Book Review. Russell DiNapoli. The Elusive Prominence of Maxwell Anderson's Works in the American Theater [Reseña]

Rel'is ra de Eswdios Norteamericanos. 11. º 9 (2 003 ). pp. 135 - 141 BOOK REVIEWS RUSSELL D1NAPOLI. The El11sive Promi11e11ce < ~f Maxwell Anderson 's Works in the Americ<111 Theater. Va lencia: U. de Valencia, 2002. The Universitat de Valcnc ia 's «B ibliot ec a Ja vie r Coy d'est u dis nonlamcricans» appcars to be a new outlet for Spanish Americanists. its very namc paying homagc to one of our most distinguished represcntatives. A recen! title in thc collection is Rus se ll DiNapoli's The Elusive Promine11ce <~f Maxw ell Anderso11 's Works in the America11 Thearer. Informative. readable and superbly documented. it co nstilutes the first important study of Maxwell Ander son ever publishcd in Spain. I confcss I was one of those -alluded by Di Napoliwhose acquaintance with And erson's work was limited, having found him more of ten mentioned in pa ssing referen ces than discussed in d ep t h. Maxwe ll Anderson is certai nl y not very popul ar with modcrn audicnccs and quite neglected by most critics. Nonctheless, the fact that he is always induded among the masters of American drama and acknowledged as a substantial dramatist had always excited my curiosity. DiNapoli 's work proves an cxccllent introduction to this interest in g albeit cont rove rsia! playwright and his initial adm i ssion that he «fou nd his [ Anderson 's ] p lays acceptable. but not g reat . Undoubtedly Anderso n was a craftsman at writing plays. But greatness entails far more than ju st skill» ( 1 4) was for me an inducement to reading as I took it as an outright challen ge of a rath er set view. Th c book has four sections or chapters. In the first one, «D rama in the United States from the Beginnings to the Second World War», DiNapo li offers a panoramic sketch of the history of American drama. from its co lonial beginnings to World War II. Obviously, the account of the last decades is more detailed, this being thc pcriod when Anderson 's many works were produced. Though this history is pleasant toread, it will probably say little to th e expert; moreover, as there is no point that DiNapo li tries to make and his sketch has no relevance for thc la t cr di sc u ss ion of Anderson, it rather de la ys the handling of central points and co uld have bee n done without. Th c second chaptcr, «Maxwell Ander son's Plays: A Critica! Overview», traces a history of Anderson's drama and its crit ica] reception. In section three. disconcertingly entitled « Traces of Anarchism», D iNapoli analyzes the way Anderso n 's shifting ideological p os iti on(s) caused anger. reluctance to take him seriou sly or. from the fifties on, sh eer indiff erc nce toward s hi s work. DiNapo li 136 Rook Reviews examines the playwrighfs ideological stance and its problematic delineation, as well as th c uniqueness of a write r who, by managing to a li cnate Rightists, Leftists, Communists and nearly evcryonc clse, was sentenced to a long ostracism. not well o ver. Ifthe book had ended after chapter three. one would fcel a certain roundness in it and the certainty that it had proved or shown what it set out to prove or show; the real significance or interest of whatev er that is would remain open to discussion. However, DiNapoli's st ud y goes on. There is a ch apter four. and this is, in my opinion, thc one that presents his most original contribution to Anderson 's criticism. However, I believe that the material dealt with in this chapter deserves an independent book and not simply a so11 of disconcerting af terword in a work which is really dedicated -as evidenced by the titleto an altogether differ ent subject. No matter how feebly and unconvincingly DiNapoli tries to connect both at sorne point. their enforced symbiosis remains puzzling. Certainly DiNapoli's major contribution to Andersonian criticism is not the discovery of thc elusive prominence of his works in the American theater -discov cre d long agobut that of Anderson 's original conception of tragedy, whi ch sees it rest ing on «the dyadic association of an abstrae! hero with two contrasting protagonists» (93). I still foil to understand why the book was not articulated aro und this discovery, which would moreover possibilitate a critica! reassessment of the Andersonian canon, as hinted by DiNapoli .1 But as rny duty is not only to sing the praises