Noting how the landmark publication of The Garden of Eden some twenty-five years after Hemingway’s suicide completely upended notions of Hemingway’s “Papa” persona and his masculine preoccupations, Suzanne del Gizzo and Kirk Curnutt argue that post-2000 criticism has addressed issues equally as important or central, including ecocriticism, queer theory, and trauma. These vital topics have simply been overshadowed by the conventional wisdom that Hemingway’s posthumous tale of sexual intrigue – now itself more than thirty years old – has overshadowed these critical endeavors. They further insist that in the wider culture readers are too obsessed with judging Hemingway’s personality and deciding whether he was a “jerk” (a term that turns up endlessly in articles and blogs) or a sensitive, charismatic bon vivant. Amid this distraction, they argue, the new Hemingway studies has expanded upon Hemingway’s core themes and sociopolitical relevance in surprising and elastic ways that deserve far more attention than they receive. In essence, these topics demonstrate that critics are comfortable with a multifaceted Hemingway instead of trying to prove who he “really” was behind the celebrity mask.

In “Hemingway and Pleasure,” David Wyatt (re)introduces readers to Hemingway as a sensualist. Wyatt suggests that Hemingway’s deep, if complicated, appreciation of pleasure and sensuality has been occluded by years of criticism that focus the moral implications of pleasure and the idea that Hemingway’s stoicism and sense of discipline put him at odds with the release of enjoyment – basically the theme as iterated in A Moveable Feast: “Hunger is Good Discipline.” Wyatt argues that contemporary culture’s fascination with artisanal food and drink and with raw, natural experiences have provided a path to recovering Hemingway’s sense of pleasure. He canvasses recent popular and scholarly works that celebrate Hemingway’s love of food, drink, sex, art, and good living in general as he reads specific passages from Hemingway’s work to demonstrate the author’s consistent interest in these experiences. Critics examined include Nicole J. Camastra and Hilary Kovar Justice, among others. Wyatt finally argues that, for Hemingway, pleasure challenges us to be fully present and to have the desire of pleasure renewed in the face of the certainty that all pleasure must end.

In “Queer Studies,” Debra A. Moddelmog examines the way the maturing field of queer studies has proven a good fit for studying Hemingway and his multifaceted, intersectional explorations of about sexuality, gender, sexual practices, and their intersections with race, class, ability, and nationality. Moddelmog demonstrates that radical changes in Hemingway scholarship around issues of gender and sexuality as well as the studies of his interest in sexology introduced a Hemingway that challenged the iconic masculine persona. Beginning in the 1990s, critics such as Mark Spilka, J. Gerald Kennedy, Carl P. Eby, and Moddelmog herself began examining Hemingway’s newly revealed fascination with androgyny and sexual experimentation. That interest in the new millenium has given way to a richer understanding of the relationship between identity and sexuality, with “queer” and “trans” coming to mean not deviation but exploration from heteronormative standards. Moddelmog argues in particular that sexologist Havelock Ellis provides a useful mirror for redefining Hemingway’s desires, both biographical and in his writing.