Defending the Revolt from the Village: Reinforcing Sinclair Lewis in the Age of Trump

Heartland History

From the 47th Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature in East Lansing, Michigan. Dr. Jeffrey Swenson (Hiram College) presents his paper "Defending the Revolt from the Village: Reinforcing Sinclair Lewis in the Age of Trump." Dr. Marcia Noe (University of Tennessee Chattanooga), Jon Lauck, and the audience respond. Jeff Swenson's primary research focus is Midwestern Regionalism, including recent publications on authors Jim Tully, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and J.F. Powers. Beyond regionalism, he is interested in material culture–particularly the canoe–and its influence on literature and culture, as with the work of Canadian First-Nations author E. Pauline Johnson. His most recent scholarly work considers representations of Autism Spectrum Disorder in popular culture, particularly television. Marcia Noe teaches courses in American literature and women's studies and is the Coordinator of the Women's Studies program. She is the author of Susan Glaspell: Voice from the Heartland and over twenty other publications on this Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright. In 1993 she was Fulbright Senior Lecturer-Researcher at the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte, Brazil; with Junia C.M. Alves, she has edited a collection of essays on the Brazilian theatre troupe Grupo Galpao (Editora Newton Paiva, 2006). She is a senior editor of The Dictionary of Midwestern Literature, editor of the journal MidAmerica, and chairs the editorial committee of the Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature, which gave her the MidAmerica Award for distinguished contributions to the study of midwestern literature in 2003. She has supervised 27 student conference presentations and supervised or co-authored 27 student publications. In 2004 she won the UTC College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Teacher award and is an elected member of UTC's Council of Scholars and Alpha Society.