American Literature Research Articles

ABSTRACT Universities are widely seen as key sources of knowledge that can enhance firms’ innovative performance through collaborative relationships. In Latin America, however, the literature on university-industry linkages (UILs) remains fragmented and inconclusive. This paper contributes to the debate by providing a rigorous analysis using restricted-access microdata. We examine the effects of UILs on two innovation outcomes in Brazilian firms: (1) domestic sales of new or significantly improved products and (2) exports of such products. Drawing on data from the 2008 and 2011 editions of the Technological Innovation Survey (PINTEC), conducted by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), we apply a nonparametric matching estimator. Results for 2008 show no significant association between UILs and innovative performance. In 2011, we find no effect on domestic sales, but a positive and significant effect on exports of new products. These findings support existing Latin American literature and reflect an innovation system still in early development.

American literature has long served as a mirror, reflecting the diverse cultural, social, and political landscapes of the United States. This research investigates the representation of social groups in American literature by employing advanced natural language processing techniques. Specifically, it utilizes contextualized word embedding models to analyze how characters from diverse social identities, particularly in terms of gender, race, and class, are portrayed across a curated corpus of canonical and contemporary American literary texts. The dataset is compiled and preprocessed through tokenization and normalization to prepare the texts for contextual embedding extraction and bias analysis. Bias detection is conducted using a Bidirectional Encoder Representations mutated Weighted Support Vector Machine (BERWSVM) model designed to classify complex social representations. The Contextualized Embedding Association Test (CEAT) isemployed to statistically evaluate the strength of association between social groups and character traits by computing cosine distances between contextual embeddings. Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) are used to extract rich semantic representations from the texts, capturing character descriptions, group identity references, and associated traits. The WSVM component classified intersectional group embeddings, enabling the assessment of representational patterns that extend beyond single-identity categorizations. Implemented in Python, the findings show that the BERWSVM approach performs better than multimodal baseline architectures, achieving superior results, with accuracy, F1-score, recall, and precision ranging from 90% to 95%. The findings reveal that the BERWSVM achieved high accuracy in distinguishing characters belonging to intersectional groups, significantly outperforming traditional baseline models. It shows the effectiveness of integrating computational bias detection algorithms with literary interpretation in analyzing social ideologies, representation, diversity, and fairness in narrative structures.

This paper analyzes how nature and environmental ethics are represented in contemporary Indigenous American literature, focusing on Power by Linda Hogan (1998) and The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie (1993). Using ecocritical theory and postcolonial environmental discourse, the study explores Indigenous ecological worldviews and how they challenge dominant Western paradigms. By examining the intersection of cultural persistence, environmental stewardship, and spiritual connection to land, this paper provides a close reading through Lawrence Buell’s ecocritical model. The analysis argues that both authors use narrative techniques to equate ecological damage with cultural erasure, and to propose that ecological renewal and cultural survival are inseparable. Hogan presents nature as a sacred text requiring ceremonial understanding, while Alexie depicts environmental loss as ongoing trauma that fragments identity. The findings show that Indigenous environmental ethics, as portrayed by these authors, offer essential alternative approaches to ecological crisis. This study contributes to ecocritical discourse by foregrounding Indigenous perspectives and highlighting the importance of incorporating Indigenous ecological knowledge in environmental humanities research.

American literature has been a mirror of multi-dimensional views of historical transformation like slavery, segregation, racial, migration, exile, colonization and wars- events that left deep scars on individuality and collective psyches. The present paper explores trauma of these narrative structures where American Fiction represents fragmented identities often disrupts the stability of selfhood, leading to fractured identities that wrestle to reconcile the past with the present. Across fragmented structures, the transmission of post memory through generations, non-linear story telling writers such as William Faulkner, Toni Morrison, Maxine Hong Kingston demonstrates how personal pain merges with communal remembrance. Simultaneously, these works emphasizes equally powerful force that stresses over the act of survival and reconstruction that permits the character and communities recover their voices. Resilience is presented as story telling, cultural traditions and imagination of self and community against the historical violence. Through applying trauma theory and cultural memory as analytical frameworks, this paper explores that American literature not only represents the fragmented nature of identity under the historical trauma but also the possibilities of healing, renewal and adaptation. Therefore, American narratives emerges as platforms where pain and resilience coexists creating new visions of belonging and identity.

