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Research & Innovation

Research in the arts and humanities represents a range of disciplines and distinctive modes of knowledge and methods that result in articles and books, ideas, exhibitions, performances, artifacts and more. This deliberate and dedicated work generates deep insights into the multi-faceted people and cultures of the world, past and present.
Whether individual or collaborative, funded or unfunded, our faculty are leading national networks and conferences, providing research frameworks, engaging students, traversing international archives and making significant contributions to UMD's research enterprise.
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Making Light of Tragedy

The stories in Making Light of Tragedy are arrogant and uncertain. (This is not a contradiction.)

English

Dates:
Publisher: Porcupine's Quill
Can a story be both a shrug and a prayer? Can it punch you in the arm because, hey, it is only joking, and the next minute fall at your feet, cling to your knees, beg you to listen? Sure. The stories in Making Light of Tragedy are arrogant and uncertain. (This is not a contradiction.) They make no apologies for poor taste, or the occasional rhyme, but they do make a few demands. These include: Let there be light. Let there be no more epigraphs. Let the ski jumper take off. Let him never ever land. Let us cut limbs, when necessary. And the word count too. Let this be true. Let one person speak the truth. Let Peter Mansbridge be the ghost of Christmas future. In this first collection by Journey Prize-winner Jessica Grant, you'll find twenty-three bite-sized stories, with guest appearances by Holt Renfrew's daughter, Chantal Hébert, Napoleon, the Management, the Senior Climatologist, the Dean of Humanity, Jon Bon Jovi, Virginia Woolf and God.

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And the War Came: An Accidental Memoir

On the day of the September 11 terrorist attacks, a man begins writing down things said by his family and friends.

English

Author/Lead: David Wyatt
Dates:
Publisher: Terrace Books

On the day of the September 11 terrorist attacks, a man begins writing down things said by his family and friends. This elegantly understated memoir explores how the events of September 11 affected one family. It records thoughts, feelings, and interactions as David Wyatt reflects on his own emotions and those around him that unforgettable autumn.

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A Cosmos of Desire: The Medieval Latin Erotic Lyric in English Manuscripts

A groundbreaking illumination of the creation and reception of extant erotic poetry written in Latin during the Middle Ages.

English

Author/Lead: Thomas Moser
Dates:
Publisher: University of Michigan Press

A groundbreaking illumination of the creation and reception of extant erotic poetry written in Latin during the Middle Ages. His study describes the intellectual and social context from which the great erotic songs of the twelfth century emerged, and examines a variety of erotic poems, from school exercises to the magnificent lyrics found in Arundel 384. He also illuminates the influence of neoplatonic philosophy on this poetry, explicating key neoplatonic texts and applying that analysis in close readings of erotic lyrics from the same period and milieu.

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Four Trials

Raised in a small town by parents employed in the local mills, John Edwards worked in those mills himself -- and then went on to become one of America's most successful and respected attorneys.

English

Author/Lead: John Auchard
Dates:
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
He built a national reputation representing people whose lives had been shattered by corporate recklessness and grievous medical negligence. In landmark cases, Edwards helped people from all walks of life stand up for themselves against tremendous odds. Four Trials provides an electrifying account of four of his cases as it tells the story of the courageous and unmistakably decent people Edwards was privileged to represent in times of tragedy, great loss, and often great joy. And in a deeply moving account, Four Trials also speaks of the tragedies and joys that Senator Edwards has known in his own life -- and how today life and justice are more precious to him than ever.

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Mary Magdalene and the Drama of Saints: Theater, Gender, and Religion in Late Medieval England

A sinner-saint who embraced then renounced sexual and worldly pleasures; a woman who, through her attachment to Jesus, embodied both erotic and sacred power; a symbol of penance and an exemplar of contemplative and passionate devotion

English

Author/Lead: Theresa Coletti
Dates:
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press

A sinner-saint who embraced then renounced sexual and worldly pleasures; a woman who, through her attachment to Jesus, embodied both erotic and sacred power; a symbol of penance and an exemplar of contemplative and passionate devotion: perhaps no figure stood closer to the center of late medieval debates about the sources of spiritual authority and women's contribution to salvation history than did Mary Magdalene, and perhaps nowhere in later medieval England was cultural preoccupation with the Magdalene stronger than in fifteenth-century East Anglia. Looking to East Anglian texts including the N-Town Plays, The Book of Margery Kempe, The Revelations of Julian of Norwich, and Bokenham's Legend of Holy Women, Coletti explores how the gendered symbol of Mary Magdalene mediates tensions between masculine and feminine spiritual power.

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Civilization

In her second volume of poetry, Arnold's poems move from politics and history to an intimate gesture, from ancient fragments and architectural facades to a father's face.

English

Author/Lead: Elizabeth Arnold
Dates:
Publisher: Flood Editions
The layers she excavates in the process are both archaeological and psychological; at the limits of civilization we find both silence and archaic force, "the white-noise light, a sand-storm whiteout.

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“Ethics in the Wake of the Image: The Post-9/11 Fiction of DeLillo, Auster, and Foer.”

Three post-9/11 novels — Don DeLillo's Falling Man, Paul Auster's Man in the Dark, and Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.

English

Author/Lead: Lewis Gleich
Dates:
Publisher: Indiana University Press
The paper provides readers with strategies for responding to the predominance of images in the memory archive of 9/11 and the War on Terror. In Falling Man, intervention comes in the form of David Janiak, a performance artist who encourages New Yorkers to refocus attention on the body. In Man in the Dark, Auster examines both the appeal and the hazards of images, showing how the lure of the media can eventually lead to disaster. In Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Foer and his characters subvert public spectacle by appropriating visual and print media for private purposes. Looking at these three novels together, we can see that post-9/11 fiction challenges readers to develop an ethics that can respond to the aesthetics of an age dominated by images.

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A Cosmos of Desire: The Medieval Latin Erotic Lyric in English Manuscripts

A groundbreaking illumination of the creation and reception of extant erotic poetry written in Latin during the Middle Ages.

English

Author/Lead: Thomas Moser
Dates:
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
His study describes the intellectual and social context from which the great erotic songs of the twelfth century emerged, and examines a variety of erotic poems, from school exercises to the magnificent lyrics found in Arundel 384. He also illuminates the influence of neoplatonic philosophy on this poetry, explicating key neoplatonic texts and applying that analysis in close readings of erotic lyrics from the same period and milieu.

Pop Trickster Fool: Warhol Performs Naivete

What Andy Warhol didn't know--or pretended not to know--changed history.

English

Author/Lead: Kelly Cresap
Dates:
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
He habitually adopted the guise of a fool in public, which made it all the harder to grasp what he was getting at with his pop paintings and deadpan films. By making his own apparent lack of competence and intelligence into an elaborate ruse, he became a figure without precedent: a man whose self-conscious naivete has had truly revolutionary impact.

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The Facts on File Companion to American Drama

Featuring contributions from a collection of scholars, The Facts On File Companion to American Drama presents a complete history of the genre, with emphasis on 20th-century dramatic literature.

English, Center for Literary and Comparative Studies

Author/Lead: Jackson Bryer
Dates:
Publisher: Facts on File
Featuring contributions from a collection of scholars, The Facts On File Companion to American Drama presents a complete history of the genre, with emphasis on 20th-century dramatic literature. An introduction traces the development of American drama from the late 18th century to the present. Appendixes include a general bibliography and a chronological list of prize winners for major drama awards. Teachers, students, and others interested in American drama will find this reference invaluable.