American Literature Commons^™

A Source For Stowe's Ideas On Race In "Uncle Tom's Cabin", Josephine Donovan

English Faculty Scholarship

Harriet Beecher Stowe's treatment of race in Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) and the colonization scheme with which she ends the novel have long been its most controversial features. Colonization was a term then in use for returning African Americans to Africa as a solution to the race/slavery problem. Stowe concludes Uncle Tom's Cabin by sending most of the surviving black characters—George, Eliza, their children, George's sister Emily, and Eliza's mother, Cassy to Africa where George dreams of founding a Christian republic. In a lengthy letter George explains his colonizationist ambitions: "On the shores of Africa I see a republic." "I …

Fetching The Jingle Along: Mark Twain's Slovenly Peter, Susanna Ashton

Publications

No abstract provided.

Reading One Poet In Light Of Another: Herbert And Frost, James Boyd White

Articles

In this paper I wish both to draw certain connections between Herbert and Frost and at the same time to say something in a general way about the process by which such connections can be made. It is with the latter question that I begin. Once the relation between two writers would have been thought of mainly in terms of "influence." And one might indeed argue that Herbert did have significant influence on Frost's poetic practice — if not directly, for Frost was not a great reader of Herbert, then indirectly, through Emerson, who was in many ways Frost's master …

A Different Destination: The American Journey Theme In The Novels Of Toni Morrison, Jill Holbrook

Honors Theses, 1963-2015

The mythic form of the American journey in American literature, which developed from the frontier experience of white male settlers, embraces separatism, escape and isolation as valid options for the exploration of personal identity. For people who are neither white nor male, this definition of journey and this exploration of identity prove an impossibly destructive dream. In her novels, Toni Morrison develops a different idea of journey, one which leads the journeyer back to his or her community and to the discovery of identity in relationship, rather than isolation. The journey back to the community is explored in Sula, Song …

"Murder And Mystery Mormon Style": Violence As Mediation In American Popular Culture, Terryl Givens

English Faculty Publications

Terryl Givens's discussion of popular representations of Mormonism ("'Murder and Mystery Mormon Style': Violence and Mediation in American Popular Culture ) is a case in point, emphasizing the violence inherent in the acts of sociocultural and fictional mediation that have tried to contain the heretical challenge of Mormon theocracy. Mormonism has a complex cultural identity, as a religious group clearly outside the American mainstream and yet historically and ethnically American to the core. Nineteenth-century fictional representations of Mormonism tended to demonize the religion while at the same time deploring the violence of anti-Mormon bigotry; such representations mediated social violence …

Mark Medoff, Rudolf Erben

Western Writers Series Digital Editions

Mark Medoff grew up in the East, lives in the New West, but dreams of the Old West. In his essay “Adios, Old West,” he nostalgically calls himself a “child of the Old West” (1). Medoffs protagonists likewise romanticize the Western American past because they associate it with their own youthful innocence. But they learn to live with the far less romantic realities of an increasingly eastemized West. Like Medoff, they know that cowboys can no longer be role models. While they regret the decline of the heroic tradition, they realize that they cannot emulate outdated stereotypes. In his drama, …

Jane Gilmore Rushing, Lou H. Rodenberger

Western Writers Series Digital Editions

Jane Gilmore Rushing begins an article entitled “People and Place,” commissioned by The Writer (September 1969) after publication of her second novel, with this self-assessment: “I think I am what you call a regional writer.” Such candid acknowledgement by a writer of what she perceives her role to be in the literary world is rare. Most writers steer clear of the designation of “regionalist,” even those whose works convey a powerful sense of place. Nevertheless, Jane Rushing’s explanation of her authorial selfimage dispels any doubt that she does indeed see herself as a regionalist, whose mission is to share with …

Thomas And Elizabeth Savage, Sue Hart

Western Writers Series Digital Editions

Although Elizabeth Fitzgerald and Thomas Savage were born on opposite sides of the country, from early on it seemed as if they were as destined for each other as they were for careers in writing.

Tess Gallagher, Ron Mcfarland

Western Writers Series Digital Editions

The voice of the poet may be one or polyvocal: bardic, prophetic, political, satiric, meditative, bucolic, sentimental, nostalgic. The voice of the poet may be deep or shallow, profound or silly, complex or easy, loud or soft. Nothing guarantees that we will like the work of any given poet except our own direct engagement with the poems. If some of our friends tell us we will like, or dislike, Tess Gallagher’s poems, it is probably because of something they know about us or about the poems themselves, and that something is most likely the voice they hear, whether consciously or …

Theodore Strong Van Dyke, Peter Wild

Western Writers Series Digital Editions

Few writers, no matter how popular in their day, can point to “firsts” in their literary careers. As to Theodore Strong Van Dyke, in the midst of the booming land sales of the 1880s, when trainloads of Midwesterners crowded into southern California to be fleeced by ready hucksters, Van Dyke sowed doubts about the direction which was applauded as progress. Particularly through his lightly sardonic novel Millionaires of a Day (1890), this friend of John Muir and Theodore Roosevelt initiated an American uneasiness that the hoopla over the region, and over the American West generally, was false, “. . . …

Ua35/11 Student Honors Research Bulletin, Wku Honors Program

WKU Archives Records

The WKU Student Honors Research Bulletin is dedicated to scholarly involvement and student research. These papers are representative of work done by students from throughout the university.

• Allen, Melody. Women in Control of Courtship in As You Like It, The Merchant of Venice and All's Well That Ends Well
• Amlani, Islamshah. Electron Stimulated Desorption of Alkali Halides
• Brillhart, Kelly. Women Without Men: Hemingway's Female Characters
• Burton, Lori. Financial Statements with Environmental Concerns: An Exploratory Study of the Impact on the Auditor's Role and Responsibilities
• Combs, Vicki. Dancing the Descent: Energy and Entrophy in William Carlos Williams
• Davis, Julie. Prelude to …

The Female Body As Icon: Edna Millay Wears A Plaid Dress, Cheryl Walker

Scripps Faculty Publications and Research

The female body has never been so prominently displayed or so critically examined as it is today under the dominance of late capitalism. The results of this display, we can now see, have been mostly negative: women regard themselves at best self-consciously, at worst with disgust. Given this emphasis on self-scrutiny, it comes as no surprise that middle-aged women experience a reduction of self-confidence regarding their physical presences and a concomitant increase in self-dissatisfaction. It is also worth noting that a querulous tone often afflicts them as they grow older, suggesting that they are at odds not only with others …

Giles, Janice Holt, 1905-1979 (Mss 39), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Manuscripts, galley proofs and research material for janice Holt Giles's books; published and unpublished articles and short stories; poems; reviews and clippings relating to Giles's work; correspondence of Giles, her husband (Henry Earl Giles) and daughter (Elizabeth Moore Hancock); correspondence of Giles, her literary agent, and publisher; Holt and Giles family material.