Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Review Of The Book Encyclopedia Of American Family Names, John A. Drobnicki

Publications and Research

Review of the book Encyclopedia of American Family Names.

Review Of The Book Migration From The Russian Empire: Lists Of Passengers Arriving At The Port Of New York, Vols. 1 And 2, John A. Drobnicki

Publications and Research

Review of the book Migration From the Russian Empire: Lists of Passengers Arriving at the Port of New York, vols. 1 and 2.

The Invention Of "African Rhythm", Kofi Agawu

Publications and Research

"African ryhthm" was invented in the 1950s when, thanks to pioneering research by the Reverend A. M. Jones, Alan Merriam, Gilbert Rouget, Erich von Hornbostel, and John Blacking, among others, "African music" was construed as an essentially rhythmic phenomenon. Three decades and a sizable body of empirical research later, it is easy to see that an overriding ideology of difference (between "Africa" and the "West") motivated these early efforts. This essay reinvents "African rhythm" not by denying its own ideological construction but by engaging in an imaginary dialogue with earlier researchers in an effort to concretize that which was missing …

Breaking And Entering: An Italian American's Literary Odyssey, Fred L. Gardaphé

Publications and Research

In this personalized account, Gardaphe presents audiences with his own-first person story of the meaning of ethnic identity in America. Gardaphe relates his story of how his own adventures, on the streets of Chicago and in the libraries and school, shaped his views on becoming an intellectual and fashioned his career as a writer and professor of Italian American culture.

Review Of The Book Bibliography Of The Soviet Union: Its Predecessors And Successors, John A. Drobnicki

Publications and Research

Review of the book Bibliography of the Soviet Union: Its Predecessors and Successors.

Review Of The Book Historical Dictionary Of Poland, John A. Drobnicki

Publications and Research

Review of the book Historical Dictionary of Poland.

Review Of The Book International Vital Records Handbook, 3rd Ed., John A. Drobnicki

Publications and Research

Review of the book International Vital Records Handbook, 3rd ed.

Asses And Wits: The Homoerotics Of Mastery In Satiric Comedy, Mario Digangi

Publications and Research

This essay explores master-servant homoeroticism in three seventeenth-century satiric comedies: Ben Jonson's Epicoene and Volpone and George Chapman's The Gentleman Usher. Whereas "sodomy" always signifies social disorder, "homoerotic" useful for describing same-sex relations that are socially normative or orderly. Thus homoerotic master-servant relations become "sodomitical" only when they are perceived to threaten social order. In Epicoene, the character associated with the disorder of "sodomy" is neither Dauphine or Epicoene, but the "unnatural" Morose, even though he has not literally had sex with the boy he marries. The erotic master-servant relationship in Volpone is sodomitical because it transgresses against …

“A Little Space, A Little Time, Some Way To Hold Off Eventfulness”: African American Quiltmaking As Metaphor In Toni Morrison's Beloved, Jane Hindman

Publications and Research

In her article" New Directions for Black Feminist Criticism," Deborah McDowell notes the" lack of precision and detail" that has marked Black feminist scholarship and theories. She posits what she sees as one essential for a more precise and complete definition: like feminist criticism in general, Black feminist theory can be seen as" a'corrective, unmasking the omissions and distortions of the past—the errors of a literary critical tradition that arise from and reflect a culture created, perpetuated, and dominated by men'"(186).

Nazism On The Internet, John A. Drobnicki

Publications and Research

Holocaust deniers masquerade their hate behind a scholarly veneer, making a mockery of the historical record, and their lies should be confronted and exposed. Kenneth McVay amassed an archive of online materials to counter and challenge Holocaust revisionists. McVay's website later became known as the Nizkor Project.

The Lesbian And Gay Past: An Interpretive Battleground, Polly Thistlethwaite

Publications and Research

The lesbian and gay past is an interpretive battleground that mainstream archives have refused to enter, assuming few risks in collecting, naming, or identifying archival collections. At the same time, libraries offer up worlds to those who work to unearth the secrets there.

The New York Public Library's 1994 "Becoming Visible" exhibit trumpeted The Arrival of lesbian and gay history to New York's cultural mainstream. The NYPL exhibit denies the library's role in secreting lesbian and gay history, and diminished the contributions of community-based archives to the exhibit.

The Tristan Chord In Historical Context: A Response To John Rothgeb, William Rothstein

Publications and Research

John Rothgeb’s analysis of the “Tristan chord” engages a large intertextual network, stretching back to the Baroque and centering on recitative. Examples of a specific figure of recitative, usually associated with the asking of a question, are presented and analyzed. Examples include passages in Wagner's operas before Tristan.

Holocaust-Denial Literature In Public Libraries: An Investigation Of Public Librarians' Attitudes Regarding Acquisition And Access, John A. Drobnicki, Carol R. Goldman, Trina R. Knight, Johanna V. Thomas

Publications and Research

This study was undertaken to learn about public librarians' attitudes and opinions concerning the sometimes conflicting issues of intellectual freedom, collection balance, and controversial materials. The investigation focused on Holocaust-denial literature, a body of work which tries to dispute or deny outright the historical reality of the Holocaust. The results, while ambiguous in some areas, indicate that librarians are more open to Holocaust-revisionist literature than had been predicted and, regardless of outside pressures, would acquire and provide ready access to this material in their libraries.

Licuala Palms In Brunei Dusun Ethnobotany, Jay H. Bernstein, Roy F. Ellen

Publications and Research

Several species of Licuala occur in the Merimbun area of Tutong district, Brunei Darussalam. One kind of Licuala, called benjiru by the local Dusun population, is often collected for sale as a vegetable. While Licuala is not generally considered an important economic plant, overharvesting in the Merimbun area suggests that conservation measures may be needed to protect it from local extinction. Besides benjiru, other kinds of Licuala recognized by the Dusun are called silad and ukang. The three kinds of Licuala do not have one overall name in the Dusun language, but constitute a covert category at the "intermediate" ethnobotanical …