Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association Research Articles

The Book of Forms: A Handbook of Poetics by Lewis Turco (review)

Reviewed by: The Book of Forms: A Handbook of Poeticsby Lewis Turco Joy Landeira Lewis Turco. The Book of Forms: A Handbook of Poetics, Fifth Edition. U of New Mexico P, 2020. 431p. For fifty years, poets, teachers and students have relied upon The Book of Forms: A Handbook of Poeticsto provide definitions, explanations, and examples of formal structures of verse written in English from classical times through the Middle Ages to the present. Comparatists who write and study poetry in other languages will also enjoy the commonalities and shared origins from Italian, French, Spanish, Welsh, and Irish works. True to its subtitle, the handbook’s handy “form finder index” lists over three hundred traditional forms, based on meter, rhyme scheme, and stanza or poem lines (91). More than a glossary or reference book, this up-to-the minute fifth edition goes well beyond enumerating and defining poetic forms. Its detailed and often humorous clarifications and examples from centuries of poets, as well as a good dose from the author himself, inspire readers to investigate and immerse themselves in poetry. Poetry, Turco tells us, is “the artof language.” He identifies the levelsof language usage: typography (how words are distributed on the page); sound (rhyme, meter, phrasing); tropes (figures of speech that appeal to all sensory modes); and theme. To bring them to life, the [End Page 136]author delights in engaging his own art of language and narrating with clever double entendre and internal rhyme. For instance, to interpret Mawr’s twelfth-century Welsh “To a Girl” who has spurned a lover, Turco vividly draws a picture: “the suitor is ‘cut dead’—he is no morethan a shadow lying flat on the floor… Mawrdoes no morewith this image” (53—italics mine). Mawr may not do more, but through his spry and sly intervention, Turco gives us Mawr and more. Teachers and students will appreciate not only basic information about poetic components, but also the careful and entertaining evaluations of how and why they work. More than three hundred pages are dedicated to “traditional verse forms,” divided by genre into dramatic (tragedy, comedy, monologue, dialogue, soliloquy), lyric, and narrative poetry (ballad, romance), with alphabetized definitions and illustrations. Lyric receives the lion’s share of attention, detailing hundreds of variants, with added discussions of voicing since lyric poems (songs) are in subjective voice, while narrative uses objective, and dramatic verse employs dramatic voice—of course, all can allow combinations. The real treasure gleams through the examples, from Anonymous Welsh medieval versifiers, to Emily Dickenson, to Walt Whitman, to the author himself. In an oft-played trick, Lewis Turco particularly indulges Wesli Court with long citations of frequently ribald original poems that perfectly demonstrate the concepts. Who is this Wesli Court? Hint, hint: see “acrostic” (128). If I may offer my own Spanish bilingual acrostic, I would tell you this is a Wise Truco! Poets and soon-to-be poets will find a wealth of inspiration in these structures and samples, for they challenge us to play. Try writing a cross-rhymed, alliterated Irish séadna, an enjambed sestina, an aubade (alba) for morning, or an elegy for mourning, or cut up words and rearrange them randomly into “Dada” poems. Turco dedicates The Book of Forms“to my students and formalist friends past, present, and future.” Don’t just use it as a reference, read it from beginning to end, and you too will be a formalist friend. [End Page 137] Joy Landeira University of Wyoming Copyright © 2021 Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association

Making Conversation in Modernist Fiction by Elizabeth Alsop (review)

Reviewed by: Making Conversation in Modernist Fiction by Elizabeth Alsop Joy Landeira Elizabeth Alsop. Making Conversation in Modernist Fiction. The Ohio State UP, 2019. 187 p. What started in 1898 as British artist Francis Barraud's painting of his dead brother's terrier Nipper listening to a recording of his master's voice (which accounts for the painting's title) on a cylinder phonograph was soon copyrighted and transformed into The Gramophone Company Ltd.'s advertising mascot for its Camden, NJ, U.S.-affiliate, the Victor Talking Machine Company. I conjure this dog-at-the-Victrola image as I reflect upon Making Conversation in Modernist Fiction because it illustrates the coming of modernism's machine age and the central exercise of Elizabeth Alsop's study: "paying attention to how characters say as well as what they say" (161--my italics). When we as readers incline our ears to a fictional character, are we listening to what they say just to follow the plot or character development? Do fictional characters even have their own voice, or are they only heeding and mimicking their master's-author's-ventriloquist's voice? By being attentive to how characters say, readers are attuned to how conversation is made, not just to what is said. With this latest book in The Ohio State University Press "Theory and Interpretation of Narrative" series, Alsop evaluates what happens when authors and their creations "make conversation." Careful examination of specific literary works yields four categories: (1) consensual voice and fantasies of reciprocity in Henry James and Ernest Hemingway; (2) exceptional voice and the dream of autonomy in James Joyce and William Faulkner; (3) paradoxical voice and implausible speech in Faulkner and Virginia Woolf; and (4) choral voice of democratized talk in Woolf and Gertrude Stein. Together, these dialogues form Alsop's theory of a poetics of talk that distinguishes modernist literature from former periods and that traces a trajectory towards the "otherness" of postmodernism. Pause for a moment [End Page 217] to consider the characters that are all children of Henry James's imagination who, like their author, seek reciprocity and fitting in to a consensual, well-defined world in comparison to Stein's communal, choral identity "and its general movement away from what Fredric Jameson terms 'protagonicity' and toward 'polycentricity'" (131). Alsop intertwines convincing textual analysis with erudite theoretical background and references. She successfully demonstrates James Phelan's stance that "conversation is always a form of narration," (2) and reaches beyond it to reconceive fictional dialogue "as a work of poiesis rather than mimesis … something not just 'imitated' but truly made" (3). Dialogue in modernist fiction, as she reveals, is not copycat talk, but is a poetic structure in its own right—purposely crafted, created, "made." Stylistically Alsop constructs and "makes" her own arguments with elevated academic references, tone, and parlance. I would advise non-specialists in narratology to build a glossary of theoretical concepts and vocabulary--ie: "involuntary homology" (85) "inquits," "speechtagging" (120)—and to read at a study—and steady—pace. Scholars will appreciate "making conversation" in modernist fiction and will welcome the challenge of pondering carefully wrought questions, answers, examples and discoveries. Joy Landeira University of Wyoming Copyright © 2020 Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association

Diplomacy Arabic: An Essential Vocabulary by Elisabeth Kendall and Yehia A. Mohamed (review)

