Amy Heckerling’s 1995 blockbuster film, Clueless, introduced the 20th-century satirical hero Cher Horowitz, a beloved protagonist who captured the sensibilities of a generation. Cher is materialistic, vapid, and blissfully ignorant of the goings-on outside her life, yet audiences love her and cheer her on because she possesses the film’s titular trait. Indeed, it is … [Read more...] about The Romantic Heroine Gets a Clue
Change in the American Ideal
First coined by James Adams in The Epic of America, the American Dream has always invited hope into all those that think of it. For those that journeyed into the US during the early 1900s, they strove for success and freedom that they were unable to attain elsewhere. During the 1950s, the American Dream became the ultimate idea of success: hard work and dedication will pay … [Read more...] about Change in the American Ideal
Eric Weintraub
Eric Weintraub is an avid writer whose interest in immigration sparked a summer-long research project on the issue. He now regularly blogs about undocumented immigration along the Arizona and California/Mexico borders. http://undocumentedarizona.com … [Read more...] about Eric Weintraub
Jesse Gallegos
Jesse is a Physics student in USC’s Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. Originally he started his blog, Etiquette, to study manners and behaviors in different societies, however, after a few weeks of blogging he realized that the task was too broad and narrowed his focus to books and politics. To this day the name of the blog remains the same. … [Read more...] about Jesse Gallegos
Incest and Innocence
A primary facet of the American literacy consciousness is the ideal of American innocence and the tragic consequences if that innocence is lost. Yet many American authors remain deeply troubled by the role of sexuality within that conception of American identity, and more importantly, the role of those desires that have been deemed deviant. When Vladimir Nabokov first … [Read more...] about Incest and Innocence