Project MUSE®: Steinbeck Review - Latest Articles
https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/377
Project MUSE®: Latest articles in Steinbeck Review.daily12026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00text/htmlen-USVol. 3 (2006) - vol. 4 (2007); Vol. 10 (2013) through current issueLatest Articles: Steinbeck ReviewTWOProject MUSE®Steinbeck Review1938-62141546-007xLatest articles in Steinbeck Review. Feed provided by Project MUSE®State of the Steinbeck Review and the International Society of Steinbeck Scholars
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/985128
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First published by Scarecrow Press and then by Blackwell, Steinbeck Review is currently under the editorship of Barbara A. Heavilin and is published biannually by The Pennsylvania State University Press in collaboration with the Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies at San José State University. The journal’s access to the Cox Center’s vast store of Steinbeck photos, art, and newspaper and cinematic blurbs has greatly enhanced the journal’s visual appeal while providing depth and context for the accompanying articles. The alliance with Pennsylvania State University Press has been most fortunate in increasing the stature and influence of the journal both in the United States and abroad. The Steinbeck
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/377/image/coversmallState of the Steinbeck Review and the International Society of Steinbeck Scholars2026-03-07text/htmlen-USState of the Steinbeck Review and the International Society of Steinbeck Scholars2026-03-072026TWOProject MUSE®168742026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-03-07The Snakes: Steinbeck, Himes, and the Development of American Noir
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/985129
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Dr. Phillips was shaken. He found that he was avoiding the dark eyes that didn’t seem to look at anything. He felt that it was profoundly wrong to put a rat into the cage, deeply sinful; and he didn’t know why. Often he had put rats in the cage when someone or other had wanted to see it, but this desire tonight sickened him. He tried to explain himself out of it.“It’s a good thing to see,” he said. “It shows you how a snake can work. It makes you have a respect for a rattlesnake. Then, too, lots of people have dreams about the terror of snakes making the kill. I think because it is a subjective rat. The person is the rat. Once you see it the whole matter is objective. The rat is only a rat and the terror is
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/377/image/coversmallThe Snakes: Steinbeck, Himes, and the Development of American Noir2026-03-07text/htmlen-USThe Snakes: Steinbeck, Himes, and the Development of American Noir2026-03-072026TWOProject MUSE®711492026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-03-07Traces of Steinbeck in Uzbek Literature: Odil Yoqubov’s “Goodness”:
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/985130
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The novels and stories of John Steinbeck (1902–1968) have long been associated with Dust Bowl migrants and the people and landscape of Salinas California, but as a Nobel laureate (1962) and a classic twentieth-century American author, he has naturally engendered a global readership. With that readership comes new forms of comparative literature, new axes of relation, new forms of literary dialogue across time and culture. Surprising moments of recognition can arise out of these forms of global literary study as readers in one cultural context take up works such as Steinbeck’s and find that it resonates with their own literary cultural traditions. Such is the case in this article, as literary scholars in Uzbekistan
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/377/image/coversmallTraces of Steinbeck in Uzbek Literature: Odil Yoqubov’s “Goodness”:2026-03-07text/htmlen-USTraces of Steinbeck in Uzbek Literature: Odil Yoqubov’s “Goodness”:2026-03-072026TWOProject MUSE®576812026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-03-07“Goodness” by Odil Yaqubov (1965)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/985131
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Every time I think about my Aunt Munavvar, I don’t remember that painful event that happened later, but that summer day when my soul became a little sad and warm.My grandmother’s garden is crowded with our relatives and my uncle’s cousins: someone is building a firepit, someone is chopping wood, and someone is sprinkling water in the yard and rolling out a carpet on it. An evening wedding!Everyone is elated. I join the other children and together we play and shout happily to one another, climb into the blackberry bushes, and hunt for eggs in pigeon nests . . . All of a sudden, from the middle of the grape arbor my grandmother’s head appears, a familiar sight that brings me comfort and warmth. She calls me over and
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/377/image/coversmall“Goodness” by Odil Yaqubov (1965)2026-03-07text/htmlen-US“Goodness” by Odil Yaqubov (1965)2026-03-072026TWOProject MUSE®248382026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-03-07Beyond Worship: Ecophobia as Domination in Steinbeck’s To a God Unknown
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/985132
