As a relatively recent literary genre, the origin and parameters of the novel are yet to be specifically defined. This essay uses characteristics of early novels to attempt a definition for the novel based on its marks of realism and fictionality. Referencing the novelistic theories of Georg Lukács, Ian Watt,...
Can a wellness movement and business be an American religion? By tracing three threads of historic American religions - New Thought, Christian Science, and Scientology - we can see how we've arrived at the place of even entertaining the question of GOOP as an American religion.
Thought to be one of the earliest novels written by an enslaved woman, The Bondwoman’s Narrative (c. 1853-61) has had many literary critics point to the various intertextual allusions that author, Hannah Crafts, incorporated in the novel. Scholarship has largely focused on how Crafts borrowed characters and passages directly from...
This essay grows from John Dewey’s insistence that “Democracy is a form of government only because it is a form of moral and spiritual association.”— a form of community. Our democracy is guided by laws, and we are citizens of a free society, but, following Dewey, our freedom should end...