culture

Can a corporate-dominated Web become an environment conducive to literary activity? The novelist, essayist, and cultural critic Curtis White is skeptical. Responding to criticisms of his account of the devolution of literary publishing and reflecting on the prevalence of market-driven values in online exchanges, White doubts whether literature can distinguish itself in the noisy new media ecology, which he likens to a high-tech prison house.

Walton Muyumba reviews Randall Kenan's massive meditation on race and introduces a new word into the discourse on African American literature: zugenruhe.

Linda Brigham reviews Incorporations, the most recent collection from Zone Books.

Lori Emerson reviews The Shape of the Signifier by Walter Benn Michaels.

Sue Im-Lee reviews Reciting America by Christopher Douglas.