Recent Publications, Faculty
The
Anguish of Displacement: The Politics of Literacy in the Letters of Mountain
Families in Shenandoah National Park
University of Virginia Press (November 21, 2007), 224 pages
Following Congress's approval of the creation of the Shenandoah National Park in 1926, displaced Virginia mountain families wrote to U.S. government officials requesting various services, property, and harvested crops. The collection of 300 handwritten letters that resulted from this relocation reveals a complex dynamic between the people and the government and captures a moment in American history when the social, historical, and political climate was ripe for such uprooting. In The Anguish of Displacement: The Politics of Literacy in the Letters of Mountain Families in Shenandoah National Park, Katrina M. Powell explores the function of literacy as social and symbolic action and shows how these letters exposed multifaceted issues surrounding literacy, its use and disuse, and its power in documenting individual stories within the broader, overarching narratives about the Virginia landscape and the mountaineer.
Through rhetorical and socioliterary analysis, Powell examines what individual literate acts say about public educational practices, placing competing discourses about the region's history alongside contemporary literacy theory. Through this approach, she both uncovers the complexities of gender, material condition, and education in determining and resisting social position and contributes to evolving theories of literacy and identity, arguing for their inextricable link.
Crosscurrents
of Children's Literature
An Anthology of Texts and Criticism
Edited by J. D. Stahl, Tina L. Hanlon, and Elizabeth Lennox Keyser
Oxford University Press (October 2006), 1079 pages
Does children's literature portray the authentic perspectives of children,
or does it present the views of the adults who write, sell, and review the
books? How does it demonstrate the ways in which perceptions of childhood have
developed over the centuries? How are issues of censorship and freedom of speech
brought to light in children's books?
Addressing these and many other issues, Crosscurrents of Children's Literature:
An Anthology of Texts and Criticism is the only anthology of classic and
contemporary readings in children's literature to combine primary works with
related critical essays. Organized thematically around modern critical debates,
the selections explore how children's literature integrates instruction and
entertainment, oral and written traditions, realism and fantasy, words and
pictures, classics and adaptations, and perspectives on childhood and adult
life. Illuminating the rich diversity of children's literature studies, the
book incorporates approaches from several different fields including psychology,
education, history, cultural studies, and literary criticism. It spans a wide
range of literary periods and genres, balancing contemporary and historical
texts, excerpts and longer selections, traditional and nontraditional materials,
and English and translated works. The volume includes Native American and African
American writings and offers insights into a variety of cultural and ethnic
traditions. It is enhanced by introductory essays, illustrations, an alternate
table of contents organized by genre, a timeline, and a bibliography of critical
works.
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Door Ajar: Contemporary Writers and Emily Dickinson
by Thomas Gardner
Oxford University Press, USA (August 17, 2006), 270 pages
Thomas Gardner argues in this original study that we are just beginning, as
a culture, to understand the far-reaching implications of Emily Dickinson's
work. Looking at the way quite different writers have enacted and fleshed-out
crucial aspects of her poetry, Gardner gives us a Dickinson for our times.
Beginning with the work of Lucie Brock-Broido, Alice Fulton, Kathleen Fraser,
and Robert Hass, Gardner moves on to analytical chapters and fully developed
conversations with four writers in whose work he finds the fullest extension
of Dickinson's legacy. The interviews with these four--Marilynne Robinson,
Charles Wright, Susan Howe, and Jorie Graham--provide a particularly intimate
look at writers at work.
In returning to Dickinson's work, Gardner observes, contemporary writers have
powerfully extended what he calls her poetics of broken responsiveness in which
an acknowledgment of limits leads, paradoxically, to a deep engagement with
a world beyond our capacity to master or possess. In the hands of our most
important poets and novelists, Dickinson's "emptying of the articulate
self" has become a potent means of addressing some of our culture's fundamental
erotic, religious, philosophical, and social questions. A Door Ajar makes visible
the Dickinson that will matter to writers and readers over the next several
decades.
Anti-Arab Racism in the USA: Where it Comes From and What it Means for Politics
Today
By Steven Salaita
Pluto Press (April 10, 2006) 264 pages
Today is a difficult time to be both Arab and American. Since 9/11 there has
been a lot of criticism of America¹s involvement in the middle east. Yet
there has been little analysis of how America treats citizens of Arab or middle
eastern origin within its own borders.
Steven Salaita explores the reality of Anti-Arab racism in America. He blends
personal narrative, theory and polemics to show how this deep-rooted racism
affects everything from legislation to cultural life, shining a light on the
consequences of Anti-Arab racism both at home and abroad.
