Te Awamutu Courier - February 1st, 2007 - Te Awamutu Online

032TC043-07
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018TC028/07
Love of Bob Dylan has big
infl uence on PhD student
By Dean Taylor
Members of the Quin
family don’t have much
say about listening to
Bob Dylan - Pat is a fanatical
fan.
His love of the American
icon is only matched
by his brother-in-law
Brian Ashwell, so growing
with her father and
uncle’s Dylan passion
gave a young Esther
Jane Harcourt (nee
Quin) no chance of
avoiding the man’s great
body of work.
But that love and
knowledge led to what
is being heralded as
‘ground-breaking’
research by Mrs Harcourt
for her Doctor of
Philosophy (in German)
with her thesis ‘Bertolt
Brecht and Bob Dylan
Infl uence and Identity’.
Mrs Harcourt graduated
from Victoria
University in December
last year.
The family has
sharemilked in the
region for a number of
years, meaning Esther
Jane and her siblings
attended a number
of rural schools. Esther
Jane started at
Kaipaki School, then
went to Ohaupo and Te
Awamutu Intermediate.
When the family
purchased a farm at Te
Pahu she attended
Hamilton Girl’s High
School.
In her fi nal year she
went on an exchange
to Germany, where
she learnt about noted
playwright and minstrel
Bertolt Brecht.
PhD PRIDE: Te Kawa farmers Pat and Marie-Ann Quin with their eldest
daughter Esther Jane Harcourt at December’s Victoria University
Graduation. Photo supplied.
During her research
into his life and works
she noted a strong parallel
with Bob Dylan.
Mrs Harcourt had
endured many long car
trips to her father’s favourite
Dylan tapes, and
many visits to Uncle
Brian’s - who boasted
every vinyl album Dylan
ever released, so she had
tremendous knowledge
of his music and life.
She had completed her
honours degree in English
and German and
planned to complete the
masters degree using
this research - but found
she had so much material
she upgraded to the
PhD, with the backing
of both her English and
German professors.
And it was during the
extensive research she
discovered how much
of an infl uence the German
had been on the
American.
She discovered the
words of ‘Times They Are
A Changin’ were similar
to Brecht’s ‘Song of the
Moldau’ from a show
Dylan was known to
have attended - ‘Brecht
on Brecht’. And Brecht
himself gets a mention
in Dylan’s song - ‘With
the sounds of Francois
Villon echoin’ through
my mad streets/as I
stumble on lost cigars of
Bertolt Brecht.’
While researching this
link on a scholarship trip
to New York, where she
also delivered a paper at
the University of South
Carolina, she received
confi rmation from none
other than Dylan’s
former girlfriend Suzi
Rotolo.
Continued page 8.
032TC026-07