American Literature Commons™
Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.™
54 Institutions 563 Full-Text Articles 377 Authors 199,921 Downloads
Recent Articles in American Literature
Setting As Character, Tracy A. Townsend 
Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
Setting As Character, Tracy A. Townsend
The Short Story
This lesson uses Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “Young Goodman Brown” to explore tone and characterization in short fiction. It requires students to demonstrate an understanding of the role character plays in fiction and to use specific textual evidence to support a claim. The lesson can be completed in a single class period of fifty to seventy minutes and is suitable for grades 9-12.
Hawthorne’S “The Minister’S Black Veil”: Group Activities And Interpretations, Adam Kotlarczyk Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
Hawthorne’S “The Minister’S Black Veil”: Group Activities And Interpretations, Adam Kotlarczyk
The Short Story
Although the better-known The Scarlet Letter (1850) still draws more attention from many high school English teachers, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s darkly enigmatic short story “The Minister’s Black Veil” (1836) touches on similar themes and provides readers with diverse avenues for exploration, discussion, and analysis. Containing dramatic, psychological, and moral elements, in addition to its literary ones, it is a complex text that can confound teachers and students alike with its range of interpretations and ambiguity. This lesson allows students in small groups to choose and focus on one interpretive element. It also accommodates different learning styles, offering both creative ...
Fifty Shades Of Rosa Coldfield: Sex, Gender, And Trauma In Absalom, Absalom!, Renee A. Clare-Kovacs 
University of North Georgia
Fifty Shades Of Rosa Coldfield: Sex, Gender, And Trauma In Absalom, Absalom!, Renee A. Clare-Kovacs
Papers and Publications: Interdisciplinary Journal of Undergraduate Research
By using the opposing definitions of sex, male and female based on physical characteristics, as a framework, William Faulkner demonstrated the trauma of gender confusion for Absalom, Absalom!’s Rosa Coldfield. Coldfield’s role models required the expanded definitions of gender as defined by one’s social and behavioral traits, confusing Rosa’s understanding of herself in the sexual constructs of the Antebellum Southern United States. Coldfield allowed herself to believe that she could create a place for herself based on her confused understanding of sex and gender. Using traumatic texutality and repressed narrative, Faulkner transmits the impact of trauma ...
Why Speak Of American Stories As Dreams?, Cara Erdheim 
Sacred Heart University
Why Speak Of American Stories As Dreams?, Cara Erdheim
English Faculty Publications
The term "American Dream" conjures literary images of perseverance and promise on the one hand but disillusionment and defeat on the other: Ben Franklin pulling himself up by the bootstraps, Huck Finn "lighting out" for the territories, Gatsby insisting that he can "repeat the past," Willy Loman burying his face in his hands. Whether one accepts it as a reality, punctures it as a myth, or presents it as a nightmare, the American Dream has maintained its powerful presence in scholarly conversations throughout the decades. Traditionally, scholars have referred to classic American Dream texts such as Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography ...
An Allegorical Reading Of Cormac Mccarthy's Outer Dark, Renee Williams 
Stephen F. Austin State University
An Allegorical Reading Of Cormac Mccarthy's Outer Dark, Renee Williams
Undergraduate Research Conference
Though Cormac McCarthy deals with aspects of religion in each of his works, Outer Dark stands apart as a complete theodicy presented through complex allegory. Through his casting of the novel's characters as analogues for Christ, humanity, and Satan, McCarthy comments on the nature and consequences of the cosmic struggle between the forces of good and evil. McCarthy constructs his theodicy with the incorporation of Nietzschean philosophy and a deistic perspective.
Penn, Anna Ruth (Sc 1013), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives 
Western Kentucky University
Penn, Anna Ruth (Sc 1013), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 1013. Receipt signed by school teacher (Anna) Ruth Penn, Gracy, Kentucky, and given to M.S. Hopson, a member of the School Board of Trustees, for payment. She requested payment of $4.50 for three months’ tuition. Penn was the mother of noted author, Robert Penn Warren. Also associated data.
Noe, James Thomas Cotton, 1864-1953 (Sc 1021), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Western Kentucky University
Noe, James Thomas Cotton, 1864-1953 (Sc 1021), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 1021. Published copy of James Thomas Cotton Noe’s poem, “Tip Sams of Kentucky, Patriot,” with added comments by Noe. Noe was honored as a Poet Laureate of Kentucky.
Fishing For A Hero, Simona Stancov '15 Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
Fishing For A Hero, Simona Stancov '15
2013 Spring Semester
On national holidays like Martin Luther King Day, Memorial Day, and Veterans Day, people all over the United States honor heroes who have protected their country and its residents. While some people receive public recognition for their deeds, others serve as heroes for just a few people. Regardless of their popularity, all heroes possess certain qualities that make them esteemed and respected. The coinage of the term “Hemingway code hero” supports this idea. The expression represents a character in one of Ernest Hemingway’s works that personifies values like bravery, honor, and perseverance and maintains poise in the face of ...
Caudill, Rebecca, 1899-1985 (Sc 991), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Western Kentucky University
Caudill, Rebecca, 1899-1985 (Sc 991), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 991. Letters (2), written to Evelyn Thurman, Bowling Green, Kentucky, from Rebecca Caudill, Urbana, Illinois, discussing her and her husband’s writings and day-to-day activities and showing her friendship with Thurman, who later wrote a biography of Caudill.
