Enlightened Independence and the Origins of its American Radicalization by Joel Wilson – Through a thematic comparison of the notion of independence found in Immanuel Kant’s seminal essay, “What is Enlightenment?” and various texts of the Radical American Enlightenment, Joel Wilson argues that America, as nation and idea, could not ever have fully accepted the European model of Enlightenment articulated by Kant and others.
A game of hide and seek in Stephen King’s “A Good Marriage.” (2010) by Dr Jessica Folio, PhD candidate, University of Reunion Island. Jessica Folio analyses Stephen King’s short story, “A Good Marriage,”, and suggests that he focuses on the intricacies of the female mind in order to cast a light on modern marriage and uses the game of hide and seek as a metaphor to enable an understanding of relationships and identity.
African American Satire and Harlem Renaissance Literary Politics: A Review by Shadi Neimneh, The Hashemite University, Jordan, Shadi Neimneh discusses the use of satire in the fictional works of the Harlem Renaissance with reference to critical and intellectual debates about the value and function of African American art. Such satire was often employed for its social and political power as a polemical, subversive, and controversial genre fit for debating the representation of blacks in literature and reflecting on the achievement of the Renaissance. It evolved as a reaction to propaganda demands and as a self-conscious assertion of aesthetic freedom. As a weapon against human folly and vice, satire in Harlem Renaissance fiction also had an inherent reformative vision and sociopolitical messages about the racial situation. As a subversive genre, African American satire was in tune with the radical orientation of the Harlem Renaissance movement in its reaction to the genteel school of uplift propaganda.
“All I saw was evil”: Supernatural’s Reactionary Road Trip, by Dr. Brian Ireland, Senior Lecturer in History, University of Glamorgan – Supernatural is a highly-rated television series, which debuted in 2005 on the Warner Brothers network in the US. Creator Eric Kripke envisaged the story as a mythic road trip across America, with two brothers travelling through small-town America, fighting evil and righting wrongs. Although the brothers’ iconic car (a 1967 Chevy Impala) and the road genre template — Sam and Dean are named after Sal and Dean, from Jack Kerouac’s 1957 novel On the Road — establish Supernatural as a distinctly American production, the thematic fight between good and evil has attracted a wide international audience. This article explores these themes and places them in the context of post-9/11 America.
American Studies Resource Centre 