Using this current political moment (and some of its previous iterations) as points of departure, this issue of the Canadian Review of American Studies , titled “Making Exceptions, Taking Refuge: Canadian and American Border Crossings” examines Americans’ well-established imaginative perceptions of Canada and how Canadians have borrowed from, refashioned, resisted, and cultivated those portraits to serve our own goals. The articles in this special issue probe how the United States and Canada each embrace distinct versions of exceptionalism by focusing on the potency and limitations of such narratives. The authors consider how transcultural and comparative analyses can helpfully navigate a better understanding of Canada–US border relations and what this dynamic contributes to the creation and reinforcement of distinct but connected national identities.
David Stirrup has noted that borders can be a kind of “carnival in the wilderness” that enter the discourse because of their “quirkiness” and “performative” potential. Such performativity in border-crossing manifests in the back and forth between the scholarly essay and the personal essay, between rhetorical force and bemused puzzling, between the truth of fiction and the possible fiction of tall tales, between comedy and tragedy, between what is visible at the border and what we cannot see. Anchored by Mennonite fiction writer and playwright Armin Wiebe’s The Salvation of Yasch Siemens and Chippewa novelist Louise Erdrich’s The Night Watchman , this article regards the carnival—fictive and real life—unleashed by the unfenced ditch border that separates Manitoba from North Dakota.
This article considers Mabel Dunham’s 1924 historical romance The Trail of the Conestoga to argue that understanding the nationalizing narratives of exceptionalism demands a close engagement with the specific contexts in which they are invoked. Dunham’s novel turns on the violent construction of the Canadian–US border during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, tracing the migration of American Mennonites to Upper Canada following the American Revolution, and closes after the War of 1812 with their settlement on the contested territory of the Haldimand Tract. The article undertakes a series of overlapping readings of the novel to discuss how the methodological assumptions of contemporary literary studies interact with theological discourses of religious exceptionalism, suggesting the novel offers a complex mapping of the type of religiously inflected, anti-national spatial histories which, while deeply political in context and effect, are routinely obscured by nation-centered perspectives on literature and culture.
Between the beginnings of European colonialism in North America and the early nineteenth century, the Canadian–US border gained increasing precision and mutual acceptance through a series of international treaties. The border was also increasingly accepted to be a precise line in the US public mind, and key to that acceptance was the early American press. US newspapers portrayed the border as an exact line with a clear location, even when this was questionably the case. Their portrayals served to cement the idea that the Canadian–US border was a precise demarcation that could be violated and should be protected for US readers.
In his 2023 book, The Great Displacement: Climate Change and the Next American Migration , US journalist Jack Bittle paints a desperate picture of what those living in the United States have faced—and will continue to face—because of climate change. While Bittle explores recent case studies of the real-life impacts of climate change across the United States, Canadian-born US writer Michelle Min Sterling’s novel Camp Zero employs the power of fiction to portray the projected impacts of climate change on key US (and Canadian) populations by refusing to defer the realities of climate change and by examining the transnational dimensions of the climate crisis and mineral extraction on both nations. Attending to how Sterling and other writers articulate and unpack Canada’s complexities offers a rich source of knowledge that we cannot afford to overlook.
This article argues that tensions in Canada’s relationship with the global refugee regime have become further pronounced, with current efforts to limit access to asylum reflecting a troubling form of Canadian “leadership” in refugee policy. To do so, the author connects Canada’s involvement in the refugee regime with a key inflection point in Canadian policy: the development of the Canada—US Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA). This account aims to highlight the emergent strains between Canada’s commitment to supporting refugee protection and the development of the country’s contemporary asylum regime. In this context, the STCA should be understood to embody a distinct international legal mechanism by which Canada has sought to exert more control over refugee claimants’ access to asylum, one that has perhaps shaped state practices beyond Canada. The article concludes by assessing developments that place increased stress on Canada’s ability to uphold the agreement and remain committed to international protection.
