This issue contains:

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“We All Go a Little Mad Sometimes”: Alfred Hitchcock, American Psychoanalysis, and the Construction of the Cold War Psychopath

Robert Genter

Abstract: This article explores the image of the psychopath in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 film Psycho. The famed director’s portrayal of a psychologically damaged young man connected with a much larger discussion over political and sexual deviance in the early Cold War, a discussion that cantered on the image of the psychopath as the dominant threat to national security and that played upon normative assumptions about adolescent development and mother-son relations.

http://utpjournals.metapress.com/content/01876283g1878524/?p=bce1af402de641acbb0924c423b9f2e4&pi=0

DOI: 10.3138/cras.40.2.133

Brutal Honesty? The Uses of Gore in Tribal-Warrior and Gangbanger Autobiography

H. David Brumble

Abstract: Gangbanger autobiography brims with gore: bones broken, flesh cut, blood flowing. This can best be understood in cross-cultural terms. Gangbanger and warrior-tribe autobiographers have identical reasons for dwelling upon gore. Such passages help to establish and maintain status by convincing hearers of the bravery of those who face such terrors. Warriors and gangbangers describe gore in considerable detail and with detached objectivity; warriors and gangbangers alike, audiences understand, are thoroughly inured to pain—both suffered and inflicted. The gore also works to establish warrior claims to authenticity and special knowledge. Precisely because accounts of gore are important to warrior status, there is a powerful incentive to exaggerate. Like warrior tribes, street gangs have evolved means—not always effective—of authenticating such claims.

http://utpjournals.metapress.com/content/888675471217u474/?p=bce1af402de641acbb0924c423b9f2e4&pi=1

DOI: 10.3138/cras.40.2.163

Something Black in the American Psyche: Formal Innovation and Freudian Imagery in the Comics of Winsor McCay and Robert Crumb

Edward A. Shannon

Abstract: Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo in Slumberland anticipates Robert Crumb’s work. McCay’s innocent dreamscapes seem antithetical to the sexually explicit work of anti-capitalist Crumb, but Nemo looks forward to Crumb in subject and form. Nemo’s presentation of class, gender, and race, and its pre-Freudian sensibility are ironic counterpoints to Crumb’s political, Freudian comix.

http://utpjournals.metapress.com/content/qx1g079m0v4h22lp/?p=bce1af402de641acbb0924c423b9f2e4&pi=2

DOI: 10.3138/cras.40.2.187

Liberia as American Diaspora: The Transnational Scope of American Identity in the Mid-nineteenth Century

Richard Douglass-Chin

Abstract: The issue of nineteenth-century African-American exploration in Africa raises a number of questions: can we compare the discursive patterns of these black American narratives of exploration to contemporaneous nineteenth-century white chronicles of the American west? What can narrative patterns tell us about the ways in which Americans, both black and white, perceived themselves and others in the various landscapes they gradually came to occupy? Are there ways in which the nineteenth-century chronicles of African Americans Benjamin Anderson, James Sims, and George Seymour in Liberia can shed light on the turbulent state of affairs in Liberia and other parts of Africa both then and now?

http://utpjournals.metapress.com/content/96u30m711mm76115/?p=bce1af402de641acbb0924c423b9f2e4&pi=3

DOI: 10.3138/cras.40.2.213

Clarifying Blackness in Anglo-Native Fictions: Tom Spanbauer’s Cross-Ethnic Borrowings

Brian Norman

Abstract: Anglo writer Tom Spanbauer’s The Man Who Fell in Love with the Moon (1991) and American-Indian author Sherman Alexie’s Reservation Blues (1995) illustrate how contemporary multicultural literature uses Jim Crow figures as reference points for sorting intricate social lines among other ethnic groups. Spanbauer also illustrates the related dangers of cross-ethnic pilfering.

http://utpjournals.metapress.com/content/hg5768p72qp31545/?p=bce1af402de641acbb0924c423b9f2e4&pi=4