Reviewed by: Diplomacy Arabic: An Essential Vocabulary by Elisabeth Kendall and Yehia A. Mohamed Mouloud Siber Elisabeth Kendall and Yehia A. Mohamed. Diplomacy Arabic: An Essential Vocabulary. Georgetown UP, 2020. 96 p. An Arabic-English dictionary, Diplomatic Arabic: An Essential Vocabulary encompasses most of the specific vocabulary used in diplomatic communication. Each entry begins with Arabic followed by its English translation. In their introduction, the authors acknowledge the growing, even urgent, need for publishing this type of material and follow it with a brief overview of its ten chapters, which are "internally ordered according to semantic field" (1). The first chapter, labeled "General," introduces a list of the principal vocabulary used in diplomacy. Some of these include diplomacy, the international order, principle/doctrine, colonialism, Arab World, The Middle East. This general listing continues in "Concepts and Practices," which is mostly theoretical. It deals with terminology commonly used in political science and philosophy: populism, neo-liberalism, Marxism, racism, utopianism, and others. The authors return to these chapters by dividing the words and expressions among the following chapters based on their lexical fields. "Diplomatic Service and Protocol" breaks away from theory and enumerates terminology mostly connected to diplomatic practice like diplomatic corps, ambassador, chief of protocol, form of address, diplomatic invitation. The "Organizations" chapter lists lexis endemic to inter/national and regional diplomatic organizations and entities and includes generic words like institution, organ, agency. As well, there are more specific terms like United Nations Organization, World Bank, United Nations Children's Fund, Amnesty International, European Union. The fifth chapter is devoted to vocabulary that connects diplomacy to "Elections and Government". It embodies a list of terms and phrases pertaining to government and the electoral process, including election, referendum, candidate, absolute majority, [End Page 231] Parliament. This chapter mostly relates to internal political affairs of countries. The sixth, however, is directly linked to a major objective of diplomacy, namely holding "Negotiations" among countries. It includes an informed list of words and expressions that describe negotiation as a major practice in diplomacy. Among these are negotiations, building consensus, consultation, mediation. "Treaties and Agreements" is allocated to the end-result of negotiations, namely reaching agreements and signing treaties and includes: agreement/treaty, declaration, commercial treaty, Free Trade Agreement, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and Geneva Convention. The seventh chapter, "Conflict Resolution and Defense," deals with another result of the diplomatic practice related to implementing peace within and among conflicting countries. It begins with the semantic of field of conflict with vocabulary like armed conflict, war crime, genocide, prisoner of war and moves to terms associated with their resolution like conflict mediation, dispute settlement, disarmament/demilitarization, peace keeping forces and so on. The last two, "Civil Society and Human Rights" and "Globalization and Economic Development" embody vocabulary related to a world where people enjoy fundamental human rights and economic prosperity or suffer the absence thereof. The lexis of the former is related to standards of civility and human rights like civil society, non-profit, volunteerism, human rights, United Nations Human Rights Programme, in contrast to their opposites, like human rights violations and crimes against humanity. "Globalization and Economic Development" includes globalization, global village, free market economy and their counter-parts like anti-globalization, cultural relativism along with words that describe world economic growth. At the end of Diplomacy Arabic, the authors include an Index in English of most of the entries to facilitate its use. The ten chapters offer an exhaustive list of words and expressions commonly used in diplomacy. The audience is not limited [End Page 232] to people who work in this area and "students [and scholars] of international affairs" (1). Reporters, human rights activists, business people, and others, whose practices are closely connected to the Arabspeaking world, can also use it. Since the entries start with Arabic and the Index is in English, Diplomacy Arabic is accessible to both English speakers using or learning Arabic and Arabic speakers using or learning English. It is devoted to communication contexts where relations are negotiated and agreements are reached, so it can help its users to avoid getting "lost in translation". Mouloud Siber Mouloud Mammeri University of Tizi-Ouzou Copyright © 2020 Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association...

Gender from Latin to Romance by Michele Loporcaro (review)

Reviewed by: Gender from Latin to Romance by Michele Loporcaro John M. Ryan Michele Loporcaro. Gender from Latin to Romance. Oxford UP, 2018. 368 p. Gender from Latin to Romance is a scholarly comparative analysis of the history, geography and typology of grammatical gender systems across the various Romance languages and dialects. Consisting of eight chapters, it begins with an overview, the method used for the study, and some basic facts and observations about gender systems worldwide. Serving as a springboard for the remainder of the book, chapter two lays out the comprehensive grammatical gender system of Classical Latin as the baseline against which modern languages are to compared. Chapter 3 discusses most common and widely known modern gender systems of the Romance languages, including the binary systems of Italian, Spanish or French. This is followed immediately by another section on gender assignment rules. Chapters 4 through 6 go on to treat more complex Romance gender systems that have been either attested in present-day languages or dialects or documented in past stages of Romance. This includes remnants of the neuter, languages with three gender systems as in Romanian, as well as the correlation between the mass/count noun distinction and gender in Asturian. Diverging from his approach for the earlier chapters, Loporcaro then undertakes the task of providing a comprehensive reconstruction of the development of grammatical gender from Latin to Romance, including such topics as the rise of the genus alternans, gradual depletion of the neuter, and the rise and fall of a four-gender [End Page 217] system. The concluding chapter deals with themes outside the realm of diachronic topics and moves to a more typological focus and the wider implications of four gender systems, internally motivated versus contact-induced change, and syntactically-dependent overt gender marking. Gender from Latin to Romance, the twenty-seventh monograph of the Oxford Studies in Diachronic and Historical Linguistics series, offers several advantages to scholars within linguistics as well as those in other fields, such as sociology, psychology, and gender studies. It provides the first ever, one-stop compilation of research on grammatical gender across the entirety of the Romance language family. This showcases the wide variety of outcomes in gender systems that have transpired across the neo-Latin languages, far beyond the more familiar binary system among the mainstream languages of French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish, and includes details about less widely studied languages like Sursilvan, Neapolitan, and Asturian. It also makes references beyond the Italic family to show where those languages share aspects with Romance, and reviews the work conducted by others on evidence for grammatical gender on the ancestral languages preceding Latin, most notably on Proto-Indo-European by Matasovic (2004) and others. Another strength lies in its sound methodology that explains the different manifestations of gender systems both within and outside of Romance, dedicating ample space to examine the previous seminal work of Corbet (1991) on the wider topic of grammatical gender. Specifically, Loporcaro's application of the controller versus target dichotomy is largely effective. Gender from Latin to Romance provides exhaustive description, documentation, and comparison of the different gender systems, both simple and complex, that have evolved between Latin and the many neo-Latin tongues of today. Although it is not intended as a textbook on the subject, it would serve as a suitable complementary manual of copious examples for students who are studying grammatical gender as a linguistic phenomenon in any context. [End Page 218] John M. Ryan University of Northern Colorado Copyright © 2019 Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association

