Reconstructing whiteness in Ambrose Bierce

This essay analyzes the works of American author, journalist, and satirist Ambrose Bierce through the lens of whiteness studies. It compares Bierce\u27s work to the popular literature. Its primary investigation is into the ideological project of white-identity and national reunion as it is played out in sentimentalist war memoirs and plantation romances that flooded the market at the end of the 19th century. Analyzing Bierce\u27s war writing, horror fiction, and journalism it tracks a formation of whiteness counter to the popular narratives of the era

A Most Inhuman Tragedy: Roy Morris, Jr. Explores Whitman\u27s Wartime Hospital Work

Civil War Book Review (cwbr): One of your earlier works is on Ambrose Bierce and, now, The Better Angel addresses Walt Whitman\u27s wartime hospital service. Do Civil War literary figures offer a particular attraction to you as a writer and historian? Roy Morris (rm): Coming as I...

Simbología topográfica en los relatos fantásticos de Ambrose Bierce: el barranco

Ambrose Bierce era un hombre polifacético: a lo largo de su vida desempeñó diversas profesiones como las de camarero, ayudante de imprenta, soldado (en donde se incluyen varios ascensos dentro de la carrera militar), topógrafo, periodista, escritor y crític

Freedom at Midday: Elements of Existentialism in the Works of Ambrose Bierce

Ambrose Bierce exhibited a number of elements of existential thinking both in his life and in his writing. But he was ambivalent about his philosophical stance, and it is difficult to know whether he was the utter pessimist he has been called, or whether his attitude toward the universe admitted a certain optimism. Much of Bierce\u27s thought parallels modern existentialism, which has three main tenets: a belief that there is no God and the universe is, therefore, irrational; a descent into despair; and a choice of life or death. Bierce insisted that the universe is irrational, and he repeatedly discussed the death, cruelty or mutability of God. His heroes often felt the Angst of existential despair, but Bierce remained ambivalent about the alternatives in such a chaotic universe. Bierce\u27s war stories illustrate the existential moment when the hero confronts the absurd universe. Many of Bierce\u27s heroes commit suicide in despair, but a few choose a more meaningful death, a finite transcendence in the face of the irrational which results in a sort of affirmation of the power of mankind within a universe of chaos. This study examines two of these stories, The Mocking-bird and A Son of the Gods, with reference to the existential thought they demonstrate. Bierce was a proto-existentialist; his approach to the universe prefigured twentieth century existential thought, and within this framework, we find that he was not a complete pessimist, but that he discovered the very circumstances that would be the basis of optimistic existentialism in the twentieth century

Courier, Vol.XIV, No.4, Fall 1977

The Illumination of an English Psalter: A Preliminary Assessment / Bruce Watson, p.3 -- Ambrose Bierce Describes Swinburne / M. E. Grenander, p.23 -- Postscriptum / John S. Mayfield, p.27 -- News of the Library and Library Associate

Points South: Ambrose Bierce, Jorge Luis Borges, and the Fantastic

The debt of Borges\u27s A Secret Miracle to Ambrose Bierce\u27s An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge both in theme and technique has been noted in recent criticism. However, a careful study of the two works reveals striking differences, particularly with respect to the treatment of time. Based on Todorov\u27s study of the fantastic, this article attempts to show how Bierce\u27s influence on Borges parallels the general development of psychological realism and its transformation into surrealism. While it is true that the allusive qualities of Borges\u27 work recall thematic and technical aspects of Bierce, nonetheless the American Hispanophile is a precursor of the Argentine Anglophile in only a limited sense

Postscriptum

John S. Mayfield fleshes out the discovery of a hiterto unknown description of the English poet Swinburne written by Ambrose Bierce. It was discovered by Professor Grenander. Although Swinburne\u27s life is already well chronicled, the new discovery adds an amusing aside from a satirical master