Uniquely, the book shows how ingrained racist attitudes can be found within
the progressive movements on the political left, as well as the right. Salaita
argues that, under the guise of patriotism, Anti-Arab racism fuels support
for policies such as the Patriot Act.
Salaita breaks down the façade of Anti-Arab racism with an insightful
analysis, arguing for the urgency of a commitment to openness and inclusion
in today¹s political climate.
Federico Fellini as Auteur: Seven Aspects of His Films
By John C. Stubbs
Southern Illinois University Press, 2006, 304 pages
Federico Fellini as Auteur: Seven Aspects of His Films offers a comprehensive
auteurist study of the renowned Italian director. Film scholar John C. Stubbs
dispenses with a traditional film-career review of the man and instead organizes
his discussion of Fellini’s films into seven categories. The volume focuses
retrospectively on the key elements of the filmmaker’s style, the influence
of Carl Jung and dreams, the autobiographical depiction of childhood and adolescence,
the portrait of the artist, the filmmaker’s working relationship with
his wife, Fellini’s comic strategies, and his adaptation of works by
others. Each of the aspects is fully contextualized.
Reading Culture: Contexts for Critical Reading and Writing (6th Edition)
By Diana George and John Trimbur
Longman, 2006
Acclaimed for its compelling readings and provocative images, Reading Culture
provides students with outstanding instruction on how to read and write critically
about the culture that surrounds them.
Benefits by examining how culture organizes social experiences and shapes
our identities.
Reading the News, Storytelling, Topics on work, Public Space readings. General
Interest, Improving Writing
Technical Editing (4th Edition)
By Carolyn Rude
Longman, 2006
Technical Editing takes a comprehensive approach to editing and defining
editorial responsibility in terms of information design and the overall effectiveness
of a document in helping readers understand and complete tasks. Expanding the
concept of editing from a narrow focus on sentence-level revisions for correctness,
this book encourages students to think about the effects of word choices, sentences,
organization and design. Students learn that the measure of a “good” document
is in part outside that document, in the document’s “match” to
the users' needs and the author's goals. This market-leading text has been
thoroughly revised to reflect recent changes in technology, workplace practices
and the global marketplace. The book progresses from concepts and basic copyediting
to comprehensive editing, management and production issues. Coverage now includes
a new chapter on client projects.
Loving Mountains, Loving Men
By Jeff Mann
Ohio University Press (November 15, 2005)
Loving Mountains, Loving Men is the first book-length treatment of
a topic rarely discussed or examined before: gay life in Appalachia. Appalachians
are known for their love of place, yet many gays and lesbians from the mountains
flee to urban areas. Jeff Mann tells the story of one who left and then returned,
who insists on claiming and celebrating both regional and erotic identities.
In memoir and poetry, Mann describes his life as an openly gay man who has
remained true to his mountain roots. Mann first describes his upbringing in
Hinton, a small town in southern West Virginia, as well as his realization
of his homosexuality, his early experiences of homophobia, his coterie of supportive
lesbian friends, and his initial attempts to escape his native region in hopes
of finding a freer life in urban gay communities. Mann depicts his difficult
search for a romantic relationship, the family members who have given him the
strength to defy convention, his anger against religious intolerance and the
violence of homophobia, and his love for the rich folk culture of the Highland
South. His character and values shaped by the mountains, Mann has reconciled
his homosexuality with both traditional definitions of Appalachian manhood
and his own attachment to home and kin. Loving Mountains, Loving Men is
the compelling, universal story of making peace with oneself and the wider
world.
A Place in the Story: Servants
and Service in Shakespeare's Plays
By Linda Anderson, University of Delaware Press, 2005,
This book explores the virtues Shakespeare made of the cultural necessities
of servants and service. Although all of Shakespeare's plays feature servants
as characters, and many of these characters play prominent roles, surprisingly
little attention has been paid to them or to the concept of service. A Place
in the Story is the first book-length overview of the uses Shakespeare makes
of servant-characters and the early modern concept of service. Service was
not only a fact of life in Shakespeare's era, but also a complex ideology.
The book discusses service both as an ideal and an insult, examines how servants
function in the plays, and explores the language of service. Other topics include
loyalty, advice, messengers, conflict, disobedience, and violence. Servants
were an intrinsic part of early modern life and Shakespeare found servant-characters
and the concept of service useful in many different ways.