Zhang Yimou: Globalization and the Subject of Culture by Wendy Larson (review)

Reviewed by: Zhang Yimou: Globalization and the Subject of Culture by Wendy Larson Naji R Obaid Wendy Larson. Zhang Yimou: Globalization and the Subject of Culture. Amherst, N.Y.: Cambria, 2017. 420 p. Zhang Yimou: Globalization and the Subject of Culture comprehensively depicts both Chinese and English methodological supremacy, culture, and history in a well-documented piece. The name Zhang Yimou has been dominant in post-Mao Zedong philosophy and in Asian cinema. Highlighting the post-Maoist Chinese political era, it is therefore recommended for politically inclined individuals to get acquainted with that political mythology. It gives practical insight on how things used to work in ancient medieval Medellin politics, with particular comparison to modern stereotypes. Larson teaches very important lessons about the Chinese and their culture as it relates to globalization. Different [End Page 215] sources from English and Chinese perspectives are used to delve into Zhang's films, posing a strong argument on the potential, limitations, and the significance of the Chinese post-socialist cultural era. Author Wendy Larson's research, including From Ah Q to Lei Feng: Freud and Revolutionary Spirit in 20th-century China; Literary Authority and the Chinese writer: Ambivalence and Autobiography; and Women and Writing in Modern China, is always substantiated by well-crafted textual descriptions and is made even stronger by comprehensive theories. Her present study significantly contributes to the global field of academic and cultural studies through its essential analysis of film director Zhang Yimou, who has, over the years, been controversial due to previous works that have raised debate among professionals. She also lays a foundation for gender, post-socialist, visual, and globalization studies. Larson has a whole new approach to studying modern China, one of the topics that receives major attention. This most beautiful work has the propensity to attract more academic readership to culture studies and geography, probably due to its versatile theoretical knowledge and what most people consider a "Slippery Idea" of global culture; other anticipated potential readers are students in Chinese studies, film studies, and history. This 420-page volume can be considered her magnum opus. She writes with unbiased rationale, creativity, attention to detail, and persuasiveness. It can simply be described as a seminal text since it treats a large number of Zhang's most influential works in depth, reminding everyone who has interest in cinema that the Chinese film industry has actually diversified; this book truly has the potential to guide readers down the road to understanding the Asian continent. Larson's sophisticated assessment of Zhang's methods clearly analyzes eight out of the nine films that he directed from 1987 to 2005, including Red Sorghum, a "cross-cultural threnody," which caused a bit of controversy during its time, and Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles. Using these scenarios, Larson sets the stage for debate on the treatment of culture in the Red Trilogy by opening up questions about postcolonial China and Eurocentrism and by prompting readers to study further. Her analysis views Hero, a movie that has been described as a fascist documentary in its representation of the Chinese state, from an informed angle that counters that notion, and persuasively argues that it is a perfect fit in the development of Zhang's career as a director. In conclusion, Wendy Larson's book intensely observes Zhang's [End Page 216] films, placing them in a larger realm and re-defining the idea of global culture. In this skillful study, Larson boldly challenges pre-existing and incorrect perceptions about the films, which have been tagged either as anti-government or anarchic. It is not surprising that this is one of the world's finest works about Zhang Yimou, since, through careful close study, it evaluates the detailed politics and culture during postsocialist China as well as its current position in the present-day world of capitalism. It is a perfect tool for individuals who are inquisitive about the politics associated with modern Asian culture. Naji R Obaid Arizona State University Copyright © 2019 Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association

Student Research Done Right! A Teacher’s Guide for High School and College Classes by Lisa Scherff, Leslie S. Rush (review)

Reviewed by: Student Research Done Right! A Teacher’s Guide for High School and College Classes by Lisa Scherff, Leslie S. Rush Joy Landeira Lisa Scherff and Leslie S. Rush. Student Research Done Right! A Teacher’s Guide for High School and College Classes. Denver: McRel International, 2018. 95pp. “Grandma Joy, Do you know what my Nemesis is?” queried my 16 year old grandson. My first thought was that maybe he was studying the manual for his upcoming driver’s license test, or perhaps playing some new computer game with a character based on the Greek goddess of retribution. I responded, “No, Quinn, what is your Nemesis?” to which he replied, “MLA Style.” You might imagine my delight, not only as a grandparent, but also as an editor, that high schoolers take MLA style seriously! I gave him his own copy of the 8th Edition of the MLA Handbook, and told him that I know plenty of college students, and journal contributors too, whose downfall is still MLA style. Thank goodness for the dedicated teachers that start our students off on the right foot from an early age and for suitable resources to lead them to success. You might also imagine my delight when Student Research Done Right! A Teacher’s Guide for High School and College Classes showed up for review. Although the target audience is secondary school and early college English teachers, this basic compilation of research methods and exercises can also be used by teachers of other languages who are introducing and refreshing their students’ research techniques in college first year seminars, world language and literature classes, and international student orientation classes. Early chapters set the foundations for research practices that will last a lifetime. RAVEN, a mnemonic device, evaluates the credibility of sources, including online texts. By analyzing the author’s reputation, ability to see, vested interest, expertise, and neutrality, students become aware of the trustworthiness of sources. Another technique, the rhetorical précis, with its structured four-sentence paragraph and one-page practice template, develops summarizing skills that form the basis for abstracts and annotations. One of the most useful research habits is writing annotated bibliographies; many years after reading a document, researchers can review their annotations without re-reading the entire text. Often literary researchers find that an annotated bibliography can replace the traditional “review of literature” article sections [End Page 82] and book chapters. Short, but essential, discussions of how to formulate research questions and the differences between qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods research initiate students into the research process. Data collection through surveys, including ethics and human participant proposals, is briefly explained. After these critical preparatory skills are learned, classroom exercises and assignments address practical questions with activities for student practice in writing a literature synthesis paper, an explanatory or argumentative text, discursive argumentative writing or an academic paper with accompanying oral defense. Teachers will appreciate student writing examples that illustrate finished products from actual classes and serve as guides for how to structure assignments. Students will appreciate and retain the techniques since they are accompanied by useful memory prompts and learning devices. Staying on the “research arrow” from research question, to literature review, to research method, to results, to interpretation, discussion and implications will keep many a researcher on track and will keep their aim on target. This slim, well-organized guide helps us get what we all want, Student Research Done Right! Joy Landeira University of Wyoming Copyright © 2019 Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association

Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman (review)

Reviewed by: Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman Peter Fields Neil Gaiman. Norse Mythology. New York & London: Norton, 2017. 299p. Neil Gaiman has been in the vanguard of what might be called—or dismissed as—young adult fantasy literature. Now read by all ages, this genre spans J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan, Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, C. S. Lewis’s Narnia Chronicles, and J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. With his Sandman graphic novel, Gaiman first caught the attention of a young audience and quickly moved to the forefront of what fantasy is doing in our time. Norse Mythology evidences his growth as a writer whose stories may be read aloud to children at bedtime, but whose resonance meets [End Page 324] the criteria of serious literature. He fully captures the outrageous and the awful, the hilarious and the poignant qualities of the Prose Edda and the Poetic Edda in a superbly paced style with telling detail and humorous dialogue. It is strikingly effective, both for young people whose minds are open to wonder or for college students alert to the Northern legacy that permeates the Early English tradition: Beowulf, the Exeter Book, the Vercelli Book, Caxton’s Mallory, or even (or especially) Milton’s Paradise Lost. This essential volume allows us to grasp—under one cover in a few sittings—the full power and range of what we sometimes call the “Northern” influence on English literature and popular culture. Indeed, what drew Gaiman’s interest to Norse mythology was the discrepancy between the latter day Norse heroes as depicted in Marvel comic books and their original forbears who were more complicated and idiosyncratic. One of the difficult things about the original stories is precisely their penchant for odd details, desultory adventures and journeys, and other disparate motifs that are handled with surprising grace. The author interprets as he retells the stories, highlighting the eccentric folklore details with a significance that feels true and authentic. The reader takes away an impression of a vast, tragic panorama of gods whose time in this world is cyclical. They will pass away: “In addition, I learned, the Norse gods came with their own doomsday: Ragnarok, the twilight of the gods, the end of it all. The gods were going to battle the frost giants, and they were all going to die” (12). Loki is especially galling—and compelling—as a character whose fraught relationship with fellow immortals appalls and fascinates in equal measures. His first act of mischief (apparently, for no particular reason) is to rob Thor’s wife of her beautiful brown-golden hair: “Her fingers reached up to her bare pink scalp and touched it, exploring it tentatively. She look at Thor, horrified” (51). Gaiman excels with visual cues and surgical detail, describing Loki’s comeuppance for destroying her hair. The dwarf who helped make Thor’s hammer does the deed with Odin’s permission: “Brokk grunted and produced an awl, a pointed spike used in leatherwork, and he jabbed it through the leather, punching holes through Loki’s lips. Then he took a strong thread and he sewed Loki’s lips together with it” (66). Importantly, the author takes his time culminating the history of the gods. We are reminded of impending destruction with increasing insistence, but we are treated along the way to a cumulative cornucopia of finely wrought moments of character and description. Neil Gaiman’s powerful prose is smooth and glassy, flowing gently from one sentence into another. Yet he knows just the right word to drive home the situation he is describing—like the awl that the dwarf jabs through Loki’s lips. We see, hear, and feel a completeness of sensorium—a flavor of [End Page 325] Northern tone and allusion—that we have experienced before in so many stories, but could not quite put our finger on. Norse Mythology restores the glory of the North, and we realize why these gods have never left our imagination. Peter Fields Midwestern State University Copyright © 2018 Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association

Thrill of the Chaste: The Allure of Amish Romance Novels by Valerie Weaver-Zercher (review)

Reviewed by: Thrill of the Chaste: The Allure of Amish Romance Novels by Valerie Weaver-Zercher Lorie Sauble-Otto Valerie Weaver-Zercher. Thrill of the Chaste: The Allure of Amish Romance Novels. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP: 2013. 315p. In spite of the fact that many or most literary scholars may be prone to dismiss the subject matter of Thrill of the Chaste: The Allure of Amish Romance Novels, Weaver-Zercher has made a significant contribution to the field with a very comprehensive and scholarly approach to the “bonnet fiction” phenomenon of the 21st century. The author posits that the shocking demand for so-called “bonnet books” is in part a response from evangelical Christian readership to what Gilles Lipovetsky has called the “hypermodernity” and “hypersexualization” of modern society (xv; 10). Weaver-Zercher also relies on Rosenblatt’s “reader-response theory” and the application of that theory by Radway in her examination of the functions of romance novels to present an analysis of “the uses of Amish fiction” (18). This book is about the ways in which Amish romance novels are used by the readership and by the authors themselves who are not Amish but are evangelical Christians. One of the best things that Weaver-Zercher’s book does is to focus on the aspect of commodification in regards to the Amish romance and the publishing industry. The author exposes the non-innocence of the industry in its soliciting, via agents, novels in rapid succession from authors who may or may not have considered writing in the genre before. In view of the fact that the vast majority of [End Page 251] the authors are not nor have they been Amish themselves but are self-proclaimed evangelical Christians, Weaver-Zercher takes the time to explain the difference between evangelicals and Anabaptists (both Amish and Mennonite are categorized as Anabaptists). This theological explanation is essential to understanding the author’s keen interest and criticism of the commodification of both the genre and of the Amish. The author aligns the Amish romance novel craze to the general increase in Amish tourism, particularly in Pennsylvania, calling the novels “textual carriages” for non-Amish folks who may not be able to actually visit in person Amish communities (132). These “textual carriages” allow the readers to experience the Amish life-style, as well as it is represented in the texts (and the author does examine authenticity issues). For an evangelical readership as well as an Amish readership, although the latter is significantly smaller than the former, the author seems to pinpoint three basic characteristics of Amish romance novels that appeal: 1) they do not contain “overt sexuality”--they are a “clean” read in a “hypersexualized” world, 2) they have predictable happy endings, and 3) they have a devotional message. Although Mennonite herself, Weaver-Zercher does not shrink from criticizing the cultural flaws of the genre. There is a chapter dedicated to dealing with representations of women in the novels, often offering conflicting images of women caught between traditional and progressive roles. There is a chapter dedicated to accuracy in the novels in regards to Amish practice, especially the practice of shunning. Weaver-Zercher brilliantly emphasizes the absence of race and ethnic differences in the novels that are written about and for an overwhelmingly white community, the novels themselves being what the author calls and expression of “cultural anxiety” on the part of the evangelical readership and authorship (227). Thrill of the Chaste is of interest to anyone working with reader-response theories, the uses and functions of popular literature, and the commodification of culture and cultural products. Weaver-Zercher’s book is importantly about the history and evolution of the genre; however, the most significant contribution that the book makes is its examination and evaluation of the publishing industry that is both meeting and creating demand for the genre. [End Page 252] Lorie Sauble-Otto University of Northern Colorado Copyright © 2014 Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association

