By Nicole Ponticorvo Cavalier Daily Associate Editor English Prof. Jessica Feldman said she can pinpoint the time her passion for modern literature developed -- after she read "Sailing to Byzantium" by William Butler Yeats and "Remembrance of Things Passed" by Marcel Proust toward the end of her high school career.
"It really was just as if I had discovered my life's work," Feldman said. Both works "made me aware that my real passion in life was an aesthetic passion -- a passion for art and beauty."
Born in Oak Ridge, Tenn., Feldman spent most of her youth traveling around the country since her father's scientific research called for movement. For this reason, Feldman said she really appreciates Charlottesville.
"I've lived here far longer than I've lived any other place," Feldman said.
After high school, which she spent both in Maryland and Alaska, Feldman went on to receive her bachelor's degree in English from Stanford University in 1971. Continuing her post-graduate studies at the University of California - Berkeley, Feldman got her master's in 1973 and her doctorate in 1976, both in English.
Yet teaching was not always Feldman's planned career path. In elementary school, Feldman said she thought she wanted to be a lawyer. Even when she attended graduate school she said did not want to be a teacher or an academic.
Upon writing her dissertation on modern American poet Wallace Stevens, she discovered she did have a desire to teach.
"It suddenly felt as if it would be a great privilege to be able to share the beauty of literature with other people, specifically with students," Feldman said.
Feldman joined the University's English department in 1978, after her husband, George Rutherglen, began to teach at the University Law School. The first course Feldman taught at the University on modern literature "was sort of a rough introduction to teaching," Feldman said, since she had no formal teaching background.
"I just had to learn how to do it as I went," Feldman said.
Currently, Feldman is teaching a graduate-level seminar and a seminar for English majors.
"I try to be supportive in class so that students will know that I'll also be supportive outside of class," Feldman said. "And, I try to lace my intensity with a bit of relaxed humor."
This semester, Feldman has also taken on a new position within the English department as the director of undergraduate studies, overseeing hundreds of English majors.
"I enjoy talking to students outside the classroom, and having this job ensures that I get to do a lot of that," Feldman said.
Recently, Feldman edited a book with an English graduate student, Rob Stilling, entitled "Thinking of Reading." Additionally, Feldman has a book about John Ruskin in the works.
Outside of the classroom, Feldman is a mother of two, both of whom are now pursuing post-graduate education.
Feldman said she enjoys hearing from students, both while they study here and after they graduate.
"My students over the years have been quite intelligent and very socially adept, much more than I was in college," Feldman said. They seem to be involved in many activities outside the classroom, they seem to be at ease with one another and, in general, they're extremely nice people to work with -- it's true."
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