This essay explores how socially engaged art helps students to learn, create, and share English literature and environmental humanities knowledge. By critically examining my recent undergraduate English course, American Literature and the Environment as a case study for a new English literature pedagogy, I demonstrate that participatory art fosters a productive convergence between literary pedagogy and environmental literacy. More specifically, eco-infographic art functions as a critical pedagogical medium: one that merges scientific knowledge with the affective dimensions of ecological crisis, enabling English majors to engage more deeply with environmental issues. Drawing on Pablo Helguera’s notion of transpedagogy, I examine students’ eco-infographics as a participatory process that transforms learning into critical reflection in confronting today’s global ecological challenges. Ultimately, I argue that participatory and collaborative practice of eco-infographic art can be used as a powerful pedagogical tool for teaching literature and fostering students’ critical awareness of ecological issues.

Adopting a postcolonial ecofeminist framework, this paper explores Linda Hogan’s Solar Storms (1995), which makes a significant contribution to Native American literature, to investigate the intersections of environmental exploitation, Indigenous resistance, and women’s agency, while highlighting the novel’s recognition of Indigenous knowledge systems, its narration of collective trauma and healing, and its articulation of the intricate relationship between women and nature. First of all, this article examines the theoretical background of postcolonial theory and ecofeminist approaches that rely on the views of various thinkers and scholars in the relevant literature. Thus, it provides a rich background for the analysis of the novel. The novel’s political critique of colonialism and its legacy forms of domination, as well as the combined exploitation of land, animals, and Indigenous communities, especially women, are discussed in the context of ecological destruction and the strategies of resistance developed by native peoples against such destruction. Hogan offers the resistance practices that these communities have adopted against Eurocentric, anthropocentric, and patriarchal ideologies through the preservation of ecological wisdom, collective solidarity, and cultural healing processes. Furthermore, this study analyses how the novel, which is based on historical events such as the James Bay hydroelectric project, situates female characters such as Angel, Bush, and Dora-Rouge in the context of environmental activism, cultural resistance and feminist struggle. In conclusion, this work aims to prove that Solar Storms can be interpreted through a postcolonial ecofeminist lens in terms of its exposure of the interconnections between environmental degradation, cultural erosion, and the marginalization of Native American women, as well as its affirmation of Indigenous ecological knowledge and resistance to anthropocentric colonial structures.

Edith Wharton Society Panels at the American Literature Association Conference, Boston, MA, May 2025

The study focuses on gender fluidity and queer identity representation in modern American literature by comparing the texts Among the Bloodpeople (2006) by Thomas Glave and The Cosmopolitans (2016) by Sarah Schulman. Drawing on Judith Butler's theory of gender performativity, this paper examines how the authors negotiate the complex interrelationships among sexuality, race, diaspora, and urban queer lives. The analysis of the research suggests the use of narrative tools and methods that break heteronormative patterns and reveal the real lives of people belonging to the LGBTQ+ community. The results show that both authors use different yet similar ways of exemplifying queer subjectivity: Glave through fragmented accounts of the Jamaican diaspora and corporeal violence, and Schulman through the banalities of gentrified urban locations. The gap in the research was the inadequate comparative scholarship that examined how African diasporic and Jewish-American queer narratives construct gender fluidity in distinct ways, yet are characterized by resistance to normative identity categories. The paper furthers the field of queer literary studies by showing how modern literature serves as a site of resistance and visibility, as well as a space for the renegotiation of gender and sexual identities outside binary categories.

ABSTRACT In this essay, I survey the North American literature classroom post‐#MeToo, using my Spring 2024 undergraduate honors course, an introduction to Literary Sexuality Studies, for my case study. Picking up Susan Faludi's classic concept of the anti‐feminist backlash, I show that Gen Z students (and their instructors) are aware of #MeToo's promises, breakthroughs, and challenges—and of the fact that last decade's period of intense agitation is, for now, over. Once again, feminist pedagogy must be done from within the backlash, during a period of dimming hope and fearful retrenchment. I rehearse strategies for introducing students to #MeToo as a historically situated phenomenon and for cultivating a transnational feminist consciousness to weather the storms to come. I use three conceptual heuristics to do so. The first, “bodies,” allows me to track post‐#MeToo changes in how students approach gendered corporealities, both in cultural texts and their own experience. Second, “hearts,” attempts to paint a picture of students' consolidating political commitments, riven as they are by local and global dynamics. Finally, “time” seeks to theorize feminist pedagogy's fundamental challenge of addressing politically diverse students, many of whom haven't gotten around to subscribing to feminism. Overall, this piece wants to articulate feminist pedagogy's obligation to inhabit different temporalities and nationalities while remaining attentive to local and personal contexts.