of DiNa poli's otherwise exce ll ent work. I fe el I should point out sorne of the shortcomings I perceived. For instance. at points the authorial voice ge ts lost. To a certain extent, this is u nders ta ndable as chapters 1 to 3 are about Anderson 's critica! reception and he chooses to stand asíde in order to Jet us hear the opinions of cr itícs and reviewers. But forme this, more than a jus ti fication. is further proof that chapter 4 - where his voice is more loudly heardshould ha ve been the centcr of the work and not í ts last chapter . In this sense, I wo nder whether it was rcally necessary to ha ve direct access to so ma ny c ri tica] voiccs -particularly wh en after sorne pagcs I started having the feeling that I was reading what I had just read or even had read severa! times beforeor whethcr it would have been bctter to skip sume uf th em and off er usa mere account uf major trends in Andersonian críticism and assessment, alluding to direct sources in parenthetical citati ons or with footnotes if so rne furthcr explanation were required. As we absolutely believe DiNapo li has not invented his conclusions but derived them from reliable sources , we probably prefer to give our time ami attention to his conclusions rathcr than to his sources. Of co urse I'm not suggesting their elimination, as their presence is essential for eventual checking or a mor e in-depth approa ch but not necessarily wíth such prominence. Certainly I miss footnotes in the volume, not l. N one theless. 1 feel there is a certain naivcte in DiNapoli's bclief that the disrn very of a new critica] c:ategory. valid for so rne of Anderson"s works. will rc awaken intcrest in the dr am atist and result in a frcsh and cnhanced appreciation of his plays by p ro duc:crs. editors and th eat ri c:al audiences at la rge. Book Re .. ie 1 rs 13 7 because of any special fondness but because they cou ld have been used to accommodate all those tiresome details and facts that DiNapoli incorporates into the body of the text and which end up getting in thc way of a smooth rea<ling and prevcnting you from following the main argumcntation.2 Curiously cnough in a volume so stuffed with fa cts, 1 was surprised at not tinding an index for quick rcference. which would have been of gr ea t help in a book which is -c hapter 4 exceptedperhaps most uscful as reference. Also, sorne further editorial work in order to avoid ty po graphical mistakes would have been nee de d. Espccially in chapter three there are severa! quotations for w hi ch no reference is supplied. Apart from thesc minor errors, the work con sistently maintains a high standard of scholarship. as evidenced by its excellent bibliographical section. Thcre are a couple of statements that need clarification. The contention that «[ p]rior to World War I, realism in Europe had lost ground to the expressionism of dramatists like Toller, Strindberg. Wedekind, and Brecht» (32) has to be reforrnulated as Brecht's first plays were actually not produced until the early twe nli es. Also, the assertion that a run of a hundred performances of Hwnlet was «the longest playing cngagement ever of Shakespeare's brooding tragedy» (20) needs specification as it is hard to be licve that the longcst run for Shakcspeare's play could be one of just 100 performances, even if that could have becn outstanding in a particular context. lt would have abo been more clarifying had the author given in parenthescs thc year when each play was first produced instcad of the date of pub li cat ion of the cdition includcd in Works Cited . The austcrity and sobriety of the edition -usual features in the outp ut of university pr esscsprobably accounts for the absence of i ll ustrations , though at times it would have been helpfu l to v isualize spcc ific productions of Anderson 's plays. Unfortunatel y, DiNapoli's volume <loe s not list other titles in the «Biblioteca Ja vier Coy d 'est udis nord-ame ri cans» collection. I would have been greatly interestcd to know, cspecially if ali of th em are of thc quality of DiNapoli's. As I see it, his has the unintcnded effecl of encouraging you to rush to oth er items in the series and is , all in all. a very serious a ncl honcst cndeavour and a remarkable attempt at opcning new avcnues of acadcmic inquiry. RAMÓN ESPEJO ROMERO Universidad de Sevilla DAVID Rio RAtGADr\ S. Robert Laxalt : la vo::: de los vascos e11 la literatura norteamericmw. n. p .: Universidad del País Va sco, 2002. Nowadays, it seems u nd eniable that one of the healthicst conse qu ences of the «Canon wars» of thc l 980s has been the di scovery of a significant number of authors 2. Exceptionally confusing are DiNapoli\ rnfütant refcrenc es to the dozens of plays written hy Anderson. 