“Of This Time, of That Place” opens with Joseph Howe, an English instructor at Dwight College, preparing for the first class of his course in modern drama. After his opening remarks, he sets his students to work on a theme, and as they are writing, a tall, awkward boy enters and announces, “I am Tertan, Ferdinand R., reporting at the direction of Head of Department Vincent.” Tertan’s essay on the assigned topic, “Who I am and why I came to Dwight College,” is remarkable for the breadth of its learning but dismaying for its wild rhetoric. In answer to his own rhetorical question, “Who am I?” Tertan exclaims, “Tertan I am, but what is Tertan? Of this time, of that place, of some parentage, what does it matter?”
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