THE DYLAN REVIEW: BREAKING NEW GROUND IN BOB DYLAN STUDIES

Hard on the heels of the international Bob Dylan conference held in Tulsa (Oklahoma) in May/June 2019 (see post on this blog, 9 June 2019), and in parallel with the development of the Dylan archive, also in Tulsa, there now arrives a brand-new journal, the Dylan Review. This publication (online only and free of charge) aims to fill a significant gap in Dylan studies, its rationale being ‘to provide a forum for rigorous intellectual exploration of Bob Dylan’s art’. While Dylan fanzines of high quality levels are not lacking, a fanzine is not an academic journal, and in the post-Nobel Dylan environment such a journal was needed more than ever. Under its co-editors Raphael Falco (University of Maryland) and Lisa Sanders (Saint Peter’s University, NJ), and with an editorial board including among others Nina Goss of Fordham University, NY and Richard Thomas, professor of classics at Harvard, the Dylan Review is now posed to occupy a key role at the academic end of Dylan studies. It will publish critical articles, interviews and book, film and exhibition reviews and will come out twice a year.

 

The first issue (1.1, Summer 2019), now online, comes across as well-produced, professional, and infused with both the requisite intellectual rigour and the enthusiasm of true Dylan devotees. Among the articles, there are two contrasting takes on the latest Bootleg Series offering, the ‘Blood on the Tracks’ outtakes ‘More Blood, More Tracks’: Jonathan Hodgers’ technical-musicological perspective marks an approach rarely found, while Richard Thomas’s blow-by-blow account of the lyrics’ evolution is an invaluable reference. Lisa Sanders offers a fascinating account of the ‘Mondo Scripto’ lyrics and drawings exhibition in London, Nick Smart ably reviews a new book by Daryl Sanders on the making of ‘Blonde and Blonde’, and Joan Osborne, recent coverer of Dylan songs, is the subject of a lucid interview.

The journal’s site is at: https://www.dylanreview.org/

and the current issue can be downloaded as a .pdf at: https://www.dylanreview.org/contents

This first number fulfils its promise and looks indeed set to fill that academic gap: further issues will be eagerly awaited!

BRAZILIAN RESEARCH SITE: DOCPLAYER

I am pleased to report that an article of mine on José Saramago, which appeared in 1999 in the Portuguese publication FAROL in the wake of the author’s Nobel, can now be found on a Brazilian site hosting a vast collection of material in Portuguese, aimed at both students and researchers. There appears to be a particular emphasis ón pupils preparing for university.

The article is:
‘A História na Literatura, a Literatura na História: José Saramago, Nobel Português’, FAROL (Viana do Castelo, Portugal), No 12, May 1999, pp. 55-70 – primary on-line reference: http://yatrarollason.info/files/SaramagoNobelPT.pdf

The Brazilian site, Docplayer, is at:
https://docplayer.com.br

and the reference is:
https://docplayer.com.br/14768451-A-historia-na-literatura-a-literatura-na-historia-jose-saramago-nobel-portugues-christopher-rollason.html

The article appears as it was published in FAROL, with photos.

Docplayer is available free of charge to students and researchers, and members may upload articles.

If my work is of help in particular to a new generation of young people in Brazil, I am more than content, and I extend my thanks to
those who found and included my text!

THE ORCID SCHOLARLY DATABASE

I am pleased to recommend a recently discovered scholarly and academic resource, the ORCID database: https://orcid.org

ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) is a free-of-charge, non-profit international database, founded in 2012 and based in the US (Delaware). It allows members to enter full details of qualifications, affiliation, membership of associations and societies, invited positions and distinctions, grants and published works.

Each member is issued with a unique ORCID ID. Unlike Google Scholar, ORCID is user-controlled and members can at any time add, modify and remove data. In this way it is more like the former GetCited site.

Published works can be entered either manually or via ORCID’s custom links to other databases.

On my experience so far I am very pleased with this resource, and am sure other scholars will find it similarly useful!