Rocky Mountain E-Review
of Language and Literature
Volume 57, Number 2
Fall 2003
CONTENTS
Articles | Forum | Reviews
Articles
Narration and Representation of Women in the Lais
of Marie de France
and the Coutumes de Beauvaisis of Philippe de Beaumanoir
Jerry Root
University of Utah
This interdisciplinary, cultural perspective on the relation of courtly love and the
representation of women in Marie de France's Lais puts the discourse of courtly
love and its image of women in the Lais into a dialogue with the historical
representation of women in the Coutumes de Beauvaisis in order to understand
better the discursive space available for the representation of women. Despite of the
valorization of women in the courtly love discourse, the space to speak of women is very
similar and very limited in both the Lais and the Coutumes. Marie de France
nonetheless leverages this limited space to authorize her own poetic production.
The Art of Comparison: Remarriage in Anne Brontë's
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
Nicole A. Diederich
University of Findlay
This article focuses on two interconnected aspects of Anne Brontë's social criticism
in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall: Helen's artistic talent and her remarriage. How
does a woman's definition of herself as an artist complicate her other social roles?
What do the comparisons between a first and second husband suggest about the domestic
"ideal?" Does a remarriage allow for more or less opportunity for an artistic woman?
Brontë answers these questions by contextualizing Helen's second marriage with her
first. Helen's alternating freedom to paint and her inability to do so advances
Brontë's social criticism.
Refuting the Myth of Motherhood in Portuguese Literature:
A Study of Agustina Bessa Luís' Vale Abraão
Carolyn Kendrick
University of California—Los Angeles
Many critics, such as Kristeva, Luce Irigaray and Adrienne Rich have argued that throughout
the Western tradition patriarchal institutions have used the myth of motherhood as one of
the principle mechanisms to preserve traditional gender roles and the distribution of power.
The myth of motherhood claims that any woman who chooses not to mother is a failure as a
woman and a traitor to her very own femininity. In the Portuguese speaking world, this
sentiment has continually reappeared throughout popular culture as well as in political
agendas, especially during the estado novo (The New State) dictatorship in
which Salazar idealized the maternal figure as part of his plan for the reconstruction
of the Portuguese nation. This article analyzes the idealization of motherhood
within the historical and political framework of Portugal and then within the novel
Vale Abraão (The Valley of Abraham) by one of Portugal's
greatest contemporary women writers, Agustina Bessa Luís, because of its
unique approach of demystifying the idealization of motherhood by reinterpreting
the nineteenth-century classic Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert.
Forum
Some Thoughts on Critical Thinking
Collin Hughes
Washington State University
The Summer Critical Thinking workshop -- sponsored by the Washington State
University Critical Thinking Project and the WSU College of Education grant,
CO-TEACH -- initiated a K-20 evaluation of critical thinking as a vertical
tier. In particular the essay looks at small part of the whole. In the breakout
session on "non-traditional" students, we pause for a moment and consider
that problem-solving techniques exist beyond pre-established procedures; in the classroom
as in life, there should be some genuine allegiance to the possibility of considering
alternative perspectives. At the workshop were talented teachers who understood the
fallibility of habitually treating all students the same. Yet, in teaching, not all
things come naturally. This article explores the gap between intention and action
in education and thus the necessity for ongoing reflective thought.
Reviews
Hearing the Measures: Shakespearean and Other Inflections,
by
George T. Wright
Reviewer: Kirk G. Rasmussen
In Praise of Poverty: Hannah More Counters
Thomas Paine and the Radical Threat,
by
Mona Scheuermann
Reviewer: Vicki Ramirez
American Women Writers: A Biographical Dictionary,
by Carol Kort
Reviewer: Gwendolyn James
Speaking Volumes: Women, Reading and Speech in the Age of Austen,
by Patricia Howell Michaelson
Reviewer: L. Adam Mekler
Creative Negativity. Four Victorian Exemplars of the Female Quest,
by Carol Hanbery MacKay
Reviewer: Christine Anton
Why the French Love Jerry Lewis,
by Rae Beth Gordon
Reviewer: Helynne Hollstein Hansen
A Karamazov Companion: Commentary on the Genesis, Language,
and Style of Dostoevsky's Novel,
by Victor Terras
Reviewer: Elena Baraban
A Russian Psyche: The Poetic Mind of Marina Tsvetaeva,
by Alyssa W. Dinega
Reviewer: Natasha Kolchevska
Hart Crane: A Life,
by Clive Fisher
Reviewer: Joanne Craig
Conrad Richter: A Writer's Life,
by David R. Johnson
Reviewer: Victoria Ramirez
Visions of the Land: Science, Literature,
and the American Environment from the Era of Exploration to the Age of Ecology,
by Michael A. Bryson
Reviewer: Stuart P. Mills
Burroughs Live:
The Collected Interviews of William S. Burroughs, 1960-1997,
ed. Sylvère Lotringer
Reviewer: Lance Rubin
A Resource Guide to Asian American Literature,
ed. Sau-ling Cynthia Wong and Stephen H. Sumida
Reviewer: Gwendolyn James
Future Females, The Next Generation:
New Voices and Velocities in Feminist Science Fiction Criticism,
ed. Marleen S. Barr
Reviewer: Lorie Sauble-Otto
Switching Languages: Translingual
Writers Reflect on Their Craft,
ed. Steven G. Kellman
Reviewer: Christa Albrecht-Crane
An Introduction to Bibliographical and Textual Studies,
by William Proctor Williams and Craig S. Abbott
Reviewer: Marsha M. Urban
Smiling Through the Cultural Catastrophe:
Toward the Revival of Higher Education,
by Jeffrey Hart
Reviewer: Doreen Alvarez Saar
The Game of Life: College Sports and
Educational Values, by James L. Shulman and William G. Bowen
Reviewer: Bob Barringer
MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers,
6th edition, by Joseph Gibaldi
Reviewer: Joanne Craig
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