Elaina Frulla is an instructor of English here at Siena College and has been since fall 2009. Since 2016, she has been the faculty advisor for Pendragon Literary Magazine. When I had my first class with her in spring 2017 (The Short Story), I’d only heard a little bit about her from a friend. It was a glowing recommendation, but I was slightly terrified as someone who didn’t know if I could get that passionate about a genre that high school teachers had left me kind of “meh” about. At that point in time, I was in the writing short fiction class on campus. I didn’t think I could learn any more about the genre itself. When I took Elaina’s class, my eyes were opened to both how wonderful the genre was and how great of a professor Elaina is. She helped both my writing and my understanding of literature that has helped me in all of my classes here on campus.
(Photo of Elaina Frulla with the actual Yoda puppet, courtesy of Elaina)
When asked what her favorite subject is when it comes to teaching, she said, “I do always enjoy teaching short stories as a genre.” The genre itself is one of ambiguity and intensity, which are two things that she loves about it. In her Short Story class, she ascribes to the theory that short stories should be read in one sitting so as not to lose that intensity. The love of the genre that she has really shines through in her classes, where a normally shy student can find themselves in a heated discussion with, not only her, but other people in the class over their interpretations of a text. She said, “I would like them [my students] to recognize the work and effort of the artist’s that makes people’s lives more beautiful.”
Her love of literature doesn’t end at the Short Story though. She has a great respect for many authors. Particularly, her favorite author is Herman Melville. Not only does she love this author, she says that his book, Moby Dick (1851), helped change her life. She wasn’t much of a reader during her childhood until she read the book during her high school years. After reading this book, she says that “It was a game changer. I didn’t understand what it meant to be a human until I read Melville and to know that’s the novel that destroyed his career is remarkable to me.” During classes, she talks about this book and the other books of Herman Melville with reverence.
However, when it comes to her favorite movie, it isn’t one that you would expect. The movie in question is Dr. Doolittle (1967). It’s not the version with Eddie Murphy, but the version with Rex Harrison, whom some of you may know from the movie My Fair Lady (1964). She recognizes that it’s not a great movie and has many structural flaws, but it has a “weird nostalgic resonance” with her. She also says that the songs aren’t bad either.
As for her hobbies, she tells me that one of them is collecting something that she calls “oogles.” An “oogle” is something that is cheap and has no practical value; e.g. her extensive collection of Pop Vinyls. However, her favorite hobby is birdwatching. She even has a “rig” on her office windowsill that makes birds want to come and visit so that she can see them. In fact, birds have become an inspiration for a lot of poetry and art that she creates. In the future, she hopes to see birds such as western scrub jays and Steller’s jays, but those are located in other parts of the country.
(Photos of Elaina Frulla’s dog, Degrassi, surrounded by plushies and Elaina Frulla’s collection of Pop Vinyls, courtesy of Elaina Frulla)
Elaina loves teaching and discussing literature and other things with her students. If you were to ever head to her office hours, she’d bewilling to not only discuss the classwork with you, but also things that you and her are generally interested in. To her students, she says, “Hold onto your artistic integrity, despite the consequences. Don’t compromise.”
Thumbnail photo courtesy of Elaina Frulla