American LiteratureVol. 79 Iss. 2 (2007)
A is for Atlantic: The Colonizing Force of Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter
Laura Doyle
The content of Doyle's article fortunately goes far beyond explicating an Atlantic reading of Hawthorne's work. Instead, Doyle plays with the contents of the novel along with the historical contexts of the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries to produce an engaging and illuminating discussion of both.
Affective Geographies: Sojourner Truth's Narrative, Feminism, and the Ethical Bind of Sentimentalism
Naomi Greyser
Greyser's article is at it's most interesting in her assessment of the efficacy of sentimentality. However, in the wider assessment of Sojourner Truth's rhetoric and reception, the article moves slowly.
Getting the Picture: American Coporate Advertising and the Rise of Cosmopolitan Visual Culture in The Ambassadors
June Hee Chung
Chung turns the tables on previous criticism by emphasizing the evidence that Henry James borrowed much from the rapidly expanding advertising industry. Despite incongruities resulting from Chung's application of postmodern readings onto modern literature, the discussion of visual and written images makes this article work.
"Out of Joint": Passing, Haunting, and The Time of Slavery in Hagar's Daughter
Mikko Tuhkanen
Tuhkanen explores the work of Pauline Hopkins to engage in a wider discussion of racialized sexual violence which haunts the nation. The evaluation of Hopkins is impressive, but Tuhkanen disappoints by failing to fulfill the promise to describe a future without the specter of racial-sexual violence.
Aesthetics, Politics, Homosexuality: F. O. Matthiessen and the Tragedy of the American Scholar
Randall Fuller
Fuller offers a penetrating exploration the creative influences of F. O. Matthiessen's American Renaissance, focusing on Matthiessen's troubled relationship with Emerson. Providing something new and insightful on Matthiessen is a tall order, but one which Fuller fills impressively.
The Morality of Aesthetic Action: Elizabeth Bishop, Randall Jarrell, and the Politics of Poetry
Zachariah Pickard
Pickard attempts to break down the binary of political or aesthetic art by adopting Randall Jarrell's criticism of Elizabeth Bishop's poetry. Pickard makes a compelling case that the work of Bishop and the lens of Jarrell offer a more nuanced approach to evaluating the effects of art.
REVIEWED BY
Ben Wright
If you have questions or comments, or if you would like to submit a review of a journal, please send an email to Ben Wright at bgw2108@columbia.edu.