The present "crisis of leadership" in the United States presidency owes much to a communication environment that undermines the politician's ability to behave like and be perceived as a traditional "great leader." Through constant electronic coverage politicians' freedom to isolate themselves from their audience has been…

The purposes of this collection of 15 essays on specific works of fiction for children and adolescents are threefold: to explore some of the similarities and differences in fiction for children in England and the United States; to point out some of the qualities of American literature that are of particular interest to children in England and to…

The literature of Polish, Greek and Italian American women has been largely neglected in the American literary tradition. Through an analysis of female characters in a number of white ethnic autobiographical novels, this paper stresses the importance of an awareness of women's struggles which coincide with immigration history. It also points out…

Because President Lyndon Johnson understood well the publicity value of the American news media, he sought to exploit them. He saw reporters as "torch bearers" for his programs and policies and used the presidential press conference chiefly for promotional purposes. Although he met with reporters often, his press conferences were usually…

Following the slave uprising led by Nat Turner in 1831, the change in public sentiment compelled Virginians to speak openly in public and in the legislature about the institution they had guarded long in silence. The effect of Turner's insurrection was further conditioned by the growing sectional antagonism between the eastern and western portions…

This paper is concerned with determining the influences of biographers' gender on the content of biographies of women. The following questions are addressed: Do some treatments of subjects produce feminist or sexist biographies? What are the principal characteristics of both forms? Which, if any, of these features combine to result in identifiable…

Growing from an awareness of the significant increase in the number of professional books in the field of children's literature, this bibliography has been compiled to meet the needs of teachers, librarians, parents, and others interested in children and their books. The books selected represent new publications (since 1967) and revisions of or…

Heterosexism, as defined in this paper, designates those central social structures that advocate heterosexuality as the only natural sexual interest. The cluster of social mores that constitute heterosexist attitudes is defined and described, with illustrations from various contexts showing both the subtle and the overt ways in which these…

Two speeches by Betty Friedan, author of "The Feminine Mystique" and first president of the National Organization for Women (NOW), are examined in this paper. The first speech analyzed, "Tokenism and the Pseudo-Radical Cop-Out," was delivered at Cornell University in January, 1969, and the second, a "Call to Women's Strike…

After presenting a chronological account of United States military documentary films from World War I through the Vietnam War, this paper reports on a study that compared the effectiveness of films prepared during World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. The first section, the chronological account, touches on such subjects as the…

More than 5,400 entries are included in this first attempt to cite and classify all English language books, monographs, and dissertations about film that appeared from 1940 to 1975. Intended as a source of information about existing film books and as a tool for researching available literature on any film topic, the bibliography uses ten basic…

The result of an exhaustive review of literature on the subject of film audiences, this bibliography is intended to provide film scholars with a reference tool, to act as an impetus for renewed research interest in the often neglected areas of film audience uses and gratifications, and to provide an update to UNESCO's 1961 bibliography concerning…

The "individual forming meaning with a text" is a private and fundamental semiotic process involving relationships among text, individual, and meaning. Prior to an individual's use of language for aesthetic purposes lies the presupposition of the aesthetic language act--that the individual approaches the text expecting to work and be rewarded.…

Experience in evaluating responses to poetry in the Advanced Placement Examination can offer guidelines for the effective testing of students on poetry without reducing their interest in the art. For advanced secondary or first-year college students, teachers should avoid approaches and tests that are concerned with (1) extraneous biographical,…

Sojourner Truth's "Ain't I a Woman?" speech is presented in this paper and shown to be an effective vehicle for helping students discover the power of language and of literature. The paper first discusses the potentially destructive way English teachers sometimes tell students about "hidden meanings" in long and complex works…