Fans and critics alike have frequently remarked on the tonal and narrative differences between Gregory Maguire's complexly political 1995 Wizard of Oz reimagining Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West and Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman's lighter 2003 Broadway adaptation Wicked: The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz. While these differences are undoubtedly present and are tied to questions of intended audience and media/genre norms, both versions find common ground in their engagement with the ideas and potentials of utopia. Thinking with Bloch, Mu & ntilde;oz, and Levitas, this article traces constructions of concrete and abstract utopia across these adaptations, ultimately suggesting that despite their differences in approach, each version serves to evoke, anticipate, and effect potential futures both within their narratives, and for their respective readers and audiences. Tant les supporters que les critiques ont souvent constat & eacute; les diff & eacute;rences tonales et narratives entre le Wizard of Oz complexe sur le plan politique de Gregory Maguire en 1995, qui r & eacute;imaginait Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, et l'adaptation plus l & eacute;g & egrave;re de Stephen Schwartz et Winnie Holzman pour Broadway, intitul & eacute;e Wicked: The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz. Les deux versions contiennent indubitablement des diff & eacute;rences et sont li & eacute;es & agrave; des questions sur l'auditoire cibl & eacute; et les normes m & eacute;diatiques et de genre, mais elles se rejoignent dans leur engagement envers les id & eacute;es et le potentiel de l'utopie. Dans la foul & eacute;e de Bloch, Mu & ntilde;oz et Levitas, le pr & eacute;sent article retrace les constructions d'utopie concr & egrave;te et abstraite de ces adaptations, et laisse supposer au bout du compte que, malgr & eacute; leurs approches diff & eacute;rentes, chaque version & eacute;voque, anticipe et g & eacute;n & egrave;re des avenirs potentiels & agrave; la fois au c oe ur de leur r & eacute;cit et pour leurs lecteurs et auditoires respectifs.
This article considers American crime novelist Elmore Leonard's Killshot (1989) as an "urban western" on the Windsor/Detroit international border. Drawing on Gloria E. Anzald & uacute;a's work on the borderlands, Greg Grandin's work on frontiers in the US imagination, and Holly Karibo's research on illicit exchange at the US/Canada borderline, the author theorizes Leonard's Detroit-once capital of the Michigan Territory, home to the Anishinaabe, settled variously by the French and British, today one of the largest majority-Black cities in the United States-as a kind of frontier and, in so doing, interrogates both the persistence and the problems of the border. While nominally reproducing the fantasies and violence of the West in its depiction of contemporary Detroit as a lawless outpost, the author argues the novel's spatial movements-from Toronto through Detroit, north to Marine City, Michigan, south to Cape Girardeau, Missouri-in fact undercut the same, tying together crucial strands of geography and history. By returning, repeatedly, to Bkejwanong, the First Nation Reserve on Walpole Island located in the St. Clair River, which divides Canada and the United States, the novel calls us to consider the persistent and ongoing shadow of dispossession in American (and indeed Canadian) identity. Dans le pr & eacute;sent article, le livre Killshot (1989) de l'auteur de romans policiers am & eacute;ricain Elmore Leonard, est per & ccedil;u comme un << western urbain >> & agrave; la fronti & egrave;re internationale de Windsor et de D & eacute;troit. Inspir & eacute; par les recherches de Gloria E. Anzald & uacute;a sur les r & eacute;gions limitrophes, de Greg Grandin sur les fronti & egrave;res dans l'imaginaire am & eacute;ricain et de Holly Karibo sur les & eacute;changes illicites aux fronti & egrave;res des & Eacute;tats-Unis et du Canada, l'auteur th & eacute;orise que le D & eacute;troit d'Elmore Leonard, qui a d & eacute;j & agrave; & eacute;t & eacute; la capitale du Territoire du Michigan des Anishinaabes, o & ugrave; les Fran & ccedil;ais et les Britanniques se sont install & eacute;s & agrave; diverses & eacute;poques et qui est aujourd'hui l'une des plus grosses villes & agrave; majorit & eacute; noire des & Eacute;tats-Unis, est une esp & egrave;ce de fronti & egrave;re qui conteste & agrave; la fois la persistance et les probl & egrave;mes de la fronti & egrave;re. Bien que le roman reproduise symboliquement l'imaginaire et la violence de l'Ouest dans sa repr & eacute;sentation du D & eacute;troit contemporain sous forme d'avant-poste anarchique, l'auteur all & egrave;gue que les mouvements spatiaux de Toronto & agrave; D & eacute;troit, de Marine City, au Michigan, au nord, & agrave; Cape Girardeau, au Missouri, au sud, sapent plut & ocirc;t ces mouvements et relient des fils cruciaux de la g & eacute;ographie et de l'histoire. En revenant encore et encore & agrave; Bkejwanong, la r & eacute;serve des Premi & egrave;res Nations de l'& icirc;le Walpole sur la rivi & egrave;re St. Clair qui divise le Canada et les & Eacute;tats-Unis, le roman invite & agrave; & eacute;valuer l'ombre persistante et continue de la d & eacute;possession de l'identit & eacute; am & eacute;ricaine (et, bien s & ucirc;r, canadienne).
