Dr. Eva Thury is a professor at Drexel University. She grew up in Queens, New York and completed her undergraduate education at Fordham University in the Bronx. From there, she moved to Philadelphia to get her PhD at the University of Pennsylvania. After being trained as a classicist (Latin and Ancient Greek studies), she discovered her interest in information sciences, which led her to Drexel and teaching in the English department. She is the co-author of Introduction to Mythology: Contemporary Approaches to Classical and World Myths.
Selena Kerridge: What made you get into mythology?
Dr. Eva Thury: I wound up getting work in the English department, teaching part time. Eventually, I got a job teaching, year by year, which is called “teaching faculty.” Then, there was a tenure track job and I applied for that. All this while I was studying information science at Drexel, and I actually completed my degree in information science the same year that I got tenured in the English department. Which was pretty funny because I wasn’t really trained to teach English, but I learned very quickly, and I was trained to teach Latin and ancient Greek. So, I had something analogous to fall back on. But somewhere in the course of that, I developed a specialization in mythology.
SK: What made you want to write a textbook for mythology?
ET: I developed my own course in mythology and then, when I got to be tenure track, I got to teach it more regularly. I eventually met up with Marge Devinney, a German specialist, who also taught at Drexel. She managed the foreign language program. She also taught things like mythology. So, eventually we put our heads together and started making a book, a manuscript for how we taught mythology—because what we were doing was handing out a lot of Xeroxes, and we got tired of this. It was a waste of our time, and it was a waste of paper. And so we decided to do a book so that Drexel students could have an actual book to work from, instead of these handouts which they would then throw away.
SK: How did you convince the publisher that they should publish your version?
ET: It was a summer when I was teaching Software Documentation and Mythology, and a light bulb went on in my head. I realized that mythology was a subject that was a lot like computer software in that it had a lot of different technical things. But you also kind of needed what are called “advance organizers.” Advance organizers are things like an index, headings, and illustrations that help you find your place in the manuscript or in the document. It could be an online document or a paper document. When you have a lot of technical information to absorb, it’s easy to get lost in the weeds. That’s true of computers also. So, you want the user or the reader to be able to find the spot that they need, and be able to use the book in different ways. That’s why they’re called advance organizers, so that you can find the place you need to be in from the organization.
SK: How do you write when you have a co-author?
ET: Well, we both wrote everything when we first started. Then, we assigned ourselves specific sections—if you write a section, then the other person reads it, then you talk about and revise it. We used to do that all face to face, and in a way, it was nice to get together that often. But now we do a lot of it on Zoom, or even just by talking on the phone. But we work pretty well together. She has one writing style. I have a different one. But by the time a chapter is done, I don’t think you can tell because we’ve revised each other’s work. I think we make each other much better.
SK: How would you describe the difference between creative and research-based writing?
ET: It’s all writing creatively. You have to put it across to your audience and make it clear. It’s a challenge, and there’s a reward to it. There’s something beautiful about it. There are other things that I write from time to time that are more creative. I have a published book which is a translation of something from Hungarian.
SK: Any future pieces you’re working on?
ET: We’ve been working on the fifth edition of Introduction to Mythology: Contemporary Approaches to Classical and World Myths for almost 2 years now.
I’m now working on a second project, which is another translation of something from Hungarian. It’s actually a piece written by my father. I’ve translated it, but I didn’t want to just translate it because it’s my father. So, I wrote it in two columns. The first one is my father’s text. The other one is me reacting to the things that he wrote. So, it becomes both of our stories. The original piece that he wrote, which is a lot of it, is about the 1956 Hungarian Uprising, but it’s also about his experiences. His book is called The Refugees Handbook, and it’s about how he came as a refugee from Hungary and had to adjust to life in America, or just adjust to life—mostly in England, actually. Eventually Germany too, because he worked for Radio-Free Europe there. He was a journalist there, so he was writing about the Hungarian Revolution from that perspective. This is both a creative work in terms of my reactions and my experiences of him, and the things that I knew and felt about him growing up. It’s to some extent biographical and autobiographical, but it’s also this piece about what it was like to experience leaving your homeland and settling someplace else.
You can purchase the fourth edition of Introduction to Mythology: Contemporary Approaches to Classical and World Myths here. You can also learn more about Dr. Eva Thury on her website.
Selena Kerridge (she/her) is a pre-junior transfer student pursuing a BA in English, with a concentration in literature. After graduation she hopes to continue her studies to receive an MA in classical studies, and a PhD. On campus she can be found frequenting Drexel’s book club, BookBound, copy-editing for The Triangle (Drexel’s student-run newspaper), attending the Writer’s Room Open Mic Nights, and spending time in the English department lounge. In her free time, she enjoys crocheting, reading, writing her own books, and playing Stardew Valley. She hopes one day to become a professor and author.