This paper looks at the phenomenon of upward mobility through education from a comparative and historical perspective. Pierre Bourdieu referred to upwardly mobile individuals in France as the miraculous ("les miraculés"), oblates ("oblats"), or, less often, defectors ("transfuges"). A difficulty with applying a theory…

The authors of this paper argue that to promote multicultural education, multicultural literature can be a very useful tool. Since the ultimate goal of multicultural education is to achieve a more equal and more inclusive society, the literature of Southeast Asia, regarded as the true "minority" literature, should be seriously taken into…

This dissertation examines the rise of the creative writing program in American higher education and considers its influence on contemporary American poetry. I investigate how the patronage of the university has impacted American poetry and reconfigured the contemporary literary landscape. Using Mark McGurl's (2009) groundbreaking research on…

2009 is the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth. Naturally, historians are thrilled. But what about their discipline? Why and how might Lincoln matter to English studies? In this article, the authors reflect on Lincoln and his influence on English studies. They argue that Lincoln has played or can play an important role in the college English…

Thirty years ago, every American academic going on a research trip or a sabbatical to England carried a copy of David Lodge's comic classic, "Changing Places" (1975), which told a tale of two 40-year-old professors of English literature and two embattled campuses in the eventful spring of 1969. An ineffectual British academic, Philip…

A report from Common Core finds that many of America's high school students do not possess the basic knowledge they need to succeed in the world. The report shows that, twenty-five years after the publication of the landmark study, "A Nation at Risk," America's children continue to demonstrate a stunning ignorance about basic facts of America's…

A critical analysis of Joseph Heller's "Catch-22" and of the doctrine of Absurdism. (DD)

Analyzes the "deconstructive" literary criticism of J. Hillis Miller and the opposition between it and other schools of criticism. (DD)

In this article, the author contends that the vast majority of American historians no longer regard American culture--whether high culture or mainstream popular culture--as an essential area of study. The much-vaunted culture turn in the humanities has run its course in one of the first disciplines it influenced. Indeed, most of the books today…

Argues that enjoyment rather than instruction should be the basis for a critical evaluation of literature and that only a class-structuredsociety perceives a need to rank literature in a hierarchal order from high art to popular art. (RB)

In addition to such writers as William Faulkner, Flannery O'Connor, Carson McCullers, and Eudora Welty, a good course in modern Southern fiction should include black writers such as Zora Hurston, Nella Larsen, Jean Toomer, Richard Wright, Maya Angelou, and Alice Walker. (MKM)

Analyzes several poems to reveal the main canon of contemporary poetic style and the limitations it imposes on contemporary poets. (DD)

Argues that the combined lessons of critical theory, classroom practice, and contemporary history dictate not only a revision of the curriculum and pedagogy of "American" literature courses, but a forceful uprooting of the conceptual model defining the field itself. Suggests the construction of a multicultural and dialogical paradigm for…

Examines several poems by Walt Whitman which serve as an appropriate conclusion to the first half of a survey course in American literature. (RB)