Paula Smith Allen

Background

Paula Smith Allen was born on February 10, 1951, in Beckham County, Oklahoma, United States. She is a daughter of Emit Smith, a farmer and laborer, and Mildred Florence (Bradley) Smith, a laborer.

Education

In 1975, Paula received a Bachelor of Arts degree from West Texas State University (present-day West Texas A&M University). Later, in 1990, she got a Master of Arts degree in English Studies from the same university. Then, Allen pursued her studies at Texas Tech University, graduating with a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Comparative Literature in 1997.

Career

During the period from 1975 and 1992, Paula served as an English teacher at public schools in Eagle Pass, Texas. Between 1997 and 1998, she held a post of a visiting professor of English at Angelo State University. In 1998, Allen began working as a professor of English Education at Southeastern Oklahoma State University.

In addition, during her career, Paula served as a consultant to Models for Computerized Teaching. Moreover, Allen did a research on short fiction, especially the writings of Caribbean and Latin American women, as well as North America and South America literatures and education.

Currently, Allen is a Professor Emeritus of Southeastern Oklahoma State University.

Achievements

• Paula Smith Allen is a well-known Professor of Literature and Language, as well as the author, who has penned the work "Metamorphosis and the Emergence of the Feminine" (2000). Also, she is known for her research on North American and South American literature and education.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Metamorphosis and the Emergence of the Feminine

    (This work examines a motif of metamorphosis, that follows...)

    2000

Views

Quotations: "I am especially interested in the difference between women writers’ voices in Latin American and North American fiction. I believe the key to the discovery of the difference is precolonial, and I intend to pursue that idea in future comparative studies."

"Writing is my dialogue with the world. It is mediation between my own presuppositions and the occurrences, that do not support those suppositions. I believe, that all literature contains subversions and that it is in subversion, that questions are asked about reality. Literature is not born from complacency, but from conflict. It is in the examination of the conflict, that I find my motivation for writing - the crossroads, where the author and his/her character cross paths in their journey across the landscape of the story. How does their intersection jar the reader from his/her complacency? In this sense, all literature becomes gothic in its mixture of the familiar and the uncanny."

Membership

Paula is a member of the College English Association and Southwest Council of Latin American Studies.

Interests

• Reading, writing, traveling, antiques and historical architecture

Connections

Paula married Robert John Allen, teacher of Biology and Life Sciences, on October 21, 1967. Their marriage produced three children - Sheila Marie, Jonathan David and Ana Lisa.

Father:

Emit Smith

Mother:

Mildred Florence (Bradley) Smith

child:

Ana Lisa Allen

child:

Jonathan David Allen

child:

Sheila Marie Allen

husband:

Robert John Allen