English professor has book review published; earns recognition for annual contributions

GREENVILLE, Pa.-- Thiel College Professor of English Mary Theresa Hall, Ph.D., recently had a book review published and was recognized for her longstanding and ongoing contributions to a leading 16th-century literary issues journal.

Hall’s book review of “Shakespeare and the Versification of English Drama, 1561-1642” by international linguist and Russian formalist critic Marina Tarlinskaja was published in the winter 2015 (Vol. XLVI, No. 4) edition of Sixteenth Century Journal: The Journal of Early Modern Studies. Published since 1969, the Sixteenth Century Journal prints about 25 articles and more than 400 book reviews each year. The journal awarded Hall a certificate of “honors and thanks” as a bronze medal book reviewer for her contributions from 2000-2015.

In her most recent review, Hall said that Tarlinskaja provides a scientific and straightforward account of the basic versification system in the early modern English period. The six-chapter book conjoins linguistic and literary critical scholarship and reinforces the collaboration that exists between the scientific world of linguistics and the creative and critical world of literature. Not only does Tarlinskaja’s work discuss why Shakespeare’s works move us (the work of literary critics), but it also meets its goal of how his works move us (the work of a pragmatic linguistics study), Hall said.

Hall received her bachelor’s degree in English and secondary certification in English and French from Seton Hill University; a master’s in literature from Carnegie Mellon University; and a Ph.D. from Duquesne University. She has taught at Thiel College since 1999.