Think About It: Critical Skills for Academic Writing by John Mauk, Jayme Stayer, and Karen Mauk (review)

Reviewed by: Think About It: Critical Skills for Academic Writing by John Mauk, Jayme Stayer, and Karen Mauk Elena Foulis John Mauk, Jayme Stayer, and Karen Mauk. Think About It: Critical Skills for Academic Writing. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2014; 324p. Think About It: Critical Skills for Academic Writing, is an almost pocket-sized book with excellent and practical insights into academic writing. Divided in three parts, this guide encourages writers—the targeted population being freshman or sophomore college students—to transition from the traditional five-paragraph essay, to a richer, more complex, and critical way to approach college writing. Each chapter in part one address a specific step in the writing process and provides examples of the step being studied. The examples used throughout each of the chapters are short, and often include excerpts that illustrate and further advance the understanding of a process. Part one is the longest section of this book, and it teaches writers how to “learn the moves” of academic writing. With chapters that teach the writer how to seek complexity, apply a concept, justify a position, assess thinking, etc., part one offers plenty of opportunities to discuss, practice and build a critical essay. The book uses accessible language with clear, descriptive and relatable examples that are easy to follow, while at the same time challenges writers to exercise the skills discussed in each section. Although each chapter has a guided exercise section that pushes students to think, talk and write about the topic, it leaves room for instructors to design exercises that apply more directly to the subject. Additionally, some of the chapters include information—in reference boxes in blue—that support and aid the writer in remembering how to cite, paraphrase, summarize, etc. These blue boxes, sprinkled throughout part one, offer concise explanations of basic mechanics and techniques every writer needs to remember. [End Page 239] Part two, titled, “Read the moves,” offers longer and full-length essays designed to show the intellectual moves described in part one. In this section, the reference boxes direct the reader to look at each paragraph of the essay the author uses to examine specific processes from part one. For example, in Steve Krause’s essay, the writers point out that Krause, “denies the usual association between technology and new” in paragraph 3, “unpacks literacy, a broad term, and explains three of its traits” in paragraph 6-7, and “makes connections between Lindstrom’s and Socrates fears of technology” in paragraph 9 (194). This step-by-step approach to reading the moves from part one, serves as a model for the student’s own writing. Part three, titled, “Apply the moves,” provides writers with outlines for building their own essays, along three categories. These categories are: explanatory and descriptive projects, analytical projects, argumentative projects, and reflective projects. Each of the categories directs the writer to clarify a term or concept, explain things in their own words or draw from a vital source, for example. These outlines are helpful and flexible enough for writers to adapt to their own projects. This book should not be merely a reference manual or a “recommended” book on a student’s syllabi. Because of the step-by-step approach to helping the writer achieve a well-organized, structured and critical essay, it merits being used along with other main texts. It does not include a chapter on mechanics, grammar or spelling, so instructors might need to include additional exercises or offer a list of common mistakes and how to avoid them. Elena Foulis The Ohio State University Copyright © 2014 Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association

Elizabeth von Arnim: Beyond the German Garden by Isobel Maddison (review)

Reviewed by: Elizabeth von Arnim: Beyond the German Garden by Isobel Maddison Albrecht Classen Isobel Maddison. Elizabeth von Arnim: Beyond the German Garden. Farnham, Surrey, and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2013. 273 p. In this well researched monograph Isobel Maddison offers an excellent introduction to the novelist Elizabeth von Arnim and a thorough discussion of her works. Von Arnim was born in 1866 as a member of the Beauchamp family in Australia. She married the German officer Count Henning von Armin-Schlagenthin in 1891 in London. The latter’s maternal grandfather had been a nephew of Frederick the Great, and the couple settled in Nassenheide in Pomerania in 1896. This count might have been a descendent of the famous German Romantic poet Achim von Arnim (1781-1831), but Maddison never even mentions this possibility. Instead, the study is focused entirely on the publications of this successful female writer and her social background. Most impressively, it is the result of extensive archival research and careful interpretive analysis, clearly bringing to life this author and her work. It would be too simplistic, as Maddison emphasizes, to recognize here just a ‘feminist’ writer; instead she urges us to see in von Arnim a satirical author who critically examined her society and the tensions among the various social classes. She attracted a wide readership, although, or just because, she voiced considerable criticism of the social constraints at her time. In order to do justice to von Arnim’s accomplishments, Maddison carefully investigates the social, historical, and literary context and background relevant both for the author and for her individual texts. Apparently, as she can unearth, von Arnim was exceedingly well connected with many important writers of her time, so this study sheds good light on other contemporary literature. The entire third chapter is dedicated to the relationship with Katherine Mansfield. Curiously, however, as Maddison observes, von Arnim did not always receive positive reviews, especially if we think of Virginia Woolf and Rebecca West. Nevertheless, as this study demonstrates, von Arnim proves to have been a solid author who had much to say to her audience, and was certainly an important contributor to contemporary literature, living partly in Germany, partly in England, representing a transcultural experience, as we would say today. Nevertheless, as many of her personal statements indicate, she had little positive to say about the Germans at [End Page 101] large and mostly embraced stereotypical views imbibed from British propaganda in the wake of the First World War. Some of von Arnim’s novels also reflect the relationship between Germany and the United States, such as Christopher and Columbus (1919) Much of Maddison’s discussions pertain to a close reading of von Arnim’s texts, adding comments from reviewers, while critical opinions by contemporary scholars seem to be missing here to some extent. I list just a few from recent years: Juliane Roemhild, “Beauty’s Price: Femininity as an Aesthetic Commodity in Elizabeth’s von Arnim’s Novels,” Cahiers Victoriens 75 (2012): 31-39; Amy Mullin, “Narrative, Emotions, and Autonomy,” Narrative, Emotion, Insight, ed. Noël Carrol and John Gibson (University Park: PA State U, 2011), 92-108; or Sara Ann Wider, “‘And What Became of Your Philosophy Then?’: Women Reading Walden,” More Day to Dawn, ed. Sandra Harbert Petrulionis et al. (Amherst, MA: U of MA Press, 2007), 152-70. The bibliography is arranged in such a peculiar fashion that the reader has a hard time figuring out the system. Pleasantly, the volume concludes with an index. Most important, Maddison has put together an appendix with an accurate overview of the relevant papers by the author, from 1890 to 1962, a finding aid. While the introductory chapter with its biographical sketch proves to be most helpful, I am missing a conclusion or an epilogue in which the various aspects discussed here would have been pulled together. Nevertheless, altogether this monograph represents a major step forward in research on Elizabeth von Arnim, both because of the good close reading of the primary texts and because of the solid appendix detailing the source materials in the personal papers. Albrecht Classen University of Arizona Copyright © 2014 Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association

