Tom J. Hillard

When the West Was East: Or, the Anxiety of Exhuming the Past

Tom J. Hillard — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 08:43:24 PST

Before the West Was West: Rethinking the Temporal Borders of Western American Literature

Amy T. Hamilton et al. — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 15:12:15 PST

Questions of how to define “Western American Literature” and how to define the “American West” have long occupied scholars of Western literary studies. As these definitions have evolved, the boundaries have been shifted to include more voices and more experiences of the West. Recent developments in criticism have expanded the purview of “Western American Literature” to include 21st-century texts and those that take place in urban and suburban spaces. Yet even in the face of constantly shifting and expanding boundaries, few scholars in the field have seriously studied texts written prior to 1800 through the lens of “Western American Literature.” Using Mary Rowlandson’s 1682 The Sovereignty and Goodness of God as a case study, this essay questions the scant critical attention paid to earlier texts and asks scholars to rethink what—or perhaps when—we mean by “Western American literature.”

“The Ungraspable Phantom: Death and Nature in Melville’s Later Poetry”

Tom J. Hillard — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 09:36:23 PDT

“Mary Rowlandson, Ecocriticism, and the Puritan Gothic Frontier”

Tom J. Hillard — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 09:33:49 PDT

“Revisiting ‘Letting Go Our Grand Obsessions’: 21st Century Visions, Challenges, and Possibilities,” Roundtable participant

Tom J. Hillard — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 09:31:46 PDT

“From Salem Witch to Blair Witch: The Puritan Influence on American Gothic Nature.”

Tom J. Hillard — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 09:30:05 PDT

The Future of Nature: Writing on a Human Ecology from Orion Magazine: Online Teacher’s Guide

Tom J. Hillard — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 08:18:11 PDT

"Before the West Was the West," Roundtable organizer and participant

Tom J. Hillard — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 08:18:09 PDT

Navigating the Field of Environmental Literary Studies

Tom J. Hillard — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 08:18:08 PDT

"A Workshop for Graduate Students and Academic Professionals," Workshop co-leader

Tom J. Hillard — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 08:18:05 PDT

'Captain John Smith' and 'Thomas Harriot' [forthcoming]

Tom J. Hillard — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 08:18:01 PDT

John Bartram

Tom J. Hillard — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 08:17:59 PDT

“Deep Into That Darkness Peering”: An Essay on Gothic Nature

Tom J. Hillard — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 08:17:57 PDT

When the anxious narrator of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" first hears the gentle "rapping at my chamber door" that disturbs his reading of "many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore," he imagines its source to be some human "visitor" that has come knocking (58). Cast into a state of apprehension by thoughts of his recently deceased beloved Lenore, he "open[s] wide the door" to find only "Darkness there, and nothing more" (Poe 58). In a powerful moment pregnant with anticipation and dread, he stands there, "Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, / Doubting," all the while staring into the blackness of the open doorway. Suddenly uncertain of what lurks within that darkness, Poe's narrator admits that he is "dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before" (58). We never quite learn what these dreams are, but his phrasing suggests that what he wonders about, what he fears, what he doubts is as much a product of his own imagination as it is anything that might actually exist outside his chamber. Of course, while this narrator's mind runs loose conjuring up shadowy and fantastical fears, the real object of his concern turns out to be merely a bird, a "stately raven of the saintly days of yore" (59).