EAAS CONFERENCE 2002

The United States Of / In Europe: Nationhood, Citizenship, Culture

March 22-25, 2002, Bordeaux, France

Workshops: calls for papers

last updated: September 27, 2001

Shoptalks

Chairs: Isabelle ALFANDARY, Dept. of English, Univ. Paris X, 200 Avenue de la République, F-92000 Nanterre, France. Tel: +33 1 4923 9493. Fax: +33 1 4338 7099; Philip COLEMAN, School of English, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland. Tel: +353 1 874 8647.

John Berryman's figure of 'the majestic Shade' in The Dream Songs may be used to describe the way American poets, from Pound to Ashbery, have historically understood their relation to poetic cultures and traditions on the other side of the Atlantic. Such a metaphor may also be used to describe the overwhelming pressure on American poets in the twentieth century to reveal their cultural politics and poetics in terms of their alignment with, or distance from, what Karl Shapiro has called the 'Whitman-Williams line' in American poetic history. This workshop therefore proposes a comparative inquiry into the aesthetic and ideological developments of American and European poetry viewed in the light of their interconnections and reciprocal influences. In terms of contemporary readings and re-readings, the workshop is an invitation to bring under consideration the specificity of particular poetics, the affinities and influences, and the conflicts and crises, in an attempt to provide a more comprehensive map of transatlantic poetic exchange in the twentieth century.
 

Chair: Mokhtar BEN BARKA, Univ. of Valenciennes, 78, rue Henri Durre, F-59590 Raismes, France. Tel. +33 3 2736 7795. Fax: +33 3 2751 1600.

The aim of this workshop is to explore the rise of the Extreme Right in recent years through a variety of approaches - historical, sociological, cultural, ideological, comparative etc. Papers might consider the political and economic structures and processes that either foster or enable extremism to flourish; the ways in which the Unitod States has influenced the context of post-war politics; the emerging states of contemporary Eastern Europe; the threats to democracy, frcedom and security in both continents; the internationalization of Extreme Right politics; and the mechanisms for dealing with extremism. Discussion will center on these and related issues from different perspectives.
 

Chairs: Linda J. BORISH, Dept. of History, Western Michigan Univ., 1903 W. Michigan Ave., Kalamazoo, Ml 49008-5334, USA. Tel: 001 616 387 4631. Fax: 001 616 387 4651; Claude CHASTAGNER, Dept. of English, Univ. Paul Valery, Montpellier III, France. Tel: +33 4 6714 25 23; home: +33 4 6760 3860.

This workshop examines the ways sport shapes meanings of gender and roles for women and men in the United States and Europe. The ways sporting activities have been linked to notions of citizenship based on gender, race, ethnic, religious factors offers a view of the historical place of sport in the nation, and how sport might be viewed as a contested terrain for some groups in a nation. Related approaches may be considered such as the expression of gender in sport via popular culture topics (dance, health and nutritional issues, the figure of the hero, etc.), or consumerism in sporting activities
 

Chairs: MICHELE BOTTALICO, Univ. of Salerno, Depto. di Studi Linguistici e Letterari, Via Ponte don Melillo, 1-84084 Fisciano (SA), Italy. Tel. +39 80 521 3488. Fax: +39 089 962079; Salah EL MONCEF (Univ. of Nantes), 4, rue du Général Meusnier, F-44000 Nantes, France. Tel. +33 2 4014 1287. Fax: +33 2 40 14 1294.

Chicano literature, art, cinema, and music have recently been absorbed into a much wider "Latino" melting pot. In a multidisciplinary / interdisciplinary approach, this panel will focus on: new themes and modes of expression; an obscuring of the ideological background; the relationship with Anglo American and Latin American cultures; the inclusion of the "mestizaje" in a greater Pan-American and European context.
In the same context, we propose a general exploration of the experience of mestizaje in terms of what Gloria Anzaldua calls the "undetermined territory" of the "Borderlands/Frontera" - the fuzzy space that allows her to envision the geopolitical, cultural, and ethnic specificities of the Mexican-American border as a general paradigm of transnational territoriality and "citizenship."
 

