For the November meeting of the THE NORTH AMERICAN CONFERENCE ON BRITISH
STUDIES in Toronto I propose the following session (conference posted
above at http://www.english.upenn.edu/CFP/archive/20th/0217.html):
A Transatlantic Affair: the British and "America"
Like many other European cultures, the British have had a long-standing
imaginary (and lived) relationship with the United States: from the
Renaissance (Raleigh) to the postmodern (Angela Carter) the brave new
world across the Atlantic has been represented in many guises in British
cultural fantasy.
This session aims to look at how the various fascinations with
"America" were played out in Britain via the arts--literature,
music, painting, film=97, scientific, philosophical, sociological, critical
and other discourse, and/or in popular culture.
Any approach to the general question "what is 'America' (like) to the
British" will be considered, but the focus proposed is the way the two
cultures, British and American, intersect in the 20th century. Every epoch
had its own romance with the New World since its discovery, but the last
century deserves special attention for a history of relations between
Britain and the United States: if at the beginning of "modern times" some
Britons looked (and traveled) across the Atlantic with a keen eye for an
Eden there, the interests of others were directed toward the New World for
other reasons; the U.S. at the time was quickly emerging as a new world
power, and was also the birthplace of Taylorism, the land of Hollywood,
and many other things in between. The 20th century was the time of "the
Americanization of modernity and the Americanization of modernism" (Malcom
Bradbury). From Wilde, Kipling, Chaplin, Shaw, Auden, to Hitchcock,
Richard Thornley, Wilfred Sheed, Angela Carter many British (-born)
cultural figures created visions of "America" responding to a clear sense
of Americanization of the times.
Please send proposals for papers studying cultural reflections of the
British interest in "America"; particularly welcome are approaches that
span disciplines, literary periods, various arts and/or levels of cultural
production.
Proposals/abstracts of 200-300 words maximum, along with a 1-2 page CV,
should be sent to:
Irma Giannetti
The Pennsylvania State University
311 Burrowes Bldg
University Park, PA 16802-6203
Phone: 814-863-0589
Fax: 814-863-8882
Or via email: ixs120@psu.edu.
Email preferred; should you decide to send an attachment, however, please
allow time for email exchange in case glitches occur with opening it.
Proposal deadline: Tuesday, January 23, 2001.
Essay deadline: in the interest of making the most of our time at the
conference, and depending on the number of participants, please be
prepared to circulate your essay two weeks prior to the conference, i.e.
by September 15, 2001 the very latest. Anticipate a 20-minute individual
presentation, if we form a three- to-four member session, or a
whole-session group discussion, if several people will be joining our
group.
N.B. on your proposal please state if you would like to serve as chair
and/or respondent for our session, or if you know somebody interested in
serving in either capacity. A vita is required for people filling
either/both positions.
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or write Erika Lin: elin@english.upenn.edu
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