Alcohol use is prevalent in many countries around the world and is a risk factor for several diseases, including cancer. Compared to other organs, breasts appear to be the most susceptible to the carcinogenic effects caused by alcohol. Therefore, the present study aims to verify the association between the consumption of alcoholic beverages and the risk of developing breast cancer (BC). A search was performed on the PubMed/Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online (MEDLINE), Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO), Latin American and Caribbean Literature in Health Sciences (LILACS), Cochrane, Clinical Trials, and Embase platforms, using descriptors relevant to the topic and published in the last 10 years. Of 675 articles, eight were included that described the relationship between alcohol consumption and BC, in Portuguese, English, and Spanish. Systematic reviews, case reports, and case series were excluded. The research was conducted by two independent reviewers between November and December 2024. The variables studied were menarche, primigravida, menopause, hormones, ethnicity, and alcohol consumption. The data were stored, synthesized, and presented descriptively. The final sample consisted of 306,204 participants. Menopause was the variable that had the greatest impact on the outcome. Alcohol appears to be harmful when consumed in excess of 5 g/day. The studies analyzed showed a positive relationship between alcohol and BC. These data are important to consolidate a literature that impacts the breakdown of the social culture of alcohol consumption, in which women are surrounded.

Volleyball is one of the most popular sports in the world, and can be played recreationally or competitively. This sport does not require direct contact between opponents and allows for the participation of different age groups on the same teams. Based on this, this study aims to analyze and describe the main prevalence of musculoskeletal injuries in amateur volleyball players. To this end, an integrative literature review was used, utilizing scientific studies available in the Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO), Latin American and Caribbean Literature in Health Sciences (LILACS), and Virtual Health Library (VHL) databases, using the following Health Sciences Descriptors (DECS) and Boolean operator: volleyball AND amateur athletes AND musculoskeletal injury. Thus, the following guiding question emerged: What is the prevalence of musculoskeletal injuries in amateur volleyball players? The findings revealed that musculoskeletal injuries significantly affect volleyball players’ performance, hindering the execution of movements required for sports practice. The high prevalence of injuries identified in volleyball players suggests greater attention to this population is needed to prevent and treat musculoskeletal disorders and ensure quality sports practice, which we know has the potential to generate physical, mental, and social well-being.

ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to describe systematically playful strategies and their benefits for the early stimulation of autistic children. This is a systematic review, registered on the PROSPERO platform (ID: CRD42024522420) and guided by the PRISMA protocol (2020) criteria. The databases searched were: Web of Science, Scopus, Pubmed/Medline, Latin American and Caribbean Literature in Health Sciences (LILACS), and Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO); original articles published between 2018–2023 were included. Eighteen articles that met the eligibility criteria were selected from the 1,043 studies located. The population sample included 822 children (94% with ASD, along with paired neurotypical children) from 8 countries, and most studies applied standardized scales to define and/or confirm the diagnoses. The main benefits of playfulness in the stimulation of these children were: improvement of social and socio-emotional aspects, social engagement, development of symbolic and narrative play skills, engagement in pretend play, as well as improvement of motor skills and executive functions, which reflect in autonomy for daily activities. The importance of playful interventions in promoting the cognitive, social, and emotional development of children with ASD is highlighted.

Compelled to construct their narratives and writings around their racial identity, Iranian American writers such as Khakpour, Nafisi, Mirakhor, and Hakakian turn to African American activism, rhetoric, and literature to challenge their racialization. This racialization is problematized by Iranians’ perception of themselves as white and by the US official classification of Iranians as white, revealing a contradiction between the racialization act and the official designation. Seeking to resist their racial marginalization, these writers find the activism and literary expressions of James Baldwin appealing to their experience due to his racial transcendentalism, engagement with the immigration experience, and moderate critique of racial dynamics and power structures. This article focuses on the influence of Baldwin, rather than a broader range of African American writers, examining how his rhetorical strategies and racial politics are reflected in the essays, interviews, and critical writings of the aforementioned Iranian American authors. However, the broader historical context will be discussed to contextualize Baldwin’s appeal to them. Drawing on racial formation theory as a theoretical framework, the article explores how Baldwin serves as a rhetorical and literary model through which these writers articulate their ambiguous racial positioning. Baldwin’s work offers them a vocabulary through which they can articulate their ambiguous position in American racial discourse. This engagement with Baldwin is significant since it serves as a model for the kind of relationship that they may build with other marginalized groups, including African Americans, while also expressing their desire to redefine their place within US racial hierarchies.