138 Book R eviews who had b et: n neglected for a long time. As a r cs ult. the li tcrary canon of the Un i ted States has turned not only multicultural, but also more div er se a nd appealing. Over the past few ycars. David Rí o Raigadas has become the vocal force in tracing th c Jegacy of the Ba sque-American minority in U. S. literature ami. fortunatcly, his many efforts have finally crystalized in a major cr itica! work which upcns innumerable paths to future research on t hi s fascinating field. Rob cr t Laxalt -who dicd on March 23, 2001-has found a knowledgcab le interpreter of thc sixteen works he lcft behind, severa] of whic h were nominated for the Pulitz er Prize. By the ti me of his death, Laxalt had long becn hailcd as 'the vo i ce' of the Bu sque-American ex p er iencc. cxploring th e fate of t he thuusands who mi grate d to the United States mostly for econom ic r casons and ofte n settled in Nevada as shepherds. This book offers a comprehensive study of how the image of both Bu sques and Basque-Americans unfolds in many of La xalt 's works. Sincc Laxalt sti ll remains a !argel y unknown figure in thc Ba sque Country and the rest of Spain. David Río starts by offering a det ai led biographical study of the writcr's lifc: he pays spt:cial attention to the social. economic. and ethnic factors that motivated his parcnts' migrating to thc United Sta tes in the ear ly twentieth century, where they met and marricd. Born in California in 1923. R obert Laxalt spent most of his liF e in Nevada. where his brothcr Paul eventually hecorne first se nator and then gove rnor in 1966, thus reaffirming thc suc cess ful adaptation of sorne Basqu eAmericans in the «land of opportunities». As Rí o Raigad as aptly dem ons tra tes. m ost of La xa lt's fictional and nontictional texts ver ge on th c autobiographical, dealing with the difficult process both he and his parcnts had to endure in order to sur vi ve in a social and ethnic environm ent that sometimes met the Basques with indifference and cven hos ti lity. His main wor k, Sll'eet Promised L and, published in 1957 to cr itica! accla im. has been co nsidered by William Douglass as 'the classic' literary text of thc Basque diaspora. On the one hand it scrutinizes the rnigrat ory experience of Laxalt"s own father, and on the o ther the trip hoth of thcm t oo k in 1953 to their homeland. which fascinat ed the artist so much that he would return a numb er of tim es in the following dccades. Sweet Promi.1·ed Land set from th e b eg inning many of the distinctive featur es of the author"s literary universe: emphasis on the Ba sq ue rea lity, a r ea listic a nd intim ate approac h to events, an cpisodic structure, and a concise diction with s udcl en poctical outbursts which perhaps is not sufficiently quoted here. Ac co r<l ing to th is critica! s tu dy, in Laxalt 's works the diasporic rnovement to the American co ntinent reaches symbolic dimensions and becomcs an initiation rite. a quasi-rnythical journey with profound connotations which are discussed her e in gr ea t detail. Clear ev id ence of it is the trilogy Laxalt published late in his caree r depicting the evolution of the Indar1 famil y. again w it h a ma nifest autobi og rahi ca l subtext. The Busque Hotel (l 989), Ch ild of the Holy Ghost ( 1992). and The Gove mor ' .1· Ma11sio11 (l 994) offer multiple insights on th e bencfits and the risks of assimilation for th e Basque-American m in ority. While The Ba sq11e H ot el ( 1989) is an obvi ous recr ea tion of Laxal t's personal cx p er ience as an immigrant in the United States, Child of the Ho/y Ghost is both a literal and metaphori ca l search for the world hi s parents left behind in Europe. since Book Revie11·s 139 the protagonist cmbarks on a symbolic journey back to the Basque Country in order to trace their roots. David Río carefully points out that this is the first occasion in which a female charac tcr is the protagonist in what otherwise tends to be a markedly mascu li nist literary domain. The protagonist's mother, Maitia, is presented as a victim of the prejudiccs of the patriarchal Basque