JOURNAL OF AMERICAN CULTURE最新文献

{"title":"“We Have Come to Offer Something Which (They) Were Not Even Looking for”: U.S. Christian Conservative Evangelical Faith Missions in the Ecuadorian Upper Amazon","authors":"Diego Mauricio Cortés","doi":"10.1111/jacc.70041","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jacc.70041","url":null,"abstract":"<p>At the end of the 19th century, U.S. Christians began to dramatically shift their Christian missionary focus from Asia and the South Pacific toward Latin America, launching what would become the most significant missionary movement of the 20th century (Bastian <span>1990</span>; Walls <span>1991</span>; Álvarez <span>2015</span>; Kirkpatrick <span>2019</span>). Various evangelical leaders and scholars have credited the U.S. missionaries in Latin America as modernizers who promoted literacy and installed U.S.-style institutions, such as healthcare facilities, schools, and radio stations (Knapp <span>1977</span>; Brend and Pike <span>1977</span>; Hartch <span>2006</span>; Stoneman <span>2017</span>; Feitoza <span>2024</span>). More critical approaches, however, have denounced U.S. missionaries for their connection to the larger U.S. imperial agenda (e.g., Stoll <span>1990</span>) and the inefficiency of their services (Montgomery <span>1993</span>).</p><p>Yet, a few of these analyses draw ideological differences between the variety of U.S. missionary groups that include traditional denominations (Bastian <span>2015</span>), nondenominational Christian conservative evangelicals (Long <span>2003</span>), Jehovah's Witnesses (Alston and Aguirre <span>1979</span>), Seventh-day Adventists (Mabat <span>2022</span>), The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) (Knowlton <span>1996</span>), Catholics (Hartch <span>2009</span>), and Pentecostals (Brahinsky <span>2020</span>). In the specific case of Christian conservative evangelicals, there is a gap in understanding why those missionaries became interested in Latin America in the first place, and their missionary ideology underpinning their alleged cultural, racial, and moral superiority. To address these gaps, this article examines the factors that drove a group of U.S. conservative evangelicals to become missionaries among the Napo Runa and the Waorani indigenous peoples in the Ecuadorian Upper Amazon during the latter half of the 20th century. It argues that while Christian conservative evangelical missionaries positioned themselves as agents of spiritual enlightenment and modernity, they simultaneously upheld provincial worldviews rooted in premillennialist eschatology, white supremacy, and gender inequality.</p><p>This analysis primarily aimed to “provincialize” (Chakrabarty <span>2000</span>) the mid-20th century conservative evangelical missions in Ecuador by analyzing the provincial religious and social worldviews that shaped their supposedly universal and altruistic mission for salvation. The term “provincializing” draws from the historian Dipesh Chakrabarty's work, which reveals how seemingly universal ideologies, such as “modern secularization” and “modern politics,” are products of Western particular historical and cultural circumstances (2000, 12–16). Like Chakrabarty, this article's primary intention is not to celebrate or criticize Western tradition, or more specifically in ","PeriodicalId":44809,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF AMERICAN CULTURE","volume":"49 3","pages":"173-186"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2026-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/jacc.70041","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148943564","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Wilder's Mammoth Iceberg: How The Skin of Our Teeth Celebrates the Versatility of the Theatrical Form, Challenges Artists to Defy Convention, and Throws a Little Shade on the Well-Made Play","authors":"Alex Vickery-Howe,&nbsp;Renato Musolino","doi":"10.1111/jacc.70036","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jacc.70036","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize-winning play within a play, <i>The Skin of Our Teeth</i>, is a strangely structured and offbeat tale spanning several eras and multiple genres while breaking the standard conventions of “well–made” drama. This article will deconstruct Wilder's ambitious work, in an educational context, from the perspective of a playwright and the perspective of a director applying the critical lens of reception theory to develop an argument for why it is precisely plays of this kind—the plays that revel in their strangeness—that reaffirm theater's capacity for unique storytelling.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":44809,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF AMERICAN CULTURE","volume":"49 3","pages":"187-196"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2026-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148942229","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":"The Irony of Liberation in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest","authors":"Laura Hirshbein","doi":"10.1111/jacc.70067","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jacc.70067","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The 1975 film <i>One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest</i> vividly portrays the tragic consequences of repressive psychiatric authority. The film was—and remains—one of the most memorable and well-known products of anti-psychiatry sentiment. Opponents of American psychiatry from the time period of <i>Cuckoo's Nest</i> objected to what they saw as social control rather than the profession's efforts to help people. But viewed in the historical context of psychiatry, the representation in the film ironically undermined the work of some members of the profession who were trying to reform society to address inequities, including social causes and consequences of mental illness. Social psychiatrists, a loose group within the field from the late 1940s through the late 1970s, conducted research and promoted policies to combat poverty and racism. Within psychiatry, critics of social psychiatrists' expansive vision used anti-psychiatry activism to justify narrowing the focus of the profession toward individual diagnoses and medications.</p>","PeriodicalId":44809,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF AMERICAN CULTURE","volume":"49 3","pages":"155-163"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2026-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/jacc.70067","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148942486","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The American Open Road: Narrative and Popular Imagination. By Melton, Jeffrey Alan, Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2025. 