No One Is Here Except All of Us by Ramona Ausubel (review)

Reviewed by: No One Is Here Except All of Us by Ramona Ausubel Helga Lénárt-Cheng Ramona Ausubel. No One Is Here Except All of Us. New York: Riverhead Books (Penguin), 2012. 410p. Ramona Ausubel’s first novel is the magical story of a tiny Romanian village at the beginning of the Second World War. Sensing the impending catastrophe, members of this remote Jewish community huddle together. They stop the mail service, bury the radios, and create a make-believe world in which only God and they exist. “… once upon a time, tomorrow was the first day of the world. The very, very first. The earth was unformed and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep” (31). Echoing the voices of the Old Testament, they reinvent a world where “the past [is] no longer a place” (57). They relearn the meanings of their words, their commitments to each other, and even the shapes of their own bodies. Remembering is a choice that they do not consider. “And what of the things I remember? my mother asked. “You don’t,” the stranger said…(33)” They decide that this new world is “about hopes more than events” (38), which [End Page 68] helps them cope with their fears. They work so hard to believe in their story that they become convinced that the old world was the make-believe one. Willpower, of course, was not enough to reinvent the world. What they needed was the power of words, the power of storytelling. “If we wanted to survive in this story, we had to tell it that way” (32). So they start a new story, with a new beginning and infinite possibilities. And this is the story that Ausubel is writing. The little girl at the center of this story—the author’s grandmother—is enchanted by this endless new world, until she is given away to a rich uncle and aunt who force her to act like a baby. Having to reinvent herself in an already reinvented world, she struggles to remember herself. “I said that I hoped there was a little room left for myself, just a small cave somewhere between the imprinted feel of walking across wet grass and the precise tension of an apple giving way under a knife” (81). The unbearable lightness of a life without a past weighs so heavily that she has to fill page after page with lists of words of everything she knows. “Spit, babies, snot, spoon, death, dogs, saddle, horse, rain, anger, howl” (95). Telling stories and repeating words like a mantra helps her to remember who she is—at least temporarily, for a couple of years. But one day the “forbidden world stirs” (193), news of the outside world reaches the village, and the shared dream cracks. The real begins to “mate” with the dreams (249), and the fury of the world carries away both the villagers and their stories. The little girl—by now a mother of two—survives by the power of words, repeating to her sons who she is and who they are. And when she is forced to give up her only surviving son, she tells him: “This is just a story. I will always be your mother,” … “In this chapter Natalya is your mother. Nothing is changing except what we say” (323). Of course the child sees through this double-edged consolation. He knows that “nothing is changing except what we say,” but also that what we say can change the world. Ramona Ausubel’s novel is as unpredictable and alive as the reinvented world was on that first day. The sheer force of imagination that almost saves the village saves this ambitious novel as well. This is just a story, but it changes everything. Helga Lénárt-Cheng St. Mary’s College of California Copyright © 2014 Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association

The Light that Puts an End to Dreams: New and Selected Poems by Susan Sherman (review)

Reviewed by: The Light that Puts an End to Dreams: New and Selected Poems by Susan Sherman Dorsía Smith Silva Susan Sherman. The Light that Puts an End to Dreams: New and Selected Poems. San Antonio: Wings, 2012. 151p. In The Light that Puts an End to Dreams: New and Selected Poems, Susan Sherman projects her inner life as a child, lover, traveler, activist for gay and women’s rights, historian, and writer. This volume, divided in six books, exudes a deep sense of attachment to the human experience and political events. In so doing, Sherman’s poems convey the different voices of those who have felt the pang of suffering and burning of injustice. Through the art of intimacy and honesty, she allows readers to understand that life is full of nuanced pauses and dynamic movements—an ironic movement to witness and experience. In the first section titled, “Genesis,” Sherman manages to convey the beginning of several stages. These moments include the formation of history and political acts, budding love relationships, and shifting changes of seasons. The opening poem “A Poem that Starts in Winter” marks a dramatic scene in which Sherman equates those people “without a history” as people who were made to forget about [End Page 115] their identity: immigrants, Jews, anti-war protestors in the Vietnam era, and lesbians. As the stories of these various people unfold, they are finally given a voice that acknowledges their struggle—a voice, which Sherman notes, formed by writing the poem. In the last several stanzas, Sherman tries to balance her inner rage with a call for justice. However, the backdrop of winter is a constant reminder of the overall somber tone. “Areas of Silence” is an apt title for the second section. The poems focus on love relationships and the “silence” that occurs when lovers are apart. While they demonstrate Sherman’s passionate feelings towards her beloved, the poems in this section are notably weak. Several of the images are trite, and the themes of lust and longing become lackluster by the concluding poem. Sherman’s brilliance returns in two poems in the following sections titled, “The Fourth Wall” and “Long Division.” “Facts” describes the harsh reality of apartheid in South Africa and the numerous South Africans that died fighting against it. The poem also explores the irony of how many Americans, especially students, have no knowledge of international issues or question contemporary events. Once again, Sherman’s inner rage emerges throughout the poem and strikes readers with thoughtful intensity. “Holding Together” is also impressionable due to its balance of fresh descriptions of mundane objects and tasks with the speaker’s rhythmic movement in New York. By merging these elements, Sherman demonstrates her unique ability to capture concrete imagery and emotions. Sherman explores chanting, traveling, and religion in the fifth section titled, “Cantos for Elegua.” The text’s notes state that Elegua is the “opener of the doors.” In the same vein, the poems in this section reproduce Sherman’s journeys to various countries like Nicaragua and Spain and experiences with different rituals and beliefs. These poems also serve as a pathway to the last section, “The Light that Puts an End to Dreams,” which is a series of poems about Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, the 17th century Mexican nun who broke many traditions by writing poetry and became known as the “first feminist of the Americas.” Accompanied by photographs by Joséphine Sacabo, Sherman’s poems reflect the blurred photographic images as they merge the biography of de la Cruz with contemporary events. This union is a powerful relationship and responds to Sherman’s desire to question those who suppressed the artistic talent of de la Cruz and subordinate women in general. As in her previous poems, Sherman challenges injustice, discrimination, and historical “facts” and ends by questioning the “madness” of the current century. [End Page 116] Dorsía Smith Silva Middle Tennessee State University Copyright © 2014 Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association