This article situates Charles Yu's Interior Chinatown (2020) at the nexus of Asian American literary history and neoliberal cultural critique. Reading the novel through Lacanian psychoanalysis and neoliberal theory, it demonstrates how Yu exposes the disciplinary scripts of adaptability and resilience that convert Asian bodies into fungible units of human capital under neoliberal multiculturalism. By tracing a genealogy from the Page and Chinese Exclusion Acts, through the Cold War "model minority" myth, to the twenty-first-century commodification of diversity, the essay shows how Willis Wu's ascent from "Background Oriental Male" to "Kung Fu Guy" dramatizes the conversion of racial identity into marketable performance. The analysis foregrounds five recurring "plenitude fantasies"-fatherhood, hybridity, familism, ethnic community, and diasporic nostalgia-that promise to cure alienation yet merely reiterate its structural impossibility and rehearse neoliberal multiculturalism's market logic. Embracing alienation as an ethical resource, the novel gestures toward a public solidarity grounded not in shared identity but in mutual estrangement. In so doing, Yu offers a critical blueprint for resisting the commodification of difference and for reclaiming Asian American literary discourse as a site of political possibility. Le pr & eacute;sent article place le roman Interior Chinatown (2020) de Charles Yu au c oe ur de l'histoire de la litt & eacute;rature asio-am & eacute;ricaine et de la critique de la culture n & eacute;olib & eacute;rale. La lecture du roman sous le prisme de la psychanalyse lacanienne et de la th & eacute;orie n & eacute;olib & eacute;rale d & eacute;montre que Yu expose les sc & eacute;narios disciplinaires d'adaptabilit & eacute; et de r & eacute;silience qui convertissent les corps asiatiques en unit & eacute;s fongibles de capital humain conformes au multiculturalisme n & eacute;olib & eacute;ral. En remontant & agrave; l'origine de la Loi de Page et de la Loi sur l'exclusion des Chinois, en passant par le mythe de la << minorit & eacute; mod & egrave;le >> de la guerre froide jusqu'& agrave; la marchandisation de la diversit & eacute; du vingt et uni & egrave;me si & egrave;cle, l'article d & eacute;montre que l'ascension de Willis Wu d'<< Asiatique de service >> & agrave; << Mister Kung Fu >> dramatise la conversion de l'identit & eacute; raciale en une performance commercialisable. L'analyse pr & eacute;sage cinq << fantasmes de pl & eacute;nitude >> r & eacute;currents : la paternit & eacute;, l'hybridit & eacute;, le familisme, la communaut & eacute; ethnique et la nostalgie envers la diaspora, qui promettent d'an & eacute;antir l'ali & eacute;nation, mais se contentent plut & ocirc;t d'en r & eacute;it & eacute;rer l'impossibilit & eacute; structurelle et de reprendre la logique marchande n & eacute;olib & eacute;rale du multiculturalisme. En acceptant l'ali & eacute;nation comme une ressource & eacute;thique, le roman tend vers une solidarit & eacute; publique ancr & eacute;e non pas dans une identit & eacute; commune, mais dans une distanciation mutuelle. Yu propose ainsi un plan d & eacute;taill & eacute; pour r & eacute;sister & agrave; la marchandisation de la diff & eacute;rence et r & eacute;cup & eacute;rer les discours sur la litt & eacute;rature asio-am & eacute;ricaine afin qu'ils deviennent un chantier de possibilit & eacute; politique.
