Free Markets or Free People: Amos A. Lawrence and the Limits of the Abolitionist Movement
Free Markets or Free People: Amos A. Lawrence and the Limits of the Abolitionist Movement

By Catherine Devlin, Boston University, Boston, MA

Turning points make for appealing narratives. It’s satisfying to be able to point to a moment and say, “There. That’s when it all changed.” Amos Adams Lawrence (1814-1886), Bostonian textile merchant, indulged his inner story-teller when he described such a turning point, a moment of total reinvention, in a letter to his uncle: “We went to bed one night old-fashioned, conservative, Compromise Union Whigs and waked up stark mad abolitionists.”

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Issue XContent Editorsmovement, abolition, racism, slavery, change, ideology, stereotypes, Amos LawrenceComment
The State’s Construction of Subjectivity: A Literary Analysis of the Contemporary Narco-Novel Perra Brava
The State’s Construction of Subjectivity: A Literary Analysis of the Contemporary Narco-Novel Perra Brava

By Carla Graciano, Augustana University in Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Perra Brava, written by Orfa Alarcón, is a Mexican narco-novel that will act as the focal point of this essay. Perra most often translates to bitch or female dog, and most of the time, women are the ones who are on the receiving end of this epithet.

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Issue XContent Editorsnovel, Mexico, literature, politics, women, drugs, government, identityComment
“What is this thing, Lord?”: Matthew O’Connor and the Queer Theology of the Catholic Church in Nightwood (1937)
“What is this thing, Lord?”: Matthew O’Connor and the Queer Theology of the Catholic Church in Nightwood (1937)

By Olivia Harris, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The modernist novel Nightwood by Djuna Barnes (1892-1982) is a celebration of difference. Published in 1937,[1] it precociously spotlights the voices of those who are often marginalized: homosexuals, women, Jews, starving artists, political activists, the working class.[2] The story focuses on a lesbian love triangle in Paris:

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Editorial, Issue XContent Editorsmodernist, queer, queer theory, history, LGBTQ+, Catholicism, literature, culture, gender, ChristianityComment
The Matter of the Mind in Mrs. Dalloway: How Woolf Reveals Gender Performativity Before Butler Reveals the Term 
The Matter of the Mind in Mrs. Dalloway: How Woolf Reveals Gender Performativity Before Butler Reveals the Term 

Judith Butler, in her work “Gender Trouble,” insists on a need for a radial philosophical movement towards the understanding that gendered experience is internalized due to compulsory gender actions and conventions, which pursue a completely derived and ultimately unachievable ideal. 

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Archives, Issue IXContent EditorsVirginia Woolf, literature, novel, author, gender, theory, womenComment
Social Media and the Power to Effect Change: The Impact of the Digital Landscape on Achieving Equity Within Art Museum Leadership and Visitorship
Social Media and the Power to Effect Change: The Impact of the Digital Landscape on Achieving Equity Within Art Museum Leadership and Visitorship

Art museums in the United States are not exempt from the current social and political divisiveness of our times. Recent events within the art world have revealed a call to action for museums to no longer be neutral institutions, but instead take a more active role in promoting social justice narratives, being the redistribution of power, influence, and value,[1]in order to maintain relevance within society and resolve a historic lack of diversity.

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Archives, Issue IXContent Editorsart, museum, politics, social media, representation, equity, diversityComment
Hypermasculinity and Fetishized Martyrdom in Angela Carter's "The Bloody Chamber"
Hypermasculinity and Fetishized Martyrdom in Angela Carter's "The Bloody Chamber"

Rosalyn Stilling

Angela Carter’s “The Bloody Chamber” is a touchstone of postmodern fairy tale revisions, deftly marrying the latent content of Charles Perrault’s “Bluebeard” with her entrancing and opulent prose. She boldly addresses the sexuality, gender relations, and biblical comparisons inherent in Perrault’s tale in her prose, particularly by blending allusions to Judeo-Christian figures with sadomasochistic practices. Carter expands upon these elements present in “Bluebeard,” while keeping her focus on the representation of villainous Bluebeard and his abuses towards the innocent bride.

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Archives, Issue VIIIContent EditorsCatholicism, sexuality, gender, feminism, symbolism, folk literature, literature, violence, ChristianityComment
A Voice of Black America
A Voice of Black America

By Rachael Malstead

Langston Hughes chronicled the spirit, fervor, and intensity of the Harlem Renaissance as only an artist can. In his short story collection, The Ways of White Folks, Hughes concerns himself with the downtrodden, the poor and lonely, the black and oppressed. The transcendent insight into the human condition that crafts this anthology is unique to an author of genius.