Chair: Philip John DAVIES , Fac. of Humanities & Social Sciences, De Montfort Univ., Leicester LEI 9BH, England. Tel: +44 116 257 7398, Fax: +44 116 257 7199.

The globalisation of international policy challenges, market behavior, environmental concerns, cultural influences, corporate structures and other features of contemporary life have had impact on policy debates in these international fields within the USA and within Europe and its constituent nations. Equally powerful trans-Atlantic influences have been felt, though less discussed, in terms of domestic policy, politics and political strategies on both sides of the Atlantic. This has been perhaps most evident in the attempt by former President Bill Clinton, with the support primarily of UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, to create almost as a Clinton heritage, a 'Third Way' in politics that would influence the nature of domestic policy through the liberaVsocial democratic world. This workshop would attract papers on such topics as: whether the Third Way has left a policy legacy on either side of the Atlantic; comparative changes in campaigning and elections practice; comparative developments in party politics; and all aspects of trans-Atlantic political links over the past political generation.
 

Chairs: Rocio G. DAVIS , Mod. Lang. Dept., Univ. of Navarre, Pamplona 31080, Spain, Tel: +34 948 425600. Fax:+34 958 425636; Dorothea FISCHER-HORNUNG , Anglistisches Seminar, Univ. of Heidelberg, Kettengasse 12, D-69117 Heidelberg, Germany. Tel: +49 6221542 851. Fax: +49 6221 54 2877.

The papers proposed for this session may engage the following questions, among others: are there metaphors that privilege the formulation of ethnicity? How do borders, travel, definitions of home and away, geography and space, and signposts of identity figure in the writing of the ethnic subject? Where does the development of ethnic subjectivity lie and how is this dealt with creatively? Can literary genre serve as a site for ethnic inscription? How does the representation of ethnic rites - marriage, food, funerals - locate the subject of the discourse? Basing the discussion on comparative texts from European and American ethnic texts, we propose to discuss how theory travels, as well as how diverse definitions and representations of the sites of ethnicity helps elucidate the complex cultural workings of transnational literatures today.
 

Chairs: Celestine DELEYTO , Depto. de Filologia Inglesa y Alemana, Ciudad Universitaria, E-50009 Zaragoza, Spain. Tel: +34 976 7615 32, Fax: +34 976 761519; Dominique SIPIÈRE , Univ. du Littoral, rue Henri Dunant, F-80730, Dreuil lès Amiens, France.

Proposals for this panel should include issues such as the "Americanization" of Europe through Hollywood films, analyses of the reception of individual texts in Europe or in specific European countries, ideological accounts of Hollywood "colonization" in individual films or groups of films, the role of Hollywood films in the spread of U.S. culture in Europe, and other related topics. Papers should also address issues such as Europeans in Hollywood, Hollywood looking at Europe, the impact of European film theory from Kracauer to Arnheim, from Bazin to Metz or Lyotard, from Pasolini and Casetti to Peter Wollen and Laura Mulvey, the effects of European theory on American critics themselves and the identification of a specific American trend in film studies, the impact on film production (for example, quotas in most countries and their consequences), national interpretations of the Hollywood vision (James Bond, etc.) and the emergence of a European film culture on American film makers (Woody Allen, etc.).
 

Chairs: Patrick B. MILLER , Dept. of History, Northeastern Illinois Univ., Chicago, IL 60625, USA; Elisabeth SCHAFER-WUNSCHE , Social Sciences, Univ. of Dusseldorf, Germany.

