Cultural Criticism

Bearheart The Heirship Chronicles Gerald Vizenor 1990 Spring

Bearheart, Gerald Vizenors first novel, overturns “terminal creeds” and violence in a decadent material culture. American civilization has collapsed and Proude Cedarfair, his wife, Rosina, and a bizarre collection of disciples, are forced on a pilgrimage when government agents descend on the reservation to claim their sacred cedar trees for fuel. The tribal pilgrims reverse the sentiments of Manifest Destiny and travel south through the ruins of a white world that ran out of gas.

Griever An American Monkey King in China Gerald Vizenor 1990 Spring

Griever de Hocus, accompanied by his rooster, Matteo Ricci, plays havoc with the monolithic institutions of the People’s Republic of China in Vizenor’s inspired retelling of the classic Chinese Journey to the West. Fiction.

Caliban and Other Essays Roberto Fernández Retamar 1989 Spring

Cultural and literary essays by a Cuban poet, essayist, and professor of philology who is known for his meticulous efforts to dismantle Eurocentric colonial and neocolonial thought. “Caliban”—the first and longest of the five essays in this book—has become a kind of manifesto for Latin American and Caribbean writers; its central figure, the rude savage of Shakespeare’s Tempest, becomes in Retamar’s hands a powerful metaphor of their cultural situation—both in its marginality and its revolutionary potential.

Universal Abandon The Politics of Postmodernism Andrew Ross, Editor 1989 Spring

“The essays are new, readable and well-informed; the collection is an excellent basis for inquiring into the politics of contemporary art and criticism.” --Journal of Aesthetics & Art Criticism Contributors: Stanley Aronowitz, Hal Foster, Nancy Fraser, Lawrence Grossberg, Laura Kipnis, Ernesto Laclau, Chantal Mouffe, Meaghan Morris, Linda Nicholson, Jacqueline Rose, Abigail Solomon-Godeau, Paul Smith, Anders Stephanson, and George Yúdice.

A Very Serious Thing Women’s Humor and American Culture Nancy A. Walker 1988 Fall

Defines why women have been blocked from participating in the mainstream of American comedy yet have overcome hurdles to produce a humor that is sustaining and spells survival for women in society.

Discerning the Subject Paul Smith 1988 Spring

A critique of the debates on the status of the “subject.”

Popular Culture in America Paul Buhle, Editor 1987 Fall

The Colonial Harem Malek Alloula 1986 Spring

A collection of picture postcards of Algerian women exploited by the French, this “album” illustrates a powerful analysis of the distorting, denigrating effects of their presence on Algerian Society.

Postmodernism and Politics Jonathan Arac, Editor 1986 Spring

Eight essays on postmodernism with a focus on intellectual, artistic and social concerns.

The People Named the Chippewa Narrative Histories Gerald Vizenor 1984 Fall

Ranging in time and space from Madeline Island and the reservations of northern Minnesota to the urban reservation of Minneapolis-St. Paul, Vizenor recounts the experiences of the Chippewa and their encounters with the white people who “named” them.

Legacies of Anti-Semitism in France Jeffrey Mehlman None

Earthdivers Tribal Narratives on Mixed Descent Gerald Vizenor None

The Melting Pot and the Altar Marital Assimilation in Early Twentieth-Century Wisconsin Richard M. Bernard None

Through extensive quantitative analysis of census reports and marriage records Bernard studies the pattern of intergroup marriage - the ultimate test of assimilation - during a period of massive migration to this country. Both historians and sociologists will find this work of interest as an example of quantitative methodology and for its new evidence of an important subject.