This article is not about how the television adaptation of The Last of Us stands as an allegory for the way that the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded in the U.S. Rather, I theorize that the show’s abiding grimness, an outgrowth of the second game in the franchise, serves as representation and reinforcement of the deep and persistent ableism inherent in late capitalism, which unfortunately was only exacerbated by the global disabling event of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Author: utpress
THE LAST OF US, Fungal Entanglements, and Theorizations of Disability Representation
Mainstream narratives rarely focus on “the promises of monsters” envisioned by feminist theory (see, for instance, Donna Haraway’s work) or disability theory’s reclaiming (for instance in Robert McRuer’s and Rosemary Garland-Thomson’s work) of concepts which historically carried negative connotations like “crip” or “freak,” but representations of disability in the context of horror media must also contend with the problem of how disability has been framed in horror texts.
Acquisition Announcement: MAKING A KINGDOM OF IT by Lance Larsen
In his sixth poetry collection, Lance Larsen reminds us we are all travelers, bedraggled and tired but curious. Whether by train or on foot, whether exploring London or a suburban backyard or a childhood memory involving cuckoo clocks, the poet revels not in ticking off a successful arrival but in the jostlings of the journey.… Continue reading Acquisition Announcement: MAKING A KINGDOM OF IT by Lance Larsen
Beholding the Cockroach
It was a paranormal mystery series studded with conspiracy, violence, and darkness, but The X-Filesalways shone brightest to me when it did comedy. “War of the Coprophages,” a season three monster-of-the-week tale of killer cockroaches from outer space (or are they?), is a case in point.
Twilight Time
For years I have thought that William Gibson is our most insightful fiction writer on material things and what it is like to live with them, but also, and not paradoxically, on immaterial things and what it is like to live with them. The same writer who gave us “cyberspace” (the term, and also the first visions of what it could be like, in the 1984 Neuromancer) also gave us a Japanese reproduction of an American bomber jacket so lovingly described that readers got emotional when an antagonist made a hole in it with a lit cigarette (in 2003’s Pattern Recognition).
The Truth Is Nowhere
The X-Files episode “Jose Chung’s From Outer Space” is an exercise in metafiction that reflects the 1990s withdrawal into private subjectivity. The episode is framed by the title character’s investigations into what appears at first to be an alien abduction. Novelist Jose Chung (Charles Nelson Reilly) interviews Dana Scully for his book—From Outer Space—which he touts as the first “nonfiction science fiction.”
You Can’t Go Home Again
By Yuly Restrepo Garcés “Home,” the second episode of season four of The X-Files, and one of its most controversial, makes its intentions known from its first sequence: a disturbing home birth during a dark and stormy night is quickly followed by the burial of the baby, who is born with so many deformities that its survival will… Continue reading You Can’t Go Home Again
Acquisition Announcement: Heavy Metal Nursing by Scott Frey
We are thrilled to announce that we will be publishing Scott Frey’s Heavy Metal Nursing, the winner of the 2023 Tampa Review Poetry Prize. Heavy Metal Nursing tells a story of love which, like all love stories, is a story of loss. It is not a sentimental love but a “heavy-metal” one, kneeling arm-to-arm beside parents… Continue reading Acquisition Announcement: Heavy Metal Nursing by Scott Frey
University of Tampa Press Interviews: A Conversation with Sarah Maclay
Sarah Maclay is the recipient of the 2003 Tampa Review Prize for Poetry for her collection of poems, Whore (University of Tampa, 2004). She has also published two additional collections with the University of Tampa Press: The White Bride (2008) and Music for the Black Room (2011). Her newest collection, Nightfall Marginalia, is out from What Books Press (2023).
In Memoriam: Richard Mathews
The editors and staff of the University of Tampa Press are deeply saddened by the passing of colleague, mentor, and friend, Richard Mathews. Over his decades as University of Tampa Press Director, Richard published over 100 books, building the Press’s reputation as an esteemed source for contemporary literature, book arts, and regional history. His enthusiasm and dedication to the art of bookmaking permeated all of his work for the press, whether he was editing Tampa Review, publishing books, mentoring colleagues, or teaching students how to use antique presses.