College Literature articles from September 2008

College Literature archives from September 2008

Introduction: Homer; analysis and influence.(Recommended readings)
September 22, 2008... After 2700 years on the best seller list, Homer's Iliad and Odyssey in English translation are still required reading in most college/university basic world literature courses, judging from their inclusion in most introductory world literature...

Assembly and hospitality in the Cyclopeia.(Essays)(Critical essay)
September 22, 2008... When Odysseus tells the Phaeacians his story of Polyphemus in Odyssey 9, he sets his account of violated hospitality within the framework of a Homeric assembly. On a contextual level, the conflation of type-scenes furthers the hero's mission of...

The Sounds of Sirens; Odyssey 12.184-91.(Essays)(Critical essay)
September 22, 2008... The Siren episode in the Odyssey provides an excellent example of its hero's famous poly-tropia. "The Sounds of Sirens" draws upon the work of ancient and modern commentators to address the episode as a liminal experience. The importance of...

Cultural process in the Iliad 18: 478-608, 19:373-80 ("Shield of Achilles") and Exodus 25:1-40:38 ("ark of the covenant").(Essays)(Critical essay)
September 22, 2008... This essay is concerned with the notion of community as revealed in two foundational texts, the Shield of Achilles in Iliad 18 and the Ark of the Covenant episode in the Book of Exodus. The extensive ekphrastic discourse in each text receives...

Aias and the gods.(Critical essay)
September 22, 2008... In the Iliad the Greater Aias has a complicated relationship with the gods. His interactions with Zeus are markedly inconsistent, and no god physically intervenes on his behalf, although he spends more time on the battlefield than any other...

Greek perspectives on the justness and merits of the Trojan War.(Critical essay)
September 22, 2008... This paper poses the question of how later Greek writers and generals view the Trojan War, its causes, and, especially, whether the war was just or worthwhile. What makes this question meaningful is that it involves important issues, such as...

Pouring the wrong wax in the literary mold: Plutarch's Mdrius and Homer's Odyssey.(Critical essay)
September 22, 2008... In an age of constant reinvention of the genre of epic, the ancient biographer Plutarch creates poignant connections between his Life of Marius and the Odyssey. Such a connection is unexpected, since Gaius Marius, the ancient late Roman...

Helen and the power of erotic love: from Homeric contemplation to Hollywood fantasy.(Critical essay)
September 22, 2008... The Benioff-Petersen 2004 movie Troy is the latest in a series of films that feature the world famous lovers Helen and Paris. The film acknowledges its debt to Homers Iliad but, like ancient works before, freely adapts source material to its...

Chapman's ironic Homer.(George Chapman)(Critical essay)
September 22, 2008... George Chapman's translation of Homers Iliad and Odyssey, the first complete English translation of the Greek poet, pays assiduous attention to what the translator calls the "ironic" and "scoptic" qualities of both poems. This article explores...

The fate of modern poetries.(books on modern poetry)(Book review)
September 22, 2008... Dewey, Anne Day. 2007. Beyond Maximus: The Construction of Public Voice in Black Mountain Poetry. Stanford: Stanford University Press. $60.00hc. 304pp. Jenkins, G. Matthew. 2008. Poetic Obligation: Ethics in American Poetry After 1945....

Fresh networks: science, literature, feminism, and cultural studies.(Book review)
September 22, 2008... Herrnstein Smith, Barbara. 2006. Scandalous Knowledge: Science, Truth and the Human. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press. $74.95 hc, $21.95 sc. viii + 198 pp. Levine, George. 2006. Darwin Loves You: Natural Selection and the Re-Enchantment...

The Discovery of France: A Historical Geography from the Revolution to the First World War.(Book review)
September 22, 2008... Robb, Graham. 2007. The Discovery of France: A Historical Geography from the Revolution to the First World War. New York: Norton. $27.95 hc. xvii + 455 pp. Thanks to a 14,000-mile bicycle journey, which retraced "transhumance trails,...

Empire and After: Englishness in Postcolonial Perspective.(Book review)
September 22, 2008... MacPhee, Graham and Prem Poddar, eds. 2007. Empire and After: Englishness in Postcolonial Perspective. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books. $60.00 hc. 211 pp. Empire and After: Englishness in Postcolonial Perspective is a valuable addition...

Books Under Suspicion: Censorship and Tolerance of Revelatory Writing in Late Medieval England.(Book review)
September 22, 2008... Kerby-Fulton, Kathryn. 2006. Books Under Suspicion: Censorship and Tolerance of Revelatory Writing in Late Medieval England. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press. $50.00 he. lii + 562 pp. Kathryn Kerby-Fulton's latest book will...

Economic Citizens: A Narrative of Asian American Visibility.(Book review)
September 22, 2008... Christine So. 2007. Economic Citizens: A Narrative of Asian American Visibility. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. $45.00 Much of the critical work on Asian American literature has centered on issues of identity, belonging, and...

Books Received April 16, 2008 to July 15, 2008.
September 22, 2008... Aldama, Frederick Luis. 2008. Critical Mappings of Arturo bias's Fictions. Tempe: Bilingual Press. $23.00 sc. xxi + 378 pp. Asfur, Lana. 2008. Laurence Sterne in France. New York: Continuum. $130.00 hc. 208 pp. Atkin, Graham. 2008....