Czech and Slovak Association for American Studies

PLURALITY OF CULTURE AND DEMOCRACY

17th International Symposium of American Studies
Olomouc, November 4-7, 2010
Palacky University Olomouc, Czech Republic

Katedra anglistiky a amerikanistiky FF UP v rámci výzkumného záměru "Pluralita kultury a demokracie" pořádá s Detour Productions a Českou a Slovenskou asociací amerikanistů autorské čtení a přednášku současného jižanského básníka, prozaika, kritika a esejisty

Freda Chappella (Greensboro, Severní Karolína),

CHAPPELL in a CHAPEL

A new issue of the EAAS Newsletter can be downloaded from the EAAS website. The issue contains important information about the 2010 Biennial EAAS Conference in Dublin, including workshop guidelines and workshop proposals.

Dear Colleagues,

shocks are called shocks to tell that we have been totally unprepared for what has happened. For hundreds and thousands of people Emory Elliott has been, and will remain to be, an embodiment of intellectual and moral energy, a tireless teacher, a profound and fruitful scholar. It is hard to have to accept that we shall not meet him in person any more. When still closed within the iron-curtain world, we used to turn to his literary scholarship - if and when accessible - for information, for inspiration and encouragement. After 1989 it was Emory Elliott who understood that we, the colleagues in the field in the former "Eastern Bloc" may need help but may also be interesting partners for debating the nature and future of American Studies - in our own countries and even in more general terms and contexts. He gave us generously of his time and erudition during his trips to Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia. I had the privilege to discuss with him the potential of cooperation between American and European Americanists when we both were serving as presidents to the U.S. and European associations, respectively. And I believe that there remains much more to be done in this respect - to also honor Emory´s efforts and dreams.

We were very excited when he visited Palacky University in Olomouc, Czech Republic, in 2002, and presented his key-note at our annual colloquy then dealing with the theme "The Fiction of Politics and Politics of Fiction." It would be difficult to find a better subject for Emory Elliott, and to find a more suitable scholar to address such topic. His contribution we proudly published in our colloquy series - and his unforgettable personal presence will remain with as a grateful and living memory.

Josef Jařab
Professor of English and American Studies
Palacky University, Olomouc, Czech Republic
jarab@ffnw.upol.cz

Long gone is the time when studying childhood was seen as a marginal subject for serious scholarly research; on the contrary, there is a growing interest in the phenomenon of childhood in cultural and literary studies. Covering a wide range of themes as well as possible approaches to the ways childhood and coming of age are represented in British and American literature, Literary Childhoods is a contribution to this current debate.

Monografie Šárky Bubíkové představuje systematickou studii vývoje americké literární tradice od jejích nejednoznačných počátků až do konce dvacátého století.

The Department of English and American Studies at the University of Pardubice is happy to announce the publication of the first issue of the American and British Studies Annual. It is a scholarly, peer-reviewed journal focused on American and British cultural studies.

The deadline for submission of workshop and parallel lecture proposals is January 31, 2009. The proposals should include include a onepage abstract and a half-page c.v. of potential workshop chairs and parallel lecturers – with little or no formatting.

New York: Cradle of America’s Cultural Plurality offers a variety of perspectives on New York City literature, art, and music by a team of European American Studies scholars. Beginning with the myths of New York, it continues to explore New York’s topos from the point of displaced southerners, ethnic minorities (Jewish, Afro-American, Czech), gender (feminist, gay), avant-garde artists, and its indigenous music (jazz, vaudeville, the musical). New York’s hodgepodge of material and cultural wealth, the accumulation of peoples from all over the globe, has created fascinating patterns of democratic cooperation, exchange, and tolerance—well as friction and conflict. Its dramatic metropolitan structure and cosmopolitan diversity provoke a wide range of responses in newcomers (exiles and immigrants) and native New Yorkers alike, first challenging one’s provincialism and then marking one for life. New York City continues to enthrall, enchant and appall. It has always been a testing ground for architectural, cultural, financial, political and social experiments which have affected not only the city, but the nation and the whole wide world.

A new issue of the EAAS Newsletter can be downloaded from the EAAS website.