The Indentured Atlantic: Bound Servitude and the Literature of American Colonization (Part One)
“There was some sleeping, some spewing, some pishing [sic], some shitting, some farting, … some darning, some Blasting their legs and thighs, some their Liver, lungs, lights and eyes. And for to make the shene [sic] the odder, some curs’d Father Mother, Sister, and Brother.”1 As accounts of transatlantic shipboard crossings during the eighteenth century go, this one stands out for its vivid corporeality. But what is truly unusual about it is that it was written by an indentured servant.
Continue ReadingBook Review: Jimmy Carter and the Middle East: The Politics of Presidential Diplomacy by Daniel Strieff
There is no final evaluation of diplomacy, only a continued reimagining in the face of expanded information. In this spirit, Daniel Strieff’s Jimmy Carter and the Middle East: The Politics of Presidential Diplomacy mines a presidency almost forty years old for reclamation.
Continue ReadingReview: ‘Collaboration in America and Collaborative Work in American Studies’
Co-organised by postgraduates at the Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde, the conference charted the range of collaborative practices that are emerging in American Studies, whilst also recognising the wider responsibilities of researchers to work beyond traditional academic spaces and foster partnerships with educational, cultural and public bodies.
Continue ReadingResisting First Nations Stereotypes in banned YA Novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian
Since the book’s publication in 2007, Part-Time Indian has been ranked in the top five every year since 2010, reaching the top spot in the most recent list (2014). The reasons stated for the challenges include, but are not limited to; anti-family, cultural insensitivity, sexually explicit and depictions of bullying. However, Alexie “seamlessly layers class and racial identities on top of … more familiar adolescent struggles” ensuring that the novel can reach beyond the well-worn tropes of indigenous stereotype.
Continue ReadingFear Itself: Reflections on Native America and the Narrative of Fear
Throughout November 2015, U.S. Studies Online will be publishing a series of posts to mark Native American Heritage Month. In this post Darren Reid (University of Coventry) uses his own research on Native American guerilla warfare to reflect on narratives of fear throughout history and in a post-9/11 world.
Continue ReadingStorify of our #bookhour on THE HEART GOES LAST by Margaret Atwood
During November’s #bookhour, Sam Cooper, Terri-Jane Dow, Dr Karma Waltonen, and #bookhour organiser Dr Diletta De Cristofaro discussed Margaret Atwood’s latest dystopia, The Heart Goes Last (2015). The chat considered the satiric aspects of Atwood’s novel, the characters, and the narrative focalisation – elements which sparked debates around the believability of the plot. The discussion also focussed on the notions of utopia and dystopia, on the role of surveillance and desire in the Positron Project, on the economic crisis and the text’s suburban imagery. Check out the storify here.
Continue ReadingHistoriography of North American Ethnobotany
Throughout November 2015, U.S. Studies Online will be publishing a series of posts to mark Native American Heritage Month. In this post Juliane Schlag (University of Hull) discusses the concept of Ethnobotany in Native American Studies and the problems defining it within the historiography.
Continue ReadingReview: ‘Keywords: Nineteenth-Century American Studies in the Twenty-First Century’
Over the summer, researchers were invited to respond to a keyword—or suggest their own—that they felt was pertinent to studying nineteenth century America in the twenty first century. From this, eight keyword panels were formed: ‘Capital’, ‘Crisis’, ‘Development’, ‘Network’, ‘Sensation’, ‘Territory’, ‘Time’, and ‘World’.
Continue Reading“Vaudeville Indians” on the British Stage (British Library)
Throughout November 2015, U.S. Studies Online will be publishing a series of posts to mark Native American Heritage Month. In the this post, which is based on her British Eccles Centre Summer Scholars talk, Christine Bold (University of Guelph) discusses the experience and performances of Indigenous, and non-Indigenous, “Vaudeville Indians” on the variety circuit across Britain in the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century.
Continue ReadingMeet Me at the Fair: the Native-American Model School, the Philippine Reservation and Maintenance of the Colour Line at St. Louis’s World’s Fair
Throughout November 2015, U.S. Studies Online will be publishing a series of posts to mark Native American Heritage Month. In the this post, Katie Myerscough (University of Manchester) discusses the problematic portrayal of Native Americans and indigenous Filipinos at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair.
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