Date: Sat, 06 Jan 2001 17:04:53 -0500
Subject: CFP: A Transatlantic Affair: the British and "America"




For the November meeting of the THE NORTH AMERICAN CONFERENCE ON BRITISH 
STUDIES in Toronto I propose the following session (conference posted 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,--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 
Brits 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 also was 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."
     Please send proposals for papers studying cultural reflections of this 
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-AT-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 presentation, 
if we form a three- to-four member session, or a whole-session discussion, 
if several people will be joining our session.

N.B. on your proposal please also 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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