In Beloved's forest clearing where Baby Suggs "calls," Toni Morrison creates a primal space of subject formation. This article examines how the Kristevan chora of these trees and sounds shape Sethe's journey toward individuation. Theorists such as Bonnet, Fulton, and Henderson demonstrate the abundance of trees in Beloved, adopting various critical stances toward their affective roles. Others have emphasized that Beloved creates a formative maternal scene: as Sethe, Denver, and Beloved find joy and solace living together, they argue, the threesome enact a regression into an early stage of psychological development. I contend that the chora is a central nexus connecting the novel's psychological development with place, history, and the other-than-human. Beloved's chora/chorus is made up of trees who witness, comprise, and delimit a liminal space of the semiotic for Sethe, Beloved, and Denver's regression as they reenact a Kristevan chora.The trees embody a pastoral/anti-pastoral landscape of Black trauma. Morrison re-creates the chora/chorus in an imagescape of sound and liquid, as evidenced by Beloved's emergence from the water, soaking wet, and repeated associations with fluidity, as well as in the continual references to sounds-haunting songs and uncanny pitches-that mark maternal space and interspecies relationships. These sounds embody traces and rhythms of Black spirituals, as has been established; I show that they are also influenced by a pastoral literary tradition including Eugene Field and, indirectly, the Shakespearean forest, providing additional context for understanding Morrison's transformative encounter with the heterogeneous heritages of American pastoral, both oral and literary. Dans la clairi & egrave;re de Beloved o & ugrave; Baby Suggs << appelle >>, Toni Morrison cr & eacute;e un espace primaire de formation du sujet. Le pr & eacute;sent article explore en quoi la chora kristevane de ces arbres et de ces sons fa & ccedil;onne le parcours de Sethe vers l'individuation. Des th & eacute;oriciens comme Bonnet, Fulton et Henderson insistent sur l'abondance d'arbres dans Beloved et adoptent diverses attitudes critiques & agrave; l'& eacute;gard de leurs r & ocirc;les affectifs. D'autres soulignent que Beloved cr & eacute;e une sc & egrave;ne maternelle formative. En effet, ils avancent que Sethe, Denver et Beloved ressentent de la joie et du r & eacute;confort & agrave; vivre ensemble, mais que toutes trois r & eacute;gressent & agrave; un stade pr & eacute;coce de d & eacute;veloppement psychologique. L'auteur avance que la chora est un noyau central qui relie le d & eacute;veloppement psychologique du roman au lieu, & agrave; l'histoire et & agrave; ce qui n'est pas humain. La chora/le ch oe ur de Beloved est compos & eacute;e d'arbres qui observent, comprennent et d & eacute;limitent un espace s & eacute;miotique liminaire pour la r & eacute;gression de Sethe, de Beloved et de Denver qui revivent une chora kristevane.Les arbres repr & eacute;sentent le paysage pastoral et antipastoral du traumatisme de la population noire. Toni Morrison recr & eacute;e la chora/le ch oe ur dans une repr & eacute;sentation du son et du liquide, comme le d & eacute;montre Beloved qui & eacute;merge de l'eau, tremp & eacute;e, de m & ecirc;me que les associations r & eacute;p & eacute;t & eacute;es avec la fluidit & eacute; et les r & eacute;f & eacute;rences continues aux sons, qu'il s'agisse de chansons obs & eacute;dantes ou de cris troublants, qui marquent l'espace maternel et les relations interesp & egrave;ces. Comme il est & eacute;tabli, ces sons repr & eacute;sentent les traces et les rythmes des spirituals noirs. L'auteur d & eacute;montre qu'ils sont & eacute;galement influenc & eacute;s par une tradition litt & eacute;raire pastorale, qui inclut Eugene Field et indirectement la for & ecirc;t shakespearienne, ce qui ajoute une couche contextuelle pour comprendre la rencontre transformative de Toni Morrison avec les h & eacute;ritages h & eacute;t & eacute;rog & egrave;nes de la pastorale am & eacute;ricaine, tant orale que litt & eacute;raire.