We seek papers that will explore the American experience with an eye to matters of law as well as the cultural issues now confronting the nations of Western and Central Europe. In this way, an assessment of immigrant experiences in the U.S. might speak to changing immigration legislation concerning Turkish people in Germany or North Africans in France and Spain. The organizers further welcome papers that look to race and ethnic relations, not merely from the perspective of the state, or of the receiving population, but also from the vantage of newcomers. How do such terms as "Turkish Germans" and "German Turks," for instance, differ from one another. Here, both fiction and autobiography / memoir can illuminate significant themes regarding a sense of belonging and raise critical questions about the meanings of multiculturalism. The ultimate question, for participants in the workshop, might concern the role American Studies scholars can play in the re-fashioning of European culture in the coming century.
 

Chairs: R. J. ELLIS , Dept. of English and Media Studies, Nottingham Trent Univ., Clifton Lane, Nottingham, NG11 8NS, UK Tel: +44 115 941 8418. Fax: +44 115 9486632; Giulia FABI (no attachments please), Dipto. di Scienze Umane, Univ. Di Ferrara, Via Savonarola 27, 1 44100 Ferrara, Italy. Fax: +39 051 229167.

This session would overall aim to explore slavery and anti-slavery, particularly emphasising transatlantic, abolitionist debates, other exchanges concerning slavery, the way(s) in which transatlantic African American circulations have shaped and re-shaped social, cultural and political institutions on both sides of the Atlantic, and the ways these have been treated, represented or impacted upon in texts by both African Americans (such as Frederick Douglass, William Wells Brown, William and Ellen Craft) and white writers and commentators (such as Harriet Beecher Stowe, Harriet Martineau, Richard Hildreth, Theodore Dwight Weld, Angelina Weld Grimké). The convenors would like to see proposals exploring these general areas, and in particular the way commentators and texts impact upon and illuminate the contingencies of (white) British and American national self-definitions, particularly as related to the antislavery movement(s).
 

Chairs: Winfried FLUCK , John F. Kennedy-Inst., Lansstr. 5-9, D-14195 Berlin, Germany; Werner SOLLORS , Harvard Univ., History of American Civilization, 225 Barker Center, 12 Quincy Street Cambridge, MA 02138-3879 USA.

The idea of human rights plays a crucial role in civil society. This idea, which has become one of the most powerful norms in international relations, is, however, a fairly recent historical phenomenon and has its own history of changing uses and function, ranging from moral selflogitimation to acknowledgment of the other. Our workshop wants to debate these issues with reference to American culture, seen in a national as well as international context. Specifically, we want to focus on the ways in which the emergence and cultural history of the concepts of human dignity and human rights are tied to the cultural history of violence, including changes in the definition of what constitutes violence, from physical coercion to structural violence.
 

Chairs: Otto HEIM, Dept. of English, Univ. of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, Tel: +852 2859 2749. Fax: +852 2559 7139; Inger H. DALSGAARD , Dept. of English, Univ. of Aarhus, DK-8000, Aarhus C, Denmark. Tel: +45 8942 6539, Fax:+45 8942 6540.

The aim of this workshop is to encourage investigations of the place and subject of 'the people' in cultural and political discourses in the United States and Europe, and of how American definitions of populism, in the broadest sense of the concept, have been formed and challenged on either side of the Atlantic: what legacy has Thoreau's writing on civil disobedience had on demonstrations of citizen action on either side of the Atlantic? Whose notion of populism was John F. Kennedy appealing to when he characterized himself as a 'Berliner'? Are popular mobilizations like the 'Battle of Seattle' readable within European or American contexts / ideas? Is there substantive evidence of American (media) influence on European (political) culture? What is the role of populist rhetoric in debates about cultural values, literary canons and multiculturalism? We welcome theoretical and historically comparative analyses of specific questions, texts or events as well as general issues concerning the influence of images and ideas on representations of 'the people' and its relationship with its (political or intellectual) representatives.
 

Chairs: Michael HINDS , Mater Dei Inst., Clonliffe Road, Dublin 3, Ireland. Tel: +353 1 837 6027 227; Joao Paul MOREIRA , Univ. of Coimbra, Portugal.

