Showing papers in "American Literature in 1995"
TL;DR: Perez Firmat as discussed by the authors explores how both famous and ordinary members of the "1.5 Generation" (Cubans who came to United States as children or adolescents) have lived "life on the hyphen," neither fully Cuban nor fully American, but a fertile hybrid of both.
Abstract: From Desi Arnaz and "I Love Lucy" to Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine, Cuban-Americans have conga'd and mambo'd their way into the heart of popular culture in the United States. This engaging book, which mixes the author's own story with his reflections as a trained observer, explores how both famous and ordinary members of the "1.5 Generation" (Cubans who came to United States as children or adolescents) have lived "life on the hyphen," neither fully Cuban nor fully American, but a fertile hybrid of both. Ranging widely from music to movies to television to literature, Gustavo Perez Firmat chronicles what it means to be Cuban in America. He offers an in-depth look at Cuban-Americans who have become icons of popular and literary culture, including Desi Arnaz, Oscar Hijuelos (whose The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love won the Pulitzer Prize and became a major motion picture), musician Perez Prado, poet Jose Kozer, and crossover pop stars Gloria Estefan and Jon Secada.
134 citations
TL;DR: The Errant Art of Moby-Dick as discussed by the authors explores the history and implications of canon formation in American literature and argues that the traditional identification of Melville's novel as a "romance" renders it complicitous in the discourse of the Cold War, foreshadowing the self-destructive end of the historical formation of the American cultural identity in the genocidal assault on Vietnam, and also the reactionary labeling of the current era as "the end of history."
Abstract: In The Errant Art of Moby-Dick, one of America's most distinguished critics reexamines Melville's monumental novel and turns the occasion into a meditation on the history and implications of canon formation. In Moby-Dick-a work virtually ignored and discredited at the time of its publication-William V. Spanos uncovers a text remarkably suited as a foundation for a "New Americanist" critique of the ideology based on Puritan origins that was codified in the canon established by "Old Americanist" critics from F. O. Matthiessen to Lionel Trilling. But Spanos also shows, with the novel still as his focus, the limitations of this "New Americanist" discourse and its failure to escape the totalizing imperial perspective it finds in its predecessor. Combining Heideggerian ontology with a sociopolitical perspective derived primarily from Foucault, the reading of Moby-Dick that forms the center of this book demonstrates that the traditional identification of Melville's novel as a "romance" renders it complicitous in the discourse of the Cold War. At the same time, Spanos shows how New Americanist criticism overlooks the degree to which Moby-Dick anticipates not only America's self-representation as the savior of the world against communism, but also the emergent postmodern and anti-imperial discourse deployed against such an image. Spanos's critique reveals the extraordinary relevance of Melville's novel as a post-Cold War text, foreshadowing not only the self-destructive end of the historical formation of the American cultural identity in the genocidal assault on Vietnam, but also the reactionary labeling of the current era as "the end of history." This provocative and challenging study presents not only a new view of the development of literary history in the United States, but a devastating critique of the genealogy of ideology in the American cultural establishment.
78 citations
TL;DR: Miller argues that King's skilful borrowing and blending of the black oral and white written traditions was in fact the key to his language and to his effectiveness, which made his message of hope and deliverance accessible to all people and enabled blacks and whites to move in harmony to action and commitment.
Abstract: Martin Luther King Jr's words defined, mobilized and embodied much of the American civil rights movement, crystallizing the hope and demand for racial justice in America. His powerful sermons and speeches were unique in their ability to unite blacks and whites in the quest for reform. Yet, disclosures about King's unattributed appropriations in his PhD dissertation have raised the broader question of whether King's persuasive voice was truly his own. In this study of the language of King, Keith D. Miller explores his words to find the intellectual roots, spiritual resonances and actual sources of those speeches and essays that continue to reverberate in America's mind and conscience. Miller argues that his skilful borrowing and blending of the black oral and white written traditions was in fact the key to his language and to his effectiveness. It made his message of hope and deliverance accessible to all people and enabled blacks and whites to move in harmony to action and commitment.
58 citations
TL;DR: Creech as discussed by the authors argues that the most urgent task for gay studies today is the retrieval of a repressed, "closeted" literary heritage. But contradictions and problems cloud even the most basic theoretical questions: What does a lesbian or gay reading of a literary text require or presume? Can we talk about a homosexual writer expressing him- or herself before the invention of "homosexuality"? Was it possible for a writer like Herman Melville, for example, to create literary works linked to his own prohibited eros?
