Rocky Mountain Review

73-1-2019 | Spring 2019

Articles

Articles are published in alphabetical order according to the name of the author.

 

Bryce Christensen, Southern Utah University

“Dark Matter”: Science as Metaphor in the Poetry of Jared Carter

In his landmark book, Science and Poetry(1926), I. A. Richards argues that poetry depends upon The Magical View of the Universe, premised upon belief in Spirits, Inspiration, and the Efficacy of Ritual. Richards, however, asserts that the scientific outlook is incompatible with “the Magical View” and therefore its cultural ascendance may mean the end of poetry. Many poets, including Blake, Keats, Whitman and Poe, have identified science as a desiccating threat to poetic vision. Even the skeptic Hardy surprisingly leaves science behind to draw the Magical View into his poetry. Yet, in the poetry of American Jared Carter we see an astonishing reimagining of science, one that brings the Magical View into science by reimagining key scientific concepts (the Big Bang and Cosmic Inflation) metaphorically. Such a reimagining transforms science making it not a threat to poetry, but rather an imaginative resource for its creation. A careful analysis of Carter’s sonnet “Dark Matter” reveals how Carter effects this transformation in a way that sustains the Magical View by connecting with religious faith. Carter’s hopeful metaphoric perspective on science contrasts sharply with that of Albert Camus, who interprets science as metaphor only to identify it as an epistemological cul-de-sac in an absurd universe. Carter’s hopeful metaphoric revisioning of science, on the other hand, harmonizes quite well with the way scientists such as Isaac Newton, Owen Gingerich, Alister McGrath, and Freeman Dyson have harmonized science with the transcendent. In an increasingly scientific world, Carter’s metaphoric perspective offers a promising future for poetry.

 

Nelson Danilo León, Colorado State University, Pueblo

Children of the Motherland: The Otherization of Latin American Immigrants in Contemporary Spain

Since the end of the twentieth century, Ramiro de Maetzu’s concept of Hispanidad has been tested by the experience of many Latin Americans who have immigrated to Spain. These immigrants, especially those who belong to ethnic or racial minorities, have faced social rejection. In other words, neither Spaniards nor Latin Americans feel the fraternity that Maetzu and others had preached. And, contrary to Hispanidad, Spain and its former colonies have an Others-versus-Us relationship, one that is complicated further by the intersection of factors such as race and ethnicity, which have profoundly shaped their immigration experience in the “Motherland.”

 

Kent Lehnhof, Chapman University

Abrahamic Allusions and Agrarianism in Wendell Berry’s “The Solemn Boy”

This essay reads “The Solemn Boy” as a revision of the biblical tale of Abraham and Sarah. In this revision, however, the aged couple is gifted a son for only one afternoon, after which he is taken away. Nevertheless, Tol and Miss Minnie do not become bitter. By graciously accepting their loss, the couple models the humility that is central to Berry’s thought and that comes, in his estimation, from working the soil. Tol and Miss Minnie are the salt of the earth, and they become such by tilling the earth. Their saintliness is an effect of their agrarianism.

 

Steven Urquhart, University of Lethbridge, Alberta

L’hiver à Cape Cod (2011) de Pierre Gobeil ou la recherche du juste milieu à l’époque hypermoderne

Cet article montre que ce récit du voyage de cet auteur québécois en Nouvelle-Angleterre avec son fils dyslexique et dysorthographique relève d’une remise en question de l’hypermodernité. On dégage le caractère métadiscursif et symbolique des aspects du récit dans lequel l’auteur essaie d’aider son fils en difficulté d’apprentissage et de trouver un juste milieu entre la stagnation passéiste et l’avancement à tout prix. On souligne l’importance que l’auteur accorde à la littérature dans la compréhension de l’actualité et montre qu’il adopte une position modérée qui prône le ralentissement, la réflexion et le besoin de tenir davantage compte de l’être humain dans la poursuite du progrès.

 

This article shows that the goal of this Quebec author’s story about his road trip to New England with his dyslexic and dyorthographic son is to question hypermodernity. In this essay, we demonstrate the metadiscursive and symbolic nature of various aspects of the story in which the author tries both to help his son, who suffers from learning difficulties, and to find a middle ground between past stagnation and modern advancement at all costs. We highlight the important role the author affords to literature in order to understand the current world and show that he adopts a moderate stance that favors slowing down, reflecting and the need to pay greater attention to human beings in our pursuit of progress. 

 

Reviews

Reviews are published in alphabetical order according to the name of the author reviewed.

 

R. K. Narayan’s Malgudi Milieu: A Sensitive World of Grotesque Realism, by Sravani Biswas.

Reviewer: Alan Johnson

 

Community-Based Language Learning: A Framework for Educators,by Joan Clifford and Deborah S. Reisinger.

Reviewer: Mike Uribe

 

The Monster as War Machine, by Mabel Moraña. Translated by Andrew Ascherl.

Reviewer: Stephen G. Melvin

 

Estudios en torno a la traducción del Quijote. Libro conmemorativo del IV centenario de la muerte de Cervantes, by Saad Mohamed Saad, editor.

Reviewer: María del Mar López-Cabrales

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

Reviewer: Joy Landeira

 

Toma y Daca: Transculturación y presencia de escritores chino-latinoamericanos [Give and Take: Transculturation and the Presence of Chinese-Latin American writers], by Huei Lan Yen.

Reviewer: Tim Conrad

 

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