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Sinclair Lewis Society Newsletter, Vol 34, No. 1, The Sinclair Lewis Society

Sinclair Lewis Society Newsletter

“Every Time Something Big and Stupid Happens in America, Lewis Becomes Popular Again”: A Conference Retrospective, with Notes from a First-Time Visitor to Sauk Centre by Shaun F. Richards

Pickerbaugh’s Rhymes: Another Target of Satire in Arrowsmith by George Killough

In Memoriam: Robert E. Fleming, Father of the Sinclair Lewis Society by Sally E. Parry

Arrowsmith 100 years later: Osterholm Links Lewis’s Novel to Modern Society by Shalon Wilber

Becoming A Writer: A Review of Writers Like Us: My Life with Sinclair Lewis, by Barnaby Conrad, with Barnaby Conrad III by Shaun F. Richards

Sinclair Lewis and the Pulitzer …

Series Editors' Preface To Ssl 50.1, Patrick Scott, Tony Jarrells

Studies in Scottish Literature

Introduces the theme of this special issue on Work in 20th-21st century Scottish literature, briefly reviews plans for the remaining issues to be published in this format, and notes that the first SSL issue from its new publisher, Edinburgh University Press, has now appeared.

Jute Mill Songs: Mary Brooksbank And Industrial Tradition In A Dying Industry, Erin Farley

Studies in Scottish Literature

This article outlines some key elements of Dundee’s industrial literary tradition, primarily associated with the city’s jute industry, as expressed in the songs and poems of Mary Brooksbank (1897-1978). It also explores ways in which writers working from the 1980s onwards have used the memory of the jute industry, Brooksbank herself, and associated verse traditions to imagine place and work in post-industrial Dundee.

‘And On One Toils, Into The Hill’: Working And Walking In Nan Shepherd’S North East, Sarah Leith

Studies in Scottish Literature

This article considers the duality of working and walking in Nan Shepherd’s writings about the North East of Scotland. Exploring Shepherd’s works from the perspectives of social and intellectual history, it considers the ways in which she represented both working and walking as labour during the first half of Scotland’s twentieth century.

Labour And (Class) Struggle In James Barke’S Compositionist Imaginaries: Dreaming With Rob Roy, Marx & Burns, Arianna Introna

Studies in Scottish Literature

James Barke’s literary imagination of working lives is primarily concerned with how different modes of labour generate a tension between refusal of work and the material constraints on fully engaging in it. Putting into conversation the Marxist autonomist method of ‘compositionism’ with Barke’s own theories of art and class struggle, this article traces how Barke’s fiction represents toil on the one hand, and the yearning for a life beyond the tyranny of capital on the other, as defining the horizons of working-class life.

Proletarian Nights In Archie Hind’S The Dear Green Place, Corey Gibson

Studies in Scottish Literature

This article argues for a reappraisal of Archie Hind's landmark Glasgow novel The Dear Green Place (1966), which represents the conflation and combination of long histories of class formation with the grind of everyday labours, and a provocation about the possibilities, limitations, and contradictions of working-class artistry in twentieth-century Scotland.

Agnes Owens And The Parliament Of Insignificant Lives, Marie-Odile Pittin-Hedon

Studies in Scottish Literature

This article focuses on Agnes Owens whose work is examined in the light of Michel Foucault’s essay “Lives of Insignificant Men”, and Pierre Rosanvallon’s Parliament of the Invisible. It tackles the idea that Owens portrays what Foucault calls “insignificant lives”, with a particular emphasis on working or working-class women and on what Owens sees as poverty “in [the] minds”, to show that her fiction is political in a way that is not openly militant.

Writing Loss, Culture And Change: Deindustrialisation And Community Writers’ Groups In Glasgow, Kate Wilson

Studies in Scottish Literature

No abstract provided.

James Kelman And The Impossibility Of Managerial Souls, Joseph H. Jackson

Studies in Scottish Literature

Discusses James Kelman's portrayal of middle managers and their interactions with those they manage in "The Bevel' (1983), A Disaffection (1989), How Late It Was, How Late, (1994), and You Have to be Careful in the Land of the Free (2004), exploring their interactions with those they manage in terms of managerialism, management theories, and the U.K. government's New Public Management reforms.

‘Just Get It On The Table’: Gendered Food Labour In Janice Galloway’S Fiction, Gina Lyle

Studies in Scottish Literature

This article explores how food labour is used to articulate concerns around gendered power dynamics in Janice Galloway’s short stories and novels. By examining instances of food management and preparation, this article argues that food makes struggles for identity, autonomy, and power more clearly visible. Writing by Sarah Sceats and Mary McGlynn is used to discuss issues around women’s identity formation, while Carole Jones’s work on gender disorientation in late twentieth-century Scotland and Nick Fiddes’s materials on the prestige of meat both aid in arguments around men’s relationships with food labour.

Notes On Contributors To Ssl 50.1

Studies in Scottish Literature

No abstract provided.

