bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Mollie Skinner: D. H. Lawrence's Australian Catalyst
Authors: Gay Harriet
Published: June 2010

This article is about Lawrence's co-author of The Boy in the Bush . It tells the story of the Volunteer Aid Detachment Nurse who, in spite of her handicaps, broke out of her role in society to become a travelling nurse as well as a novelist and journalist. She became a permanent name in literature as the result of a chance encounter with Lawrence in 1922, and the article shows what sort of a person she was, and what there was about her background that went into the makings of the book.
Popular and Super-Pop Biographies: Definitions and Distinctions
Authors: Bloom Lynn Z.
Published: June 2010

By defining popular and super-pop biographies as discrete categories, this article identifies key differences between these sub-genres, along such dimensions as choice of subjects, characterization of subjects (including number and characteristics of roles, and aspects of personality), uses and acknowledgments of sources, literary style, and intended audience.
Current Bibliography on Life-Writing
Authors: Winslow Donald J. , Bennett Kathleen A.
Published: June 2010

Garnered from scores of journal and publisher's lists, this annotated bibliography includes books and articles about biography, autobiography, and related aspects of life writing in British and American publications during 1979-1980. The survey indicates that while psychobiography continues to be popular, women and ethnic studies are growing topics of interest.
Journey to the Edge of History: Narrative Form in Mabel Dodge Luhan's Intimate Memories
Authors: Nelson Jane
Published: June 2010

In Intimate Memories Luhan combines the forms of spiritual confession and journey from East to West to depict a three-part journey to the Atlantis of Taos. She portrays her life prior to salvation as a series of personae-the Renaissance queen in Europe and the revolutionary in New York. She ends her biography with the discovery of her "real" self.
Braving the Mirror: Virginia Woolf as Autobiographer
Authors: Griffin Gail B.
Published: June 2010

For Virginia Woolf, a self-portraiture was a dangerous challenge. Her autobiographical sketches, published as Moments of Being , strike a delicate balance between the outer world of the family, places, and events, and the inner world of the impression and perception. Her approach is characteristic at once of her Victorian forebears and of her own novels.
Language and Habits of Thought: Biographical Notes on E. G. Whitlam
Authors: Walter James
Published: June 2010

Distinctive patterns of language use can be taken to reflect an individual's habits of thought. They can thus prove the biographers key to the inner life of a subject. This article takes E. G. Whitlam, a former Australian Prime Minister, as its subject, and considers the manner in which analysis of his language suggests a resolution of the paradoxes that have baffled previous biographers.
Why Clarendon Served the Stuarts
Authors: Brownley Martine Watson
Published: June 2010

A central biographical problem in Clarendon's career is the question of how a man of his personal integrity and political principles managed to devote his efforts to two kings with characters and policies antithetical to his own. Delineation of Clarendon's attitudes toward his service offers insights into his character which illuminate the private man behind the public figure.
Mormon Biography
Authors: Bitton Davis
Published: June 2010

As a group within the larger population, the Mormons (members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) have enormous potential as subjects of biography and autobiography. To date the potential has been only partially fulfilled, but there are promising signs on the horizon.
Jacques Chevalier, Bergsonism, and Modern French Catholic Intellectuals
Authors: Hellman John
Published: June 2010

One of the most remarkable, influential, and unknown initiatives in modern French intellectual life was the effort by Jacques Chevalier to provide a total intellectual and spiritual formation for an elite among his students. This initiative, inspired by Henri Bergson's philosophy, helped form several individuals who later had great influence on French Catholic thought.
America Discovers Columbus: Biography as Epic, Drama, History
Authors: Kenney Alice P.
Published: June 2010

Joel Barlow's epic The Columbiad first depiaed Columbus' discovery as the starting point of American history. Washington Irving and William Hickling Prescott presented the discoverer as a dramatic hero like those of Shakespeare and Scott. Samuel Eliot Morrison's biography uses exhaustive historical research to support a narrative of epic sweep and dramatic power. The Columbian quincentennial can promote study and celebration of Hispanic-American traditions.
F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Cumulative Portrait
Authors: White Richard L.
Published: June 2010

A consecutive and comparative reading of the biographies of F. Scott Fitzgerald not only provides a cumulative portrait of the biographical figure but also suggests that such a reading reveals something about our own collective psychological and critical response to that figure. In works by Mizener, Graham, Turnbull, Latham, Buttita, Milford, and Mayfield, Fitzgerald emerges as an accessible and appealing figure who, inspite of his willing participation in the role of literary celebrity, remained remarkably representative of a common experience that is familar to most of us.
The Quest for Wyndham Lewis
Authors: Meyers Jeffrey
Published: June 2010

When the self-styled Enemy emerges from obscurity, he can be seen as an intelligent and courageous artist, and one of the most stimulating forces in modern literature. As Lewis' centenary approaches, it seems just to include him in the literary mainstream with Joyce, Pound, and Eliot and, as Auden said in his elegy of Yeats, to pardon him for writing well.
Method in the Biographical Study of Virginia Woolf
Authors: Gindin James
Published: June 2010

