Ta-Nehisi Coates’ ascendancy carries the hallmarks of a Horatio Alger tale.  With his 2015 recognition as a MacArthur Genius and a National Book Award winner, his rise from humble beginnings to illustrious acclaim acquired a nearly storybook sheen.  A “rags to riches” account of his success holds immense charm; however, such an explanation does not offer a full picture of his significance.  Coates’ path from brief attendance at Howard University to star blogger, renowned Atlantic feature reporter, and worldwide phenomenon intersects with fascinating developments in 21st century literature and intellectual history.  Unfolding in a post-9/11 world, his career limns several trends in contemporary culture, chief among them the democratization of blac

Academic and scientific study of popular culture has only gained prominence in the 20th century, first with the Leavisites’ criticism of mass culture (as yet another form of the popular), then with the comprehensive work on the concept of ‘Critical Theory’ within the Frankfurt School. The latter half of the century saw, especially after the foundation of the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, a rise in theories, definitions and approaches to popular culture so great that it occasioned Harold Bloom’s disparaging remark “that there is no future for literary studies as such in the United States. … At NYU I am surrounded by professors of hip-hop.

The idea that African-Americans are actual and full-fledged citizens of the United States is not a new one; the racism that prevents that idea to flourish is also not new.  Recent events, including the death of Freddie Carlos Gray, Jr. in Baltimore, have brought to the fore the question of whether or not the United States values its black citizens, and extends to them the same rights as it does to its non-black citizens.  The historical record has much to say on this point, but the literary record also is instructive in perceptions of race in the United States. 

CALLS FOR PAPERS AND CREATIVE PRESENTATIONS

JOHN R. MILTON WRITERS' CONFERENCE:

POSSIBLE IMPOSSIBILITIES / IMPOSSIBLE POSSIBILITIES:

GEOGRAPHIC, AESTHETIC, GENDERED, RACIAL, AND HISTORICAL FRONTIERS

OCTOBER 27-29, 2016

THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH DAKOTA, VERMILLION, SOUTH DAKOTA

CFP: Possible Impossibilities / Impossible Possibilities: Geographic, Aesthetic, Gendered, Racial, and Historical Frontiers (7/15/16; The University of South Dakota, Vermillion, South Dakota, October 27-29, 2016) 

2001: A Space Odyssey
Representation and Interpretation

Chapters are sought for an edited collection on 2001: A Space Odyssey, with post-graduates and ECRs in particular encouraged to submit.

Kubrick Studies in recent years has come to be dominated by historical approaches, informed largely by the Stanley Kubrick Archive. Though these new methodologies have progressed our understanding of Kubrick’s operations as a film director, it does not resolve the intellectual, formal and aesthetic motivations that underpin his work.