This session will look at the performances of Europeans in America and of Americans in Europe, and how these performances have altered our comprehension of both continents. At issue will be the poetics of impersonation, dissembling and imposture; dandyisme will be looked at as a means of vital communication between the continents at particular historical moments and in particular cultural contexts. Contributions will be welcome from any field: Lorca in New York and Wilde in the Mid-West and beyond spring to mind as narratives worthy of exploration, or the European reception of Seinfeld's inert flaneurs of New York (not to mention the various Rip van Winkles of Irving, Melville and Crane or the eternal lunchtimes of Frank O'Hara), and P. G. Wodehouse's conversion of the English mansion into the Broadway stage of the musical comedy. Film studies and rock music may also come into the mix (re. the dandyist homage of Bowie to Warhol and vice versa). At the core of our workshop will be the process of exchange, the translation of the lazy body into an active social presence.
 

Chair: Clara JUNCKER , Center for American Studies, Univ. of Southern Denmark, Odense, Campusvej 55, DK-5230 Odense M, Denmark, Fax: +45 6593 0490.

This workshop analyzes the cinematic contact between the US and Europe and their dialogical construction of each other. We invite papers that focus on the reception and distribution of US films in Europe, as well as papers that analyze the representation of the transatlantic Other within films, i.e. the US and its citizens in European film and vice versa. Reception papers might address production issues, historical contexts and contacts, the star phenomenon, audience reception, film analyses, reviews, European/ American collaborations or contradictions, theoretical exchanges, or any other issue relevant to the import/export of American films across the Atlantic. "Construction" papers may want to address such issues as the production of the cinematic ethnic sign (what is visually American / European?); the (re)construction of nationhood via the production of a transatlantic Other; or the socio-cultural meanings embedded in cross-cultural encounters with such national "representatives" as foreign troops, refugees, émigrés, immigrants, or tourists.
 

CANCELLED
 
 

Chair: Liam KENNEDY, Dept. of American and Canadian Studies, Univ. of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, England B15 2TT UK. Tel. +44 1214145509. Fax. +44 121 4146866.

This workshop will examine some of the American influences (real and imaginary) on European urbanism in the context of globalisation.
Topics might include: the image(ry) of American cities in European urban development (architecture, planning, design); the iconic representation of European cities in American culture (literature, film, popular culture); the role of European theorists (e.g. Benjamin, Lefebvre, Baudrillard) in theories of postmodern American urbanism; the 'American' imaginary in the production of urban lifestyle / consumer cultures in Europe; the touristic theming of European cities in North American markets; the comparative imagery of urban immigrant identity in European and American cultures; the reconfiguration of national myths in urban representation.
 

Chair: Rob KROES , Univ. of Amsterdam, American Studies, Spuistraat 134, NL-1012 VB Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Tel: +31 20 525 4371. Fax: +3120 525 4625.

This workshop intends to explore the possibilities and implications of transnational citizenship, in terms of its cultural affinities and political affiliations. A starting point for discussion might be the book, recently published by the convener, entitled Them and Us: Questions of Citizenship in a Globalizing World (Univ. of Illinois Press, 2000), esp. the third section. Yet there are more international groupings of nation-states or national entities within larger political structures, such as the British Commonwealth or the former Soviet Union, that also have historically occasioned a sense of collective identity transcending the borders of the member nations. The workshop invites contributions from American Studies scholars from such various transnational settings and asks them to address questions of transnational citizenship on the basis of their intimate knowledge of their own life situations and their expertise in matters of American citizenship.
 

Chair: Jaroslav KUSNIR , English Dept., Univ. of Presov, 17. novembra 1, 081 16 Presav, Slovakia.

This workshop welcomes papers which deal with and compare ideoogical and non-ideological approaches to the analysis of literary, artistic as well as popular works in the history of American literary criticism and theory the part of which can also be the analysis of a role of some aspects of American "national identity"(melting pot, frontier, etc.). In addition, the analysis of particular works of literature and art by American authors, comparative analyses of different works, and their film, theatre, radio and TV versions in which ideology in general, ideology of state, nationhood, class, race and gender are emphasized by authors at the expense of aesthetic qualities are welcome. So are papers analyzing the role of "ideologized" categories of race, gender, and class in literary works of aesthetically and literary valuable authors.
 