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Archives, Issue VIIIContent Editorsshort story, anthology, race, inequality, sexuality, women, injusticeComment
Substantive and Procedural Justice in the World Trade Organization
Substantive and Procedural Justice in the World Trade Organization

By Nick McIndoe

Since the end of World War II, global governance has been characterized by the presence of international institutions, which are charged to pursue global justice. However, there is presently much conjecture regarding the justice of such institutions. In this paper, I introduce two main branches of global justice, namely ‘substantive justice’ and ‘procedural justice.’ Then, I apply these concepts to the World Trade Organization in order to analyse its policies, practices, and structural foundations. For an international institution that allegedly promotes economic and international trade equality, my findings are troubling.

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Archives, Issue VIIContent Editorsgovernment, institutions, politics, peace, World Trade Organization, global, leadership, national, economyComment
The Strangers, The Crowd, and The Lynching: Using Mimetic Theory to Explore Episodes of Human Violence
The Strangers, The Crowd, and The Lynching: Using Mimetic Theory to Explore Episodes of Human Violence

By Jenna Geick

In October of 2015, Mexican and United States news sources reported on circumstances that resulted in the lynching of José and David Copado in Ajalpan, Mexico. Hours after the brothers arrived in town, word spread of the arrival of the strangers, and a crowd approached the brothers, violently accusing them of playing a role in the disappearance of local children. The police found no reason to suspect the two brothers to be child abductors, but very few residents accepted the police verdict. The brothers were seized by the crowd and brought to the center of it, as a man doused the brothers with gasoline before setting them on fire. How are we to understand why such a horrific act of violence occurred, so that it does not occur again?

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Archives, Issue VIIContent Editorstheory, violence, society, stereotypes, Mexico, rivalryComment
The Crises of Human Identity in the 1960s
The Crises of Human Identity in the 1960s

By David deHaas

The 1960s were a time of many social and political movements representing the diverse voices and concerns amongst the fragmented American populous. The particular causes of these movements consisted of clashes between standard cultural norms that characterized American society, and communities that resisted this standard. I would posit that a substantial causal factor of these clashes was a widespread crises of human identity.

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Archives, Issue VIIContent Editorswomen, politics, government, identity, crisis, movement, culture, sexism, counter-cultureComment
Ormond’s Subversion of Heteronormative Gothic Characteristics
Ormond’s Subversion of Heteronormative Gothic Characteristics

By Lindsay Brents

During his attempts to create American literature distinct from its European heritage, Charles Brockden Brown wrote Ormond; Or, The Secret Witness. Written and set in the 1790s in the United States, this novel establishes a recognizably Gothic plot, only to thwart the expected sexual violence by allowing the heroine to kill the man who threatens her.

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Archives, Issue VIContent Editorswomen, feminism, power, novel, sexuality, relationships, gender, heroismComment
"Everything is True, Everything Anybody Has Ever Thought"
"Everything is True, Everything Anybody Has Ever Thought"

By Jeanette Tong Gin Yen

Science fiction and Fantasy, falling under the general classification of imaginative literature, have an established tradition of charting the impossible through narratives that verge on possible, often articulating underlying concerns about our social worlds through the paradox of ‘(im)possibilities’.

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Issue VI, ArchivesContent Editorssci-fi, fantasy, novel, science, futurism, politicsComment
Legitimizing Illegitimate Power
Legitimizing Illegitimate Power

Megan Krelle

Technology is used to challenge the hegemonic ideal that the natural is of more value than the artificial. This prevailing valuation is explored through the examination of the societal power structure, which asserts the dominance of one group, and their ideals over any other, and the way that value is constructed and legitimized by the ruling center of the society in Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and G. Willow Wilson’s Alif the Unseen.

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Issue VI, ArchivesContent Editorspower, novel, technology, sci-fi, ideology, government, internetComment
From On Stage to in Office
From On Stage to in Office

Catherine J. Bruns

Over two hundred years after the French Revolution, historians have yet to reach a consensus as to what caused the bloody overthrow of one of Europe’s leading political regimes. While previous research has focused on the revolutionary policy and legislative changes that occurred during this period, there has been little focus on the involvement of related subject--the political actor.

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V6 Featured, ArchivesContent EditorsFrance, history, theatre, political theatre, playwrights, rhetoric, politicsComment