.L., Mount St. Vincent University, 1994.

WRITINGS:

(Under name Sister Agnes Martha) Nothing on Earth, Bruce Publishing, 1967.

(Under name Sister Agnes Martha) Walter Bagehot: The Conservatism of a Victorian Liberal, Dalhousie University Press (Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada), 1973.

(Under name Martha Westwater) The Wilson Sisters: A Biographical Study of Upper Middle-Class Victorian Life, Ohio University Press (Athens, OH), 1984.

(Under name Martha Westwater) The Spasmodic Career of Sydney Dobell, University Press of America (Lanham, MD), 1992.

(Under name Martha Westwater) Giant Despair Meets Hopeful: Kristevan Readings in Adolescent Fiction, University of Alberta Press (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada), 2000.

Author of short stories, under pseudonym Martha Early, which were included in children's books published by Ginn. Contributor to Humanities Association Review.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Mark My Iniquities, a novel.

SIDELIGHTS: Sister Agnes Martha Westwater told CA: "As an educator and a writer, I have a deep desire to end the cycle of violence in our world—especially, in the wake of Columbine, the violence that is exhibited among children. At the same time, as a professor of English literature and a lecturer on books written for children, I have come to realize that several contemporary authors have admirably studied the anger, neglect, and despair that triggers violence among the young. Even though, in the university's curriculum, children's literature has been underrated, when one examines those adolescent novels which have avoided the deterioration of language, the sensationalism and sexism of so much present-day fiction, what emerges is a literature of great power that satisfies the innately human need for beauty of form and content, and at the same time challenges both the concept of the self and that self's expectation of stability and harmony.

"It was the prevalence of so much contemporary despair which first attracted me to a study of adolescent fiction in the first place. Novel after novel repeated the tale of depressed youth suffering because of parental and peer pressure, violence, sexual abuse, divorce, et cetera. In applying the psychoanalytic theory of Julis Kristeva to children's and adolescent literature, I found both hope and enthusiasm for giving more serious study to literature written for children and young adults. In using a psychoanalytical approach in reading children's literature, I am making a very simple point: humanity cannot survive without hope, and hope cannot survive without the story.

"I write now chiefly as an educator. I believe that, as members of the human race, we all, at one time or another, must face despair, the enemy of love. Whatever might be the attraction of despair—whether it be fear, greed, jealousy, pride, anger, self-interest, or lust—we all have the capacity to reject it. We fail, often and badly, because we have such an innate propensity for evil which will never change and which binds us in sympathy to past generations and to those yet unborn. Our glory, however, is that we often succeed.

"I write because I am concerned about the young students before me in the lecture hall who are already victimized by the violence of our society and discouraged in their own skirmishes with despair. They are the future parents and teachers who will one day face the next generation of suffering teens. I write because I want to deepen in parents and educators an awareness of the power of fiction to sustain and preserve the ethical and social values of community life.

"Above all, I write because I want to share the wisdom and grace which writers have given me and which have so enriched my reading pleasure."