nonfiction Thinking on Screen: Film as Philosophy By Thomas E. Wartenberg (Routledge Taylor & Francis) Film enthusiasts and students of philosophy will find Wartenberg’s book a thought-provoking examination of the ways specific films, including Modern Times, The Matrix, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind address complex philosophical ideas. Thomas E. Wartenberg is professor of philosophy at MHC and author of Unlikely Couples: Movie Romance as Social Criticism.
Visiting the Shakers 1778–1849 Edited by Glendyne R. Wergland FP’92 (Richard W. Couper Press) This work brings together ninety-eight accounts by visitors to four Shaker villages in New York and Massachusetts, written by varied guests, including Charles Dickens and Horace Greeley. The entries provide insight into both the Shaker way of life and the key issues and cultural ideals of mainstream society of the time. Glendyne Beemer Wergland is an independent scholar and author of One Shaker Life: Isaac Newton Youngs, 1793–1865.
The Culture of Obesity in Early and Late Modernity: Body Image in Shakespeare, Jonson, Middleton, and Skelton By Elena Levy-Navarro ’87 (Palgrave Macmillan)
Women’s Experimental Cinema: critical frameworks Edited by Robin Blaetz (Duke University Press) This book brings to light the work of fifteen avant-garde women filmmakers, many of whom are currently working. It examines the social and political roots and cultural impact of their films, and touches on the female, feminine, and feminist practices of an exceptional group of artists. Robin Blaetz is associate professor of film studies at MHC and is also the author of Vision of the Maid: Joan of Arc in American Film and Culture.
Elena Levy-Navarro examines the concept of body image in a time before the word “obesity” stigmatized fatness. She argues that major figures such as Shakespeare and Jonson understood that a thin aesthetic consolidated the power of the elite and chose to align themselves with their fat characters, offering a model of defiance that has continued relevance. Elena Levy-Navarro teaches English at the University of Wisconsin, Whitewater. She has published numerous articles in cultural and literary studies.
Mou n t Ho lyo k e Al u m na e Qua r t e r ly
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