This article discusses the example of Virginia Woolf, a figure about whom considerable material is publicly available, in an attempt to establish criteria requisite for writing literary biography. These criteria include consideration of the historical setting, connections between the life and the literary work, treatment of the writer's entire career, and awareness of the biographer's own assumptions and hypotheses.
Travelling First Class: The War Diaries of James Lees-Milne
Authors: Duckworth Alistair M.
Published: June 2010

James Lees-Milne's two volumes of diaries, Ancestral Voices and Prophesying Peace , are interesting both as a detailed and witty record of English upper-class life during the years of the Second World War and as an expression of certain class attitudes towards the war, social change, and manners generally.
The Use of Court Records in Biographical Research: A Descriptive and Prescriptive Look at the Suffolk Files
Authors: Brink Robert J.
Published: June 2010

Court records represent a relatively unknown source of reference material for the writing of American Biographical history. Using as a model the "Suffolk Files," a collection of seventeenth- through nineteenth-century Massachusetts judicial archives, Mr. Brink suggests how court records can provide scholars with a wealth of source material for the biographies of not only prominent lawyers and judges but also other figures in two-hundred years of life in America.
The Hardy-Moule Affair With a Reading of Four Hardy Poems
Authors: Buckler William E.
Published: June 2010

The relationship between the young Thomas Hardy and Horace Moule, whose blighted life ended in suicide in September 1873, has long been shadowed in mystery. Though considerably older than Hardy, Moule was unusually attentive, serving as tutor, literary counselor, and psychological reinforcer during some of the most stressful phases of Hardy's efforts to shape his maturity and realize his ambitions as a writer. Based on the known biographical facts and on a reading of four Hardy poems, this essay suggests that the relationship had a strong, if one-sided, erotic component which was the source of much personal anxiety to Hardy, but which he gradually dealt with in poems that, though very oblique, are impeccably honest.
BIOGRAPHY: A Manifesto
Authors: Edel Leon
Published: June 2010

"A Manifesto" is a demand for recognition of the art of Biography as one of the major forms of literary creation. The manifesto insists on recognition of the creative energy and skill as well as literary art involved in writing a biography worthy of the name. It urges poets and novelists to attempt the form and invites criticism, hitherto negligent, to grasp the difference between compendia biographies and the finished "life." The manifesto further urges that critics acquire precise standards for appraising biographies written as works of art.
Swinburne on Culver Cliff: The Origin of a Poetic Myth
Authors: Jordan John O.
Published: June 2010

A psychobiographical profile of Swinburne is reconstructed from the close analysis of his Culver Cliff letter. The concepts "origin" and "poetic myth" are considered from several perspectives before being applied to Swinburne's work. A psychoanalytic model of culture is tentatively developed, drawing on ideas from Bloom, Lacan, Winnicott, and Erikson. A date of composition for the Culver Cliff letter is proposed, and the letter is examined in relation to Swinburne's biography and other works which he wrote during the same period.
Problems in Writing The Life of Voltaire: Plural Methods and Conflicting Evidence
Authors: Aldridge A. Owen
Published: June 2010

Scholars have disagreed over whether emphasis should be placed on Voltaire's ideas and writings or on his personal relations, particularly his humanitarian activites and unorthodox sex life. They disagree also on the weights which should be given to his statements about himself and to statements made by contemporaries in the form of published criticism, newspaper reports and anecdotal reminiscences.
"Unravelling One's Personal Myth": Christopher Isherwood's Autobiographical Strategies
Authors: Kamel Rose
Published: June 2010

Christopher and His Kind attempts to separate Isherwood's personal history from the autobiographical fiction he wrote in the 1930s. However, his strategies backfire because the brilliantly ambiguous "Herr Issyvoo" of The Berlin Stories differs little from the considerably older narrator of his life story. Ever the puppet master, with considerable irony, Isherwood manipulates, edits, and ultimately deconstructs the self he purports to recover.
Private Lives and Public Accounts
Authors: Cottle Thomas J.
Published: June 2010

A discussion is presented of the assets and liabilities inherent in doing so-called life study research. Among the topics considered are the nature of the subjective inquiry, the limitations and advantages of phenomenological research, the unintended political implications of participant observational methods, and the problems encountered in research work with people of distinctly different backgrounds from the researcher. Finally, some words are offered regarding the meaning of the research and its merits to those "under study."
Mark Twain's Exhibitionism
Authors: Weissbourd Richard , Sears Robert R.
Published: June 2010

A content analysis of Mark Twain's letters and novels is used to measure the variations in strength of his exhibitionistic motivation over a 33 year period. Within a theoretical framework, biographical events are matched with these changes to show how they served to arouse or inhibit his attention-seeking behavior in social interaction and fantasy.
Cromwell's Personality: The Problems and Promises of a Psychohistorical Approach
Authors: Howell Roger
Published: June 2010

Cromwell's personality remains elusive. Attempts to analyze it in Freudian or neo-Freudian terms have been hindered both by the nature of the evidence and by overly-rigid application of Freudian beliefs. Arguments that Cromwell was a hypomanic are more convincing but also have evidential problems. Despite the difficulties, some aspects of Cromwell's life, including his conversion experience, could be illuminated by a psychohistorical approach.
"Our Good Friend Mr. Stevenson"
Authors: Bushnell O. A.
Published: June 2010

