The syllabus for science fiction course offered Spring 2021 in the English Department at Davidson College.

The syllabus for science fiction course offered Spring 2021 in the English Department at Davidson College.

Birds are everywhere in nineteenth-century American literature, including the work of Emily Dickinson. Women poets often referred to their poems in terms of making songs. This essay rethinks the birds in Dickinson’s letters and poems. It suggests that Dickinson’s birds, and their songs, show her awareness of business. They exist within com…[Read more]

Introduction to a special issue on Renaissance post-humanism and its afterlives.

This autoethnographic exploration, describes and reflects upon my attempt to crowdsource a modern myth on the origins of racism in America. It draws on my work in narrative studies with a special focus on stories and their role in human development. Part one is analysis of the ‘functions’ of story as both plot variables and sociological act…[Read more]

This article is a slightly revised version of a plenary panel address presented at the ‘Passages’ Symposium at the Sorbonne, Paris on the 12th of June 2019, in honor of the centenary of the birth of the American poet Robert Duncan. The article traces some of the mutual interest and influence between the poets Robert Duncan and Hilda Doolittle…[Read more]

In this paper we examine the representation of crafts in video games, particularly in “crafting systems” – collections of mechanics that are described as crafting within a game’s narrative. Real world crafting practitioners value creativity, expression, and mastery of material, but the act of crafting itself is often viewed by society as repro…[Read more]

Often described as an open-air prison, the citizens of the Gaza Strip have long resisted a subaltern existence. Conditions in Gaza, and specifically since the Second Intifada of 2000, have increasingly worsened. With the advent of Hamas in 2006-2007, a complete blockade was imposed on the Strip. A deafening silence by the world has resulted in…[Read more]

This article appeared in the journal American Studies, 32.1 (Spring 1991): 85-100. The article examines a poetics of the mathematically sublime as it relates to the design and play of the American game of baseball. There is some commentary on literature and cultural sudies as well as the history and rules of baseball. There is no DOI for the…[Read more]

This commemorative and retrospective memoir examines events fifty years ago in the interests of tracking and placing the editorial ideals and dynamics of the journal “Works & Days”, founded in 1978 and published through 2019. The author was one of the original co-founders of the journal, as well as a contributor and member of the editorial board…[Read more]

This article is a sustained profile and study of prominent Northern Irish poet Sinead Morrissey’s complete run of work from the 1990s through 2018. The article examines closely the developing course of her poetry as well as the developing itinerary of her poetics, especially in the light of her transatlantic poetics as well as local and…[Read more]

With the support of recent theorizing in evolutionary biology and anthropology, this essay refurbishes the term archetype for reuse, recognizing that it signals a painful cognitive failure. Examples are taken from The Terminator movies and pictures of the annunciation to Mary.

The article discusses the relationship among philosophical and cognitive theories of understanding intentionality, pointing to particular strengths and weaknesses which bear on their usefulness to literary studies. My claim is that their gaps and their complementarity can be seen with particular clarity when they are used to describe interpretive…[Read more]