The Mask Of The 'American Dream', Saraswathi Nookala '15 Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
The Mask Of The 'American Dream', Saraswathi Nookala '15
2013 Spring Semester
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Edgar Lee Masters’ Spoon River Anthology are heralded as some of the greatest insights into human nature in American literature. Both authors ask the reader to scrutinize the actions and emotions of the characters in their books to understand the true meaning behind their double-sided statements. From analyzing the characters of Tom and Daisy Buchanan and Lambert Hutchins, the reader can conclude that although they have the inordinate amount of wealth everybody in America works toward, they are dissatisfied, and use their money and aristocratic position to project the exterior of contentment ...
Atticus Finch Looks At Fifty, Michael L. Boyer 
University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law
Atticus Finch Looks At Fifty, Michael L. Boyer
University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class
No abstract provided.
Giles, Janice (Holt), 1905-1979 (Sc 988), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Western Kentucky University
Giles, Janice (Holt), 1905-1979 (Sc 988), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 988. Wills of Janice (Holt) and Henry Giles, Knifley (Adair County), Kentucky, including rights to Janice's books, royalties, papers, etc.
Roberts, Elizabeth Madox, 1881-1941 (Sc 959), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Western Kentucky University
Roberts, Elizabeth Madox, 1881-1941 (Sc 959), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 959. Letter written by Elizabeth Madox Roberts, Springfield, Kentucky, to Marjorie, evidently a fellow student at the University of Chicago. Roberts mentions the Poetry Club, the problem of finding suitable housing, and comments about fellow students Janet Loxley Lewis and Maurice Lesemann.
Melville In Tahiti: A Gis Approach, Jessica Ewing 
Boise State University
Melville In Tahiti: A Gis Approach, Jessica Ewing
Student Research Initiatives
This presentation will focus on Melville's period in and around Tahiti in 1842, a part of the biographical record vexed by conflicting scholarly accounts of Melville's whereabouts and actions, and by inconsistencies—as well as outright falsehoods—among surviving documents and the author's own account of his experiences in his second book Omoo. Digitally expanding on methods of traditional scholarship, I will present the evidence in visual, electronic form by using ArcGIS software to map Melville’s movements, supplying relevant data and documentation and mapping alternate interpretations of the author's travels. The layered digital maps will ...
Rice, Alice Caldwell (Hegan), 1870-1942 (Sc 943), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Western Kentucky University
Rice, Alice Caldwell (Hegan), 1870-1942 (Sc 943), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 943. Unsigned picture postcard, postmarked Cumberland, Maryland, and addressed to Rose Mehler, Lexington, Kentucky. The writer relates that their carnival was very successful and that their production of Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch was quite a “unique feature.” Picture on postcard is of the cast and scenery of the play.
Murdoch, Louise Saunders, 1872-1918 - Letters To (Sc 937), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Western Kentucky University
Murdoch, Louise Saunders, 1872-1918 - Letters To (Sc 937), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 937. Congratulatory letters, 1918 (3), written to Louise Saunders Murdoch, Buckhorn, Kentucky, concerning her recently published book, Almetta of Gabriel’s Run.
Awaiting The Seer: Emerson's Poetic Theory, Rachel Radford 
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Awaiting The Seer: Emerson's Poetic Theory, Rachel Radford
University of Tennessee Honors Thesis Projects
No abstract provided.
Speed, John Orville, 1871-1970 (Sc 933), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Western Kentucky University
Speed, John Orville, 1871-1970 (Sc 933), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 933. Two poems; excerpt from Who’s Who in Poetry that included one of John Orville Speed’s poems; 1970 newspaper clipping about Speed, all found in an autographed copy of his 1962 book Anecdotes and Tall Tale in Rhyme. Speed was originally from Madisonville, Hopkins County, Kentucky, and was called the “Pennyrile Poet Laureate.”
Phoebe Snow: Odd, Rare And Sublime, Vincent L. Stephens 
Bucknell University
Phoebe Snow: Odd, Rare And Sublime, Vincent L. Stephens
Vincent L Stephens
A draft from my work-in-progress essay collection on post-war American popular singing "Sound Love." The essay argues that Phoebe Snow is unique among her generation of singer-songwriters as she is more notable as an interpreter than as a writer. Her synthesis of elements from blues, jazz, pop, gospel and R&B defy category as does her artistry.
Hancock, Elizabeth Ann (Moore), B. 1924 (Sc 906), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Western Kentucky University
Hancock, Elizabeth Ann (Moore), B. 1924 (Sc 906), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 906. New Year’s greeting, designed using family members’ photos, of Elizabeth Ann (Moore) Hancock, Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Constance Mills, Bowling Green, Kentucky, and data about each family member’s 1993 activities. Mrs. Hancock is the daughter of Kentucky author Janice Holt Giles.
Popular Institutions
Featured Publications
Cormac McCarthy Conference
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Electronic Texts in American Studies
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Popular Authors
Christine Gamache
Rhode Island College
Leah Rang
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Emily McDermott
University of Massachusetts Boston
Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Western Kentucky University
Christine Grogan
University of South Florida
Barbara Tracy
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Sarah Funderbruke
Liberty University
Reiner Smolinski
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Joshua Ratner
University of Pennsylvania
Adam Kotlarczyk
Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
Based on downloads this month
Popular Articles
Comparative Literature: Theory, Method, Application
Advisory Board And Editors Of Clcweb: Comparative Literature And Culture
Bibliography For Work In Travel Studies
Olaudah Equiano's Views Of Slavery In His "Narrative Of The Life"
An Opposing Self: Doppelgangers In Frankenstein, Jekyll And Hyde, And Fight Club, Christine Gamache
Radio In India:The Fm Revolution And Its Impact On Indian Listeners
Bibliography For Work In Comparative Literature And Culture
Steven Tötösy De Zepetnek Curriculum Vitae
Racism Recognized And The Reformation Of The South In Ernest Gaines‘
Based on downloads this month