This article examines how the Trump administration's embrace of ethnic majority nationalism-rooted in white identity and anti-Latino sentiment-shaped its policies toward Puerto Rico and Latino communities more broadly. It argues that Puerto Rico's treatment following Hurricane Mar & iacute;a in 2017 exemplified this dynamic: despite devastation comparable to Hurricanes Harvey and Irma in the mainland, federal aid to the island was slower, smaller, and more conditional. Puerto Ricans, framed as outsiders and burdens to the nation, experienced a discriminatory response rooted not in logistical constraints but in nationalist exclusion. The article concludes that this racialized nationalism, now embedded in the MAGA movement, threatens inclusive democratic governance and Latino belonging in the United States. Le pr & eacute;sent article analyse l'adh & eacute;sion du nationalisme majoritaire ethnique, ancr & eacute; dans l'identit & eacute; blanche et le sentiment anti-latino, adopt & eacute; par l'administration Trump et qui a fa & ccedil;onn & eacute; ses politiques envers la communaut & eacute; portoricaine et, de fa & ccedil;on plus g & eacute;n & eacute;rale, la communaut & eacute; latino. On y avance que le traitement des Portoricains apr & egrave;s l'ouragan Mar & iacute;a en 2017 a incarn & eacute; cette dynamique : malgr & eacute; la d & eacute;vastation comparable & agrave; celle des ouragans Harvey et Irma sur le continent, l'aide f & eacute;d & eacute;rale sur l'& icirc;le a & eacute;t & eacute; plus lente & agrave; venir, plus modeste et assortie de plus de conditions. Les Portoricains, pr & eacute;sent & eacute;s comme des marginaux et des fardeaux pour la nation, ont & eacute;t & eacute; victimes d'une r & eacute;ponse discriminatoire ne reposant pas sur des contraintes logistiques, mais sur l'exclusion nationaliste. L'article conclut que ce nationalisme racis & eacute;, maintenant ench & acirc;ss & eacute; dans le mouvement MAGA, menace la gouvernance d & eacute;mocratique inclusive et l'appartenance des Latinos aux & Eacute;tats-Unis.
This article explores the current popularity of conspiracy theories in terms of Peter Knight's description of them as a "hermeneutic of suspicion" and Eve Sedgwick's alignment of the same term with paranoid reading strategies. It situates this discussion in terms of Fredric Jameson's argument that a major part of the appeal of conspiracy theories is that they offer a cartographic antidote to the disorienting effects of our current age whose vertiginous complexities can be understood in terms of Lyotard's "postmodern sublime" or Althusser's "absent cause." David Frum's reminder, both of the continued relevance of Richard Hofstadter's argument about "the paranoid style" today and its applicability to both the political right and the left required Sedgwick's and Rita Felski's corrective argument that the real impact of the paranoid style on the left has been the stifling grip of "critique," which is the academic version of a hermeneutics of suspicion. Le pr & eacute;sent article explore la popularit & eacute; actuelle des th & eacute;ories du complot en fonction de la d & eacute;finition d'<< herm & eacute;neutique du soup & ccedil;on >> qu'en donne Peter Knight et de l'alignement du m & ecirc;me terme avec les strat & eacute;gies de lecture parano & iuml;aques qu'en fait Eve Sedgwick. Il situe cet expos & eacute; conform & eacute;ment & agrave; l'argumentaire de Fredric Jameson selon lequel une grande partie de l'attrait des th & eacute;ories du complot provient du fait qu'elles offrent un antidote cartographique aux effets d & eacute;routants de l'& eacute;poque actuelle, dont les complexit & eacute;s vertigineuses peuvent & ecirc;tre comprises d'apr & egrave;s le << sublime postmoderne >> de Lyotard ou la << cause absente >> d'Althusser. Le rappel de David Frum, & agrave; la fois & agrave; l'& eacute;gard de la pertinence continue de l'argumentaire de Richard Hofstadter sur le << style parano & iuml;aque >> d'aujourd'hui et de son applicabilit & eacute; & agrave; la droite tout autant qu'& agrave; la gauche, a d & ucirc; s'appuyer sur l'all & eacute;gation corrective de Sedgwick et de Rita Felski selon lequel le v & eacute;ritable effet du style parano & iuml;aque sur la gauche demeure la mainmise & eacute;touffante de la << critique >>, qui est la version universitaire de l'herm & eacute;neutique du soup & ccedil;on.
