Rocky Mountain E-Review
of Language and Literature

Volume 61, Number 2
FALL 2007

Articles

Freud's Contribution to Arthur Schnitzler's Prose Style

Lorenzo Bellettini
Cambridge University

This article aims to offer a new understanding of the relationship between Arthur Schnitzler and Sigmund Freud by focusing on the development of Schnitzler's prose style against the background of his critical reading of Freud's writings.

Henry James, Impressionism, and Publicity

Daniel Hannah
Lakehead University

Henry James' shifting appreciation of impressionist painting can be attributed to his vexed awareness of intimate ties between his own literary impressionism and late nineteenth-century forms of publicity. While James was initially critical of painterly impressionism for its complicity with a culture of promotion, later he looked to the impressionist artist as an analogical figure for the place of his own writing in a world where the borders between private and public appeared increasingly permeable. Falling between the two tales "A New England Winter" and "Flickerbridge," The Reverberator represents James' most extensive (and neglected) treatment of this theme.

Octave Mirbeau et le problème de l'écriture masquée

Pierre Michel
Université d'Angers

L'auteur rattache le recours à l'écriture masquée et la condition des ghostwriters aux conditions socio-économiques de la fin du XIXe siècle (abondance de l'offre et de la demande) et en dégage l'intérêt littéraire pour le ghostwriter : il peut s'entra”ner, procéder sans risque à des innovations, et préparer avantageusement la suite de sa carrière. Puis Pierre Michel souligne l'originalité d'Octave Mirbeau en la matière : il en éprouve un mélange de honte et de fierté; il se sert déjà de l'écriture sous pseudonyme comme d'une thérapie; ses commanditaires avancent eux-mêmes à visage découvert et lui laissent visiblement toute latitude; et surtout, loin de n'être que de plates commandes alimentaires, les romans rédigés pour le compte d'autrui sont littérairement remarquables et donnent lieu à un ébouriffant festival stylistique.

[The author analyzes why writers engage in ghostwriting in the context of the social and economic conditions of the end of the 19th century (abundance of offers and demands) and identifies the literary benefit for the ghostwriter: he can practice, try out different styles and prepare a path for his/her future career. Then Pierre Michel underlines the originality of Octave Mirbeau's career as a ghostwriter: he has, about his work, mixed feelings of shame and pride; he uses this practice as therapy; his employers eventually reveal themselves and apparently allow him unlimited freedom; and above all, in writing on others' behalf, Mirbeau did not merely earn a living, but created remarkable literary novels, featuring astounding stylistic displays.]

Davis Award Winners

To encourage the engagement of graduate students in scholarly production, the Rocky Mountain Review is recognizing excellence among our graduate student membership by publishing two papers, first presented at the 2006 RMMLA conference in Tucson, that won the 2006 Davis Award. Both papers are presented in their original versions: not subjected to peer-review but simply edited for publication. We hope that this new feature of our fall issue will inspire graduate students in the humanities to pursue their scholarly efforts and to submit their work at our annual conference.

Charles Sheldon's In His Steps in the Context of Regionalist Fiction

Wendy Miller Roberts
Northwestern University

Remembering Migration and Removal in American Indian Women's Poetry

Amy T. Hamilton
University of Arizona

Forum

The Pros and Cons of Teaching German Literature in Translation

Maria Mikolchak
St. Cloud State University

The article addresses the issue of how teaching literature in translation (in particular German literature) can be beneficial for undergraduate students. While teaching in the original language is considered by many teachers the best solution, often it limits the study of literature to exploring only short works or/and the works that are written in simple/simplistic language. Thus, important works are often excluded from the curriculum because of the language barrier. Based on the scholarly research in the field and using the data collected while teaching a German Literature in Translation course at SCSU, this project argues a case for making German literature accessible to a broader audience, including students of German, students without knowledge of German but with a general interest in literature, and, through an on-line course, to off-campus public.

Reviews

A Place to Believe In: Locating Medieval Landscapes, ed. Clare A. Lees and Gillian R. Overing
Reviewer: Cliff Toliver

The Premodern Condition: Medievalism and the Making of Theory, by Bruce Holsinger
Reviewer: Cindy Carlson

Shakespeare, Reception and Translation: Germany and Japan, by Friederike von Schwerin-High
Reviewer: John D. Swain

Seventeenth-Century Mother's Advice Books, by Marsha Urban
Reviewer: Doreen Alvarez Saar

Recovering Spain's Feminist Tradition, ed. Lisa Vollendorf
Reviewer: Ana Isabel Carballal

Romanticism: Comparative Discourses, ed. Larry H. Peer and Diane Long Hoeveler
Reviewer: Troy Urquhart

Elizabeth Manning Hawthorne: A Life in Letters, by Cecile Anne De Rocher
Reviewer: Jill Larsen

Harriet Tubman: The Life and the Stories, by Jean M. Humez
Reviewer: Arianne Burford

Bleak Houses: Marital Violence in Victorian Fiction, by Lisa Surridge
Reviewer: Sarah Amyes Hanselman

The Absent-Minded Imperialists: Empire, Society, and Culture in Britain, by Bernard Porter
Reviewer: Precious McKenzie-Stearns

Looking into Walt Whitman: American Art, 1850-1920, by Ruth L. Bohan
Reviewer: Paul Milton