| August 2005
Film | History | Literature | Visual Arts
Film
G1 - Bulworth and the New American Left
Swirski, Peter
The Journal of American Culture, Vol. 28, #3, September 2005, pp293-301
The author reviews examples of American political cinema and finds that, although there are many films that have political topics and many actors who are not shy about airing their political opinions in public, “political is OK as long as it’s not really political and engaged, especially from the point of view of a studio producer.” He also maintains that Michael Moore has kindled interest in partisan involvement and political moviemaking, making them seem not only fashionable, but almost fun. Peter Swirski heads American Studies at Hong Kong University. Fulltext
G2 - The Wrath of God: Hollywood Religious Epics and American Cold War Policy
Torry, Robert
The Arizona Quarterly, Summer 2005, v61, #2, pp67-99
“The advent of atomic power encouraged among religious thinkers widespread discussion of both millennial disaster and millennial grace. While liberal Protestant and Catholic theologians addressed the moral quandaries resulting from the use of atomic bomb to destroy thousands of noncombatants and the question of total war in general, the opponents of modernist theology discerned in the bomb proof of the error-ridden bankruptcy of the liberal theological mainstream. In this light, Torry offers his views by relating Hollywood religious epics to American Cold War policy.” Robert Torry is Associate Professor of English and Adjunct Professor of Religion at the University of Wyoming. He teaches American literature and film. Fulltext
History
G3 - The Ethics of Realism
Hulsman, John C.; Lieven, Anatol
The National Interest, Summer 2005, #80, pp37-44
“With the passing of George Kennan, the last living member of the most successful foreign policy team in modern American history has left the stage. Kennan, Charles Bohlen, Robert Lovett, George Marshall, Dean Acheson and Harry Truman -- these are the giants who set the United States on the road to victory in the Cold War. The containment doctrine they developed was followed in one form or another until the collapse of the Soviet Union. Rarely in history has such analytical brilliance led to such wise policy recommendations being followed over such a long period of time.” John C. Hulsman Council on Foreign Relations, contributing editor to The National Interest. Anatol Lieven, New America Foundation.Fulltext
G4 - Building the Bomb
Bird, Kai; Sherwin, Martin J.
Smithsonian, August 2005, v36, #5, pp.88-97
Bird and Sherwin describe the life and works of atomic scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer. They chart the secret debate over the deployment of the first A-bomb and the anxiety that suffused its first live test. In 1942, Oppenheimer joined a select group of physicists investigating the development of an atomic bomb and chose Los Alamos as their "secret city" housing of 6,000 men and women. Everyone at Los Alamos in a position to have an informed opinion agreed that without Oppenheimer's extraordinary leadership, atomic bombs would not have been completed in time to be used during the war. Kai Bird is the author of three books of 20th-century American history. Martin J. Sherwin is a professor of English and American history at Tufts University. Fulltext
Literature
G5 - “The Reality of the Unseen”: Shared Fictions and Religious Experience in the Ghost Stories of Henry James
Lewis, Pericles
The Arizona Quarterly, Summer 2005, v61, #2, pp33-68
“The ambiguous relationship between a traditional notion of the ‘supernatural’ and an emergent modern conception of the ‘unconscious’ in Henry James' fiction has generated a great deal of critical debate about his ghost stories. This very ambiguity points to ways in which James' psychological and novelistic explorations continue to invoke structures of feeling and experience associated with religion. In this regard, Lewis takes a thorough look in the shared fictions and religious experience in the ghost stories of the famous writer.” Pericles Lewis is Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Yale University. Fulltext
G6 - Reading the Techno-Ethnic Other in Don DeLillo’s White Noise
Basu, Biman
The Arizona Quarterly, Summer 2005, v61, #2, pp87-114
“People might best describe the technological component of the techno-ethnic as a disaggregating procedure, a numerical seizure, which will increasingly be turned from the space of production to the body of the worker and his/her home life and to the population at large. At about the turn of the next century, this numerical grid placed on the space of production is intensified, and made decidedly American, in Taylorist-Fordist practices by the implementation of technology on the body. Basu relates the scenario to Don DeLillo's White Noise, a novel about a conflict between genealogy and hermeneutics, two methods of reading the body and the body politic, the libidinal economy of the individual body and the political economy of the social body.” Biman Basu is Associate Professor in the Department of English at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Geneva, New York. Fulltext
G7 - Gertrude Stein and Zionism
Will, Barbara
Modern Fiction Studies, Summer 2005, v51, #2, pp437-457
“Will discusses Gertrude Stein's works on proposing that Jewishness was indeed important to her life and writing, although what ‘Jewishness’ meant to her was by no means consistent or unambiguous. Jewishness is hardly insignificant to an analysis of Stein's oeuvre, but it is not a topic that yields easy, or even necessarily conclusive, answers.” Barbara Will is an associate professor in the English Department at Dartmouth College. Fulltext
G8- Murder on the Cape
Johnson, Sarah Anne
The Writer, September 2005, v118, #9, pp20-24
“Johnson presents an interview with Maria Flook who has become known for mining the dark corners of murder, love and loss on the outer coast of Cape Cod, where she lives in Truro MA. Among other things, she talks about how she seeks deeper meaning in the dark corners of life on Cape Cod, and stirs debate with her blending of fact and fiction.” Sarah Anne Johnson is a contributing editor to The Writer and author of Conversations with American Women Writers and The Art of the Author Interview. Fulltext
G9 -
A Novelist in Spite of Himself
Kiem, Elizabeth
Poets & Writers, July-August 2005, v33, #4, pp42-48
“Kiem profiles author George Singleton. Singleton, who has written three books of short stories in the last five years, has recently published his first novel titled Novel.” Elizabeth Kiem reads and writes in Brooklyn, New York. Fulltext
G10 -
Departures and Returns
Merrill, Christopher
Poets & Writers, July-August 2005, v33, #4, pp36-43
“Merrill profiles poet W. S. Merwin who has has been writing poems for fifty years. He has recently released a collection of over four hundred poems.” Christopher Merrill’s books include Things of the Hidden God: Journey to the Holy Mountain. He directs the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. Fulltext
G11- First-Fiction Annual
Hughes, Carolyn T.
Poets & Writers, July-August 2005, v33, #4, pp56-65
“Hughes presents the profiles of up-and-coming fiction writers and excerpts of their works. These writers are Tash Aw, Daphne Kalotay, Emily Raboteau, Lavanya Sankaran, and Scott Wolven.” Carolyn T. Hughes is a contributing editor of Poets & Writers Magazine. Fulltext
Visual Arts
G12 - A Portrait of the Visual Arts: Meeting the Challenges of a New Era
McCarthy, Kevin F. et al.
RAND Corporation, 2005, online edition, 152p
"The third in a series that examines the state of the arts in America, this analysis shows, in addition to lines around the block for special exhibits, well-paid superstar artists, flourishing university visual arts programs, and a global expansion of collectors, developments in the visual arts also tell a story of rapid, even seismic change, systemic imbalances, and dislocation." Fulltext
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