Pub Date : 2023-12-13DOI: 10.22439/asca.v55i2.7043
Johs Rasmussen
This essay argues that the Danish translation of Invisible Man (1952), Ralph Ellison’s prize-winning debut novel, offers a set of spatiotemporal coordinates with which the world location of postwar American literature can be mapped. By reconstructing how Invisible Man was received both in the United States and Denmark, I show that the evaluative criteria by which the novel was judged to be a valuable work of art breaks down the geographical delimitation of national literatures. To that effect, the construction of the author figure “Ralph Ellison” was contingent upon his fiction conforming to criteria of evaluation formalized by cultural institutions such as newspapers, universities, and literary prizes. These criteria were often derived from aesthetic principles associated with European modernism, and they come into full view in my reconstruction of Invisible Man’s publication and (Danish) translation history. I conclude that the residue of Invisible Man’s paratextual apparatus which has survived to this day, as well as the global connections this residue signifies, exposes the discursive construction of a nationally specific American literature as an ideological fiction, not a material fact.
{"title":"Ralph Ellison Travels to Denmark: Invisible Man/Usynlig Mand and the World Location of American Literature","authors":"Johs Rasmussen","doi":"10.22439/asca.v55i2.7043","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22439/asca.v55i2.7043","url":null,"abstract":"This essay argues that the Danish translation of Invisible Man (1952), Ralph Ellison’s prize-winning debut novel, offers a set of spatiotemporal coordinates with which the world location of postwar American literature can be mapped. By reconstructing how Invisible Man was received both in the United States and Denmark, I show that the evaluative criteria by which the novel was judged to be a valuable work of art breaks down the geographical delimitation of national literatures. To that effect, the construction of the author figure “Ralph Ellison” was contingent upon his fiction conforming to criteria of evaluation formalized by cultural institutions such as newspapers, universities, and literary prizes. These criteria were often derived from aesthetic principles associated with European modernism, and they come into full view in my reconstruction of Invisible Man’s publication and (Danish) translation history. I conclude that the residue of Invisible Man’s paratextual apparatus which has survived to this day, as well as the global connections this residue signifies, exposes the discursive construction of a nationally specific American literature as an ideological fiction, not a material fact. ","PeriodicalId":40729,"journal":{"name":"AMERICAN STUDIES IN SCANDINAVIA","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139005300","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-12-13DOI: 10.22439/asca.v55i2.7047
Julie K. Allen
{"title":"Civil War Settlers: Scandinavians, Citizenship, and American Empire, 1848-1870","authors":"Julie K. Allen","doi":"10.22439/asca.v55i2.7047","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22439/asca.v55i2.7047","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":40729,"journal":{"name":"AMERICAN STUDIES IN SCANDINAVIA","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138976397","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-12-13DOI: 10.22439/asca.v55i2.7042
Mikkel Jensen
This article examines And Justice for All’s (1979) peculiar spin on the courtroom drama. Though the film embraces a mode of seriousness to portray sexual violence and an unjust criminal justice system, it also includes an undercurrent of dark comedy and absurdity. The article shows how the film incorporates dark-comedic absurdity to emphasize how severely malfunctional the criminal justice system is. While the film reproduces the lawyer-as-hero trope known from earlier eras in American film history, it is very disillusioned with the state of the criminal justice system as such. In this sense, it gives viewers a recognizable lawyer-hero to root for even though the film invites viewers to be very skeptical of the state of the system.
{"title":"The Dark Comedy of the Courtroom: Norman Jewison’s And Justice for All","authors":"Mikkel Jensen","doi":"10.22439/asca.v55i2.7042","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22439/asca.v55i2.7042","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines And Justice for All’s (1979) peculiar spin on the courtroom drama. Though the film embraces a mode of seriousness to portray sexual violence and an unjust criminal justice system, it also includes an undercurrent of dark comedy and absurdity. The article shows how the film incorporates dark-comedic absurdity to emphasize how severely malfunctional the criminal justice system is. While the film reproduces the lawyer-as-hero trope known from earlier eras in American film history, it is very disillusioned with the state of the criminal justice system as such. In this sense, it gives viewers a recognizable lawyer-hero to root for even though the film invites viewers to be very skeptical of the state of the system.","PeriodicalId":40729,"journal":{"name":"AMERICAN STUDIES IN SCANDINAVIA","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139005270","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-12-13DOI: 10.22439/asca.v55i2.7039
Thorsten Carstensen
This article examines Roman Polanski’s film Rosemary’s Baby (1968) as both a symptom and a manifestation of the cultural and political upheavals of the late 1960s. Released in an era marked by rampant conspiracy theories and a growing opposition to established hierarchies and institutions, the film constitutes a prime example of “paranoid horror.” Reflecting the collapse of commonly accepted metanarratives such as religion and the American nuclear family, Rosemary’s Baby adamantly rejects the restoration of order that earlier horror movies would have provided. In fact, by questioning ontological reliability, it epitomizes the shift from the classical to the postmodern horror narrative.
