Reviewed by Joshua S. Fullman The story of Cain’s slaying of his brother and fall from grace stands as one of the great myths of the human condition. It rightly claims envy the source of nearly all interpersonal conflict, pitting us against one another for property, position, and approval. Further, it relates the origin of […]
“Alcestis in the Underworld,” by Nina Murray
May 27, 2020 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Joshua S. Fullman Despite the social division, even antagonism, between the various city-states and polities that made up the Greek world, Hellenism nevertheless found a measure of cultural cohesion in their religious narratives. The myth of Alcestis, to cite but one of these narratives, required a poet no less skilled than Euripides to […]
“Dark Lady,” by Charlene Ball
September 19, 2018 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Joshua S. Fullman Historians have long attempted to discover the identity of Shakespeare’s “Dark Lady,” the mysterious figure haunting many of his latter sonnets. Identified by A.L. Rowse in 1973 as the most likely contender,[1] Emilia Bassano Lanyer might possibly have served as the poet’s muse and obsessive love interest, and she becomes […]
“Undead Souths,” edited by Eric Gary Anderson, Taylor Hagood, and Daniel Cross Turner
September 28, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Joshua S. Fullman This volume follows countless others in their earnest curiosity about Southern identification and expression. For many Southerners, their region represents all that is/was great about the American heritage. For many others, it is something un-American, anti-American, or sub-human. Efforts to understand the South by both her defenders and detractors have […]
June Read of the Month: “Damn Yankees,” by George C. Rable
June 2, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Joshua S. Fullman From cinematic accounts alone, one might be tempted to conclude that the American Civil War brought out the better angels of our nature instead of our devils. Indeed, one does not need to go all the way back to Selznick’s Gone With the Wind to find romantic portraits of nineteenth-century […]