Abstract: One of the most urgent tasks for gay studies today, James Creech argues, is the retrieval of a repressed, "closeted" literary heritage. But contradictions and problems cloud even the most basic theoretical questions: What does a lesbian or gay reading of a literary text require or presume? Can we talk about a homosexual writer expressing him- or herself before the invention of "homosexuality"? Was it possible for a writer like Herman Melville, for example, to create literary works linked to his own prohibited eros? In this book, Creech shows how a literary critic can be receptive to implicit and closeted sexual content. Advocating a tactic of identification and projection in literary analysis, he lends renewed currency to the kind of "sentimental" response to literature that continental theory - particularly deconstruction - has sought to discredit. In the second half of his book, Creech sets out to analyze what he considers the exemplary novel of the 19th-century closet, Melville's "Pierre; or, The Ambiguities". By approaching "Pierre" as the gay man Melville longed to have as its reader, Creech is able to decipher the novel's "encrypted erotics" and to reveal that Melville's apparent tale of incest is actually a homosexual novel in disguise.
51 citations
51 citations
49 citations
48 citations
43 citations
40 citations
TL;DR: The Sermon and the African American Literary Imagination as discussed by the authors explores the profound influence of the sermon upon both the themes and the styles of African American literature and argues that the African- American sermonic tradition is grounded in a self-consciously collective vision.
Abstract: Characterized by oral expression and ritual performance, the black church has been a dynamic force in African American culture. In The Sermon and the African American Literary Imagination, Dolan Hubbard explores the profound influence of the sermon upon both the themes and the styles of African American literature. Beginning with an exploration of the historic role of the preacher in African American culture and fiction, Hubbard examines the church as a forum for organizing black social reality. Like political speeches, jazz, and blues, the sermon is an aesthetic construct, interrelated with other aspects of African American cultural expression. Arguing that the African American sermonic tradition is grounded in a self-consciously collective vision, Hubbard applies this vision to the themes and patterns of black American literature. With nuanced readings of the work of Frederick Douglass, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, James Weldon Johnson, Zora Neale Hurston, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, and Toni Morrison, Hubbard reveals how the African American sermonic tradition has influenced black American prose fiction. He shows how African American writers have employed the forms of the black preaching style, with all their expressive power, and he explores such recurring themes as the quest for freedom and literacy, the search for identity and community, the lure of upward mobility, the fictionalizing of history, and the use of romance to transform an oppressive history into a vision of mythic transcendence. The Sermon and the African American Literary Imagination is a major addition to the fields of African American literary and religious studies.
37 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that American literary study in the dominant institutional form it has taken to the present moment has exhausted itself and that in order to energize itself American literary studies must take the form of an Americas Cultural Studies that breaks decisively with the American exceptionalism that has constituted in one way or another the dominant form.
Abstract: In order to articulate a prospect for American literary study, which is the charge of this panel, one must first articulate a retrospect. My title for this talk, then, "What Work Is There for Us To Do?" is immediately subsumed under another title, "What Work Have We Been Doing?" where the "we" takes as its immediate referent professors of American literature, past and present. Any history that tries to answer this question will automatically be a contested history, for the "we" here is by no means homogenous. It is porous, fragmented, mutable, and strategic. That is to say, any history of American literary study must be, whether it admits it or not, polemical. If I were to write such a history, I would begin by foregrounding my polemical intent, which would be to argue that American literary study in the dominant institutional form it has taken to the present moment has exhausted itself-hence the insurgence of multicultural studies-and that in order to energize itself American literary study must take the form of an Americas Cultural Studies that breaks decisively with the American exceptionalism that has constituted in one way or another the dominant form. This cultural studies would take as
TL;DR: Representation de la sexualite feminine dans Their Eyes Were Watching God de Z. N. Hurston as discussed by the authors denonce les stereotypes racistes et sexistes lies a la femme africaine -dans le contexte du mouvement politique et litteraire de l'Harlem Renaissance
Abstract: Representation de la sexualite feminine dans Their Eyes Were Watching God de Z. N. Hurston qui denonce les stereotypes racistes et sexistes lies a la femme africaine - dans le contexte du mouvement politique et litteraire de l'Harlem Renaissance
TL;DR: Wright as mentioned in this paper argues that America's credos of battle were hinged to imperialism and the drive to rid the world of Communism, cultural confusion, and disorder, and that we should accept the Vietnam War's non-sense, its illogic, and the mandates of absurdity as the fundamental elements that govern our perceptions of the war.