{"title":"Is It Really Happening? The Postmodern Horror of Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby","authors":"Thorsten Carstensen","doi":"10.22439/asca.v55i2.7039","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22439/asca.v55i2.7039","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This article examines Roman Polanski’s film Rosemary’s Baby (1968) as both a symptom and a manifestation of the cultural and political upheavals of the late 1960s. Released in an era marked by rampant conspiracy theories and a growing opposition to established hierarchies and institutions, the film constitutes a prime example of “paranoid horror.” Reflecting the collapse of commonly accepted metanarratives such as religion and the American nuclear family, Rosemary’s Baby adamantly rejects the restoration of order that earlier horror movies would have provided. In fact, by questioning ontological reliability, it epitomizes the shift from the classical to the postmodern horror narrative. \u0000","PeriodicalId":40729,"journal":{"name":"AMERICAN STUDIES IN SCANDINAVIA","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139003680","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-05-10DOI: 10.22439/asca.v55i1.6858
Jenny Bonnevier
This article explores the ways in which reproductive technology is used as a literary trope to enable or embody adesired social order in a utopian setting. It discusses Ursula Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness (1969) and “Coming of Age in Karhide” (1995), Joanna Russ’ The Female Man (1975), and Marge Piercy’s Woman on the Edge of Time (1976). In these American classics of feminist science fiction, reproduction is a key element, and they are rooted in a feminist understanding of power that sees the organization of both reproductive and child-care labor as central to analyses of patriarchy, as well as to any attempts to re-imagine patriarchal structures. The analysis draws on critical kinship studies that see the forming of kinship and families as a form of “cultural technology” and which thus opens these relationships to critical examination. It explores how the kind of change reproductive technologies can effect is not a property simply inherent in the technologiesthemselves. Rather, these medical technologies intersect with and become part of pre-existing cultural technologies of family and gender. Finally, the article addresses the question of how feminist futurities or feminist conceptions of time can be mobilized to enable resistance and change.
本文探讨了生殖技术作为文学修辞的方式，以在乌托邦的背景下实现或体现理想的社会秩序。讨论了Ursula Le Guin的《黑暗的左手》（1969年）和《Karhide的成年》（1995年）、Joanna Russ的《女男人》（1975年）和Marge Piercy的《时间边缘的女人》（1976年）。在这些美国女权主义科幻经典中，生殖是一个关键因素，它们植根于女权主义对权力的理解，认为生殖和育儿劳动的组织是父权制分析以及任何重新想象父权制结构的尝试的核心。该分析借鉴了批判性亲属关系研究，这些研究将亲属关系和家庭的形成视为“文化技术”的一种形式，从而使这些关系受到批判性的审视。它探讨了生殖技术所能产生的变化如何不仅仅是技术本身固有的特性。相反，这些医疗技术与先前存在的家庭和性别文化技术相交叉，并成为其一部分。最后，文章讨论了如何动员女权主义的未来或女权主义的时间观念来实现抵抗和变革的问题。
{"title":"In the Womb of Utopia: Feminist Science Fiction, Reproductive Technology, and the Future","authors":"Jenny Bonnevier","doi":"10.22439/asca.v55i1.6858","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22439/asca.v55i1.6858","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores the ways in which reproductive technology is used as a literary trope to enable or embody adesired social order in a utopian setting. It discusses Ursula Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness (1969) and “Coming of Age in Karhide” (1995), Joanna Russ’ The Female Man (1975), and Marge Piercy’s Woman on the Edge of Time (1976). In these American classics of feminist science fiction, reproduction is a key element, and they are rooted in a feminist understanding of power that sees the organization of both reproductive and child-care labor as central to analyses of patriarchy, as well as to any attempts to re-imagine patriarchal structures. The analysis draws on critical kinship studies that see the forming of kinship and families as a form of “cultural technology” and which thus opens these relationships to critical examination. It explores how the kind of change reproductive technologies can effect is not a property simply inherent in the technologiesthemselves. Rather, these medical technologies intersect with and become part of pre-existing cultural technologies of family and gender. Finally, the article addresses the question of how feminist futurities or feminist conceptions of time can be mobilized to enable resistance and change.","PeriodicalId":40729,"journal":{"name":"AMERICAN STUDIES IN SCANDINAVIA","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-05-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48180752","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-05-10DOI: 10.22439/asca.v55i1.6855
D. Nye
An assessment of Leo Marx’s career, from his youth in New York and Paris, Harvard education, and military service in World War II, to the major themes in his scholarship during 65 years of teaching at Minnesota, Amherst College, and MIT. Best known for his The Machine in the Garden, Marx was one of the founding scholars of American Studies, but he also made seminal contributions to the History of Technology and the environmental humanities. His work is a useful legacy for scholars assessing technological solutions proposed to deal with ecological crises.