Diagnosis of ovarian malignancy in radiology is challenging, as there is significant overlap in imaging appearances along the spectrum of benign to malignant disease. In 2021, the American College of Radiology introduced the Ovarian-Adnexal Reporting and Data System (O-RADS) to standardize lesion description and improve consistency of interpretation and management of suspicious masses based on standard greyscale and Doppler ultrasound. Although endovaginal ultrasound (EVS) is well-established as a first-line investigation for ovarian lesions, it previously lacked the ability to show blood flow at the capillary level, severely limiting its contribution to patient care. The introduction of microbubble contrast agents and the subsequent development of contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) software techniques for endovaginal probes have allowed ultrasound to characterize perfusion-level vascularity of ovarian masses comparable to magnetic resonance (MR) and computed tomography (CT) scans. Today, there is limited North American literature addressing the utilization of CEUS in ovarian cancer. Given the advantages of EVS and CEUS, we propose a lexicon to standardize the description of qualitative and quantitative CEUS parameters with respect to ovarian masses. We emphasize the need for future development of specific CEUS criteria, including quantitative thresholds to aid in the differentiation of benign and malignant blood flow criteria. Our recommendation includes a safe, non-invasive, readily available technique, which provides high accuracy for diagnosis.

This paper examines the symbolic role of the elevator in Brit Bennett’s <i>The Vanishing Half</i> (2020) and Nella Larsen’s <i>Passing</i> (1929), with particular attention to its connection to colorism and identity crisis. Set almost a century apart, these novels illuminate the enduring complexities of racial passing in the United States, where skin tone stratification shapes access to privilege and belonging. The elevator, far from being a mere mechanical device, emerges as a metaphorical stage for the negotiation of race, class, and selfhood. Through the dual application of Postcolonial Theory and Critical Race Theory (CRT), the study demonstrates how elevator scenes dramatize both aspiration and entrapment. Frantz Fanon’s reflections on the “mask” and W. E. B. Du Bois’s concept of double consciousness help illuminate the fractured selfhood of characters like Stella Vignes and Irene Redfield, who experience upward social movement only at the cost of authenticity and psychic security. CRT further situates these struggles within systemic racial hierarchies, exposing how legal and cultural constructs of race sustain barriers that passing can only temporarily circumvent. By comparing the earlier twentieth-century Harlem Renaissance text with a contemporary African American novel, this article highlights the transhistorical persistence of passing as both a strategy of survival and a source of alienation. Ultimately, elevators embody a paradox: they lift characters into spaces of prestige and temporary acceptance while simultaneously reminding them of the fragility of such an elevation. In both works, mobility is revealed to be precarious, conditional, and psychologically burdensome. The analysis thus contributes to scholarship on African American literature by proposing the elevator as a powerful symbol that encapsulates the paradoxes of racialized existence. Elevators become not simply vehicles of transport but metaphors for the precarious balance between aspiration and authenticity, privilege and exposure, belonging and estrangement in a racially divided society.

Abstract Biographers from Albert Bigelow Paine to Ron Powers to Gary Scharnhorst have thoroughly charted the years from 1872 to 1891, during which Sam Clemens’s family grew and thrived. In that period, Twain produced an astonishing literary output, writing works that together changed the face of American literature: The Gilded Age, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Prince and the Pauper, Life on the Mississippi, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. Biographers have naturally focused on Twain himself, and Barbara Snedecor’s recent collection of Olivia Clemens’s letters, Gravity (2023), has fleshed out the family’s life from his wife Livy’s perspective. No one has yet to consider these two decades from the point of view of the Clemens daughters, however. How did Susy, Clara, and Jean experience their girlhoods as Mark Twain’s daughters? What were their relationships to their parents and the details of their daily lives, bounded by the expectations placed upon girls of their social class? How did they interact among themselves? This article explores those questions, examining Susy, Clara, and Jean Clemens’s upbringing, schooling, interactions with household members, and developing interests in drama, music, and animal welfare during their childhood years.

