#USSObookhour with Gordon H. Chang
Writing History without Documents: Chinese Railroad Worker Ghosts and American History Professor Gordon H. Chang & Invited Roundtable Guests Thursday 19 November 2020, 5.30 pm, UK/ 9.30 am, California We are delighted to announce that our third #USSOBOOKHOUR will be at 5.30 pm UK, 19 November 2020 with the well-known historian Gordon H. Chang. He will discuss his new book, GHOSTS OF GOLD MOUNTAIN, which records a history of the Chinese workers who built the Transcontinental Railroad, helping to forge modern America only to disappear into the shadows of history until now. Gordon’s presentation is about the challenge of historical recovery of lived experience without documents from the subjects and the significance of the Chinese railroad worker story for American history. After Gordon’s talk, five invited researchers, Haitao Wang, Grazia Micheli, Flair Donglai Shi, Harriet Stilley, and Melody Yunzi Li, will join a roundtable discussing Chang’s book and “ghosts” in Asian American studies. The event […]
Continue Reading#USSOBOOKHOUR with Robert T. Tally Jr.
If you’d like to join us for this #USSOBookhour talk with Professor Robert T. Tally Jr. on zoom, which lasts for about one hour, please register in advance for this meeting through the link below (click on it): https://york-ac-uk.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0vduqurDwuGtHxZmOkYO_vAqey0ooyvLAL After registering, you will soon receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. Please mark your calendar and save the date and time for our event. “I wisely started with a map”: Topophrenia and J. R. R. Tolkien’s Literary Cartography Professor Robert T. Tally Jr. Wednesday 21 October 2020, 3 pm, UK Time We are thrilled to announce that we will be launching our second #USSOBOOKHOUR at 3 pm, 21 October 2020 with the leading space researcher, critic, and theorist Professor Robert T. Tally Jr.. J. R. R. Tolkien is best known for his epic fantasy novels, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and part of […]
Continue Reading#USSObookhour with Laura Rattray
Beyond The Writing of Fiction: Other Edith Whartons Dr. Laura Rattray Wednesday 23 September 2020, 4 pm, UK time We are delighted to announce that we will be relaunching #USSOBOOKHOUR at 4 pm, 23 September 2020 with Dr. Laura Rattray’s talk about her new monograph Edith Wharton and Genre – Beyond Fiction, which is the first study of Wharton’s full engagement with original writing in genres outside fiction. Laura will also kindly share with us her experiences of publishing and thoughts on publishing for postgraduates and early-career researchers. This talk will inspire researchers who are interested in using new methods to explore transatlantic women writers or the pluralism of other versatile authors. Questions from our audience will be addressed in the Q&A session. Edith Wharton and Genre: Beyond Fiction (Palgrave, 2020) Based on extensive new archival research, Edith Wharton and Genre: Beyond Fiction offers the first study of Wharton’s full engagement with original […]
Continue Reading#Bookhour: The Age of Innocence
A full run-through of the January 2019 Twitter #bookhour on Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence
Continue ReadingStorify of #bookhour chat on GOLD FAME CITRUS by Claire Vaye Watkins
#Bookhour is an open forum twitter discussion between scholars and the public that takes place the last Tuesday of the month unless otherwise stated. Find out more here. On 28th March 2017, USSO hosted a #bookhour to discuss Claire Vaye Watkins’ Gold Fame Citrus (2015). During the discussion Dr Iain Williams, Pat Massey, Hollie Johnson and Christina Brennan discussed the tensions between ‘Deep time’ and climate change in Watkins’ novel, and to what extent these issues were filtered through a narrative of American exceptionalism. Debates arose around whether Gold Fame Citrus could be classified as climate fiction (or ‘cli-fi’), and gender relations in Watkins’ novel (particularly in light of Watkins’ autobiographical history as a member of the Charles Manson family). The panellists ended the discussion by discussing the symbolism of children in climate and post-apocalyptic narratives, and left the #bookhour asking about the value of realist vs experimental fiction in depicting climate change. ₪ […]
Continue ReadingStorify of #bookhour chat on THE MANDIBLES by Lionel Shriver
October 2016 marked our two year anniversary of #bookhour, and to celebrate this ongoing feature former U.S. Studies Online co-editor Michelle Green hosted a discussion of ‘financial crisis dystopia’ The Mandibles by Lionel Shriver with a panel of US and UK researchers. During the discussion Dr Kirk Boyle, Amy Bride, Sarah McCreedy and Michelle Green discussed Shriver’s depiction of material culture, emotions and capitalism, and to what extent the novel is a dystopia or plays with dystopian tropes. Debates arose around how self-conscious Shriver’s novelistic writing is, and if the novel is a Libertarian Candide or postmodern parody. The panellists ended the discussion by returning to The Mandibles as a neonaturalist novel, and left the chat asking, do the Mandibles achieve their capitalist utopia, and is a capitalist utopia achievable?
Continue ReadingStorify of #bookhour chat on BLACK DOVE: MAMA, MI’JO AND ME by Ana Castillo
On September 27th 2016, #bookhour organiser Donna Alexander, and Jessica Shine, Zalfa Feghali and Aishih Wehbe discussed Black Dove: Mamá, Mi’jo, and Me by Ana Castillo. Catch up on the storify here.
Continue ReadingStorify for #bookhour chat on ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW by Nathaniel Rich
On Tuesday 30th August 2016, Dr Arin Keeble and Dr Lieven Ameel (with questions from Dr Sebastian Groes) joined #bookhour organiser Christina Brennan to discuss Odds Against Tomorrow (2014) by Nathaniel Rich. The discussion explored themes of visibility and time in relation to large-scale environmental decline and climate change. The conversation considered questions relating to ‘slow violence’ and its framing devices in contemporary literary; state complacency in the face of climate change; and the representation of disaster after 9/11. Other themes included questions of individual agency in the aftermath of environmental catastrophe and the ethics of prediction and algorithms in monitoring disaster.
Continue ReadingStorify of our #bookhour on HYSTOPIA by David Means
On Tuesday 2nd August 2016, Dr Dorothy Butchard, Dr Ciarán Dowd, Dr Deirdre Flynn, and Dr Dan King joined #bookhour organiser Dr Diletta De Cristofaro to chat about David Means’ Hystopia, in the longlist for the Man Booker Prize 2016. The discussion focused on the form of the novel, both in its postmodern nested narratives and framing devices, and in its various story arcs; on the relationship between alternate history and trauma, as well as on that between individual agency and state intervention; and, finally, on the text’s use of Baudrillardian tropes and its problematic depiction of women.
Continue ReadingStorify of our #BOOKHOUR on ZERO K by Don DeLillo
On Tuesday 31st May, Dr Kasia Boddy, Dr Catherine Gander, Dr Doug Haynes, Dr David Hering, and Professor Mark Osteen joined guest #bookhour organiser Rebecca Harding to discuss Don DeLillo’s Zero K. The discussion explored the way themes from DeLillo’s earlier fiction resurface in the novel, and the effect of this reusing of material. The conversation also focused on the presence of various art forms in the text and DeLillo’s continuing interest in visual art in his work. Questions were also raised about the success of the novel’s narrative techniques, and the role of humour, capital, and political elements in the text.
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