Archives: Articles


Inge Leimberg – The Myth of the Self in Whitman’s “Song of Myself” and Traherne’s “Thanksgivings”: A Hypothesis

The Myth of the Self in Whitman’s “Song of Myself”1) and Traherne’s “Thanksgivings”2): A Hypothesis3) Inge Leimberg Published in Connotations Vol. 5.2-3 (1995/96) The Title “Song of Myself,” untitled and unsectioned in the first edition of Leaves of Grass, became “Poem of Walt Whitman, an American” in 1856 and “Walt […]

Lothar Černý – Mythical Aspects of Poe’s Detective

Mythical Aspects of Poe’s Detective Lothar Černý Published in Connotations Vol. 5.2-3 (1995/96) Light, seeking light, doth light of light beguile; So ere you find where light in darkness lies, Your light grows dark by losing of your eyes. (Love’s Labour’s Lost 1.1.77−79) The detective as a literary figure has […]

Merton M. Sealts, Jr. – Melville and Grabbe: A Letter

Melville and Grabbe: A Letter Merton M. Sealts, Jr. Published in Connotations Vol. 5.1 (1995/96) Dear Editors, As regards Grabbe’s Don Juan und Faust as a possible source for Melville, I’m afraid there is no evidence whatsoever that Melville read German and Professor Cook makes no mention of an English […]

Arthur F. Kinney – Author’s Commentary

Author’s Commentary Arthur F. Kinney Published in Connotations Vol. 5.1 (1995/96) In responding to my essay on “Faulkner and Racism” (Connotations 3:3), Philip Cohen notes that “It is both easy and fashionable in literary criticism nowadays either to wave the bloody flag of moral and ideological superiority over an earlier […]

Bernd Engler – The Cultural Dynamics of Metafictional Discourse in Early American Literature: A Response to Jürgen Wolter

The Cultural Dynamics of Metafictional Discourse in Early American Literature: A Response to Jürgen Wolter Bernd Engler Published in Connotations Vol. 5.1 (1995/96) Given the well−established theory that the censure of fiction was a pervasive feature of American cultural criticism in the nineteenth century, one may well be surprised to […]

Maurice Hunt – Modern and Postmodern Discourses in Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale: A Response to David Laird

Modern and Postmodern Discourses in Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale: A Response to David Laird Maurice Hunt Published in Connotations Vol. 5.1 (1995/96) In his article, David Laird gracefully and cogently defines several contending idioms in the play, primarily Leontes’ absolutist language, intent on forcing connotations into a single, self-serving meaning; […]

Peter Milward – Towards an Understanding of Christianity in Shakespeare: In Memory of Roy Battenhouse

Towards an Understanding of Christianity in Shakespeare: In Memory of Roy Battenhouse Peter Milward Published in Connotations Vol. 5.1 (1995/96) Abstract Peter Milward reacts to Cecil Williamson Cary’s review of Roy Battenhouse’s  Shakespeare’s Christian Dimension . All scholars working in the field of Shakespearean criticism, whether Christian or otherwise, have […]