hello & query

[Joshua T]

My apologies if I cluttered the list with subscription requests.  So
enthusiastic about joining, didn't take the two seconds to read the
directions.

Berndt asks about the

>metaphor of amputation and/or the phantom limbs in American Literature,
>Cinema, Art and History (Political Speeches, Pamphlets).

I expect you've done zillions of Net searches and found plenty of instances
of the metaphor in connection with the Civil War, but I spot a couple of
uses (way short of obsession, I think), in an oration by R. W. Emerson (31
August 1837)
http://art-bin.com/art/oscholar.html
and in chapter 6 of Hawthorne's _House of Seven Gables_ (185O)
http://www.americanliterature.com/SG/HOSG8.HTML
How about Henry James or Sylvia Plath?
This page says Gary Totten, at Ball State University, presented a paper
entitled "Phantom Limb Syndrome in Henry James' _The Spoils of Poynton_" at
the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association meeting in Salt Lake City in
1998.  http://rmmla.wsu.edu/rmmla/conferences/conf98/english.asp#GTotten's
Abstract
And check out
http://members.aol.com/raisans/plath.htm

Josh