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Who is the God to whom we shall offer sacrifice?Humans have both worshipped and feared the natural world—sky, sun, fire, animals. Their relationship with nature has always demonstrated a tension between reverence and terror, devotion and domination. Similarly, ancient rituals such as blood offerings have shown not only reverence but fear of powers beyond control. John Steinbeck’s To a God Unknown (1933) opens with this Vedic hymn to highlight that fear, as well as the ambivalence between worshipping nature and fearing its incomprehensible, often merciless power. In a 1933 letter, Steinbeck clarified the title’s meaning: “The unknown in this case meaning ‘Unexplored’” (Life in Letters 56). Here, “unexplored”
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/377/image/coversmallBeyond Worship: Ecophobia as Domination in Steinbeck’s To a God Unknown2026-03-07text/htmlen-USBeyond Worship: Ecophobia as Domination in Steinbeck’s To a God Unknown2026-03-072026TWOProject MUSE®495012026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-03-07Steinbeck’s Mexican Pearl: From Source Material to Anti-Fascist Parable
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/985133
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How did John Steinbeck come to write the story of The Pearl? Given that multiple biographies and hundreds of articles about Steinbeck have been written over the past half-century, one could assume that this question has been thoroughly answered. There is, however, a case of literary influence that has been largely overlooked. Beginning in the 1950s, scholars of Mexican literature noted the similarities between Steinbeck’s narrative and “El hombre y la perla,” a short story published in 1936 by the Mexican painter and author Gerardo Murillo—or as he is best known, Dr. Atl. The claim that Dr. Atl’s story served as source material for Steinbeck’s longer narratives has been reiterated over the years by several
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/377/image/coversmallSteinbeck’s Mexican Pearl: From Source Material to Anti-Fascist Parable2026-03-07text/htmlen-USSteinbeck’s Mexican Pearl: From Source Material to Anti-Fascist Parable2026-03-072026TWOProject MUSE®636542026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-03-07The Protoevangelium in John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/985134
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John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath contains an interesting allusion to the Garden of Eden as the Joads migrate to California in search of work. In chapter 18, Tom Joad runs over a rattlesnake: He “hit it and broke it and left it squirming” (230). Regarding this passage, Joseph Fontenrose points out that “this is an omen which betokens fulfillment of the behest spoken in the ‘Battle Hymn of the Republic’: ‘Let the Hero, born of a woman, crush the serpent with his heel.’ The snake represents the agricultural system of California, which the immigrants are destined to crush” (83). It may also be helpful to recall that this behest comes from the Book of Genesis. In the Garden of Eden, the serpent tempts Eve to eat the
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/377/image/coversmallThe Protoevangelium in John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath2026-03-07text/htmlen-USThe Protoevangelium in John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath2026-03-072026TWOProject MUSE®73062026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-03-07The Moon Is Down: Beyond Documentary and Propaganda
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/985135
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Although propaganda does not usually accord well with art, given that we admire art but view propaganda with scepticism or even condescension, it is often found in literary works and popular cultural media. Its function is not only to summon powerful emotions; this opinion was contradicted as early as 1928, when Edward L. Bernays argued that emotions disconnected from ideas were worthless (101). Bernays saw propaganda as an organized effort to disseminate a particular belief or doctrine with the aim of getting large numbers of people to think in the same way (20). Propaganda is thus both emotional and epistemological in its effects, exploiting the power of storytelling to construct knowledge and influence
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/377/image/coversmallThe Moon Is Down: Beyond Documentary and Propaganda2026-03-07text/htmlen-USThe Moon Is Down: Beyond Documentary and Propaganda2026-03-072026TWOProject MUSE®550482026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-03-07Steinbeck Today
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/985136
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The continuing relevance of John Steinbeck was reaffirmed during the opening months of 2025. Most notably, a new limited series based on one of Steinbeck’s enduring masterpieces has been announced, additional dramatic adaptations of or inspired by his novels have graced the stage, and there have been important developments at sites that were central to his life and work.The biggest Steinbeck-related story of 2025 was AMC’s announcement that it would adapt The Grapes of Wrath as a limited series. This production will be the first installment of the network’s Great American Stories, an anthology series that will focus each season on “a different celebrated work, historical moment, or individual narrative celebrating
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/377/image/coversmallSteinbeck Today2026-03-07text/htmlen-USSteinbeck Today2026-03-072026TWOProject MUSE®412772026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-03-07The Pen Holder of John Steinbeck
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/985137
