Beyond her hobbies of traveling, baking and hiking, new AP English Literature and Composition teacher Ms. Vanessa Hadikusumah has devoted her greatest attention towards literature ever since she was a young girl.
As a former TCUSD student, Ms. Hadikusumah discovered her early passion for prose during sixth grade from reading “The Autobiography of Malcom X.” In awe of literature’s power to have inspired social change, Ms. Hadikusumah became instantly fascinated with the subject. During her senior year of high school her interest heightened as she was introduced to the canon of literature.
“Many of the novels I will be teaching are the books that I fell in love with in high school,” Ms. Hadikusumah said. “At that time, these books exposed me to other worlds and sparked my lifelong passion for literature.”
Ms. Hadikusumah continued to extend her zeal for literature at the University of California San Diego, graduating as a Literatures of the World major in 2004. The following year, she studied abroad at the University College of London to earn her master’s in Comparative Literature.
Outside of education, Ms. Hadikusumah has intertwined
her love of literature with her additional hobby: travel. For her, the settings of books inspire her to travel to new destinations.
“I went to South Africa last summer and read books from Nadine Gordimer, Lauren Beukes and other contemporary South African writers,” Ms. Hadikusumah said. “The novels fuel my anticipation for the trip and creates an imagination which I then compare to the actual experience of the trip.”
The reading repertoire Ms. Hadikusumah continues to augment is expansive as she adores the works of several classic writers such as Victor Hugo’s, “Les Miserables” and Leo Tolstoy’s, “Anna Karenina”.
“I often feel literature is more authentic than life,” Ms. Hadikusumah said. “In literature, one experiences the essence of life’s most significant moments: love, loss, fear, injustice, etc., without the monotony of the day to day.”
Although she will be planning AP Literature with fellow teacher, Mr. Hoague, many of their core texts will be different. Unlike Mr. Hoague’s class, Ms. Hadikusumah’s zero period class will analyze “Things Fall Apart”, “The Importance of Being Earnest” and “Heart of Darkness.”
TCHS School Newspaper