Cancionero: Manuscrito 1250 de la Biblioteca del Palacio Real by Gómez Manrique (review)

Reviewed by: Cancionero: Manuscrito 1250 de la Biblioteca del Palacio Real by Gómez Manrique Connie L. Scarborough Gómez Manrique. Cancionero: Manuscrito 1250 de la Biblioteca del Palacio Real. Ed. José I. Suárez. New York: National Hispanic Foundation for the Humanities, 2013. 596p. José Suárez has provided scholars of fifteenth-century Spanish letters with a new and very faithful transcription of the cancionero of one of the most important men “of arms and letters” of the period—Gómez Manrique. Manuscript 1250, [End Page 171] housed at the Royal Palace in Madrid, is considered the most complete collection of Gómez Manrique’s poetry, but, surprisingly, it has never heretofore been transcribed in its entirety. Beyond giving us the complete transcription of the manuscript, Suárez meticulously documents instances where versions of poems included in ms. 1250 differ from those found in other fragmentary collections of Manrique’s poetry. This is not a critical edition per se, but a transcription that maintains the manuscript’s original orthography and its present pagination. Manuscript 1250 was prepared for, and dedicated to, don Rodrigo Pimentel, Conde de Benavente, a relative of the poet’s mother, and its date of composition is sometime after 1476. As such it does not include all of the known poems authored by Manrique since some only appear in other manuscripts or were authored after the production of ms. 1250 and, obviously, before Manrique’s death in ca 1491. To supplement the materials contained in ms. 1250, Suárez provides a useful appendix of all the poet’s known compositions that do not appear in it. Suárez gives variants for ms. 1250 by comparing its compositions with nine other manuscripts containing Manrique’s poetry as well as versions published in 1928 in the “Nueva Biblioteca de Autores Españoles” (NBAE) series, vol. 4. The inclusion of variants is particularly useful for researchers who rarely have the opportunity to consult all the manuscripts consulted by Suárez. Also helpful are appendices that classify the poems by subject matter: love, politics/morals, events, satire, religion, and drama as well as an appendix of first lines. Since Manrique’s work is extant in various manuscripts scattered throughout collections in Spain, including the Biblioteca Nacional (Madrid), Palacio Real (Madrid), and the Biblioteca de Menéndez Pelayo (Santander), it is especially helpful to be able to consult variants in one convenient publication. This is the most comprehensive edition of Gómez Manrique’s Cancionero since Antonio Paz y Mélia’s 1885 compilation. Obviously, the nineteenth-century edition prepared by Paz y Mélia does not adhere to the current, rigorous standards for manuscript transcription employed by Suárez. Also, maintaining the pagination of the manuscript for this transcription greatly facilitates locating passages when scholars need to consult the original. The book itself is attractively printed with a very clear typeface and accessibly priced. [End Page 172] Connie L. Scarborough Texas Tech University Copyright © 2013 Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association

Teaching the African Novel (review)

Reviewed by: Teaching the African Novel Caroline Beschea-Fache Gaurav Desai . Teaching the African Novel. New York: MLA, 2009. 427p. Teaching African literature has proven to be a great challenge in the particular context of American academia, whether because students are not sufficiently trained in African national languages, or because they may not have acquired sufficient historical and general knowledge about the African continent. Teachers of African literature often face the questions of how to teach African literature without giving a full historical and literary survey, and how to engage in a genuine intercultural approach without lapsing into simplistic exoticism. Teaching the African Novel, edited by Gaurav Desai, addresses these questions directly and brings together a variety of rich essays written by various scholars and teachers of African literature and that focus on teaching African texts. This "companion for teaching" is an essential tool for the neophyte or the expert in teaching African literature because the collection covers a vast array of issues in African literature, [End Page 116] proposes concrete ideas for the classroom, while it also participates in current scholarly discussions. But, unlike many others, the volume concerns a much larger geographical area than Sub-Saharan Africa and involves the entire continent. In addition, it moves beyond the theoretical framework and brings the discussion to a global and practical conversation. The essays do not provide an exhaustive historical or geographical survey of African literature, but rather they engage in concepts and practices to teach the African novel. The collection is divided into three sections that move from a more conceptual and theoretical approach to more specific institutional and classroom contexts. The first section, titled "Theories and Methods," comprises six essays that address theoretical apparatuses to approach the African novel, identifying the various levels on which African literature operates. While Odile Casenave, in her essay "Women Writers and Gender in Sub-Saharan Novel" demonstrates how gender and sexuality shape and inform African novels today, contributors such as Tejumola Olaniyan and Nicholas Brown draw attention to the political dimensions of African Literature (Marxism, political resistance and subversion, etc.). The second section of the book, which focuses on "Regional Imperatives," and "Thematic Cartographies," gathers nine essays that tackle diverse issues from "Lusophone African Fiction" (Arenas) to the Griots (Wise), and Islam (Edwin), among many other themes. Since the volume aims at "reimagining models of organizing African literature in coherent units that speak to specific and pressing thematic concerns" (Desai 11) this section allows for a great understanding of Africa as a vast continent and a land of extremely rich and diverse literatures and cultures. Together, these articles "map ways of meaningfully engaging the north-south divide instead of foreclosing the productive dialogues that have continued to take place in the literary traditions across the continent" (11). The last section of the volume concentrates on "Pedagogical and Institutional Contexts." Its essays offer concrete suggestions for course organization, addressing concerns such as integrating African novels in broader literature survey courses, or bringing an African novel in the French-language classroom, such as Mohamad Kamara's "The Francophone African Novel in the French-Language Classroom." Desai's edited volume encourages a more sensitive reading of African literature by considering its colonial history and its present multiculturalism at the same time. We can only agree with Simon Gikandi when he considers this book as an essential tool for teachers of African literature. It is, we might add, a must-have not only for these teachers but also for any humanities program, and language and literature departments, and it will tremendously enrich anyone's understanding of African literature. [End Page 117] Caroline Beschea-Fache Davidson College Copyright © 2012 Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association

Contesting Knowledge: Museums and Indigenous Perspectives (review)