DOI: 10.3138/cras.40.2.235

“Join the Knitting Revolution”: Third-Wave Feminist Magazines and the Politics of Domesticity

Elizabeth Groeneveld

Abstract: The mid-1990s saw the rise of a new sub-genre of political magazine in the United States: the “third-wave” feminist periodical. A key feature of these publications is that they promote reclaiming and repoliticizing activities traditionally associated with the domestic sphere, particularly knitting. This paper critically examines and historically contextualizes the discourses on the “new” knitting in the letters to the editor, editorials, articles, and advertisements of third-wave feminist periodicals and argues that contemporary feminist craft cultures sit at a politically ambiguous nexus of privilege, complicity, and resistance. By historicizing third-wave periodicals’ promotion of knitting, this paper sheds light on changing ways in which the domestic sphere has figured within the broader history of US feminism and suggests that, despite their appeals to the “new,” these periodicals are very much in conversation with what is, to some extent, an imagined feminist “past.”

http://utpjournals.metapress.com/content/a14g258032735325/?p=bce1af402de641acbb0924c423b9f2e4&pi=5

DOI: 10.3138/cras.40.2.259

American Studies in Review

Geoff Hamilton

http://utpjournals.metapress.com/content/tn982x8711418057/?p=bce1af402de641acbb0924c423b9f2e4&pi=6

DOI: 10.3138/cras.40.2.279

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Submissions to Canadian Review of American Studies

The Canadian Review of American Studies is published three times a year. The journal publishes articles, review articles, and short reviews; its purpose is to further multi- and interdisciplinary analyses of the culture of the United States and of the social relations between the United States and Canada. The journal invites contributions, in English and French, from authors in all relevant scholarly disciplines related to the study of the United States, and the United States and Canada, as well as to the borders “in-between.” The Canadian Review of American Studies has an international standing, attracting submissions and participation from many countries in North America and Europe.

Recently, the journal has received and published articles from the following disciplines: Anthropology, English, History, American Studies, Canadian Studies, Political Science, Sociology, Communication, Law, African-American Studies, Religious Studies, Economics, Fine Arts, Cultural Studies, and Humanities.

For submission guidelines, please visit www.utpjournals.com/CRAS or contact us at:

Canadian Review of American Studies
Department of English, Carleton University
1125 Colonel By Drive
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1S 5B6
E-mail: cras@carleton.ca
Fax: (613) 234-4418

American Literary Tourism

Joint CAAS/NeMLA Panel, Northeast MLA Convention, April 7-11 , 2011, New Brunswick, NJ

From visits to the grave of the fictional eighteenth-century Charlotte Temple, to the restoration of Salem’s House of the Seven Gables at the turn of the century, to competing twentieth-century Faulkner Festivals, literary tourism is ingrained in American culture. We invite submissions from scholars interested in any aspect of American literary tourism, from the creation and maintenance of sites and events, to interpretations and experiences of them, and beyond. Send 300-500 word proposals and brief bio/CV to Jennifer Harris jharris@mta.ca.

Other CFPs:

*le français suit*

Please share this with your colleagues. Graduate students are especially encouraged to submit.

Conference CALL FOR PAPERS: Health/Care/Nation
Sponsored by the Canadian Association for American Studies and the University of Windsor

14-17 October 2010 http://uwindsor.ca/caas2010

Keynote Speakers:
Gerard Boychuk, Director of the Global Governance Graduate Program at Balsillie School of International Affairs and Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Waterloo

Donna Smith, journalist and activist, California Nurses’ Association/National Nurses United