In May 1889, Robert Louis Stevenson visited the Leper Settlement on the island of Moloka'i in the Kingdom of Hawai'i. A newly discovered account, written by Sister Leopoldina Burns, a Franciscan nurse to leprous girls and women, reveals how Stevenson spent his afternoons there-and how her patients responded to him.
Glossary of Terms in Life-Writing Part I
Authors: Winslow Donald J.
Published: June 2010

The "Glossary" Part I, is a reference-list of terms used in connection with biography, autobiography, and other branches of life-writing. Most of the entries are based on the Oxford English Dictionary , although some are modern coinages. The "Glossary" has an unavoidable British and American bias. The author invites commentary. Part II will be published in the second issue of Biography .
The ass camouflage construction: Masks as parasitic heads
Authors: Levine Robert D.
Published: June 2010

Collins et al. 2008 offers a principles-and-parameters-based analysis of an AAVE construction first described in Spears 1998, in which nominal phrases such as John's ass appear to have exactly the same denotation, and behavior with respect to familiar conditions on anaphora, as the possessor [ John , and similarly for pronominal possessors. Agreement, however, reflects not the properties of the possessor, but of the possessed nominal ass , which belongs to a small, closed class of lexical items that behave in parallel fashion and which the authors call 'mask' nominals. Collins and colleagues convincingly argue that the class of NPs consisting of possessors attached to mask nominals have the same syntactic structure as ordinary NPs displaying (pro)nominal possessors. In order to account for the split between anaphora and agreement, however, they are apparently forced to invoke a very complex derivational mechanism that includes a lowering rule, along with a number of other highly stipulative components, in order to encompass certain related constructions. I offer a far simpler and empirically more comprehensive alternative treatment in which mask nominals are nothing more than semantically parasitic heads, based on Kathol's (1999) dichotomy between AGR (eement) and INDEX specifications within head-driven phrase structure grammar representations. Collins and colleagues adduce what they take to be empirical arguments against such an approach, but these arguments are, as I show, all predicated on a basic technical misinterpretation of the nature of indices in the HPSG syntax/semantics interface, and thus have no force. Comparison of the two approaches is interesting not only in the context of the phenomenon described by Spears, but also in terms of broader, cross-framework issues-in particular, the question of whether or not movement and feature matching are merely two alternative, interconvertible ways of expressing linkages between structurally distant categories.
Dvandvas, blocking, and the associative: The bumpy ride from phrase to word
Authors: Kiparsky Paul
Published: June 2010

The oldest form of Sanskrit has a class of expressions that are in some respects like asyndeti-cally coordinated syntactic phrases, in other respects like single compound words. I propose to resolve the conflicting evidence by drawing on prosodic phonology, stratal optimality theory, and the lexicalist approach to morphological blocking. I then present an account of the semantic properties and the historical development of these expressions. The analysis points to a solution to the theoretical problem of nonmonotonic trajectories in diachrony, a challenge for causal theories of change that claim that analogical processes are simplifying or regularizing. The idea is that optimization of such a highly structured object as a language does not proceed monotonically, but via a sequence of local optima.
What 'you' and 'I' mean to each other: Person indexicals, self-ascription, and theory of mind
Authors: Wechsler Stephen
Published: June 2010

This article offers a DE SE THEORY of person indexicals, wherein first- and second-person indexical pronouns indicate REFERENCE DE SE (also called SELF-ASCRIPTION ). Long observed for first-person pronouns (Castañeda 1977, Kaplan 1977, Perry 1979, inter alia), self-ascription is extended here to second person as well. The person feature of a pronoun specifies the speech-act roles that must be played by the self-ascribers: the speakers (uttering a first-person pronoun), the addressees (interpreting a second-person pronoun), or both (for first-person inclusive). Other agents who are not among the designated self-ascribers for a given pronoun interpret the pronoun indirectly by inferring the self-ascriber's interpretation, a process requiring THEORY OF MIND , that is, the cognitive ability to impute mental states to others (Premack & Woodruff 1978). This de se theory is supported by convergent evidence from multiple domains: (i) It explains a typological universal: first- and second-person plurals always allow associative semantics ('speaker(s) plus others', 'addressee(s) plus others') rather than requiring regular plural semantics ('speakers only', 'addressees only') (Greenberg 1988, Noyer 1992, Cysouw 2003, Bobaljik 2008). (ii) It belongs to a family of approaches that solve the problem of the essential indexical (Perry 1979). (iii) It correctly predicts observed patterns of indexical pronoun production and comprehension by two populations lacking a fully developed theory of mind: typically developing children in the stage before theory of mind has developed, and children with autism. (iv) It correctly predicts the interpretation of second-person pronouns in utterances with multiple addressees.
Cognitive constraints and island effects
Authors: Hofmeister Philip , Sag Ivan A.
Published: June 2010

