{"title":"Fiction: 1900 to the 1930s","authors":"Sally Parry","doi":"10.1215/00659142-7328855","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1215/00659142-7328855","url":null,"abstract":"This year’s scholarship focuses on women authors working in genres traditionally associated with male authors, including westerns, naturalism, and noir. Genres formerly considered marginal or lowbrow, such as popular/mass market, detective, pulp, and weird fiction, receive increased scholarly attention, with a reevaluation of both aesthetics and cultural context. Texts about individual authors include an MLA volume on teaching Nella Larsen, a collection of critical essays on H. P. Lovecraft, a history of Jack London and his London publishers, an edition of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s letters, and a study of the influence of World War I on Raymond Chandler’s writing.","PeriodicalId":40078,"journal":{"name":"American Literary Scholarship","volume":"2016 1","pages":"227 - 248"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-10-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42570473","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Drama","authors":"D. K. Sauer, G. Sauer","doi":"10.1215/00659142-7491877","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1215/00659142-7491877","url":null,"abstract":"This year’s scholarship explores an unusually broad variety of perspectives on American drama. Studies in diverse fields illuminate hitherto unconsidered aspects of major plays and define new subgroups of material. For example, historical approaches examine 20th-century social activism and political theater, trace the lives of Arab immigrants in the United States, and explore feminism as reflected in changing concepts of rape and views of aging. More surprising, while some of this scholarship uses the play texts simply as evidence of historical movements, often it also evinces insights into the structure of a play as both representing and furthering social context.","PeriodicalId":40078,"journal":{"name":"American Literary Scholarship","volume":"2016 1","pages":"339 - 357"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-10-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43998824","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Fiction: The 1960s to the Present","authors":"Jerome Klinkowitz","doi":"10.1215/00659142-1965595","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1215/00659142-1965595","url":null,"abstract":"It is a truism but true nevertheless that the contemporary period in literary history is constantly redefining itself. When great historical markers and changes in the forms and content of fiction correspond, the definitions come naturally. In the 20th century two world wars, the Great Depression, and a sociological transformation involving personal freedoms and civil rights enabled critics to align developing aesthetics with larger cultural trends. But the 21st century has presented no clear distinction other than the terror attacks of 11 September 2001, the aesthetic implications of which remain open to debate. As a result, there is no consensus regarding the essence of our current age other than an acknowledgment that contemporary fiction is by nature a literature in flux.","PeriodicalId":40078,"journal":{"name":"American Literary Scholarship","volume":"2016 1","pages":"279 - 314"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-10-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48817711","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Hawthorne","authors":"Karen S. H. Roggenkamp","doi":"10.1215/00659142-7491793","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1215/00659142-7491793","url":null,"abstract":"Several publications this year bring Nathaniel Hawthorne into conversation with the arts; painting, sculpture, sketching, and artisanal crafts all provide fresh inroads into his fiction and nonfiction alike. Other books and essays enlarge the story of Hawthorne’s critical reception in the United States and abroad, as well as his engagement with the nationalistic, social, and philosophical concerns of the 19th century. Sophia Hawthorne and Julian Hawthorne also find their due in this year’s publications and enrich a portrait of the author in his familial context.","PeriodicalId":40078,"journal":{"name":"American Literary Scholarship","volume":"2016 1","pages":"23 - 32"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-10-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48148438","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Fitzgerald and Hemingway","authors":"Michael Von Cannon","doi":"10.1215/00659142-3452521","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1215/00659142-3452521","url":null,"abstract":"More than in past years, scholarship on Ernest Hemingway significantly outweighs scholarship on F. Scott Fitzgerald. The Great Gatsby continues to generate interest, but there is also a noticeable turn away from that masterpiece and toward other novels, stories, and collections. Articles consider the influence of editors, Hollywood directors, and even automotive culture on Fitzgerald’s writing. The most prominent theme is adaptation, with articles on silent films, Hollywood blockbusters, and TV pilots based on Fitzgerald works as well as the way translation occurs as an adaptive process. The majority of this scholarship appears in the F. Scott Fitzgerald Review, with only a handful of articles published elsewhere. Work on Hemingway emphasizes geographical contexts, with various books and articles focusing on the writer’s connections with Spain, Italy, and Africa. Biographical works deepen understanding of his life and appreciation for the interplay between his life and creative output. And scholars provide insights on Hemingway’s representations of gender, sexuality, and warfare and discuss the best ways to teach these topics to high schooland university-level students.","PeriodicalId":40078,"journal":{"name":"American Literary Scholarship","volume":"2016 1","pages":"153 - 170"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-10-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43344731","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Henry James","authors":"S. Daugherty","doi":"10.1215/00659142-2886859","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1215/00659142-2886859","url":null,"abstract":"Though humanities scholars may feel neglected as universities promote science and technology, studies of Henry James continue to flourish. His status as an international author has been enhanced by the formation of the European Society of Jamesian Studies, which joins the US-based Henry James Society in sponsoring well-attended conferences resulting in anthologies that highlight a range of critical approaches. Monographs on single authors are less common than they used to be, but an excellent book by Daniel Hannah illustrates how a familiar topic—James and impressionism—can be revitalized by a creative synthesis of close reading and historical research. “Art lives upon discussion . . . , upon the exchange of views and the comparison of standpoints,” wrote James in “The Art of Fiction,” and his endorsement of multiple perspectives has secured his position in today’s classrooms. Key texts of the moment are The Ambassadors and “The Beast in the Jungle,” which have elicited readings raising larger issues of interpretive validity concerning ambiguous representations of men who resist marriage. Brief biographies by Hazel Hutchison and J. C. Hallman, as well as some inviting paperback editions, are designed to make James more accessible to students and general readers.","PeriodicalId":40078,"journal":{"name":"American Literary Scholarship","volume":"2016 1","pages":"83 - 99"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-10-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42930121","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}