Studies in the Humanities articles from December 2002

Studies in the Humanities archives from December 2002

The experience of a lifetime: philosophical reflections on a narrative device of Ambrose Bierce.(Critical Essay)
December 1, 2002... In his famous short story, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce introduces an unnamed narrative device to shocking good effect. The device occurs in a liminal setting; that is, it happens at the intense sensory threshold...

Negotiating Disney and Technology.(Critical Essay)
December 1, 2002... It is inescapable that every culture must negotiate with technology, whether it does so intelligently or not. A Bargain is struck in which technology giveth and technology taketh away. -- Neil Postman, Technopoly (5) Profit is simply a...

Lawrence's ontology of art: a meditation on Van Gogh's Sunflowers.(D.H. Lawrence, Vincent Van Gogh)(Critical Essay)
December 1, 2002... In "Morality and the Novel," Lawrence reflects deeply on what Heidegger calls "the creative process" (40): When Van Gogh paints sunflowers, he reveals, or achieves, the vivid relation between himself, as man, and the sunflower, as...

The Gift: economies of kinship and sacrificial desire in 'Tis Pity She's a Whore.(Critical Essay)
December 1, 2002... John Ford's 'Tis Pity She's a Whore stages multiple exchanges of gifts, and operates within a complex web of erotic, spiritual, and sacrificial economies. The text engages with the metaphors of gift and exchange on several levels. The gift of a...

Refiguring the Map of Sorrow. Nature Writing and Autobiography. (Book Reviews).(Book Review)
December 1, 2002... Mark Allister. Refiguring the Map of Sorrow. Nature Writing and Autobiography. University Press of Virginia. 2001. 199 pages. Cloth $49.50. Paper $19.50. In Refiguring the Map of Sorrow, Mark Allister looks at works that merge...

Early American Cinema in Transition. Story, Style, and Filmmaking, 1907-1913. (Book Reviews).(Book Review)
December 1, 2002... Charlie Keil. Early American Cinema In Transition. Story, Style, and Filmmaking, 1907-1913. University of Wisconsin Press. 2002. 306 pages. Cloth $60.00. Paper $24.95. The basis for all film studies lies in getting students to recognize...

You've Got to Be Carefully Taught. Learning and Relearning Literature. (Book Reviews).(Book Review)
December 1, 2002... Jerome Klinkowitz. You've Got to Be Carefully Taught. Learning and Relearning Literature. Southern Illinois University Press. 2001. 176 pages. Cloth $30.00. My expectations of this book after perusing its dustjacket were, I think, akin to...

Romanticism Against the Tide of Modernity. (Book Reviews).(Book Review)
December 1, 2002... Michael Lowy and Robert Sayre. Romanticism Against the Tide of Modernity. Trans. Catherine Porter. Duke University Press. 2001. 317 pages. Cloth $59.95. Paper $19.95 This book offers two central hypotheses: that Romanticism is best defined...

An Accented Cinema: Exilic and Diasporic Filmmaking. (Book Reviews).(Book Review)
December 1, 2002... Hamid Naficy, An Accented Cinema: Exilic and Diasporic Filmmaking. Princeton University Press. 2001. Cloth $65.00. Paper $27.95. Looking at the amazing breadth of Hamid Naficy's work, one has little trouble imagining that this scholar has...

Singularities: Extremes of Theory in the Twentieth Century. (Book Reviews).(Book Review)
December 1, 2002... Thomas Pepper. Singularities: Extremes of Theory in the Twentieth Century. Cambridge University Press. 1997. 249 pages. Cloth $59.95. Paper $18.95. Assuming the thesis-shy posture common among postmodernists, Thomas Pepper in...

Around Quitting Time: Work and Middle-Class Fantasy in American Fiction. (Book Reviews).(Book Review)
December 1, 2002... Robert Seguin. Around Quitting Time: Work and Middle-Class Fantasy in American Fiction. Duke University Press. 2001. 210 pages. Cloth $49.95. Paper $17.95. Robert Seguin's study examines the cultural context of the American middle-class...

Atomic Bomb Cinema. The Apocalyptic Imagination on Film. (Book Reviews).(Book Review)
December 1, 2002... Jerome F. Shapiro. Atomic Bomb Cinema. The Apocalyptic Imagination on Film. Routledge. 2002. 386 pages. Cloth $95.00. Paper $26.95 In Atomic Bomb Cinema, James F. Shapiro draws on cultural theory (Raymond Williams), Jungian psychology, and...