This article examines Mattel's mid-1990s American Stories Collection-a short-lived line of Barbie dolls depicting moments from U.S. history-as a lens on the intersection of popular culture, material culture, and collective memory during the "History Wars" of the 1990s. Created in part to compete with Pleasant Company's American Girls and to appeal simultaneously to children and adult collectors, the series distilled iconic historical themes-Pilgrims, the Revolution, westward migration, the Civil War, and Indigenous life-into "charming costumes" and simplified narratives. Through analysis of the dolls' clothing, accessories, and storybooks, the article situates the series within longer traditions of historically themed playthings, highlighting continuities with earlier educational dolls and role-model biographies. The study underscores how these products reinforced familiar, conservative ideals about women's roles-caregiving, industriousness, hospitality-while often relying on stereotypes, omitting African American and Latina stories, and abstracting Indigenous figures from historical time. Placing the series in the broader cultural context of 1990s debates over public history, curriculum standards, and museum interpretation, the article argues that American Stories offered comforting, uncomplicated visions of the past at a moment when established narratives were under challenge, illustrating the enduring power of toys to shape and reflect public understandings of history. Le pr & eacute;sent article analyse la collection Histoires am & eacute;ricaines de Mattel au milieu des ann & eacute;es 1990, une s & eacute;rie de Barbie incarnant des moments de l'histoire am & eacute;ricaine produite pendant une courte p & eacute;riode, afin de donner une perspective sur l'intersection de la culture populaire, de la culture mat & eacute;rielle et de la m & eacute;moire collective pendant les << Guerres de l'histoire >> des ann & eacute;es 1990. Cr & eacute;& eacute;e en partie pour concurrencer les poup & eacute;es American Girls de Pleasant Company et pour plaire & agrave; la fois aux collectionneurs enfants et adultes, la s & eacute;rie pr & eacute;sentait des th & egrave;mes historiques iconiques, comme les p & egrave;lerins, la R & eacute;volution, la migration vers l'Ouest, la guerre de S & eacute;cession et la vie autochtone, au moyen de << costumes charmants >> et de r & eacute;cits simplifi & eacute;s. Par l'analyse des v & ecirc;tements, des accessoires et des livres de conte qui accompagnaient les poup & eacute;es, l'& eacute;tude situe la s & eacute;rie dans une tradition plus longue de jouets & agrave; th & eacute;matique historique, qui fait ressortir la continuit & eacute; avec des poup & eacute;es & eacute;ducatives plus anciennes et des biographies d'exemples & agrave; suivre. Elle souligne que ces produits renforcent des id & eacute;aux familiers et conservateurs sur les r & ocirc;les des femmes, tels que les soins, l'ardeur au travail et l'hospitalit & eacute;, tout en s'appuyant souvent sur des st & eacute;r & eacute;otypes qui font abstraction de l'histoire des Afro-Am & eacute;ricaines et des femmes latinas et privil & eacute;gient des repr & eacute;sentations abstraites de personnages autochtones. En pla & ccedil;ant cette s & eacute;rie dans le contexte culturel plus vaste des controverses des ann & eacute;es 1990 sur l'histoire publique, les normes des cursus et l'interpr & eacute;tation mus & eacute;ale, l'article avance qu'Histoires am & eacute;ricaines propose des visions simples et r & eacute;confortantes du pass & eacute; & agrave; un moment o & ugrave; les r & eacute;cits & eacute;tablis & eacute;taient contest & eacute;s, ce qui d & eacute;montre le pouvoir in & eacute;puisable des jouets & agrave; fa & ccedil;onner et refl & eacute;ter la compr & eacute;hension de l'histoire par le public.
This paper engages the stories, jokes, anecdotes and illustrations of a single “Editor’s Drawer” from Harper’s New Monthly Magazine in the 1890s. Modulating between description, interpretation, and theorization, I risk pedantry in order to demonstrate the relations between humour and advertising during an important phase of the emergence of mass culture. The paper concludes by concentrating on how two readers—one a US traveling ad salesman, the other a Canadian druggist and entertainer—used magazine print conventions like layout to coin humour in their own business practices.
“Tainted Love” invites a new reading of Joyce Carol Oates’s critically acclaimed short story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by analyzing the story’s evolving musical elements through a fusion of trauma studies and sound studies. Early in the story, 1950s popular music guides protagonist Connie in navigating her life and misleads her about the implications of having sex with Eddie before she is ready. After her sexual encounter, popular music abandons her and forces her to navigate the subsequent sonic advances of Arnold Friend alone. In exploring how the evolution of sound in the story connects to Connie’s sexual trauma, this article aims to uncover another avenue of analysis through which to interact with Oates’s impactful short story.
