Background
Davidson, Cathy Notari was born on June 21, 1949 in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Daughter of Paul Celestino Notari and Leona (Behnke) Ripes.
( In 1980 Cathy N. Davidson traveled to Japan to teach En...)
In 1980 Cathy N. Davidson traveled to Japan to teach English at a leading all-women’s university. It was the first of many journeys and the beginning of a deep and abiding fascination. In this extraordinary book, Davidson depicts a series of intimate moments and small epiphanies that together make up a panoramic view of Japan. With wit, candor, and a lover’s keen eye, she tells captivating stories—from that of a Buddhist funeral laden with ritual to an exhilarating evening spent touring the “Floating World,” the sensual demimonde in which salaryman meets geisha and the normal rules are suspended. On a remote island inhabited by one of the last matriarchal societies in the world, a disconcertingly down-to-earth priestess leads her to the heart of a sacred grove. And she spends a few unforgettable weeks in a quasi-Victorian residence called the Practice House, where, until recently, Japanese women were taught American customs so that they would make proper wives for husbands who might be stationed abroad. In an afterword new to this edition, Davidson tells of a poignant trip back to Japan in 2005 to visit friends who had remade their lives after the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995, which had devastated the city of Kobe, as well as the small town where Davidson had lived and the university where she taught. 36 Views of Mount Fuji not only transforms our image of Japan, it offers a stirring look at the very nature of culture and identity. Often funny, sometimes liltingly sad, it is as intimate and irresistible as a long-awaited letter from a good friend.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0822339137/?tag=2022091-20
(Revolution and the Word is the classic study of the co-em...)
Revolution and the Word is the classic study of the co-emergence of the U.S. nation and the new literary genre of the novel. The book remains the foundational study of reading, writing, and publishing in the new republic and provides a unique glimpse of the culture of early America. By looking at everything from publishers' account books to marginalia scrawled in eighteenth-century books to the novels themselves, Revolution and the Word provides an engaging social history of early American readership that is also informed by the most insightful aspects of literary theory. With a backward glance at the culture wars and prognostications for what lies ahead, the comprehensive introduction of this expanded edition reframes Revolution and the Word for a new generation of scholars. It revisits topics of dissent in the early national period, the status of the Constitution as a document designed to quell the still-burning passions of the American Revolution, and the role played by the novel in publicizing and articulating complex desires not addressed at the Constitutional Convention. Cathy N. Davidson provides readers with a survey and critique of the controversial and productive thought in cultural, social, and political theory as it has evolved during the last twenty years. This astute and learned assessment of recent developments in literary and historical scholarship, colonial and postcolonial studies, race theory, gender and sexuality theory, class studies, cultural studies, and history of the book will make Revolution and the Word as urgent for this generation as it was for its original readers in 1986.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195148231/?tag=2022091-20
(From dust jacket notes: "Ambrose Bierce has attracted ser...)
From dust jacket notes: "Ambrose Bierce has attracted serious readers for over a hundred years with little help from criticism. Idiosyncratic in his own time as well as ours, Bierce did not fit the conventional categories of naturalism and realism and has not fit most categories since. Yet his merit has never been in doubt to many other authors. In America, Ernest Hemingway and Stephen Crane considered him a master; internationally, Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Julio Cortazar, and Jorge Luis Borges consciously imitated him. Cathy N. Davidson reassesses Bierce as a fictional experimentalist whose stories reveal surprisingly modern views on the nature of language and the relationship between language, perception, and fictional forms. Avoiding clichés of literary history and criticism, she carefully balances postmodern aesthetic theories with the philosophical influences Bierce absorbed - primarily Charles Sanders Peirce - to identify the nature of his achievement. Bierce's texts anticipate the postmodern period, and Davidson lays the foundation for serious scrutiny of an eminent precursor of postmodern literature...."
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0803216661/?tag=2022091-20
( The story of the White Furniture Company--a century-old...)
The story of the White Furniture Company--a century-old, family-owned business that was bought out by a huge corporate conglomerate and later closed--puts a human face on the economic realities of the 1990s. Bill Bamberger took his revealing and powerful photographs during the last four months of operation on the factory floor, working side by side with the White employees. Cathy Davidson's text focuses on six people who represent every economic level in the American workforce: CEO, executive assistant, middle manager, supervisor, skilled artisan, and manual laborer. 31 full-color and 61 black-and-white photographs
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393319229/?tag=2022091-20
(36 Views of Mount Fuji: On Finding Myself in Japan by Dav...)
36 Views of Mount Fuji: On Finding Myself in Japan by Davidson, Cathy N. Duke University Press Books, 2006 ( Paperback ) Paperback
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00N4IQ252/?tag=2022091-20
writer English language educator
Davidson, Cathy Notari was born on June 21, 1949 in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Daughter of Paul Celestino Notari and Leona (Behnke) Ripes.
Bachelor, Elmhurst College, 1970; Master of Arts, State University of New York, Binghamton, 1973; Doctor of Philosophy, State University of New York, Binghamton, 1974; postdoctoral study, University of Chicago, 1975-1976; Doctor of Humane Letters (honorary), Elmhurst College, 1989.
Instructor, St. Bonaventure U., Olean, New York, 1974-1975; from assistant to full professor, Michigan State University, East Lansing, 1976-1989; professor department English, Duke U., Durham, North Carolina, 1989-1996; Ruth F. de Varney Professor of English, Duke U., Durham, North Carolina, since 1996; vice president interdisciplinary studies, Duke U., Durham, North Carolina, since 1998. Visiting professor Kobe (Japan) College, 1980-1981, 87-88, Princeton University, 1988-1989.
( The story of the White Furniture Company--a century-old...)
(Through the personal stories of American workers in a sma...)
(From dust jacket notes: "Ambrose Bierce has attracted ser...)
(Revolution and the Word is the classic study of the co-em...)
(36 Views of Mount Fuji: On Finding Myself in Japan by Dav...)
(Book by Davidson, A. E., Davidson, Cathy N.)
( In 1980 Cathy N. Davidson traveled to Japan to teach En...)
Woodrow Wilson fellow, 1970, Woodrow Wilson Dissertation fellowship, 1972, Irving J. Lee Memorial award, 1973, Newberry Library. Scholar-in-Residence award, 1976, Michigan State Distinguished Teacher-Scholar award, 1979, Michigan State Distinguished Faculty award, 1987, Kate B. and Hall James Peterson fellowship, honorary member American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts, 1984, American Council of Learned Societies grant-in-aid, New York, 1986, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial fellowship, New York, 1986. Fellow National Humanities Center, American Council Learned Societies.
Member Modern Language Association (executive committee division late 19th century American literature 1981-1986, division early American literature since 1987, member delegate assembly 1980-1986), American Studies Association (president 1993).
Married Arnold E. Davidson (divorced 1994). 1 stepchild, Charles Russell.