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"Charles W. Chesnutt and The Race Question at the Turn of the TwentiethCentury" Syllabus

Recently, I just finished reading Charles W. Chesnutt’s “The Future American” (1900) and The Quarry (1928) for a paper I am writing. As I read Chesnutt’s last novel, I started to think about a possible syllabus that would use Chesnutt as a focal point to explore “the race question” at the turn of the twentieth century. I have posted syllabi such as “African American Crime … Read More "Charles W. Chesnutt and The Race Question at the Turn of the TwentiethCentury" Syllabus

Some Thoughts about Amelia E. Johnson’s "Clarence and Corinne; or, God’s Way"

Recently, I wrote about Paul Laurence Dunbar’s The Love of Landry (1900), a novel that focuses on white characters and the frontier. Along those same lines, I want to briefly discuss another novel from the late nineteenth century by an African American author that focuses on non-racialized characters. Amelia Johnson’s Clarence and Corinne; or, God’s Way (1890) originally appeared as a religious tract published … Read More Some Thoughts about Amelia E. Johnson’s "Clarence and Corinne; or, God’s Way"

"Star Wars: The Force Awakens" and the Antebellum Slave Narrative

Back in October, I wrote about the controversy from some sectors that arose when the trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens appeared on Monday Night Football. With the distance of a few months, and upon recently watching the film again, I want to provide a possible way of looking at this film in regards to American literary history. As I sat at home … Read More "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" and the Antebellum Slave Narrative

Mold, Spores, and The Planetary South: Further Comments on "Adjust Your Maps: Manifestos from, for, and about United States Southern Studies"

Last post, I wrote about a couple of the manifestos on Southern Studies that appear in the current issue of PMLA. Today, I want to continue this discussion by exploring a couple more manifestos, most notably Katharine Burnett’s and R. Scott Heath’s pieces. These essays reach back, to a period typically overlooked, and forward, from a new, interplanetary viewpoint. Here, I want to comment … Read More Mold, Spores, and The Planetary South: Further Comments on "Adjust Your Maps: Manifestos from, for, and about United States Southern Studies"

Tim Gautreaux’s "Dancing with the One-Armed Gal" and Education

In the past, I have written about education in Tim Gautreaux’s “Welding With Children” and “Misuse of Light.” Today, I want to briefly write about the way he explores ideas of identity in relation to the academy in  “Dancing with the One-Armed Gal,” the concluding story of Gautreaux’s short story collection Welding With Children (1999). In the story, Iry Boudreaux gets laid off from … Read More Tim Gautreaux’s "Dancing with the One-Armed Gal" and Education