tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-369321082024-03-06T10:02:54.261+01:00The Atlantic CommunityTransatlantic Perspectives on AmericaStuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comBlogger288125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-4008413514621184322008-07-02T23:00:00.008+02:002008-07-03T09:35:04.533+02:00introducing... America AdriftDear friends, colleagues, readers, bloggers in arms, and those of you who don't know where you are or how you got here,The Atlantic Community has moved!We've staked out a new homestead on the cyberfrontier, America Adrift. It's rather simple to find us. Just type, americaadrift dot com. Say it with me now three times; America Adrift, America Adrift, America Adrift. Please pass on the word, mark Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-90871174509217732162008-07-01T00:54:00.014+02:002008-07-01T12:00:22.972+02:00The Real AmbassadorsIn a Cold War context, “jazz was a natural” in the arsenal of cultural diplomacy. So concludes Fred Kaplan a piece in the New York Times on the Jazz Ambassadors Program of the mid 50s. Possibly because jazz during the years when the program was launched, was not only a purely homegrown art form, but also a regular mass culture export. So, it is interesting that when Kaplan asks what would be Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15767060107513375245noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-80932187842700372712008-06-29T17:24:00.006+02:002008-06-29T18:14:17.066+02:00Migration and LiteratureAn increasingly hot topic in literary studies and in the area studies fields, such as American Studies is the relationship between writing, place, identity and belonging. Evidence of this agenda getting more and more important can, for instance, be found in the proposed topics for conferences and seminars worldwide. In Denmark the next big Am. Studies event, the Nordic Assosciation for American Benthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11845712266620744382noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-57354061729049861712008-06-26T10:33:00.006+02:002008-06-26T11:08:42.431+02:00No Caption Needed BirthdayRobert Hariman and John Lucaites recently posted the one year anniversary of their fantastic blog, No Caption Needed.You can read Bent's review of both the blog and their seminal book by the same title here.They're experiencing some "growing pains", something we are familiar with here.It’s been a year since we began this blog. We had no idea what we were getting into. The initial idea was to put Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-49576641618180763442008-06-24T14:02:00.008+02:002008-06-28T00:35:10.172+02:00FEDERMAN FRENZYSince the early 60s, Raymond Federman has been one of the most important American writers. In his highly experimental fictions - works that bear such titles as Take It or Leave It, Double or Nothing, and The Twofold Vibrations - he has explored cultural and personal memory, invented intricate narrative strategies, and above all has given readers an experience that exceeds the ordinary. Creating Cameliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05209001226118446807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-75907998173821488322008-06-20T22:44:00.006+02:002008-06-22T01:34:15.785+02:00CFP: Jack Kerouac, Kerouac’s On the Road and the BeatsFollowing up on our spring sequence of posts on The Beats (conveniently collected here), we'd like to help announce a two day conference to be held at the University of Birmingham in December. Scholars will meet and give papers on aspects of the Beat Generation with a particular focus on Kerouac's novel On the Road. But perhaps even more enticing is that the original scroll manuscript of that Benthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11845712266620744382noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-46989769732547008862008-06-15T21:28:00.006+02:002008-06-15T21:51:01.671+02:00Alice B. Toklas BrowniesI was surprised recently in my relentless pursuit of Beat scholarship to learn of a connection between Brion Gyson, who invented and later taught William Burroughs the cut-up technique, and Alice B. Toklas, who was Gertrude Stein’s long-time companion and muse.Even more surprisingly the connection turns out to revolve around a recipe for ‘Haschisch Brownies’ which Toklas (apparently unwittingly) Benthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11845712266620744382noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-78574928832113037712008-06-11T21:27:00.006+02:002008-06-11T22:05:26.743+02:00No Caption NeededRecently we at The Atlantic Community have been honored by a bit of attention from the excellent photo journalism and public culture blog No Caption Needed. NCN is run by Robert Hariman and John