{"title":"Leo Marx's Legacy","authors":"D. Nye","doi":"10.22439/asca.v55i1.6855","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22439/asca.v55i1.6855","url":null,"abstract":"An assessment of Leo Marx’s career, from his youth in New York and Paris, Harvard education, and military service in World War II, to the major themes in his scholarship during 65 years of teaching at Minnesota, Amherst College, and MIT. Best known for his The Machine in the Garden, Marx was one of the founding scholars of American Studies, but he also made seminal contributions to the History of Technology and the environmental humanities. His work is a useful legacy for scholars assessing technological solutions proposed to deal with ecological crises.","PeriodicalId":40729,"journal":{"name":"AMERICAN STUDIES IN SCANDINAVIA","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-05-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41880601","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-05-10DOI: 10.22439/asca.v55i1.6870
Anne Mørk
{"title":"The End of Ambition: The United States and the Third World in the Vietnam Era","authors":"Anne Mørk","doi":"10.22439/asca.v55i1.6870","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22439/asca.v55i1.6870","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":40729,"journal":{"name":"AMERICAN STUDIES IN SCANDINAVIA","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-05-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46713624","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-05-10DOI: 10.22439/asca.v55i1.6869
Anders Bo Rasmussen
{"title":"Editor's Note","authors":"Anders Bo Rasmussen","doi":"10.22439/asca.v55i1.6869","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22439/asca.v55i1.6869","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":40729,"journal":{"name":"AMERICAN STUDIES IN SCANDINAVIA","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135671140","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-05-10DOI: 10.22439/asca.v55i1.6857
Lovro Škopljanac
This article describes an archive consisting of literary memories obtained via interviews from one hundred contemporary readers of literature, sourced from a college town in the United States. The memories were summarized and studied in order to establish what readers tend to remember as important and/or impressive in their everyday reading of literature. The summaries include both quantitative and qualitative data, which are presented in brief extracts (tables) referring to facts such as recall of textual elements, circumstances of reading, and most remembered texts and authors. Characteristics of non-professional readers and their readings are thus observed according to three distinct sources of information: (a) the type of text they preferred; (b) the context of their reading; (c) the textual elements they found most memorable. All of these are considered in turn, including more specific discussion on topics of attachments to texts; the role of “classics”; and the readers’ paracanon. The study concludes with three main findings: (1) the participating American readers are shown to have rich and diverse memories of literary works, (2) which usually consist of coherent mental representations of the texts accompanied by some sort of episodic memory attaching them to their lived experience, (3) and these representations mostly involve unusual and incongruous characters and plot occurrences set against the ground of narrative content, which might imply that literature is used as a form of simulation.
{"title":"What American Readers Remember: A Case Study","authors":"Lovro Škopljanac","doi":"10.22439/asca.v55i1.6857","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22439/asca.v55i1.6857","url":null,"abstract":"This article describes an archive consisting of literary memories obtained via interviews from one hundred contemporary readers of literature, sourced from a college town in the United States. The memories were summarized and studied in order to establish what readers tend to remember as important and/or impressive in their everyday reading of literature. The summaries include both quantitative and qualitative data, which are presented in brief extracts (tables) referring to facts such as recall of textual elements, circumstances of reading, and most remembered texts and authors. Characteristics of non-professional readers and their readings are thus observed according to three distinct sources of information: (a) the type of text they preferred; (b) the context of their reading; (c) the textual elements they found most memorable. All of these are considered in turn, including more specific discussion on topics of attachments to texts; the role of “classics”; and the readers’ paracanon. The study concludes with three main findings: (1) the participating American readers are shown to have rich and diverse memories of literary works, (2) which usually consist of coherent mental representations of the texts accompanied by some sort of episodic memory attaching them to their lived experience, (3) and these representations mostly involve unusual and incongruous characters and plot occurrences set against the ground of narrative content, which might imply that literature is used as a form of simulation.","PeriodicalId":40729,"journal":{"name":"AMERICAN STUDIES IN SCANDINAVIA","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-05-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44451539","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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