[Expositions 5.1 (2011)]  Expositions (online) ISNN: 1747-5376 

 

Editors’ Preface 

John A. Doody, Gregory Hoskins, John-Paul Spiro 

 

With the publication of the previous volume we celebrated the successful transition of 

Expositions: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities to an on-line only publication. However, 

it is only with this new volume that we begin to exploit the opportunities that our new form 

provides us. For the first time in Expositions’s history, several of our authors include live links to 

websites, blogs, and YouTube videos in their contributions – links simply impossible to 

incorporate into a print publication –  that literally offer you, the reader, a chance to go beyond 

the text to explore the material in greater detail. (Although Expositions is not responsible for the 

content of the material linked to, we are pleased to make these links available to you.) As well as 

being excited about the technological features of this volume, we are also particularly proud of 

the genuinely interdisciplinary sweep and depth of the articles in this issue. 

 

In our lead-off article, an interview, physicist Sean Carroll discusses topics concerning the 

reciprocal relation of the “arts” and the “sciences.” This is followed by Lee Trepanier’s article 

“The Problem of Stupidity in Chekhov’s Three Sisters,” in which he applies Robert Musil’s 

useful clarification of the nature of self-imposed human limitations to Chekhov’s seemingly 

paralyzed characters, giving us insight into the humanistic – not merely historical or 

dramaturgical – concerns of a frequently-performed but oft-misunderstood play. In our next 

section, we are honored to inaugurate a new regular feature of the journal, Teaching the Great 

Books, with the publication of “Why We Read the Analects of Confucius” by Wm. Theodore de 

Bary. Scholars and artists from the US, Canada and Germany take up the topic of our Academic 

Roundtable: the cultural contradictions of representations of the homeless and of homelessness 

concentrated in the highly problematic notion of “homeless chic.” Then, in his reflection 

“Visions of History: Simon Schama, Mark Noll, and Paul Ricoeur,” in Notes & Insights, 

Kenneth Sheppard examines the uses of history for a public education. Lastly, our Book Review 

is an extended discussion of the theological and philosophical features of a major new anthology 

of contemporary Dante scholarship.  

 

Several individuals have worked with Expositions since its founding, but one of the most diligent 

and dedicated has been Dr. Bernard G. Prusak. As he moves on to other projects, we gratefully 

acknowledge his contribution to the success of the journal.