{"title":"Divisive Concepts Unlimited: The NEA Four and LGBTQ+ Censorship From Clit Notes to Gender Queer","authors":"Kurt Edward Milberger","doi":"10.1111/jacc.70008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jacc.70008","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Inspired by the NEA 4 arts controversy, eager censors in Cobb County, Georgia, objected to a 1994 performance of Terrance McNally's <i>Lips Together, Teeth Apart</i>. They argued that public funding should not support what they deemed objectionable art. Today, Cobb County is again in the news after the firing of Katie Rinderle for reading <i>My Shadow Is Purple</i> under the auspices of the state's “Divisive Concepts” law and the removal of dozens of books from public-school libraries. As the national panic over LGBTQ+ content in books and schools continues, this article reconsiders the NEA Four controversy as a prelude to the political and administrative strategies adapted to silence artists and writers, deprive them of funding, and legislate morality. Tracing the shift from the debate over “obscenity” and “decency” in the 1990s to the “divisive concepts” of today, it reveals how activists, politicians, technocrats, and administrators exploit institutional mechanisms to resist the power of popular culture and considers how artists have and might continue to confront censorship.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":44809,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF AMERICAN CULTURE","volume":"48 3","pages":"107-117"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145013313","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":"James Sallis's Autoscopic Fiction: The Lew Griffin Novels","authors":"Robert Lance Snyder","doi":"10.1111/jacc.70004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jacc.70004","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>James Sallis's six Lew Griffin narratives (1992–2001) comprise a remarkable innovation on the crime novel. Abjuring temporally sequential plots, Sallis's installments challenge traditional ideas about agency, causation, and historicity in their accounts of a New Orleans black man who becomes by turns a loan collector, freelance investigator, part-time college lecturer, and successful novelist. The metafictional series revolves around its protagonist's ongoing efforts, after enduring various setbacks, to reconstruct his life. Through the autoscopic project of artistic endeavor, Griffin arrives at some measure of self-understanding, but Sallis's saga underscores the radical contingency of such an ontological wager.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":44809,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF AMERICAN CULTURE","volume":"48 3","pages":"101-106"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145013289","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 Spires Still Point to Heaven: Cincinnati's Religious Landscape, 1788–1873. By Matthew Smith, Philadelphia: Temple University Press. 2023. 259. 9781439922958","authors":"Mark Sullivan","doi":"10.1111/jacc.13621","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jacc.13621","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44809,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF AMERICAN CULTURE","volume":"48 3","pages":"127-128"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145013066","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":"Scholars and Their Kin: Historical Explorations, Literary ExperimentsEdited by Stéphane Gerson, Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2025. 236 pp. $27.95 (Paperback), $80.00 (Hardback). ISBN: 978-0-226-82083-5","authors":"Theodore Bain","doi":"10.1111/jacc.70000","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jacc.70000","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44809,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF AMERICAN CULTURE","volume":"48 3","pages":"142-143"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145012671","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":"A Watershed Moment: The American West in the Age of LimitsBy Robert Frodeman, Evelyn Brister, and Luther Propst (eds.), Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2024. 383 pp. $27.95 (Paperback), $80.00 (Hardback). ISBN: 978-1-64-769203-2","authors":"Shelby E. E. Vitkus","doi":"10.1111/jacc.70001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jacc.70001","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44809,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF AMERICAN CULTURE","volume":"48 3","pages":"144-145"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145013018","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":"Life Beside Bars: Confinement and Capital in an American Prison TownBy Heath Pearson, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2024. 240 pp. ISBN: 978-1-4780-3114-7","authors":"Zachary Kizer","doi":"10.1111/jacc.13626","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jacc.13626","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44809,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF AMERICAN CULTURE","volume":"48 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145013089","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":"An Ocean of Wonder: The Fantastic in the Pacific, by ku‘ualoha ho‘omanawananui, Joyce Pualani Warren and Cristina Bacchilega, Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2024. ISBN: 978-0-82-489735-2","authors":"Kirsten Møllegaard","doi":"10.1111/jacc.13625","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jacc.13625","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44809,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF AMERICAN CULTURE","volume":"48 3","pages":"135-136"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145012055","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 Stories Whiteness Tells Itself: Racial Myths and Our American Narratives. By Mura, David, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2023. 292 pp. ISBN: 978-1-51-791454-7","authors":"Yuan Huang","doi":"10.1111/jacc.13624","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jacc.13624","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44809,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF AMERICAN CULTURE","volume":"48 3","pages":"133-134"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145013155","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":"Theater and Crisis: Myth, Memory, and Racial Reckoning in America, 1964–2020By Patrice D. Rankine (ed.), Ann Arbor: Lever Press/Michigan Publishing Services. 2024. 315 pp. $25.99. (Paperback). ISBN: 978-1-64-315059-8","authors":"Robert W. Cape Jr","doi":"10.1111/jacc.13619","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jacc.13619","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44809,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF AMERICAN CULTURE","volume":"48 3","pages":"124-125"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145012411","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":"Petrochemical Fantasies: The Art and Energy of American Comics. By Worden Daniel, Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press, 2024. 212 pp. ISBN: 978-0814259184","authors":"Andrew Kettler","doi":"10.1111/jacc.13623","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jacc.13623","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44809,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF AMERICAN CULTURE","volume":"48 3","pages":"131-132"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2025-04-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145013138","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}