Competence-based theories of island effects play a central role in generative grammar, yet the graded nature of many syntactic islands has never been properly accounted for. Categorical syntactic accounts of island effects have persisted in spite of a wealth of data suggesting that island effects are not categorical in nature and that nonstructural manipulations that leave island structures intact can radically alter judgments of island violations. We argue here, building on work by Paul Deane, Robert Kluender, and others, that processing factors have the potential to account for this otherwise unexplained variation in acceptability judgments. We report the results of self-paced reading experiments and controlled acceptability studies that explore the relationship between processing costs and judgments of acceptability. In each of the three self-paced reading studies, the data indicate that the processing cost of different types of island violations can be significantly reduced to a degree comparable to that of nonisland filler-gap constructions by manipulating a single nonstructural factor. Moreover, this reduction in processing cost is accompanied by significant improvements in acceptability. This evidence favors the hypothesis that island-violating constructions involve numerous processing pressures that aggregate to drive processing difficulty above a threshold, resulting in unacceptability. We examine the implications of these findings for the grammar of filler-gap dependencies.
"This Unparalleled and Inhuman Massacre": The Gothic, the Sacred, and the Meaning of Nat Turner
Authors: Browne Stephen Howard
Published: June 2010

Naf Turner's rebellion was the largest and most consequential act of slave resistance in American history. For critics and historians of rhetoric, it poses important questions as to how violence on such a scale gets represented and what kinds of cultural work such representations are made to do. This essay examines Thomas Gray's "The Confessions of Nat Turner" as instantiating two fundamental logics for the interpretation of violence—the Gothic and the Sacred—and suggests how each devolves on conceptions of human agency that defined antebellum efforts to comprehend a violent world.
Social Engineering, Visual Politics, and the New Deal: FSA Photography in Survey Graphic
Authors: Finnegan Cara A.
Published: June 2010

This essay engages the visual politics of New Deal rhetoric by exploring how Dorothea Lange's government photographs, appearing in the social welfare periodical "Survey Graphic" alongside an essay by progressive economist Paul Taylor, both reflect and resist the principles of social engineering grounding "Survey Graphic's" progressive discourse. Contrary to the assertions of some scholars of Depression-era visual rhetoric, I conclude that the Lange/Taylor "imagetext" should not be read as "pure propaganda" that merely visualizes the ideological aims of the state. Instead, I argue that the Lange and Taylor imagetext should be treated as a complex political discourse that both upholds and challenges "Survey Graphic's" ideology of social order and the authority of the expert.
The 1912 Election and the Rhetorical Foundations of the Liberal State
Authors: Kraig Robert Alexander
Published: June 2010

In the 1912 presidential campaign, two of the most philosophical orators in the history of the country debated the future of the American experiment at the dawn of a new era of energetic government. This article argues that they offered fundamentally different rhetorical justifications for the incipient expansion of governmental power, and that the victory of Woodrow Wilson's vision over Theodore Roosevelt's, at one of the critical moments in the nation's ideological history, continues to be felt in America's ambivalence toward active government.
The Radio Act of 1927: Progressive Ideology, Epistemology, and Praxis
Authors: Goodman Mark , Gring Mark
Published: June 2010

The Radio Act of 1927, the cornerstone of broadcasting regulation in the United States, reflects the Progressive ideology of its writers. This article explains the limited rights Progressives assigned to broadcasters when guaranteeing them "freedom of speech."
Defining Education: The Rhetorical Enactment of Ideology in A Nation at Risk
Authors: McIntush Holly G.
Published: June 2010

The 1983 release of "A Nation at Risk" by the National Commission on Excellence in Education set the agenda for education policy in the United States. This essay analyzes how the commission defined the problems facing the nations school system and how this construction framed the policy debate and thus constrained reform options. The impact of this definition for education discourse, education policy, and American society is then examined.
Dialogic Figures and Dialectical Argument in Lincoln's Rhetoric
Authors: Leff Michael , Goodwin Jean
Published: June 2010

Lincoln persistently and effectively uses a number of "dialectical" or "dialogical" figures such as prolepsis, prosopopoeia , and correctio . These figures help to frame his rhetorical texts within a universe of argument and give him the opportunity to voice and transcend positions that differ from his own. Attention to this aspect of Lincoln's rhetoric helps to explain the power of his speeches and also offers a ground for connecting rhetorical practice with contemporary scholarship in informal logic, where there is an especially keen interest in the dialectical positioning of arguments.
Lincoln's 1862 Annual Message: A Paradigm of Rhetorical Leadership
Authors: Zarefsky David
Published: June 2010

A president exercises rhetorical leadership by simultaneously respecting and challenging situational constraints. In his 1862 Annual Message, Lincoln advocates colonization of freed blacks outside the United States, yet also subtly subverts this appeal and opens rhetorical space for considering emancipation. Multivocality in this text, typified by its peroration, enables Lincoln to extend the limits of the possible.
The Paradox of Lincoln's Rhetorical Leadership
Authors: Wilson Kirt H.
Published: June 2010

