The first essay in Latter-day Saint Art: A Critical Reader I want to look more closely at in relation to Mormon aesthetics is the last one: Chase Westfall’s “Toward a Latter-day Saint Contemporary Art.” That’s not only because it’s the piece that is more directly about aesthetics, but also because I was struck by how ..read more

Joanna Brooks responds to the Mormon Literaturstreit by arguing for a Mormon-ness--for Mormon literary studies as cultural studies ..read more

Although Eugene England didn't weight in on the Mormon Literaturstreit directly, two of his works speak to the core debate ..read more

William takes a look at a 1959 essay by Gerrit de Jong Jr. on modernity in art in relation to Mormon aesthetics ..read more

Although in my view the Mormon Literaturstreit ends with Michael Austin’s entry, there are further reverberations of it that either directly or indirectly continue the argument. One included on the Mormon Literature Website, although, again, that site doesn’t frame this as a Literaturstreit—it simply groups the set of texts as On Mormon Criciticsm—is “‘Virtuous, Lovely ..read more

William discusses Michael Austin's attempt to put forth a vision of Mormon literary criticism that is expansive but still uniquely Mormon ..read more

As the previous entry in this series discusses, by dividing approaches to Mormon Literature into the Mantic and the Sophic, Richard Cracroft forecloses a broad swathe of texts and critical approaches from the field. The following year two younger critics from the same department Cracroft and Jorgensen taught in—Gideon Burton (later to also become a ..read more

In 1993 (I’m not sure of the exact date), Richard Cracroft used the opportunity of his Association for Mormon Letters to push back against Bruce Jorgensen’s AML address criticizing Cracroft’s review of Harvest. It’s titled Attuning the Authentic Mormon Voice: Stemming the Sophic Tide in LDS Literature, and is the single work that, in my mind, elevates all this to a Literaturstreit. And he goes straight into it: “Elevating to Pearl Harbor status my review of Eugene England’s and Dennis Clark’s important but spiritually bifurcated anthology, Harvest: Contemporary Mormon Poems, Jorgensen dive-bom ..read more

In order for a Literaturstreit to break out, there needs to be a response to the initial provocation. With the Mormon Literaturstreit, this came when Bruce Jorgensen used his presidential address at the 1991 Association for Mormon Letters conference to discuss Cracroft’s review of Harvest and outline his preferred approach for Mormon literary criticism. Jorgensen’s address is titled “To Tell and Hear Stories: Let the Stranger Say” and argues for an expansive definition of the field of Mormon literature, using the notion of hospitality as its’ central stance. A Brief Side Note on Collegiality B ..read more

Signature Books’ publication of Harvest: Contemporary Mormon Poems in 1989 was a watershed moment for Mormon Literature. Although a few Mormon literature anthologies had been published in the 1970s and a steady stream of works of Mormon literary fiction appeared in the 1980s, Harvest convincingly showcased the depth, breadth, and literary quality of Mormon poetry, and thus the value of Mormon literature. Editors Eugene England and Dennis Clark include work from 53 poets and divided the anthology into three sections: Contemporary Mormon Poems, Hymns and Songs, and Friends and Relations, the lat ..read more