Reviewed by: Contesting Knowledge: Museums and Indigenous Perspectives Susan Lee Susan Sleeper-Smith , ed. Contesting Knowledge: Museums and Indigenous Perspectives. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2009. 362p. One of the most debated topics in museum, Native American, and Africanist Studies is who should have agency in displaying indigenous artifacts and culture in [End Page 227] museum exhibits. Susan Sleeper-Smith continues this debate in her compilation of essays gathered from the CIC/Newberry Library American Indian Studies Fall 2007 Symposium in Contesting Knowledge. Sleeper-Smith explains that typically, "Museums functioned as powerful rhetorical devices that created dominant and often pathological allegiances to a cultural ideal" (2). Her thorough compilation of essays thus works to obtain a consensus amongst scholars concerning shared and disparate cultural ideals and their subsequent visual presentation. Sleeper-Smith argues that museum depictions of indigenous communities in South and North America have evolved over time: traditionally, curators depicted a binary system of civilized/primitive in early dioramas and "cabinets of curiousity" illustrating the early contact period between Euro-Americans and natives; followed by exhibits after the mid-twentieth century that incorporated native perspectives and curatorial work; and presently ending with indigenous tribal museums that focus on self-presentation and preservation through a multiplicity of voices. Although the essays denote a move away from the cultural imperialism of many museums' previous exhibits, cultural disparity between natives and non-natives remains an obstacle in the curatorial process. This problem appears most poignant in the intent behind tribal self-representation in museums. While some tribal museums attempt to inform the general public about indigenous cultures, at the same time, their primary focus is the preservation of ways of life devastated by centuries of Westernized, imperialistic practices. Because tribal museums find exhibits a meaningful place to preserve their histories, the general public does not always understand the multi-faceted intent of their curatorial work. Susan Sleeper-Smith's Contesting Knowledge insightfully provides an approach to understanding the changes behind the curatorial process, while simultaneously illustrating how damaging stereotypical imagery of indigenous people has been and still is for those seeking to offer countering narratives. In "The Construction of Native Voice at the National Museum of the American Indian," Jennifer Shannon, for example, recognizes that a deviation from traditional museum work may excite the native and non-native curators; however, the public's critique of innovative representations usually involves the same rhetoric that made the traditional dioramas so popular. In other words, when natives define themselves according to their own terms, their artistic reproductions appear lacking in "enough scholarship" or, they are confusing because the emphasis centers upon the community (multivocality) versus the individual. Finding a solution to the problem of audience reaction, especially considering the plethora of images that currently depict natives as an element of the past (for example, sports mascots and the appropriation of native religions by New Age [End Page 228] spiritualists), seems impossible to eradicate. While Jennifer Shannon states that an "authentic" representation of natives can be achieved only through native curators' exhibits, Brenda J. Child claims that tribal museums can simultaneously speak for natives and speak to natives and non-natives alike. As a result of the contradicting solutions in this compilation, the answer for how museums should represent indigenous people appears as complicated as the history of the curatorial practice itself. Despite the fact that this edition does not offer a conclusive strategy in handling native representation in the museum world, Contesting Knowledge succinctly details the ongoing indigenous struggle for self-presentation in the postcolonial world. Susan Sleeper-Smith metanarratively illuminates the deep-rooted complexities of distinct museum perspectives on native representation through a compilation of complimentary yet differing contributing voices. Sleeper-Smith's edition thus presents a potent argument for those interested in understanding the history of curatorial depictions of indigenous people as well as what museum work culturally offers natives in the representation of tribal communities. Susan Lee St. Louis University Copyright © 2011 Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association

Memory, Speak

In his keynote speech from the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association's 2010 conference, celebrated translator Howard Goldblatt offers his readers a glimpse into the beginnings of his own forty-year love affair with the Chinese language. As he implores the “puppets of memory” to speak, he recounts how a single memorized poem, with its specific cadences and meanings, continues to provide a still point within his life—a space to which he can return time and again to gain a greater perspective and appreciation of the close relationship between language, literature, and life.

Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association

The Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association hosts an annual convention attended by more than four hundred scholars and teaching professionals. The 1999 convention in Santa Fe, New Mexico, included over one hundred regular, special-topic, and conjoint sessions on a wide variety of subjects.Established in 1947, the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association is a nonprofit membership organization that promotes the study and teaching of language, literature, and culture. The RMMLA is one of six regional but independent branches of the Modern Language Association of America.

From The New Editors

From The New Editors We are very excited about assumingthe editorship for theRockyMountain Review ofLanguage andLiterature and look forward to continuing the tradition of solid scholarship established by the previous editorial staff. Above all, we are committed to producing a journal which both reflects the needs and interests ofthe diverse membership ofthe Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association and which serves as a public statement to others in academia of our mission and our interests. To meet these goals, we have decided to make a few changes in the Review. First, we will expand the number articles published in each edition and will select articles written in English which appeal to a broad readership and maintain the scholarly integrity of the journal. Secondly, beginning in Fall 1998, each Fall issue of the Review will focus on a specific theme. This thematic focus will provide a forum in which the interplay ofmultiple perspectives - genre, gender, literary, and extraliterary, philological, et al. - can take place. A call for submissions on specific issues is included separately. To accommodate this change in focus, creative writing will play a smaller role in the scope ofthejournal. We will also be expanding the range of the current book review section to include reviews of other kinds of publications and of scholarly and pedagogical materials. We intend to continue offering primarily reviews of new books published by the scholarly presses but will also be reviewing software (learning tools and modules, development applications, etc.), videos and video series, web sites, and other multimedia resources which seem to us potentially of value to teachers and scholars in languages and literatures. Finally, in light of current technological advances which have an impact on all disciplines, we will publish an online version of the Review, The ?-Review, beginning in Spring 1998, on the new RMMLA site on the World Wide Web (http://rmmla.wsu.edu/ rmmla). The editorial policy regarding referees will be the same as for the print version but this electronic format will allow us to post publications more expediently than in print. We will also be able to provide greater access for our membership to a larger number of publications, some incorporating multimedia, as well as an archive of past articles. In The ?-Review, we will publish articles written in English and in other languages. For the time being, we will continue publishing both print and on-line versions ofthejournal, but we see the on-line version as becoming a dynamic space in which to access and respond to the scholarly endeavors of our members. MichaelRachel J.Ana Maria DelahoydeHalversonRodriguez-Vivaldi ...

Constitution and Bylaws of the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association

Constitution and Bylaws of the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association

Constitution and Bylaws of the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association

Constitution and Bylaws of the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association