Abraham Lincoln's greatest moment of leadership was the Emancipation Proclamation. Although the Proclamation is the subject of sharp criticism, it embodies the paradoxes of Lincoln's presidency better than any other text. Proceeding from the assumption that audiences interpret rhetorical leadership variously, I demonstrate that the text's appropriation and extension guaranteed its significance.
Intelligent Design: A Look at Some of the Relevant Literature
Authors: Lessl Thomas M.
Published: June 2010

In these pages I will summarize some literature that may be useful to readers interested in gaining a rhetorical perspective on the intelligent design movement (hereafter ID). I will begin by discussing some of the relevant ways that scholarship in the rhetoric of science can inform an understanding of this movement. Then, I will turn to the ID debate itself by examining discourses of prominent evolutionary scientists and their counterparts who advocate design.
Ordeal by Fire: The Transformative Rhetoric of Abraham Lincoln
Authors: Watson Martha
Published: June 2010

During his presidency, the major rhetorical challenge facing Lincoln was to interpret the conflict between the North and South and the ensuing Civil War to assure support for the Union cause, to sustain commitment to the war, and to justify the sacrifices entailed. This rhetorical process of defining the Union and its cause occurred over time. Thus, three pieces of discourse were crucial to this interpretative process: the First and Second Inaugural Addresses and the Gettysburg Address. This essay reveals how each piece of discourse played a distinctive role in the interpretative process and suggests that all three are crucial for Lincoln to master his major rhetorical challenge. Furthermore, the essay argues that across the three pieces of discourse Lincoln shifts from a justification based in the Constitution to one based on the principles contained in the Declaration of Independence. Finally, this essay provides a complement to research which has examined how nations construct their enemies by suggesting that how they depict their own roles is equally important.
The Ultimate Voice of Lincoln
Authors: Black Edwin
Published: June 2010

An uncharacteristically strained passage in the introduction of Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address is evidence of Lincoln's self-effacement. The consequences of that self-effacement represent a singular rhetorical achievement.
The Rhetorical Construction of Economic Policy: Political Judgment and the 1995 Budget Debate
Authors: Levasseur David G.
Published: June 2010

The 1995 budget battle represents an intriguing moment in American public policy rhetoric. This debate led to the resurrection of the Clinton presidency, the demise of the Republican revolution, and the breakdown of entitlement reform. The key to understanding the rhetorical dimensions of this debate resides in an understanding of the comparative nature of budget discourse.
Unveiling the Oslo Narrative: The Rhetorical Transformation of Israeli-Palestinian Diplomacy
Authors: Carcasson Martín
Published: June 2010

This essay examines the alternative narrative that was developed during the signing of the 1993 Oslo accords between Israeli and Palestinian officials. Within this new narrative, the direct Palestinian-Israeli struggle was rendered secondary, whereas a new dichotomy between "peacemakers" and "the enemies of peace" was emphasized. In addition, the terms of the traditional debate abandoned a historical-religious grounding and began to focus on a more practical-economic perspective.
Politics, Alienation, and the Consolidation of Group Identity: The Case of Synagogue Pamphlets
Authors: Cohen Jonathan
Published: June 2010

The growing popularity of synagogue pamphlets in Israel is a result of increased alienation of the religious community from mainstream secular institutions, and especially secular media. Synagogue pamphlets oppose secular and liberal hegemony by providing alternative interpretations of current events, solidifying group identity, defining the boundaries of the community, and boosting the religious community's self image. The implications of this phenomenon to the fabric of Israeli society are discussed.
The Rhetorical Evolution of the Minimum Wage
Authors: Levin-Waldman Oren M.
Published: June 2010

The concept of the minimum wage has undergone several rhetorical permutations. Originally conceived as a living wage, which would be a family wage, it ultimately became a matter of macroeconomic policy, where the goals were to achieve greater efficiency and in some cases economic development. In recent years, the rhetoric has narrowed to a debate that revolves around a youth disemployment effect on the one hand and assisting the poor on the other. This paper traces the rhetorical evolution of the minimum wage and shows how the rhetoric employed by various groups has been shaped by the specifics of the political and economic environment.
Rhetoric as Currency: Herbert Hoover and the 1929 Stock Market Crash
Authors: Houck Davis W.
Published: June 2010

Popular wisdom has it that following "Black Tuesday," October 29, 1929, the nation began its irrevocable descent into the Great Depression. This did not happen. Instead, armed with a highly rhetorical understanding of macroeconomic behavior, Herbert Hoover orchestrated a campaign for what he termed economic confidence. The campaign was premised on the assumption that collective beliefs about the future were part and parcel to creating collective economic reality in the present. The campaign was an unequivocal success in the short run. In the long run, though, the campaign contained the seeds of its own failure.
The Amazing Mr. Jesus
Authors: Moore James F.
Published: June 2010

This essay intends to explore what a consideration of the miracle stories recorded in the Christian Gospels might contribute to an attempt to consider the Jewish context for Jesus. The miracles are often not the focus of efforts to think about a Jewish Jesus, but this essay suggests a way that they are best understood as part of a Jewish context by using a Midrashic approach to two texts: Numbers 20 and Matthew 14. The result is that the notion of God's providing for God's people is central, but that a post-Shoah reading requires that a present and not a future event is required as part of a post-Shoah ethic.
Frank Stella's Polish Village Series and Related Works: Heritage and Alliance
Authors: Salus Carol
Published: June 2010