Chairs: Francoise LIONNET , Dept. of French and Francophone Studies, UCLA, Los Angeles USA. Tel: +1 310 206 6096. Fax: +1 310 825 9754; Ada SAVIN , American Studies, Univ. of Versailles, 50 rue Corvisart, Paris 75013, France. Tel: +33 1 4707 5845.

The papers will consider the ways in which l9th and 20th century American and European immigrant autobiographies engage the migrating self in issues of acculturation, rights and citizenship. The comparative perspective will be essential in examining the autobiographical trajectories that map and determine the specific geographies of the self as it translates and reshapes both the original and the host culture. We invite papers that address these issues on a comparative mode and/or are liable to open up the debate in a transatlantic perspective.
 

Chair: Scott LUCAS , Univ. of Birmingham, 16 Forest Rd., Moseley, Birmingham B13 9DH, UK. Tel: +44 121414 5763. Fax: +44 121414 3656.

This workshop starts from the premise that, given the political, economic, and cultural changes which are likely in Europe in the next decade, "American Studies" will increasingly be challenged by the concept of "Trans-Atlantic Studies". The supporting hypothesis is that the discipline of "American Studies" was itself a product of the US Government's interaction with academia and private actors such as foundations during and after World War II; thus, the emergence of a new political framework in Europe (as well as the US Government's increasing withdrawal from the academic sphere overseas) has laid the foundation for a new discipline which goes beyond the assumption of a US-centric vision.
This workshop does not presume that "Trans-Atlantic Studies" will be the academic paradigm of the near future. To the extent, however, that the concept of "American Studies" needs to be re-examined, this workshop posits "Trans-Atlantic Studies" as one of the possibilities for academic advance. The workshop will scek to draw practitioners from the US and Europe working with approaches, both in their research and in their teaching, linking literature, history, politics, and culture.
 

Chairs: Tamas MAGYARICS , Dept. of American Studies, Eötvös Loránd Univ., H-1146 Budapest, Ajtósi D. sor 19-21, Tel./Fax: +36 1 343 8760; Paul RUNDQUIST , Govt. and Finance Division, Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress, Washington, DC 20540, USA. Tel: +1 202 707 6939. Fax: +1 202 707 3325.

This workshop will focus on the extent to which the United States and Europe have been able to shape the post-Cold War era. Papers on a variety of themes are encouraged, including papers dealing with Euroatlantic security relations, the changing nature of NATO and the changing views of the European community to common security issues. Papers addressing the role of shared values among the Euroatlantic Community are also welcomed, including papers that probe the nature of such shared values generally, papers that discuss NATO's commitment to the defense of values and steps to be taken to defend such shared values through nation-building, peacekeeping, and confidence-building measures. More broadly, papers proposing to discuss government and society on both sides of the Atlantic in the post-Cold War era are also encouraged.
 

Chairs: Kurt Albert MAYER , Dept. of English and American Studies, Univ. of Vienna, Universitäts-Campus, Hof 8, Spitalgasse 2-4, A-1090 Vienna, Austria. Tel: +43 1 4277 424 12, Fax: +43 1 4277 424 97; André J.M. PREVOS , Penn State-Worthington Scranton, 120 Ridge View Drive, Dunmore, PA 18512-1699, USA.

