Introduction
This issue of PCR has something for scholars of all persuasions. We
don’t theme our issues and are always a bit surprised wlien ideas unite and
cohesiveness spontaneously emerges. In this case, the summer edition has a
number of articles vdiich deal with sport, gaming, or risk: it’s a mini theme!
We begin with Philip Kolin’s surprising and fascinating essay on
Tennessee Williams and sport. A Williams expert, Philip is the editor of t he justpublished Tennessee Williams Encyclopedia Then, ^\llether you think gaming is
sport or not, you will find Australian scholar and artist (he creates our covers)
Laurens Tan’s take on risk and pleasure enlightening. Perhaps taking risks is
what makes the world go round. Historian James Forse adds to the sport/gaming
discussion in “Secularizing the Saint: the Journey of St. George’s Day fi’om
Feast Day to Horse Race.” The final two articles of our mini theme are fi’om
Sergio Rizzo and Roberta Sabbath. Sergio moves us through an analysis of
Hollywood versions of Las Vegas and Roberta examines the poetics of
domination in “Las Vegas Odyssey.”
In other arenas, Donald Newman takes us back to one of my favorite
TV series in his insightful deconstruction of Northern Exposure, “Jacques
Derrida Visits Cicely.” Kevin Morrison provides plenty of food for thought in
“Satirical Irony in Art Spiegelman’s Holocaust narrative Maus: A Survivor's
Tale"'' wJiile Heather Lusty takes an offbeat look at war and trauma in Jasper
Fforde’s marvelously multi-dimensional Thursday Next novels.
Lastly, in gender issues, Mel Seesholtz raises the spectre of New
McCarthyism as he discusses homosexual stereotyping and the politics of fear,
and Calamity Jane rides again as Anna Louise Bates discusses her in the social
issues of gender in the 1920s and 1930s.
Once again, it is clear that everything is related to everything else.
Enjoy!
Felicia F. Campbell
Editor, Popular Culture Review
[email protected]