The Midwest Quarterly: A Journal of Contemporary Thought
Contents
ARTICLES
Em'ly in the Cuckoo's Nest
Expressionist Contours in Sherwood Anderson's Fiction
Who's A Fool? A Rereading of Sherwood Anderson's "I'm A Fool"
Mark Twain in Venice
W. S. Merwin and the Primordial Elements: Mapping the Journey to Mythic Consciousness
Edward Dorn: The Cynical Midwesterner as Poet
HOLDING BACK THE SUN:
Poems by Jeanne Murray Walker
The Year We Won The Championship
How Delila Was Cured Of Her Madness
Civics
The Holy Ghost Comes Down
Manners: Home Ec 102
Punishment
Against Death
Miss Gifford, The Music Teacher, Who Also Taught Home Room
What Happened Next
Criminal Heart
Why She Wore A Thimble
Jonah And The Whale
Mary Ellen Again
Learning About Miss Gifford's Death
Where Miss Gifford Is Kept
REVIEW
Todd Gitlin; The Twilight of Common Dreams: Why
America Is Wracked by Culture Wars
Abstract
SONYA YVETTE ALVARADO shows the similarities between Owen Wister's Em'ly and Dolly, a hen and a schoolmarm characterized as unnatural for their independence and rejection of motherhood, and the women in Ken's Kesey's One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, a collection of castrating wives and nurses. Author of an article on David Mamet's "Glengarry Glenn Ross," Alvarado is currently a doctoral student in the Department of English at Texas Tech University, where she teaches Studies in Dramatic Literature, and is researching the use of computers and the Internet as tools in teaching literature.
FRED MADDEN contends that the influence of Expressionism, in particular both Alfred Stieglitz's photographs and Vassily Kandinsky's paintings and their views on art, can be seen in the fiction of Sheiwood Anderson. This view Madden explains with reference to specific characters and actions in Anderson's writings. Associate Professor of English at Ithaca College in New York, Madden has published articles on Conrad, Kesey, Poe, and Carroll.
TOM HANSEN convincingly demonstrates that critics of Sheiwood Anderson's "I'm A Fool" have all missed the point of the story, even of the title itself, for it is the narrator engaged in self-puffery who becomes the victim of his own lies when he becomes infatuated with a young lady he will never see again and is himself played for a fool. Hansen teaches at Northern State University in Aberdeen, South Dakota. His poems, reviews, and essays have appeared in The Hollins Critic, College English, The Florida Review, The Iowa Review, and others.
JEANNE MURRAY WALKER has been a frequent contributor of poetry to The Midwest Quarterly. Her most recent series, "The Aunt Joe Poems," appeared in the Spring, 1993, issue. This fall Copper Beech Press will bring out her fifth book of poems, Inventing America. Also a successful playwright, Walker has had plays produced in New York and London and is currently writing plays on commission for theaters in Philadelphia and Delaware. Walker lives in Philadelphia and teaches literature and writing at the University of Delaware.
GORMAN BEAUCHAMP explores Mark Twain's travels in Italy, and particularly in Venice, with the same eye Twain employed: looking as much at the traveler as at the sights encountered and perceived. Beauchamp makes it clear that what readers of The Innocents Abroad learn most about is Twain himself. Associate Professor of Humanities and of English (Adjunct) at the University of Michigan, Beauchamp has published a book on Jack London and more than fifty articles on subjects ranging from Shakespeare to science fiction, two of which appeared previously in The Midwest Quarterly. At present he is writing a book on dystopian fiction.
SANDRA M. GUY discusses poet W. S. Merwin's use of the four primordial elements, Earth, Air, Water, and Fire, as four different states of being and as outposts on the road to "mythic consciousness." Now finishing her doctorate and teaching composition at Lehigh University, Guy is currently researching archetypes and folk beliefs as they appear in Old and Middle English literature, along with her continuing study of W. S. Merwin's mythic and Jungian motifs.
KEVIN BEZNER examines the contrary voice of poet Edward Dom, one of the few contemporary poets who has engaged public issues. Bezner teaches at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. He has published articles on contemporary poetry and poets in a number of journals.
DAVID D. COOPER, who teaches at Michigan State University, is currently Acting Director of the American Studies Program.
ANNOUNCING THE ANNUAL VICTOR J. EMMETT, JR., MEMORIAL PRIZE AND LECTURE
The editors of The Midwest Quarterly invite submission of articles on any aspect of Victorian and Modem British Literature, Literary Criticism, and the Teaching of Literature, to be considered for the annual Emmett Memorial Prize. The winning author will receive an honorarium and will be invited to Pittsburg State University to deliver the annual Emmett Memorial Lecture. The late Victor J. Emmett, Jr., was for many years Professor of English at Pittsburg State University and this journal's Editor-in-Chief.
Permissions to Use
In accordance with database agreements, the full text of the issue is not available for download. Pittsburg State Digital Commons has only provided the front matter for author and publication information.
Recommended Citation
Alvarado, Sonya Yvette; Madden, Fred; Hansen, Tom; Beauchamp, Gorman; Guy, Sandra M.; Bezner, Kevin; Walker, Jeanne Murray; Cooper, David D.; and Midwest Quarterly Editors
(1997)
"The Midwest Quarterly; Vol. 38 No. 4,"
The Midwest Quarterly: A Journal of Contemporary Thought: Vol. 38:
Iss.
4, Article 1.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.pittstate.edu/mwq/vol38/iss4/1