This workshop discusses American popular music in Europe during its first century of existence in its new location (principally in the wake of what R. Wagnleitner has termed "the Coca-Colonization of Europe"). The concern will also be on the perspectives for its second century of existence in European areas where American popular music is widely accepted as a stylistic choice, whether musical or "political."
Papers should focus on popular musical styles encountered in the United States, whether Anglo-American, African American, or Latino American; as well as other styles from the Zydeco and Cajun music of Louisiana to more standard styles such as "rock 'n' roll." In addition, performers included in each study should be clearly recognized as popular performers and not as "classical" musicians or "folk" artists. A clear comparative (between the country mentioned and the American original style) component should be the goal of the presenter.
The notion of "popular music" at the core of this proposal is what is understood as "popular music" in the United States. Possible approaches include stylistic studies in one or several countries (e. g., blues in France and in Great Britain, the underground musical scene in countries of the former Eastern Bloc). A second type of approach may be a comparative study between European countries (e. g., rock 'n' roll in Italy and Slovakia) as well as between stylistic variations or adap-tations (similarities and/or differen-ces between American and Portuguese or Polish country music perfor-mers, for example). A third approach may focus on the future of a given style in a specific country (e. g., a study of the future of Latino American music in Holland or Greece).
 

Chair: John ROPER , American Studies Program, Univ. of Wales, Singleton Park, Swansea SA2 8PP, Wales, UK Fax: +44 1792 295719.

The workshop would explore in a comparative historical context, the movements towards national / transnational political and economic union in American and Europe, in the context of concerns to maintain strongly felt conceptions of regional and community identities. E. g., issues like the political and economic foundations of union: contextualizing debates in l8th century America and 21st century Europe. It will focus too on contemporary suspicion of the forces of globalisation and the influence of secular transnational political and economic institutions as threats to those identities. One could, for example, establish affinities between the importance of a sense of place, history, and cultural identity in the South in the Unitod States and of Ulster in Europe, in the context of globalization and European efforts at integration.
 

Chairs: Marie-Jeanne ROSSIGNOL , Univ. Paris 7-Denis Diderot, Inst. Charles V, 10 rue Charles V, F-75004 Paris, France. Fax: +33 1 44 78 3428; Zbigniew MAZUR , Inst. of English Studies, Maria Curie Sklodowska Univ., Pl. Maria Curie Sklodowskiej 4, PL-20-031 Lublin, Poland. Tel: +48 81 537 5389. Fax: +48 81 537 5279.

The purpose of the workshop is to explore the current European historiography of Early America. We would welcome papers addressing the specificities of Early American History in Europe, including not only such issues as methodology of historical research, but also the problems of teaching about Colonial America and the Early Republic in Europe. There have been new developments in such areas as gender history, African American history, ethno-history, economic history, or local history. How have these developments influenced historical research in Europe? Is European rescarch having any impact on American historiography? As Americans dominate the field numerically and otherwise, how do European scholars interact and exchange on the history of Early America since there are so few of them? Papers are encouraged to compare and assess European and U.S. historiography of Early America and the dynamics of exchange between the two, but we also invite contributions which will present practical applications of the new trends in Early American History in Europe in specific areas of research.
 

Chair: Agata PREIS-SMITH , American Literature Section, Inst. of English Studies, Univ. of Warsaw, Poland.

The dichotomy of the private and the public upon which any traditional definition of subjectivity is based, has over the last two decades undergone much questioning in the deconstructive reformulations of human agency authored by poststructural thinkers, both in Europe and in America. The task of the workshop will be to probe into and explore the dynamic interaction of the private and the public/social, as captured in postFreudian contemporary discourses of subjectivity (Lacan, Derrida, Foucault, Althusser, Judith Butler etc.) in cultural and literary texts produced on both sides of the Atlantic.
 

Chair: Aránzazu USANDIZAGA , Depto. Filolgía, Univ. Autónoma de Barcelona, Edificio B, E 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain. Fax: +34 93 5812001.

Our point of departure is the profound change gender undergoes in war writing as a result of World War I. The purpose of our panel will be to publish a volume of essays on this subject. Though we are open to other ideas and suggestions, the theoretical framework of our approach is that of New Historicism and Gender Studies. < 1. American women's writing of World War I.
2. The Spanish Civil War and its narrative both by American men and women.
3. Gender and the writing of World War II.
4. Gender and the rebirth of European nationalisms. The writing of terrorism.
 