Frank Stella, who has maintained a star profile on the international art scene for decades, created a number of works of art which reflect interest in Jewish and Holocaust subject matter in an abstract vocabulary. A Catholic, Stella reveals in his black pinstripe oil, Die Fahne Hoch (1959), his awareness of Nazi marching songs. His Polish Village series (1970-73), which comprises 130 large-scale painted constructions, serves to evoke, through his specific titles, these once flourishing wooden synagogues and their communities. Inspired by a text filled with photographs of these buildings, Stella especially admired their beauty of carpentry. The geometry of the designs, the decorative and interwoven details of their facades, influenced his colorful sculptural reliefs. Stella's 1982-84 set of prints, Had Gadya , based on Lissitsky's lithographs for the Had Gadya song of the Passover seder, is also discussed in this article. Stella transformed Lissitsky's illustrations into his own abstract imagery. All of these works ultimately refer to lost European Jewish life.
"Can We Talk?": The Jewish Jesus in a Dialogue between Jews and Christians
Authors: Jacobs Steven Leonard
Published: June 2010

That Jesus was a Jew during the troubled Roman oppression in Palestine is a fact. That his "messiahship" remains a fundamental stumbling block between Jews and Christians and has been so for 2,000 years is fact. Can Jews somehow import him into Jewish thinking and open doors to conversations with Christians? Can Christians somehow revisit their thinking about him in ways that will open doors to conversations with Jews? Is there truly anything new we can say to each other in this twenty-first century about Jesus the Jew? Is there any hope of any present and future dialogue whatsoever without this conversation? This paper is a "preliminary" attempt to explore these and other questions in a dialogical context.
A Secular Alternative: Primo Levi's Place in American Holocaust Discourse
Authors: Rothberg Michael , Druker Jonathan
Published: June 2010

This essay sketches Primo Levi's emergence from obscurity to near-universal acclaim in the United States, where he is now considered one of the most important witnesses of the Nazi genocide and a significant twentieth-century writer. As he emerged into the American public sphere, Levi came to occupy a particular discursive place as a representative bearer of Enlightenment values. Among intellectuals across the political spectrum his reputation for sobriety and secular reason stands against other, more dominant tendencies in American Holocaust culture, such as the sacralization of the genocide often associated with another survivor-writer, Elie Wiesel.
What Shall We Do with Myth: History and Midrash in the Retelling of the Exodus Story by an Israeli Writer
Authors: Jacobson David C.
Published: June 2010

In her novella The Miracle Hater (Sone hanissim) , Israeli writer Shulamith Hareven presents a reading of the biblical story of the Exodus that comes across as both history and midrash. Hareven's blending of historical and midrashic elements in The Miracle Hater corresponds to what she considered to be the only appropriate way to approach Israeli national myths. She believed that each myth must be submitted to an historical-critical approach that questions the factual nature of the myth and seeks to discern something of the historical reality behind the mythic narrative, but that such a myth must also be developed by means of a midrashic approach that transforms it into a contemporary myth that sheds light on the meaning and significance of contemporary Israeli existence.
Avon Gilyon (Document of Sin, b. Shabb. 116a) or Euaggelon (Good News)?
Authors: Basser Herbert W.
Published: June 2010

The Gospels present an early layer of material showing us a thoroughly Jewish Jesus while they also show us a later layer indicating that the Jews are doomed and have lost their chance for redemption by denying the resurrection of Christ. Matthew 28:15 talks about the Jews spreading rumors up until the time of the Gospel writer that the resurrection was a hoax. Note well the separation between Jews and Christians is sharp— the Jews .
Unclaimed Experience: Trauma and Identity in Third Generaton Writing about the Holocaust
Authors: Berger Alan L.
Published: June 2010

Shofar aims to promote the exchange of ideas and information among teachers and scholars of Jewish Studies. We recognize that academic conferences related to Jewish Studies provide substantial and creative material that assist educators in their endeavor to incorporate the concepts and themes of Judaic scolarship into their classes. Periodically, Shofar will feature issues of substance, collegiality, and general interest that emerge from conferences.
Conference News
Authors: Balbuena Monique Rodrigues , Baron Lawrence , Sweeney Marvin A. , Moore James F. , Simms Norman , Wheeler Penny
Published: June 2010

Shofar aims to promote the exchange of ideas and information among teachers and scholars of Jewish Studies. We recognize that academic conferences related to Jewish Studies provide substantial and creative material that assist educators in their endeavor to incorporate the concepts and themes of Judaic scolarship into their classes. Periodically, Shofar will feature issues of substance, collegiality, and general interest that emerge from the annual meetings of the Midwest Jewish Studies Association and the Western Jewish Studies Association, as well as other conferences.
Professional Impostors and Authentic Jacksonian Jews: Negotiating Identity in Ben Katchor's The Jew of New York
Authors: Henkin Sara
Published: June 2010