During 2009 fears of “death panels” clashed with calls for universal coverage, as President Barack Obama encountered an increasingly heated debate about health-care reform. In this moment the very definitions of the terms health and care and their relations to concepts of the nation are taking on new significance in American political and cultural life. For some vocal Americans, the deeply held values of self-reliance and suspicion of government control are bound up with the “system” (be it the health-care system, or more general national, economic, social, and/or cultural systems), while at the same time a majority wants the government to guarantee health insurance for all in a Medicare-like program. A different provision for health-care invokes various and contradictory national and personal self-definitions and political battles. Body scanning, pandemic planning, the criminalization of abortion, and the proposal that all citizens must have health insurance are just a few examples of sites where these new definitions and struggles are engaged. What becomes apparent, then, are the complicated layers and contradictions in political and cultural debates. This conference, sponsored by the Canadian Association for American Studies and the University of Windsor, aims to explore the topics of U.S. health, care, and nation, together or separately, in order to illuminate and clarify the cultural contradictions and historical, cultural, and philosophical roots of these issues. We particularly encourage interdisciplinary panels that address the questions from different intellectual angles–history, literature, film and media studies, gender and sexuality studies, political science, sociology, philosophy, or the arts. Topics could include, but are not limited to:

The American political system and the problem of health care reform
Representations of health (widely defined)
Representations of health-care
Representations of disability
Biopolitics, surveillance, and/or socialist medicine
The philosophy and/or history of American “health”
The history of earlier American proposals for national health insurance
Health and gender
The philosophy and/or history of stem cell research
The philosophy and/or history of abortion and women’s medicine
Feminist health care activism
“Caring” and the nation
Nationalism vs. nationalizing
The American body politic
The business of selling health
Pandemics and other fears
The Hollywood Image: Anorexia/Obesity/Plastic
Race and health

This is only a partial list–topics from all areas of American Studies will be considered. We invite panel or individual proposals from faculty and independent scholars and particularly welcome graduate student proposals. A brief CV for each participant and an abstract of 250 words or less for each paper, with an additional paragraph of 200 words to describe panels, should be sent electronically by 31 May to:

Christina Simmons, CAAS Conference Committee
Department of History
University of Windsor
401 Sunset Ave.
Windsor, ON N9B 3P4
caas@uwindsor.ca

————————————————————-
ACEA Colloque Santé/Soins/Nation (date limite le 31 mai 2010)

Commandité par L’Association canadienne d’études américaines et l’Université de Windsor,

Windsor, Ontario 14-17 octobre 2010 http://uwindsor.ca/caas2010

Conférenciers invités

Gerard Boychuk, Director of the Global Governance Graduate Program at Balsillie School of International Affairs and Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Waterloo

Donna Smith, journaliste et militante, California Nurses’ Association/National Nurses United

appel à communications:

En 2009, la crainte des «death panels» s’est heurtée à l’appui envers l’assurance maladie, lorsque le président Barack Obama s’est trouvé face à un débat de plus en plus ardent au sujet de la réforme des soins de santé. En ce moment, les définitions mêmes des mots «santé» et «soins» ainsi que leur rapport au concept de nation prennent une nouvelle signification dans la vie politique et culturelle des États Unis.

Pour certains Américains, la valeur sacrée d’autonomie et le soupçon envers le contrôle gouvernemental sont liés à toute forme de système (de santé, national, économique, social). En même temps, une majorité souhaite que le gouvernement garantisse l’assurance maladie pour tous à l’intérieur d’un système universel tel celui de «Medicare». Un système différent d’assurance maladie engendre des définitions de soi et des luttes politiques variées et contradictoires.

Le scanographie corporelle, la planification en vue d’une pandémie, la criminalisation de l’avortement et la proposition d’offrir à tous les citoyens une assurance maladie sont des exemples de lieux où on trouve de nouvelles définitions et de nouvelles luttes. Ce qui devient alors évident, ce sont les complications et les contradictions au sein des débats politiques et culturels.

Ce colloque, organisé par l’Association canadienne d’études américaines et par l’Université de Windsor, vise à explorer les thèmes des soins de santé et de la nation, ensemble ou séparément, dans le but d’illuminer et de clarifier les contradictions culturelles et les racines historiques et philosophiques de ce débat. Nous invitons en particulier des séances interdisciplinaires qui examinent ces questions des points de vue intellectuels différents —historique, littéraire, politique, communicationnel, sociologie, philosophique ou artistique.