ObjectiveTo conduct a systematic review in order to identify risk factors for the length of hospital stay in postpartum women with pregnancy-induced hypertensive disorders.MethodsA systematic search was performed in the databases CINAHL, Cochrane Library, Embase, Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature (LILACS) (via VirtualHealth Library—VHL), PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science for articles published until November 2024. To identify the articles, “Medical Subject Headings” (MeSH) descriptors and keywords for “Preeclampsia”, “Length of stay” and “Postpartum” were used. The descriptors were adapted for each database and combined using Boolean operators (OR and AND). Cohort and case–control studies were included if: presented a population of patients with hypertensive disorders during pregnancy, addressed length of stay as an outcome and were published in English, Portuguese or Spanish.ResultsThe initial search retrieved approximately 2,580 articles, eight of which met the inclusion criteria. The main risk factors for increased length of hospital stay were ascites (p < 0.001), cesarean delivery (p < 0.0001), drug-related problems (p = 0.0001), diastolic blood pressure above 100 mmHg (p = 0.006), intrauterine growth restriction (p = 0.0001), preeclampsia severity (p < 0.001), Congestive Heart Failure (p < 0.001) and Ventricular Tachycardia (p = 0.001). The included studies had a cohort design, with the general methodological quality considered good.ConclusionsThis review identified multiple factors influencing postpartum length of stay in women with preeclampsia, highlighting cesarean delivery and drug-related problems as key contributors. The findings underscore the importance of tailored interventions and local assessments to optimize hospital management and improve maternal outcomes.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12884-025-07312-w.

This Article Thoroughly Examines The Seminal Influence Exerted By Saul Bellow, One Of The Titans Of 20th-Century American Literature, On Jewish-American Literature In General And On His Novel The Dangling Man In Particular. This Deeply Introspective Writer's Works Are Replete With Rich Cultural Content That Has Indeed Influenced The Saga Of Jewish Bellow, Who Was Born To Russian Jewish Immigrants And Raised In Chicago. His Background Deeply Influences His Distinctive Point Of View; It Blends A Philosophical Depth With Realistic Detail. His First Novel, “The Dangling Man,” Foreshadows His Exploration Of Jewish Themes. An Existential Angst And A Search For Identity Are Characteristic Of The Experience Of Many In Today's Diaspora. The Article Explores How Bellow's Personal Life And Jewishness Shaped His Literary Style, Especially Regarding The Characterization And Construction Of Stories, Which Have Made An Indelible Mark On The Field Of Jewish-American Literature And The Larger American Literary Tradition. Keywords: Jewish Themes, Seminal Influence, Saga, Titans, Literature

Abstract This article examines the role of translation as a site of cultural misunderstandings and explores to what extent the concentration of culture- and subculture-specific elements within a text, along with their aesthetic realisation, poses a particular challenge for translators. Using Amanda Gorman’s viral inaugural poem The Hill We Climb (2021) as a case study, the analysis investigates how linguistic, cultural, and discursive elements of the original have been transformed in the German translation. Special attention is given to the translators’ approach to civil-religious discourse and the jeremiad as a text genre, as well as the resulting sacral-religious tone, which has been significantly reduced or entirely neutralised in the German translation. Furthermore, this article focusses on the translation of subcultural elements of African American literary, cultural, and linguistic traditions, particularly double-voicedness, orality, and signifyin(g), as well as race-based terminology. The analysis reveals that these shifts reflect not only linguistic adaptations but also deeper cultural differences, raising fundamental questions about the translatability of culturally encoded texts.

ObjectiveTo synthesize the scientific evidence regarding the prevalence of leprosy relapse following multidrug therapy.MethodA systematic review was conducted following the JBI methodology for prevalence studies and reported according to the guidelines, with the registration number CRD42020177141. The inclusion criteria were based on the mnemonics (Population, Condition, Context). Population: Individuals of any age or sex diagnosed with leprosy relapse and previously treated with paucibacillary or multibacillary multidrug therapy. Conditions: Leprosy relapse after multidrug therapy, measured as the proportion of cases. Context: Studies conducted within the healthcare service settings. The databases searched included Medline, Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature (LILACS), Embase, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), Scopus, WoS, and Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA). The references were managed using Mendeley. A random-effects meta-analysis model was employed, and heterogeneity was assessed using Higgins’ I² statistics.ResultsOf 26 studies (a combined sample of 71,385 participants), 19 were included in the meta-analysis. A higher prevalence of relapse was observed in working-age males, multibacillary cases with a high bacillary load, and those with established physical disabilities. The estimated prevalence of relapse across studies ranged from 0% to 10%, with a pooled estimate of 4% in India (95% CI: 0.03–0.05). The overall point estimate for relapse using regular multidrug therapy was 0.04 (95% CI: 0.02–0.05).ConclusionThe prevalence of relapse varied according to the geographic location and type of multidrug therapy, with substantial heterogeneity across studies. These findings suggest that factors such as individual patient characteristics, treatment adherence, and capacity for healthcare services may have influenced the outcomes observed in this review.