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“And everywhere people asked him why he was walking through the country. Because he loved true things, he tried to explain.”This poem draws on quotations from Cannery Row, East of Eden, The Grapes of Wrath, and other novels by John Steinbeck, as well as insights from those who knew him
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/377/image/coversmallThe Pen Holder of John Steinbeck2026-03-07text/htmlen-USThe Pen Holder of John Steinbeck2026-03-072026TWOProject MUSE®87382026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-03-07Le chaos ne produit pas de chefs-d’œuvre: Les écrivains, le travail et la légende (Masterpieces Are Not Made from Chaos; Writers, Work, and Legend) by Julia Kerninon (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/985138
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Le chaos ne produit pas de chef d’œuvre. Les écrivains, le travail et la légende (“Masterpieces are not made from chaos”: Writers, Work and Legend), is a thought-provoking volume. Its author, French-born novelist Julia Kerninon, explores the gap between the official image of an author and the legend surrounding the literary creation. The premise of the study, which draws extensively on the “Art of Fiction” interviews published in The Paris Review, is twofold: first to debunk the popular belief that writers do not work very much and, second, to identify the numerous devices through which they build their own personas.Starting from a conversation in a pub in which the poet Ted Hughes was presented by the villagers as
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/377/image/coversmallLe chaos ne produit pas de chefs-d’œuvre: Les écrivains, le travail et la légende (Masterpieces Are Not Made from Chaos; Writers, Work, and Legend) by Julia Kerninon (review)2026-03-07text/htmlen-USLe chaos ne produit pas de chefs-d’œuvre: Les écrivains, le travail et la légende (Masterpieces Are Not Made from Chaos; Writers, Work, and Legend) by Julia Kerninon (review)2026-03-072026TWOProject MUSE®116012026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-03-07Animals in the American Classics: How Natural History Inspired Great Fiction ed. by John Cullen Gruesser (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/985139
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Editor John Cullen Gruesser’s Animals in the American Classics: How Natural History Inspired Great Fiction, examines the multifaceted ways in which animals and nature have influenced the development and impact of some of the most historically significant works of North American writers. As part of the Texas Research Institute for Environmental Studies’ Integrative Natural History Series, this book is an attractive exploration of authors of diverse genres, ranging from Washington Irving and Edgar Allan Poe to Harper Lee and Cormac McCarthy. While scholarly in its research-based approach, it appeals to the general reader, with each chapter devoted to an author and accompanied by photographs and illustrations.As
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/377/image/coversmallAnimals in the American Classics: How Natural History Inspired Great Fiction ed. by John Cullen Gruesser (review)2026-03-07text/htmlen-USAnimals in the American Classics: How Natural History Inspired Great Fiction ed. by John Cullen Gruesser (review)2026-03-072026TWOProject MUSE®63932026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-03-07Update from the Steinbeck Archives
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/985140
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The Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies received a large donation of more than two thousand items, including posters, filmstrips, books on tape cassettes, and many first and subsequent editions of Steinbeck’s works from Mr. Bob Conklin, an avid Steinbeck collector. Conklin is a retired Public Reference Librarian, first at the Galesburg Public Library and later at the Moline Public Library in Illinois (retiring from Moline). He attended the Steinbeck Festival in Salinas, California, for several years starting in 1993. He became a Steinbeck fan in his sophomore year of high school after reading The Grapes of Wrath in 1973–74.A few years ago, Bob starting mailing boxes of hardcover books to the Steinbeck
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/377/image/coversmallUpdate from the Steinbeck Archives2026-03-07text/htmlen-USUpdate from the Steinbeck Archives2026-03-072026TWOProject MUSE®105702026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-03-07Announcements
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/985141
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At the beginning of this update, I would like to take a moment to thank my colleague Dr. Daniel Lanza Rivers for four years of steady, thoughtful leadership as Director of the Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies at SJSU. Under Daniel, the Center recovered from the dislocation and disruption of the COVID lockdown, resuming all of its former operations plus several important new programs, including the Steinbeck Letters digitization project. I am especially grateful to Daniel for their work with the International Society of Steinbeck Scholars (ISSS), the Steinbeck author society, which now has steady leadership and will be hosting the first non–San José State conference in more than twenty years. Thank you, Daniel, for
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/377/image/coversmallAnnouncements2026-03-07text/htmlen-USAnnouncements2026-03-072026TWOProject MUSE®61092026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-03-07