240 pp. $34.95 (paperback). ISBN: 978-0-81-736212-6","authors":"Michael T. Marsden","doi":"10.1111/jacc.70062","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jacc.70062","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44809,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF AMERICAN CULTURE","volume":"49 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2026-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148943303","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":"Humornizing the Other: Maz Jobrani's Axis of Evil Comedy Tour and the Power of Humor in Post-9/11 America","authors":"Reza Ashouri Talooki","doi":"10.1111/jacc.70066","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jacc.70066","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>This paper examines Maz Jobrani's Axis of Evil Comedy Tour (2007) as a foundational case for how stand-up comedy operationalizes “humornizing”—a collaborative process through which humor invites audiences to reconstitute social boundaries and transform the marginalized “other” into a subject of shared humanity. Building on Ashouri Talooki's (2017) concept of humornizing adapted here to live performance, the study develops an analytic model rooted in performance studies (Harbidge 2012; Rayner 2012), while engaging Krefting's (2014) critique of minority comedy's ethical risks and Gillota's (2013) work on ethnic humor's ambivalence. The analysis demonstrates how Jobrani's routines—through strategic pronoun shifts, embodied accents, and reflexive meta-commentary—leverage both affiliative humor and critical distance to challenge dehumanizing narratives while negotiating risks of stereotype reinforcement. Rather than treating humor as purely cognitive or affective, the paper foregrounds the co-creative dynamics between performer and audience, revealing how shared laughter produces provisional communities wherein empathy flourishes. By tracing how neurobiological bonding, discursive sophistication, and embodied performance intersect, the study illustrates humornizing as a multilayered practice capable of fostering moments of vulnerability, provocation, and intercultural solidarity that rehearse pluralistic citizenship.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":44809,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF AMERICAN CULTURE","volume":"49 3","pages":"164-172"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2026-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148943366","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":"The End of College Football: On the Human Cost of an All-American Game By Nathan Kalman-Lamb and Derek M. D. Silva, Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2024. 252 pp. ISBN: 978-1-4696-8346-1","authors":"Andrew Kettler","doi":"10.1111/jacc.70007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jacc.70007","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44809,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF AMERICAN CULTURE","volume":"49 2","pages":"147-148"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2026-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148238297","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":"The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. By L. Frank Baum. Edited by Mark I. West and Dina Schiff Massachi, Peterborough, Canada: Broadview Editions, 2024. 298 pp. $18.95 (paperback). ISBN: 978-1-554-81624-8","authors":"Mark E. Benbow","doi":"10.1111/jacc.70009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jacc.70009","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44809,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF AMERICAN CULTURE","volume":"49 2","pages":"149-150"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2026-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148237888","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":"Sonic Identity at the Margins By Jessie Fillerup and Joanna Love (eds.), New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2023. 296 pp. $39.95 (Paperback). ISBN: 978-1-50-136879-0","authors":"Andrew Kettler","doi":"10.1111/jacc.70010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jacc.70010","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44809,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF AMERICAN CULTURE","volume":"49 2","pages":"151-152"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2026-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148237398","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":"“Queens of Ghost-Land” 134 Years Later: Un-Masking an Appalachian Witchcraft Accuser","authors":"Aíne Norris","doi":"10.1111/jacc.70016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jacc.70016","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In 1891, newspapers across America printed a story about witches in the Appalachian Mountains and the alleged powers they possessed to control their small farming community. The article was scathing in accusation and ultimately contributed to continued othering of the women profiled, increasing their visible vulnerabilities of class, gender, and societal status. Despite an implied familiarity with the region, the article was published with initials for its byline, an act that simultaneously identified the author to locals as historian Eva Grant while offering her anonymized national protection as a subject expert. For over five years the accusations were re-printed in newspapers across the country and the article ultimately became one of the most enduring accounts of witchcraft in the Appalachian Mountains. This article builds upon over a year of archival research, genealogy, and digital authorship analysis to both un-mask Grant as the author and analyze her decision to publish the witchcraft accusation. Through an in-depth examination of the author's career, status, and writing style, this analysis offers contextualization 134 years after her lore-based article vexed a small Virginia community and led to decades of stereotype and speculation about ordinary women in the region and in popular culture.</p>","PeriodicalId":44809,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF AMERICAN CULTURE","volume":"49 2","pages":"98-110"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2026-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/jacc.70016","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148237538","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Blues Elegy: (Re)Framing the Harlem Renaissance as a Literary Response to the 1918–19 Spanish Flu Pandemic","authors":"Nahum Welang","doi":"10.1111/jacc.70033","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jacc.70033","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>The Spanish Flu is widely characterized as the “forgotten” pandemic because, for most of the Twentieth century, it was seemingly absent from cultural narratives. I reexamine this characterization by (re)framing the Harlem Renaissance movement as a literary response to the Spanish Flu. Because many Harlem Renaissance artists were personally and professionally impacted by the Influenza, I employ a biocritical approach to describe their thematic exploration of illness as the formulation of figurative expressions that reflect how the virus was experienced. Wallace Thurman's short story “Grist in the Mill” rebukes the endurance of scientific racism by mirroring absurd reactions to the Spanish Flu and in the songs of Blues artists like Blind Willie Johnson, the Influenza is metaphorized as a great equalizer, a destructive but non-partisan virus. Moreover, in novels like Nella Larsen's. Passing Claude McKay's Romance in Marseille and Zora Neale Hurston's. Their Eyes Were Watching God, illness is portrayed as both a challenge and an opportunity, a contradiction that parallels how many Black Americans perceived the Spanish Flu and its aftermath. These figurative expressions are relevant for ongoing COVID-19 discourses because they reveal that the epistemological elasticity of literary subtext is adept at unpacking the complexity of pandemic experiences.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":44809,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF AMERICAN CULTURE","volume":"49 2","pages":"131-140"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2026-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148238245","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}