2016 Jill Mccorkle Lecture Analysis

Attending the 2016 Jill McCorkle Lecture, it came to my attention how much key figures in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s English department are praised and respected throughout the community, specifically Thomas Wolfe himself. Bland Simpson, the professor and chair of the department as well as Mark Canada, the president of the Thomas Wolfe Society and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, introduced the 2016 Thomas Wolfe Price recipient, Jill McCorkle, into the audience and more importantly described the appreciation and respect they had for Thomas Wolfe himself, as well as the type of person he was. Jill McCorkle was the center of attention at this event, in remembrance of Thomas Wolfe, due to her lasting impact on the University …show more content…
This year, the price recipient was a southern alumni and teacher from UNC who is highly respected among the community for her compassion for writing as well as her personality. The entire crowd around me laughed and teared up at the words she said as well as the mentioning and stories of Thomas Wolfe himself. Prior to McCorkle entering the stage, her former student, McKenna Ritter, spoke in regard to her relationship with McCorkle. She spoke of her praise and awe of her since she met her, as well as her ultimate goal to “be like her one day.” McCorkle was said to sit down with her students while teaching and do each and every assignment with them, ultimately gaining their respect for her as a teacher and a person. The relationship between Jill and McKenna stood out to me because it was not only one of student to teacher, but they said they have been best friends since they met, attending family functions and events together. McKenna told a story of Jill picking up a hush puppy off the ground at a cookout and blowing it off and eating it, show that she was an average southern women, who simply had a gift for creative writing. McCorkle used humor in Line-Man to appeal to the audience’s emotions as well as overcome the heart-felt aspect of the story with the main character losing his wife to another man. She constantly displayed the man’s self-awareness of it being his fault and his regrets but never failing to soften the mood with humor. Jill McCorkle’s use of the word “home” stood out to both me and the audience. She spoke of how she gave a quiz at the beginning of each class she teaches, instructing students to write the first word that comes to mind after she says a certain phrase and she always says “home.” The students write a variety of answers, usually quite similar to one another, yet she pays