This article analyzes issues of contested identity in Ben Katchor's 1998 graphic novel The Jew of New York . I argue that it is key to understand the historical context of early nineteenth-century America in which the novel takes place, the pull of "new world ways" that complicated definitions of both Jewish and American culture, and the role of performance in both creating and subverting accepted definitions of American identity. In addition, this essay looks at the way in which graphic novels work on both the visual and narrative levels, creating a unique relationship with the reader.
Traditions of Israelite Descent Among Certain Muslim Groups in South Asia
Authors: Aafreedi Navras Jaat
Published: June 2010

The South Asian Muslim groups of Pathans, Kashmiris, Qidwais, and Bani Israil, in spite of being antagonistic towards Jews, Israel, and Zionism, claim Israelite descent, which is seen by some scholars as an attempt on their part to distance themselves from their pre-Islamic polytheistic past by fabricating fake genealogies ascending to the founders of Semitic monotheism, the supposed patriarchs, accepted by Jews, Christians and Muslims alike. Their antagonism towards Jews stems from the negative interpretations of Quranic references to Jews and also from the Arab-Israel conflict. The religious Jews who take their claims seriously are those who perceive themselves as Jews as part of a larger group of Israelites, which also includes people who according to them have descended from the Lost Tribes of Israel. Unlike the B'nei Menashe from northeast India, these Muslim groups have no desire to migrate to Israel. However, many religious Jewish organizations are keen on penetrating into their world and persuading them to do so. The involvement of religious Jewish organizations with these Muslim claimants of Israelite descent in South Asia can have some interesting ramifications for Jewish-Muslim relations and the world at large.
Spin Explained: On Fallen Angels, Free Will, and Fixing the World
Authors: Navon Mois , Navon Divrei
Published: June 2010

Spin is a short film (7 minutes) that portrays a supernatural DJ who "falls" to earth and attempts to bring harmony to a complex city scene. He does so by modifying nature in modest but mystical ways through manipulations of his turntables and mixer. The identity of the DJ is only hinted at through various symbols which can be interpreted to indicate that he is none other than one of the fallen angels mentioned in various mystical texts. However, though the film revolves around the DJ and is seen through his eyes, the film is not about the DJ but rather it is about the human condition. It is about the nature of creation and man's interactions therein. It is about the interplay between free will and providence.
Where Jewish Scholars on Jesus Go Awry: Last Supper, Sanhedrin, Blasphemy, Barabbas
Authors: Cook Michael J.
Published: June 2010

Is there a propensity by Jewish scholars to misconstrue as actual history Gospel "facts" that are purely fictional? Jewish studies on the historical Jesus need to give due regard to the operation of "gospel dynamics": those skillful techniques by which early Christians reconceptualized Jesus' image to resolve theological and political challenges not from Jesus' ministry but instead from the Evangelists' later day. Four "favorite" topics of Jewish scholars serve as apt prisms for revealing such underlying dynamics: Jesus' Last Supper as a Passover meal, his Sanhedrin trial, his "blasphemy" verdict, and his pairing with Barabbas.
The Question of Polygamy in Yehoshua's A Journey to the End of the Millennium : Two Moral Views—Two Jewish Cultures
Authors: Mendelson-Maoz Adia
Published: June 2010

This article deals with A. B. Yehoshua's novel A Journey to the End of the Millennium , published in 1997, in which he goes back to the year 999 C.E. and describes the complex relationships between the Jewish communities of North Africa and Ashkenaz. With the issue of polygamy as its background, the novel builds a vibrant, rich picture of these two Jewish communities and raises issues of contemporary relevance. In this article I will present the overt and covert aspects of the struggle between the two cultures and suggest two perspectives for reading the struggle: the first focuses on the debate over polygamy through an elaboration of two distinct moral approaches—deontological-Kantian ethical theory, and Aristotelian morality. The second presents a link between the novel and Yehoshua's work and views, focusing on issues of Jewish identity and the relationships between East and West in Israeli society.
Toward a Kashrut Nation in American Jewish Cookbooks, 1990-2000
Authors: Roth Laurence
Published: June 2010

This essay examines five significant cookbooks published between 1990 and 2000 to determine the relation between the sharp increase in emphasis during the 1990s on kashrut, on the Jewish dietary laws, in the introductions and recipes of commercially published American Jewish cookbooks, and the concomitant "discovery," during the same period and in many of the same books, of a distinctively Jewish cuisine. I argue that these cookbooks fashioned a symbolic Jewish interpretive community, a kashrut nation, which justified and explained Jewish cuisine and forwarded a collective identity roomy enough for most American Jews. Such a kashrut nation also makes clear how contemporary anxiety about Jewish affiliation and Jewish continuity was assuaged through a renewed interest in cookbooks, and in the end illustrates how U.S. cultural and economic power was drafted in service of selling, and branding, a new Jewish cultural production.
What Was At Stake in the Parting of the Ways between Judaism and Christianity?
Authors: Rubenstein Richard L.
Published: June 2010

