Review Essays on Recent Scholarship: Elmore Bros. on McCarthy-as-Philosopher; Isekenmeier on Contemporary Literary Mediality; Lindquist on Postnationalism in Postmodernism

Paratexts have attracted increasing attention in recent scholarship as an especially privileged tool for managing the reception of a text in early print culture, and Thomas More was certainly an exceptionally versatile user of this strategic publishing device. Not only does he make ample use of conventional paratextual techniques such as prefaces, marginal glosses and commendatory poems, he also takes the medium one step further by making his paratexts part of the narrative setting of his works, especially in the literary dialogues. In creating a plethora of (semi-)fictional voices and contexts, he effectively blurs the line between text and context, fact and fiction, and author and editor/printer. While this textual game of hide-and-seek has been extensively studied in Utopia and has often been seen as a typically ‘humanist’ feature of the text, the present article explores similar techniques throughout More’s work, thus overcoming the alleged rift between his pre- and post-reformation writings.

Download Full-text

Rewriting the Narrative

California History ◽

10.1525/ch.2019.96.4.54 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 96 (4) ◽

pp. 54-77

Author(s):

Nicolas G. Rosenthal

Keyword(s):

Twentieth Century ◽

Native American ◽

American Indian ◽

Modern Society ◽

Mixed Media ◽

The State ◽

Historical Narratives ◽

Recent Scholarship ◽

Art Scene ◽

The 1960S

A vibrant American Indian art scene developed in California from the 1960s to the 1980s, with links to a broader indigenous arts movement. Native American artists working in the state produced and exhibited paintings, prints, sculptures, mixed media, and other art forms that validated and documented their cultures, interpreted their history, asserted their survival, and explored their experiences in modern society. Building on recent scholarship that examines American Indian migration, urbanization, and activism in the twentieth century, this article charts these developments and argues that American Indian artists in California challenged and rewrote dominant historical narratives by foregrounding Native American perspectives in their work.

Download Full-text

Towards an Interdisciplinary Field of Black Girlhood Studies

Departures in Critical Qualitative Research ◽

10.1525/dcqr.2017.6.3.116 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 6 (3) ◽

pp. 116-132 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Tammy C. Owens ◽

Durell M. Callier ◽

Jessica L. Robinson ◽

Porshé R. Garner

Keyword(s):

Black Girls ◽

Annotated Bibliography ◽

Interdisciplinary Field ◽

Recent Scholarship ◽

Black Girlhood ◽

Girlhood Studies

Scholarly interest in the experiences of Black girls has grown significantly. Although many scholars, activists, and artists have completed substantial scholarship and creative works that constitute the foundation of Black girlhood studies, their body of work and names are oftentimes omitted from recent scholarship on Black girlhood. In this collectively authored essay, scholars, artists, and activists present an annotated bibliography of historical and contemporary texts, as well as cultural works, that center the voices and experiences of Black girls. This annotated bibliography serves as a resource for activists and scholars alike who are interested in Black girlhood.

Download Full-text

“The Truth of Reliable Tradition”: Saadya Gaon, Arabic Rhetoric, and the Challenge to Rhetorical Historiography

Rhetorica A Journal of the History of Rhetoric ◽

10.1525/rh.2017.35.2.161 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 35 (2) ◽

pp. 161-188

Author(s):

Brandon Katzir

Keyword(s):

Middle Ages ◽

Tenth Century ◽

Arabic Language ◽

Rhetorical Strategies ◽

Medieval Rhetoric ◽

Recent Scholarship ◽

Latin Language ◽

Arabic Rhetoric ◽

Rhetorical Traditions ◽

The Middle Ages

This article explores the rhetoric of medieval rabbi and philosopher Saadya Gaon, arguing that Saadya typifies what LuMing Mao calls the “interconnectivity” of rhetorical cultures (Mao 46). Suggesting that Saadya makes use of argumentative techniques from Greek-inspired, rationalist Islamic theologians, I show how his rhetoric challenges dominant works of rhetorical historiography by participating in three interconnected cultures: Greek, Jewish, and Islamic. Taking into account recent scholarship on Jewish rhetoric, I argue that Saadya's amalgamation of Jewish rhetorical genres alongside Greco-Islamic genres demonstrates how Jewish and Islamic rhetoric were closely connected in the Middle Ages. Specifically, the article analyzes the rhetorical significance of Saadya's most famous treatise on Jewish philosophy, The Book of Doctrines and Beliefs, which I argue utilizes Greco-Islamic rhetorical strategies in a polemical defense of rabbinical authority. As a tenth-century writer who worked across multiple rhetorical traditions and genres, Saadya challenges the monocultural, Latin-language histories of medieval rhetoric, demonstrating the importance of investigating Arabic-language and Jewish rhetorics of the Middle Ages.

Download Full-text

Religion and the Construction of a Christian Roman Polity

Studies in Late Antiquity ◽

10.1525/sla.2020.4.1.76 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

pp. 76-113

Author(s):

Francesco Rotiroti

Keyword(s):

Theoretical Framework ◽

Political Community ◽

The Political ◽

Political Dimension ◽

Roman World ◽

Recent Scholarship ◽

Theories Of Religion ◽

Ancient Christianity

This article seeks to define a theoretical framework for the study of the relation between religion and the political community in the Roman world and to analyze a particular case in point. The first part reviews two prominent theories of religion developed in the last fifty years through the combined efforts of anthropologists and classicists, arguing for their complementary contribution to the understanding of religion's political dimension. It also provides an overview of the approaches of recent scholarship to the relation between religion and the Roman polity, contextualizing the efforts of this article toward a theoretical reframing of the political and institutional elements of ancient Christianity. The second part focuses on the religious legislation of the Theodosian Code, with particular emphasis on the laws against the heretics and their performance in the construction of the political community. With their characteristic language of exclusion, these laws signal the persisting overlap between the borders of the political community and the borders of religion, in a manner that one would expect from pre-Christian civic religions. Nevertheless, the political essence of religion did also adapt to the ecumenical dimension of the empire. Indeed, the religious norms of the Code appear to structure a community whose borders tend to be identical to the borders of the whole inhabited world, within which there is no longer room for alternative affiliations; the only possible identity outside this community is that of the insane, not belonging to any political entity and thus unable to possess any right.

Download Full-text

Open Sky: The Broad Range of Recent Scholarship in Aviation History

Mobility in History ◽

10.3167/mih.2013.040109 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Janet R. Bednarek

Keyword(s):

Recent Scholarship

Download Full-text

Aesthetic and Historical Values - Their Difference and Why It Matters

Environmental Values ◽

10.3197/096327119x15747870303863 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 29 (5) ◽

pp. 519-535

Author(s):

Levi Tenen

Keyword(s):

Natural Environments ◽

Aesthetic Value ◽

Environmental Preservation ◽

Historical Significance ◽

Recent Scholarship ◽

In Virtue Of

Aesthetic and historical values are commonly distinguished from each other. Yet there has not been sustained discussion of what, precisely, differs between them. In fact, recent scholarship has focused on various ways in which the two are related. I argue, though, that historical value can differ in an interesting way from aesthetic value and that this difference may have significant implications for environmental preservation. In valuing something for its historical significance, it need not always be the case that there is a reason to want people to experience the entity. Valuing something for its aesthetic merit, by contrast, does imply a reason to want people to experience the entity. I suggest that in virtue of this difference, some historical values may offer better justification for preserving natural environments than do aesthetic considerations.

Download Full-text