Rosa
By Nikki Giovanni, Bryan Collier (Illustrator), Henry Holt & Co. (BYR),
September 15, 2005, 40 pages
From School Library Journal
Grade 3-5–Rosa Parks's personal story moves quickly into a summary of
the Civil Rights movement in this striking picture book. Parks is introduced
in idealized terms. She cares for her ill mother and is married to one of the
best barbers in the county. Sewing in an alterations department, Rosa Parks
was the best seamstress. Her needle and thread flew through her hands like
the gold spinning from Rumpelstiltskin's loom. Soon the story moves to her
famous refusal to give up her seat on the bus, but readers lose sight of her
as she waits to be arrested. Giovanni turns to explaining the response of the
Women's Political Caucus, which led to the bus boycott in Montgomery. A few
events of the movement are interjected–the Supreme Court decision in Brown
v. Board of Education, the aftermath and reactions to the murder of Emmett
Till, the role of Martin Luther King, Jr., as spokesperson. Collier's watercolor
and collage scenes are deeply hued and luminous, incorporating abstract and
surreal elements along with the realistic figures. Set on colored pages, these
illustrations include an effective double foldout page with the crowd of successful
walkers facing a courthouse representing the 1956 Supreme Court verdict against
segregation on the buses. Many readers will wonder how it all went for Parks
after her arrest, and there are no added notes. Purposeful in its telling,
this is a handsome and thought-provoking introduction to these watershed acts
of civil disobedience.–Margaret Bush, SimmonsCollege, Boston
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
All rights reserved.
Wolf Point (Hardcover)
By Edward Falco
Unbridled Books (October 15, 2005) 234 pages
Wolf Point (Paperback)
By Edward Falco
Unbridled Books (August 10, 2006), 240 pages
From Publishers Weekly
Thomas "T" Walker is a 57-year-old businessman trying to put his
life together after downloading a questionable photo from the Internet and
getting busted for child pornography. Driving from Virginia to Canada, Walker,
against his better judgment, picks up young couple Jenny and Lester in New
York. The seductive Jenny immediately begins flirting with Walker; Walker responds;
Lester provides slow-burn menace. Slowly, the couple give Walker their story:
they are fleeing a Tennessee drug dealer from whom Lester has stolen (and lost)
$40,000. Jenny's advances get increasingly overt; Lester's jealousy matches
them. As Walker drives on toward their destination, a cabin at Wolf Point near
Ontario Bay, Falco gets considerable mileage probing Walker's psyche as he
contemplates past mistakes, while Jenny hints at the possibility of a serious
relationship and Lester tries to extract a lump sum from the once-successful
Walker for a payoff. The intriguing climax features a series of not quite smoothly
foreshadowed revelations about Jenny's past and her relationship with Lester,
along with a shooting that may spell the end of this uncomfortable ménage.
Falco, whose selected stories were published by Unbridled in May as Sabbath
Night in the Church of the Piranha, delivers a solid, small-scale thriller. (Oct.
18)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Booklist
Falco, author of the much-praised short-story collection, Sabbath Night in
the Church of the Piranha (2005), offers a compelling novel about
the darker side of humanity and delves pointedly into the complexities of human
sexuality. Falco's sentient approach leaves the reader thoughtfully disturbed
rather than pointlessly horrified by these thematic explorations. Tom "T" Walker,
Jenny, and Lester are companions in this tale of vicarious adventure, with
darkness and pain being the desired experience. T is the voyeur. He is seeking
escape from his own suffering and does so by offering Jenny and Lester, two
overtly dangerous-looking hitchhikers, a ride. With clean and precise prose,
the three lives are written easily into the landscape of contemporary American
problems: drug addiction, sexual abuse, and extreme family dysfunction. The
climax is filled with unbearable tension, and the temptation is strong to skip
ahead to see who lives. Upon reflection, the reader will experience the novel
both as thriller and social commentary. Andrea Japzon
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This
text refers to the Hardcover edition.
- The Anguish of Displacement
- Crosscurrents of Children's
Literature
An Anthology of Texts and Criticism - A Door Ajar: Contemporary Writers and Emily Dickinson
- Anti-Arab Racism in the USA: Where it Comes From and What it Means for Politics Today
- Federico Fellini as Auteur: Seven Aspects of His Films
- Reading Culture: Contexts for Critical Reading and Writing
- Technical Editing
- Loving Mountains, Loving Men
- A Place in the Story: Servants and Service in Shakespeare's Plays
- Rosa
- Wolf Point