Chair: Theresa SAXON , Fac. of Humanities and Social Sciences, Dept. of English, Manchester Metropolitan Univ., Geoffrey Manton Bldg, Rosamond Street West, Manchester M15 6LL, UK.

This panel will examine the impact of European structures on American writers, whose works form a dialogue between European and American locations. In response to American interest in European travel, Margaret Fuller, Elizabeth Stoddard and Mark Twain wrote newspaper articles providing an insight into European culture, both high and low. Henry James examined the implications of transatlantic 'journeys of the imagination,' while Anne Sexton's comment on her poetry, 'I guess this didn't travel very well across the Atlantic,' also reflects the cross-cultural divide, in poems which examine and subvert European motifs, as well as reflecting a Puritan inheritance. Philip Roth's evaluation of Jewish American expression measured against the impact of the Holocaust and the new range of attachments that gave new definition to the term Diaspora completes this backward glance to European influence.
 

Chairs: Elisabetta MARINO , Centro Linguistico D'ateneo, Fac. di Lettere e Filosofia, Via Arrigo Cavaglieri, I 00173 Rome, Italy. Tel./Fax: +39 06 94298024; Begoña SIMAL-GONZALEZ , Depto de Filoxía Inglesa, Fac. de Filoloxía, Campus de Elvina s/n, E-15071, La Coruna, Galicia, Spain. Tel: +34 981 337400 3348 or +34 981 167100 1889. Fax: +34 981 337430.

From the very moment that the Asian American literatures became visible, writers were expected on the one hand to have a personal voice and on the other to remain "authentic" (Chin), representative of or faithful to a more or less "imagined" community (Anderson). It is our aim to analyse these tensions from the inception of the Asian American literature until the most recent contributions to this literary tradition. In order to so, we encourage explorations of synecdochic vs metonymic writing (Krupat), the conflict between family / community expectations and personal desires, the well-known debate on the relevance of cultural nationalism (Cheung, Kim, Wong, Lowe), the role of literature in building a communal or national feeling among Asian Americans and in the Asian diaspora, the ongoing tensions between the sterootypes ascribed to the Asian American Everyman/Chinaman and each individual experience, the polemical relationship between "authentic" cultural insiders, "cultural outsiders" and Orientalist "Chinatown tour guides", etc. We particularly encourage comparative analyses of the Asian American and the Asian European experiences, by focusing on the different social, political, economical and literary contexts which influenced the moulding of their individual traits.
 

Chair: Waldemar ZACHARASIEWICZ , Inst. f. Anglistik und Amerikanistik, Univ. of Vienna, Universitätscampus Hof 8, Spitalgasse 2-6, A-1090 Wien, Austria. Tel: +43 1 4277 42410. Fax: +43 1 4277 42497.

We are calling for papers with the following focal points:
a) The construction of collective identities of/in the South in encounters of Southern spokesmen and authors from the region with various national cultures in Europe.
b) Paradigmatic examinations of the reception of Southern writers and/or popular cultural phenomena in Europe.
c) Presentations analyzing the impact of the idea of Europe in all its diversity on notions of regional identity and their transformations as well as federalism in Southern (political) culture.
d) Papers which consider historical processes influenced by an exchange of thought and ideologies between the South and Europe or involving Southern political figures and their contacts with European spokesmen.
 

Shoptalks

The shoptalk sessions will take place at the Athénée municipale on Monday, March 25 from 2.30 thru 3.45 PM.
 
 

The American Studies Shoptalk will be directed by Jaap Verheul (Utrecht University, the Netherlands) and Eric Sandeen (University of Wyoming, USA).

The Literary Historians' Shoptalk will be directed by Paul Lauter (Hartford College, CT, USA) and Justine Tally (University of La Laguna, Spain).

The Historians' Shoptalk's moderators will be announced soon. 

© J.-P. Gabilliet & L. Verley 2001