society, so that she finally decides to esca pe away across the Ocean; the prototypical image of the Statuc of the Liberty that appears at the end of Clzild of the Holy Ghost functions as a symbol of freedom in an obvious patriotic <liscourse celebrating the United States . Finally, The Governor' s Mmzsion is commonly considered a failed attempt on Laxalt's part to write a political novel by fictionalizing the successful career of his brother in Nevada <luring the 1960s. Whilc the novel acknowledges the success of sorne second-generation Basqu es like Paul Laxalt in thcir land of adoption, it also aler ts to the destructive nature inherent in assi milating too excess iv ely «the American way of life », since this adoption can 1mply forgctting one's roots or even bctraying them. In order to prove this hypothesis, David Río pays special attention to the disintegration of the strong family ties of Basque culture in the United States, and in his analysis he makes extensive use of Werner Sollors' well-known theoretical concepts of «consent» and «descent», as he often does throughout the entire book. In severa! of his minor miscellanous works. Laxalt included vignettes depicting scenes of traditional rural life in the Basque Country. Major idiosyncratic features of Basque ethnic identity are underscored: the influence of the Catholic Church. the altitudes towards the law, the de pendcn cc on orality, the strong family life. the harmonious relationship with nature, or the conception of time. However, given that Laxalt's perspective never ceased to be a foreign one, David Río docs not hesitate to note severa! times that his impressions can be rather id ea lized and reductive at times. Nevertheless. Laxalt managed to cover in a fertile way new ground that widens the scope of contemporary U. S. literature with a distinctive voice. In his repeated attempts to explore and understand the Basque idcntity in both continents and the hardships of starting a new life in a foreign <listant land, he contributed to enlarging t he U. S. litcra ry canon and added to its multicultur al richness. If Robert Laxalt has rightfully become the voice of the Basque experience in the United States, with t hi s informative wc ll -documented overview David Río Raigadas has c onfirm ed his position as the voice of Robert Laxalt in literary studi es . JUAN IGN ACIO GUIJARRO GON ZÁLEZ Universidad de Sevilla Ca nne Manue l, e<l . TeachinR Ame rican Literature in Spmzish Universities. Biblioteca Javier Coy d'estutlis nord -americans. Valencia: Dcpartament de Filología Anglesa i Alemanya, Universitat de Valencia, 2001 . ISBN 84-370-5340-4. 133 p. This volumc is included in the recently initiated collection of works on North American Stu<lies edited by the University of Valencia. a welcorne addition to the 140 Book Rel'i ews expanding production on American Studics in Spain which has given rise to such va lu a bl e an d usdu l initiatives as the carefully edited bilingual editions of American texts produccd by the Tall er de Estudios Nortea mer icanos of the University of León, am ong o th ers. In its th eme, the book also links up with t he inc reasing concern w ith teaching in higher educa ti on that has filtered from American and British acad emia, reflected. for instance, in the collections on t hi s subject issued by the MLA (Opti o 11 s j ór Teachiní{ and Appmaches to Teac/Jing). or in the clca rly didactic inte nt whi ch guid es the e dit ors of wo rks such as the 4th cd ition of the H eath Antlw/ogy <~f Ameri ca n Literat11re. pu bl ished with an accompanying vol um e of suggestions for teaching. One of the most valuable features of Teaching American Literature is that it bcgins by linking, through its first two articl cs . Univcrsi ty edu ca tion to the l eve! i mm ediately preceding it. that is, seconda ry schoo ling. a conn ecti on which is too often for go tten with dire results for both levels. In t hi s respect, Be ni to Cam acho Martín, the author of one of them. makes a lucid, if somewh at opinionated. analysis of the de c.:l ine of the teaching of literature in secondary schools, both in te nn s of the hours devoted to it and areas covercd. and in ter ms of the much -denounced reduction of th e sllldents' leve! of knowledge and interpretative ski ll s. The remaining articles -sorne in English, sorne in Sp anish - <leal wi th different aspccts of thc tcaching of American l it crature. with