Abstract: A new paradigm for perceiving the Vietnam War and the literature it produced This groundbreaking analysis of Vietnam War fiction, poetry, and drama offers far-ranging implications for studies in cultural criticism of that era. It explodes cherished myths and offers an alternative perspective to the one generally espoused by writers and critics who spotlight the issues of the American involvement in Vietnam. Most, subscribing to the myth that Vietnam was unique, toil to give logic to it and strive for sense and order. Yet they reach no satisfactory outcome. Instead of the myth, as this engrossing study argues, we should accept the Vietnam War's non-sense, its illogic, and the mandates of absurdity as the fundamental elements that govern our perceptions of the war. This study sees that America's credos of battle were hinged to imperialism and the drive to rid the world of Communism, cultural confusion, and disorder. The myth is typified by a national vision of needless waste and healing restoration. The works of many writers reflect the accepted myth. Others, such as the authors featured in this study, articulate the contours of non-sense.Stephen Wright, Michael Herr, Tim O'Brien, Peter Straub, Bill Ehrhart, John Balaban, Walter McDonald, Yusef Komunyakaa, Bruce Weigl, D. F. Brown, Emily Mann, David Rabe, Amlin Gray, Arthur Kopit, and Steve Tesich embrace the unreality and the mayhem as natural to the circumstance. Their works, giving voice to an anarchical world, emulate the fighting strategies and tactics of the Vietcong and call for a kind of thinking that considers the jungle and the darkness a friend. Donald Ringnalda (deceased) was a professor of English at the University of St. Thomas.
TL;DR: In this paper, Sun and Shadows, Summer's Lease, and A Pursuit Race were used to describe the events of the Hundred Days and The New Life of a Piece of the Continent.
Abstract: 1 Then 2 Sun and Shadows 3 Summer's Lease 4 A Pursuit Race 5 Room With no View 6 The Hundred Days 7 Fortune and Men's Eyes 8 Ritual Acts 9 Pilgrim's Progress 10 The New Life 11 A Piece of the Continent 12 The Dead
[...]
TL;DR: JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive.
Abstract: JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. Duke University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to American Literature.
TL;DR: The Sun Also Rises d'E. Hemingway: hypermasculinite du personnage feminin, homosexualite masculine, emergence de l'androgynie as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: L'A. s'interesse a la problematique de l'ambivalence sexuelle dans The Sun Also Rises d'E. Hemingway: hypermasculinite du personnage feminin, homosexualite masculine, emergence de l'androgynie
TL;DR: In 1992, the year of the hundredth anniversary of Walt Whitman's death, a major gathering of international scholars took place at the University of Iowa and over 150 participants heard papers by 20 of the world's most eminent critics of Whitman.
Abstract: In 1992, the year of the hundredth anniversary of Walt Whitman's death, a major gathering of international scholars took place at the University of Iowa. Over 150 participants heard papers by 20 of the world's most eminent critics of Whitman. Three generations of scholars offered new essays that brilliantly tracked the course of past and present Whitman scholarship. So significant was this historic celebration of the great American poet that the opening session was covered by CBS "Sunday Morning, " National Public Radio's "Morning Edition, " the New York Times, and other newspapers across the country. Musical and theatrical performances, art exhibitions, slide shows, readings, songs, and even a recently discovered recording of Whitman's voice were presented during the three days of the conference. But the heart of the conference was this series of original essays by some of the most innovative scholars working in the field of American literature. There has never been a more important collection of Whitman criticism. In these essays, readers will find the most suggestive recent approaches to Whitman alongside the most reliable traditional approaches. Walt Whitman: The Centennial Essays captures Whitman's energy and vitality, which have only increased in the century after his death.
TL;DR: In this paper, a biographique reevalue le passe homosexuel de Twain and tente de mesurer son impact dans le sous-texte de l'oeuvre (Huckleberry Finn, The prince and the Pauper)
Abstract: Cette investigation biographique reevalue le passe homosexuel de Twain et tente de mesurer son impact dans le sous-texte de l'oeuvre (Huckleberry Finn, The prince and the Pauper)
TL;DR: Kaufmann as mentioned in this paper examined the typography in Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, Stein's Tender Buttons, Joyce's Finnegans Wake, and Gass's Willie Master's Lonesome Wife, and showed how these writers exposed the printed surface of their works and eventually made the print a part of fiction itself.
Abstract: Examining the unusual typography in Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, Stein's Tender Buttons, Joyce's Finnegans Wake, and Gass's Willie Master's Lonesome Wife, Kaufmann shows how these writers exposed the printed surface of their works and eventually made the print a part of the fiction itself.