Nous invitons les professeurs, les chercheurs indépendants et, en particulier, les étudiants aux études supérieures à soumettre une proposition de communication. Voici la liste non exhaustive des sujets possibles:

Le système politique américain et le problème de la réforme des soins de santé
Les représentations de la santé ou des soins de santé
Les représentations de l’incapacité (invalidité)
La biopolitique, la surveillance ou la socialisation de la médecine
La philosophie ou l’histoire de la santé américaine.
L’histoire de propositions antérieures pour un système national de soins de santé aux États-Unis.
La santé et le genre sexuel
La philosophie ou l’histoire de la recherche sur les celles souches
La philosophie ou l’histoire de l’avortement et de la médecine féminine
L’activisme féministe au sujet des soins de santé
«Les soins» et la nation
Le nationalisme versus la nationalisation
Le corps politique américain
Vendre les soins de santé
Les pandémies et autres menaces
L’image hollywoodienne: l’anorexie/l’obésité/la chirurgie plastique
Santé et race/ethnicité

Voilà une liste partielle. Nous invitons également la soumission de propositions dans tous les domaines des études américaines pour des sessions ou pour des communications individuelles de la part d’enseignants et de chercheurs indépendents, ainsi que, en particulier, de la part d’étudiants. Toute proposition devrait inclure un bref CV des participants et un résumé de chaque proposition de 250ic mots maximum, avec une déscription de 200 mots pour les sessions. S.v.p. envoyer les propositions avant le 31 mai à

Christina Simmons, CAAS Conference Committee
Department of History
University of Windsor
401 Sunset Ave.
Windsor, ON N9B 3P4
caas@uwindsor.ca

Now, on to the other CFPs:

For the Canadians out there, you know how important it is for our conference organizers to be able to submit as full a program as possible in our SSHRC conference-grant proposal: getting one of these grants allows us to offer grad student funding for the conference, among other things.  So, if you’ve been meaning to submit, but end of term has been getting in the way, now’s the time to fight back, and write that proposal!    –Jason

We just received the following job ad: since we all know what the market is like this year, please cross-post and distribute widely.

The Department of English Studies at Nipissing University invites applications for a tenure-track appointment at the rank of assistant professor beginning July 1, 2010, subject to final budgetary approval. Candidates will have expertise in American literature, with the ability to teach an American survey from the colonial to the contemporary. Willingness and competence to teach an introduction to literature are required. The successful candidate will have a Ph.D., publications, a promising research agenda and a strong teaching record.

English Studies is an important program at Nipissing University. Roughly 300 students are enrolled in the introductory course, ENGL 1106, and close to 400 upper level students have declared an English major.  Faculty are encouraged to involve upper level Honours students in their research.

Salary levels are competitive and we offer an attractive benefits program.  The university is located in a beautiful natural setting on an escarpment overlooking Lake Nipissing in North Bay.  The city, which is located 3.5 hours from Toronto, has a population of 53,000 and is a major center of cultural activity in Northeastern Ontario. For more information on Nipissing University visit www.nipissingu.ca.

In accordance with Canadian immigration requirements, this advertisement is directed to Canadian Citizens.  Nipissing University is an equal opportunity employer.  Applications must be received by May 3, 2010.

A letter of application, statement of teaching philosophy, curriculum vitae, three letters of recommendation (preferably, one commenting on teaching experience),  teaching evaluations (if available), and a writing sample should be sent to:

Dr. Craig Cooper, Dean of Arts and Sciences

Chair, Search Committee

Faculty of Arts and Sciences

Nipissing University,

100 College Drive,

North Bay, Ont.

e-mail craigc@nipissingu.ca Fax: 705-474-3072

I’m pre-empting our regular weekend CFP blogging to announce that the conference website for Health/Care/Nation is now live, and to remind you that the deadline for proposals is April 10th.  Make sure to submit!