a marked emp hasis on lwcntieth century rnaterials and especially on Afr ican -Amer i ca n literature; in fact, the book will be particularly useful to teachers of thc latter. This imbalance in content is a natural resu lt of what thc book never tries to hi de, that is, its origins in a Scminar 011 teaching organized by the University ofValencia. However. th e wcaknesses of th e book are also related to its origins. and sorne could have bcen avoided with a stricter process of selcction and edition. So me articles which obviously may have worked we ll as oral prescntations lack th e elabora ti on both in content and form th at wou ld be expect cd in written work of th is categor y. including any bibliographical refercnce. Others are ali too obviously drawn straight frorn the teaching projects requ ir ed for full professorship in Span i sh Uni vers ities: a few havc the more se rious flaw of straying from the teaching issue altogcth er and si rn pl y presenting particular readin gs of individual works. Evcn so, thcre are use fu l practica! suggestions and ideological co nsiderations to be drawn from most. ami th e book also includes some excellent materia l. I would highlight. among it. Isabel Soto's «Teaching Afr ican Am er ican Literature in Spain », wi th its intclligent dcfence of the need to be conscious of th e ideological and personal elements w hi ch are insepara bl e fr om teaching. and which consti tu te «a ce 11ain at tit ude:: to li fc which in turn influences choices and ac ti ons » (36), a defence backed up with extensive r es earch and references to dir ec t teaching ex.pericnce. María Frías's text. also centered on African American Literaturc. is extremely thorough, exhaustively wcll docurnented and yet manages to kcep teac l1 ing-orient ed throughout: apar t from h er th eore tical-ideological introduc ti on, she offe rs severa! appendic es including a d eta ilcd syllabus. a specific bib liog raphy. and suggestions for both practica! and theoretical classes. as well as a sam pl e exam. 1f this, too. is derived from a teaching project, it is from a hi g hl y elaborated onc. Finall y, Juan Ignacio Gu ijarro\ «' And I Book Reviews 141 only am escaped to tell thee' », on tcaching Mohy Dick, combines a deep knowledge of the subject with a vivid and often humorous analysis of his personal teaching experience, in whi ch a strong sense of frustration al his awareness of the limitations of many students is balanced with a stubborn optimism. His account of his evolution from an abstrae! to a more sociohistorical reading of Melville 's work in his teaching of the novel acts as a valuable reminder of the constant interaction that should exist between teaching, learning and research. Many of thc essays insist on this interaction, as wcll as on an extremely idealistic approach to the teaching process; Scott Derrick's article on Emerson in the classroom summarizes this approach which considers the aims of teaching to be «to stimulate thc mind, to encourage creativity. to instill critica! thought and to cultivare the courage to disagree» (76). In fact, the collection sugges ts that there are many active and concerned teachers in Spanish univcrsities, to the poin t that sorne of the criticism levelled by certain writers at the supposed passivity and unconcern of other teachers secms rather too vicious. Notwithstanding, it is true that the essays as a whole show a greater awarcness of the work of other Spanish authors in the same field than is usual: for instance, Carme Manuel's bibliographies on methodology include ample reference to Spanish works, especially in the more general section. These bibliographies. together with a section on visual material also compiled by the editor , constitute the closing section of the vo lum e. Their undeniab le usefulness, to my rnind, could have been improved by a greater balance between sections (sorne unjustly brief, sorne excessively detailed) or by a previous, more limited and less ambitious, <letinition of intentions. For ali its weaknesses, then, th e volume is good evidence of the healthy state of American studies in Spain, and of the existence of a group of devoted and concerned teachers which should intrigue, encourage and excite new generations of students. Teachers will find in it useful suggestions, bibliographical reference, and ideo lo gical stirnulus for their work. MARÍA ANGELES TODA IGLESIA Universidad de Sevilla