This article investigates the nineteenth-century craft idealism and twentieth-century aesthetic materialities in the American Studio Glass Movement (1962–). Second-generation studio glassblowers are cited as having equipped the glassblowing studio with a “how-to” technical knowledge system learned in Venice, Italy. Drawing on four years of ethnographic research, this article investigates the origin, transmission, and integration of this logic into early expressionist studio glass in the context of both American progressive and counterculture values. In doing so, it shifts the historical narrative of studio glass away from individuals to broader social forces.
This paper argues that Herman Melville’s White-Jacket (1850) begins to redefine individualistic and popular meanings of temperance reform and self-restraint in its attention to the biopolitical and civilizing processes on a man-of-war on the high seas. A renewed understanding of temperance and appetite emerges through the oceanic experience in White-Jacket and Moby-Dick (1851). The texts depict a modified civilizational process through interrogations of the regulation of appetite and addiction in acts of flogging, the grog ration, and in overlapping meanings of wage slavery, racialized slavery, and slavery to the bottle. This essay explores the implications of excessive appetite in sailors’ experiences of various modes of cannibalism, the transatlantic slave trade, and in their relationships with the ocean. The temperate oceanic perspective indicated in Moby-Dick and in moments of White-Jacket suggests a consumptive cosmology that evokes an ethical and religious meaning of cultural, human, and animal relations based on temperate, environmental reciprocity.
This essay reviews Phil Neel's Hinterland: America's New Landscape of Class and Conflict, Jeff Sharlet's The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War, and Noah Schwartz's On Target: Gun Culture, Storytelling, and the NRA. Hinterland is a Marxist mapping of the terrain of contemporary class struggle that registers deindustrialization's combined and uneven integration of apparently fringe areas into capitalism. The Undertow is a best-selling journalistic sojourn in Trump country, exploring how the body politic has been torn apart and the prospects for a genuine liberal democracy drowned in the process. On Target is an ethnographic account of the NRA's mass base. Each book addresses key dimensions of the current political landscape in the United States. By examining them through the lens of the potential resurgence of fascism, this review essay argues that cultural explanations of the radical right are weaker than materialist ones grounded in critical understandings of capitalist political economy. Le pr & eacute;sent essai analyse Hinterland: America's New Landscape of Class and Conflict, de Phil Neel, The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War, de Jeff Sharlet, et On Target: Gun Culture, Storytelling, and the NRA, de Noah Schwartz. Hinterland est une cartographie marxiste de l'ar & egrave;ne de la lutte des classes contemporaine qui inscrit l'int & eacute;gration combin & eacute;e et in & eacute;gale des zones apparemment p & eacute;riph & eacute;riques de la d & eacute;sindustrialisation dans le capitalisme. The Undertow d & eacute;crit un s & eacute;jour journalistique dans le pays de Trump, un succ & egrave;s de librairie qui explore l'an & eacute;antissement du corps politique et l'engloutissement concomitant des perspectives d'une v & eacute;ritable d & eacute;mocratie. On Target est un compte rendu ethnographique de la base massive de la NRA. Chaque livre aborde des dimensions cl & eacute;s du paysage politique actuel des & Eacute;tats-Unis. En les examinant selon l'optique de la r & eacute;surgence potentielle du fascisme, le pr & eacute;sent essai soutient que les explications culturelles de la droite radicale sont plus faibles que les explications mat & eacute;rialistes qui reposent sur la compr & eacute;hension critique de l'& eacute;conomie politique capitaliste.
This paper argues that the recent popularity of military science fiction, particularly the focus on the training of the recruit soldier as they make their way through boot camp, comes from and also benefits America's ongoing adoration for its military. With reference to three series by authors John Scalzi, Marko Kloos and Joel Dane, the paper argues that the texts are examples of what French theorist Jacques Ellul called integration propaganda. Le pr & eacute;sent article avance que la r & eacute;cente popularit & eacute; de la science-fiction militaire, notamment la formation du soldat recrue qui chemine tout au long du camp d'entra & icirc;nement, provient de l'admiration des Am & eacute;ricains pour les militaires et en tire parti. Se reportant & agrave; trois s & eacute;ries des auteurs John Scalzi, Marko Kloos et Joel Dane, l'article soutient que les textes sont des exemples de ce que le th & eacute;oriste fran & ccedil;ais Jacques Ellul qualifiait de propagande d'int & eacute;gration.