Louis Lucaites who authored one of the only sustained books charting the emergent field of cultural iconology, No Caption Needed: Iconic Photographs, Public Culture and Liberal Democracy. Hariman is a Benthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11845712266620744382noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-13553605180141638002008-06-10T22:05:00.003+02:002008-06-11T20:26:47.743+02:00Texas Democratic Party State Convention Tribute to Ann Richardsvia SivacracyI looked at some of the images from this montage in this post here if you're interested. One of the things that seems pretty apparent across the US political landscape, is that Democrats are actively reclaiming historical and cultural narratives and effectively appropriating them into their political campaigns.Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-55046309665157506452008-06-09T07:30:00.003+02:002008-06-09T07:39:36.626+02:00The Wiki WayNoam Cohen has an interesting piece, The Wiki-Way to the Nomination, at the NY Times on the online activism behind the Obama campaign. It's a bit simplistic but it provides some good background if you haven't been following all the online activity. Doesn't everything happen online today?It's also interesting how techno jargon is becoming more mainstream. The Wiki-Way. I guess terms like Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-83999309120309635032008-06-06T09:34:00.005+02:002008-06-06T09:48:09.845+02:00The Ninth Annual Honora Rankine-Galloway Address“Will Race Survive in the US? The Possibilities and Impossibilities of the Obama Phenomena”By Professor David Roediger, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Sponsored by the Embassy of the United States, Copenhagen Center for American Studies University of Southern Denmark, Odense Thursday, September 25, 2008 14:15-16:00, Room 100 This lecture, based on David Roediger’s Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-4225062287958099592008-06-06T08:41:00.003+02:002008-06-06T09:05:57.726+02:00Working in the Coal MineWhatever metaphor we may use, this is "crunch time" for many of us writing, editing, and grading papers, preparing for exams, getting out those last minute proposals, dotting the i's and crossing the t's.In the weeds, the jungle, buried in paperwork, up against the clock, 4th and goal. Well, you get the idea.I always liked Devo's cover of Allen Toussaint's "Working In The Coal Mine" from their Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-42802420095793854162008-06-04T07:19:00.002+02:002008-06-04T07:22:30.018+02:00Obama ClinchesSee the Agonist for more.Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-53525377560484831092008-06-02T21:18:00.004+02:002008-06-02T21:39:11.750+02:00Rock Pioneer Bo Diddley Dies at 79NPR.org, June 2, 2008 - One of the fathers of rock 'n' roll died Monday at the age of 79. Bo Diddley was born Ellas Bates in Mississippi and grew up in Chicago, where he played guitar on street corners before being discovered by Chess Records. He leaves behind a sound that helped build a musical movement.What made Bo's music so unique? I don't know exactly but if I had to assign to it just one Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-14810483865109173662008-05-29T08:33:00.003+02:002008-05-29T08:49:40.074+02:00Communing with LincolnThis picture (h/t The Bag) immediately struck me as it provides a very interesting visual narrative to an analysis I recently wrote on some contemporary political appropriations of Abraham Lincoln. I plan to discuss this image in more detail, along with my article which will be available after the weekend.In the meantime, go check out The Bag's post, "Taking A Lesson," which apart from providing Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-16551549766102477982008-05-26T23:12:00.004+02:002008-05-27T00:02:42.604+02:00McCain's Memorial Day Political IconographyToday is Memorial Day in the US. Doubtful there was any "coverage" by our local media here. But given the recent importance we've been placing on visual analysis, iconic studies, and semiotics I thought this image, featured today on the mainpage of John McCain's campaign website, might be interesting to toss around.I've recently been re-reading Robert Hariman's and John Louis Lucaites' Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-66532024991167735122008-05-21T21:07:00.004+02:002008-05-21T21:17:45.642+02:00CFP: Cultures of the ImageIconotopoi/Bildkulturen (Cultures of the Image)Current Academic Practices in the Study of ImagesJoint Eikones-McGill Graduate ConferenceDepartment of Art History and Communication StudiesMcGill University, MontrealDecember 3 to 5, 2008 The joint McGill-Eikones Graduate Conference Iconotopoi/Bildkulturen (Cultures of the Image) aims to identify and challenge cultural and linguistic barriers withinBenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11845712266620744382noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-57089951930805281552008-05-19T09:58:00.006+02:002008-05-19T11:14:36.798+02:00Dead Heads for ObamaA few months ago I posted an article, Postmodern Presidential Branding, which highlighted Obama's "O" logo in particular, as a example of open ended visual narrative, easily recreated and reproduced. Here's exhibit 3,569. I was never a Dead Head (though I dated one) but I've been a Grateful Dead fan for as long as I've been choosing what I listen to. The Dead Head community has always actively Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-13267764297387026402008-05-16T16:45:00.008+02:002008-05-16T18:39:51.411+02:00Lakota Sundance and the American FlagOne of the most captivating presentations at the recent EAAS conference in Oslo was Kay Koppedrayer's narration of the events at a Lakota sundance ceremony on the Pine Ridge reservation where American Flags were flown during the ceremony:One year, four American flags flew over a Lakota sundance on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Raised on a column of lodge poles dug into the hillside above the Benthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11845712266620744382noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-91444062558344744482008-05-15T20:21:00.006+02:002008-05-15T21:44:05.779+02:00An Uncanny Convention(al) PhotoYesterday John Edwards endorsed Barack Obama. I know, old news already. But if you haven't seen the video it's worth noting the overwhelming enthusiasm from the Michigan crowd when Obama introduced Edwards. Considering he received 7% of the vote in West Virginia and isn't even running I'd say he's still got some serious mojo with "the people".Hat tip to the EENR blog for video. EENR is a Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-49186285759800593602008-05-14T22:45:00.005+02:002008-05-14T23:26:38.869+02:00Icons of TransgressionMy paper for the EAAS conference in Oslo last week dealt with icons and icon work, continuing a line of research I began about 5 years ago when I participated in a conference in Austria with the theme of US Icons. The convener of both the AAAS event in 2003 and of the Oslo workshop was Klaus Rieser of Graz, Austria whose tireless work is beginning to make an emergent interdisciplinary field out Benthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11845712266620744382noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-27768529331740405852008-05-09T14:02:00.004+02:002008-05-09T14:08:42.227+02:00Harvard Law Commits to Open Access ScholarshipFor the times they are a-changin'“Each Faculty member grants to the President and Fellows of Harvard College permission to make available his or her scholarly articles and to exercise the copyright in those articles. More specifically, each Faculty member grants to the President and Fellows a nonexclusive, irrevocable, worldwide license to exercise any and all rights under copyright relating to Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-65141707664655318852008-05-07T10:22:00.004+02:002008-05-07T10:59:34.128+02:00Thoreau at Walden at Containing MultitudesThe American Studies East Anglia blog has recently undergone a few minor changes, including a very cool banner and new blog title, Containing Multitudes.A few days ago Graphic Adaptations of American Classics was posted, highlighting some very interesting new comic art, all of which are now cued on my Amazon wish list. But the most interesting for me was John Porcellino's adaptation of Henry Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-12756775362548304652008-04-30T00:07:00.004+02:002008-05-14T23:37:05.218+02:00Cars and KillersNext week will be a busy academic whirlwind tour of two Nordic capitals for me: Helsinki and Oslo. The two main American Studies events of the year are crammed together as Consecutive conferences: The Renvall Institute's Helsinki do, The Maple Leaf and Eagle Conference, has reached instalment no. 12 in its fine run (it will be my third time around as a participant). The theme is always broad and Benthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11845712266620744382noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-76862676066790011432008-04-29T10:43:00.003+02:002008-04-29T11:11:25.666+02:00Nye Boycots Florida...and so must we all. Shameless indeed. There has been a disturbing resurgence of Jim Crow legislation around the country but Florida's overt intimidation of civic volunteers is the most troubling. With gutted federal enforcement agencies and a conservative Supreme Court, it will take some serious grassroots momentum to turn the trend around. I won't hold my breath on either McCain or the elite Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.com