Sacrificial religion, especially the sacrifice of the first born, is crucial for understanding the continuities and discontinuities between Judaism and Christianity. Human sacrifice was prevalent in the ancient Middle East, even among the Hebrews as late as 500 B.C.E. In the Aqedah (Gen. 22: 1-19), God's command that Abraham sacrifice Isaac is only averted when Abraham demonstrates unquestioning obedience. Because of that obedience, God accepts an animal surrogate and bestows His election on Abraham and his progeny. The sequence is reversed in Christianity. Jesus is first identified with the surrogate, the Passover lamb that redeems Israel's first born, and later becomes himself the sacrifice. By his unquestioning obedience on the cross, Jesus becomes the perfect Isaac. Early Christianity regarded Jesus as the only perfectly obedient human being and also the perfect human sacrifice. As such, Christ brings to manifest expression much that remained latent in Judaism. The author believes that this spells out the difference between the two traditions.
The Holocaust as Literature of the Body: Charlotte Delbo's Qui rapportera ces paroles? and Michel Vinaver's Par-dessus bord
Authors: Plunka Gene A.
Published: June 2010

This essay explores the Nazi glorification of the body as a tool for work and the concomitant notion that Jews, as threats to the Volk, shirked physical labor and thus were biologically crippling to the Reich. In retaliation, the Nazis degraded Jewish bodies and forced them to do hard labor, which they believed conflicted with the Jews' natural constitution. The extermination camp experience became an assault on the body, for the Nazis ultimately deprived Jews of their possessions, families, friends, homes, fortunes, and occupations—the cultural matrix that had previously sustained them. Prisoners were subjected to constant hunger, thirst, fatigue, and bodily harassment; diseases eroded their bodies. Charlotte Delbo's Who Will Carry the Word ? and Michel Vinaver's Overboard are discussed as exemplars of Holocaust plays that delve into the erosion of the body in extermination camps and thus personify literature of the body.
Jesus in the Context of Judaism: Quest, Con-Quest, or Conquest?: Editor's Introduction
Authors: Garber Zev
Published: June 2010

Though many articles, reviews, and books are not of one opinion on the life and time of Jesus, there is a general understanding in the dogma of the Church and in the Quests of the Academy that the incarnate Christ of Christian belief lived and died a faithful Jew, and what this says to contemporary Jews and Christians is the focus of this special issue of Shofar .
The Curious Conflation of Hanukkah and the Holocaust in Jewish Children's Literature
Authors: Eichler-Levine Jodi
Published: June 2010

In recent years, a large number of Jewish children's books have twinned Hanukkah stories with Holocaust narratives. What brings these two groups of narratives together, and what meanings are provoked by their combination? In this article, I examine several children's selections, dating from 1990 to the present, through the lenses of memory studies and Bakhtinian literary criticism, focusing on three major themes: the interplay of trauma and nostalgia, the representation of intergenerational dialogue, and the use of literary artifacts to bridge time. I argue that the literary conflation of these two events results in an historical flattening, eliding the substantial differences between these two moments of persecution; at the same time, I attend to the sometimes quite complicated and evocative moments of memory provoked by this textual linking.
Jewish Responses to Byzantine Polemics from the Ninth through the Eleventh Centuries
Authors: Bowman Steven
Published: June 2010

Some aspects of the Jewish response to Byzantine rule among the communities of southern Italy during the eighth through the eleventh centuries can be found in the midrash aggadat bereshit, Sepher Yosippon , and Megillat Ahimaaz . The paper will look for echoes of the midrash in Sepher Yosippon in an attempt to uncover some sources of this incomparable history of the Second Temple Period.
Beyond Maus : Other Holocaust Graphic Novels
Authors: Gonshak Henry
Published: June 2010

This essay discusses three Holocaust graphic novels: Will Eisner's A Life Force , Joe Kubert's Yossel: April 19, 1943 , and Pascal Croci's Auschwitz . It considers how effectively each work portrays the Holocaust by comparing them to the best-known and most celebrated Holocaust graphic novel, Art Spiegelman's Maus: A Survivor's Tale . The essay argues that Eisner's is the most effective of the group, because Eisner recreates a distanced perspective on the Holocaust. In contrast, when Kubert and Croci attempt to recreate the Holocaust itself, the imaginative leap required to envision an atrocity so outside the realm of ordinary human experience overwhelms their artistic powers. The essay also briefly considers the mainstream comics of both Eisner and Kubert as well as Eisner's The Plot: The Secret Story of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion . The author concludes that, while these graphic novels have virtues, none of them take the aesthetic and thematic risks found in Maus . In closing, Gonshak argues against the widespread critical view that the Holocaust defies artistic representation.
Jesus, God of the Hebrew Bible
Authors: Zevit Ziony
Published: June 2010

This article undertakes to isolate those stories about Jesus that Paul described as "stumbling blocks to the Jews" of his day from other Jesus stories that circulated in the early churches. It then attempts to discern which implicit claims in such stories would not have been objectionable to most Jews and to explain why. It achieves these objectives through a consideration of predications about God in some of the earliest sections of Jewish liturgy that, though expressed in psalmodic idioms, are drawn ultimately from Biblical narratives. Finally, it suggests why the overwhelming majority of first-century Jews hearing such stories would not have felt compelled to become Christians.