Control And Cuckoldry In “Calypso” And “Circe”, Corinne Lafont , '26

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

Sex, femininity, and dirt in James Joyce’s Ulysses form what Julie Kristeva calls “abjection.” The abject is "the border where exact limits between same and other, subject and object, and even beyond these, between inside and outside, and disappearing—hence an Object of fear and fascination,” (Kristeva 1980, 185) evident by Leopold Bloom’s identity as a cuckold. Alternately approached with loss, disconnection, and anxiety, the text reveals that Leopold Bloom craves his abject to distance himself from physical and emotional rejection. “Calypso” establishes how his abject operates as a defense mechanism to self-defile before others can approach any realized sexual bond. …

It’S Not Elementary, My Dear Ai, Mali Schantz-Feld Ma, Cde

AADEJ - The Communicator

In this issue, Associate Editor Mali Schantz-Feld cautions dental communicators about the irresponsible use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), highlighting three major risks. The first is the fabrication or "hallucination" of non-existent scholarly references, exemplified by submitted articles where more than half of the citations were fake. The second risk is the removal of human personality, emotion, and nuance, which causes content to feel robotic; this occurred when a profile of an inspiring dentist was run through AI, stripping away their inner light and philosophy. The third danger is the generation of statistics, charts, or figures without providing necessary data or …

Introduction: Dreaming The Daily Darg, Corey Gibson

Studies in Scottish Literature

Describes the scope of the Carnegie Trust -funded project on Working Lives in Scottish Writing since 1918, discusses the topics and theoretical perspectives explored in the research phase, noting both change and continuity from the treatment dominant in early and mid-20th century Scottish literary studies, and introduces the essays in this special issue and their contributions to the wider project theme.

Scottish Workers’ Stories Of Life And Labour During Covid-19 From The Workers’ Stories Project, Hailey Maxwell, Ruth Gilbert, Suki Sangha, Ewan Gibbs

Studies in Scottish Literature

This article explores how Scottish workers narrated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their life and work, by analysing 55 fifty-five submissions to the Workers' Stories Project. Between 2020 and 2022, the project creative reflections on the pandemic from workers across Scotland, drawing on the tradition of workers' inquiry and workers' education that encouraged critical reflection and the embrace of worker creativity. Submissions were overwhelmingly literary in form, primarily short prose supplemented by poetry, with three key themes emerging: intimacy and alienation; insecurity and status; and a slower living pace. Cumulatively, the stories underline how COVID-19 magnified workplace injustices …

Dependency In Romantic Relationships: Bloom’S Other In Ulysses, Lydia Smaciarz

Journal of the Symposium of University Research and Creative Expression

Project Mentor(s): Christopher Schedler, PhD

James Joyce’s Ulysses explores themes of love, grief, religion, culture, and identity while following the journey of Leopold Bloom, a husband and father who has a problematic sense of Self. Bloom’s difficulty to find himself is prominently shown through his relationship with his wife, Molly, with whom he no longer has a healthy romantic relationship. Bloom reminisces on several memories with Molly which expose the reason for his lack of Self – his dependence on Molly. This presentation applies Jacques Lacan’s concept of “The Mirror Stage” to Bloom’s nostalgic memories of Molly in Ulysses. …

Literary Networks Everywhere: An Analysis Of Literary Connections Across Time And Culture, Rachel Riffel

Journal of the Symposium of University Research and Creative Expression

Project Mentor(s): Katharine Whitcomb

This paper explores the concept of literary discourse as a networked form, using Caroline Levine’s theory of “networks” as expansive systems of meaning. Through the poetry of several postmodern poets and their texts such as Terrance Hayes’ American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin, Anne Carson’s The Beauty of the Husband, and Maggie Nelson’s Bluets, this essay analyzes how contemporary poets use intertextuality, historical references, and classical forms not as rigid structures but as connective nodes in a broader literary web. These texts illustrate how poetry continues to participate in an evolving cultural and literary …

Nathaniel Hawthorne's Scarlet Redemption, Zoe E. Prince

Journal of the Symposium of University Research and Creative Expression

Project Mentor(s): Sarah Sillin

An oft misunderstood classic of literature, Nathaniel Hawthorne’ Scarlet Letter tells the story of Hester Prynne, her minister and lover Arthur Dimmesdale, and their ruthless enemy, Roger Chillingworth. In the Puritan colony of Boston Massachusetts, 1642, Hester’s child born out of wedlock earns her a scarlet letter, marking her forever as a flagrant sinner. In the midst of betrayal, shame, and superstition, Hester shines as an incredible testimony to fortitude. Though lauded as a beautiful romance, within the Scarlet Letter many readers miss the bitter musings of the author’s narration, which constantly reproves the religious community …

From Canterbury To The Conference: Chaucer’S First 18 Lines Reborn, Charles X. Li, Tony Liang, Anika Saphiloff

Journal of the Symposium of University Research and Creative Expression

Project Mentor(s): Charles X. Li, PhD

This presentation examines the phonological shift from Chaucerian Middle English to Modern English, focusing on the Great English Vowel Shift. Using the first eighteen lines of Chaucer’s “General Prologue” to The Canterbury Tales as a case study, we demonstrate how vowel sounds in Middle English transitioned to those in Early Modern and Modern English. By analyzing specific words from these opening lines, we illustrate the vowel changes that marked the shift and their impact on pronunciation. Our presentation will conclude with a recitation of Chaucer’s first eighteenth lines, intertwined couplet by couplet by their …

From Old English Genitives To Modern English Possessives: Tracing Grammar Evolution Through Biogrammar And Grammatical Biology, Charles X. Li

Journal of the Symposium of University Research and Creative Expression

Project Mentor(s): Charles X. Li, PhD

This paper presents a biologically grounded and historically informed framework, Biogrammar, as a means to explain grammatical evolution and cognitive processing. It compares Biogrammar with two foundational theories in the study of language: the Nature-Nurture Hypothesis and Chomsky’s Universal Grammar. As a case study, the paper examines the historical evolution of English plural and genitive constructions, focusing on morphological developments such as the -as/-es mergers, his-genitives, group genitives, and the rise of the of + noun phrase pattern. These diachronic changes are interpreted as evidence of grammar functioning as a biologically adaptive system shaped …