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Letter from the President Adina Ciugureanu

The RAAS - Fulbright Conference: Dear All, Constanta, 7-9 October 2010 Janice Radway The year 2010 was very fruitful and largely rewarding for the Romanian Americanists, if we to take into account the two U.S. Ambassador’s Remarks at the RAAS important events organized in Europe and at home (Dublin and - Fulbright Conference Constan ţa) in the field of American Studies. The celebratory H.E. Mark H. Gitenstein moment to us, members of the RAAS, was the Biennial RAAS – Fulbright Conference, entitled The American Tradition of RAAS Graduate Student Award Descent/Dissent: The Underground, the Countercultural, the Dana Mihăilescu (Anti)Utopian , held at Ovidius University Constan ţa, Oct. 7-9. Adelina Vartolomei The conference gathered about 90 scholars and young American Studies academics from thirteen Romanian universities and several Șerban Văetiși European and American ones, including twenty Fulbright senior and junior grantees in the ongoing academic year. Our special American Corners guest speaker was Professor Janice Radway, Walter Dill Scott Timişoara Professor of Communication and Professor of American Studies and Gender Studies at Northwestern University, USA, whose Conference Participation research in, and contribution to, the field of American Studies AncaLuminița Iancu, AnaKarina Schneider, are exceptional, her books and articles being a ‘must’ in the Rodica Ştefan, Monica Manolachi, undergraduate and graduate bibliography of any popular culture MihaelaCristina Lazăr, Aloisia Sorop and gender studies course. Her plenary lecture with the topic “Girl Zines, Middle Class Privilege, and Affiliation as Dissent” Academic Exchanges and Summer was a highly stimulating, enlightening talk on the relatively Schools recent phenomenon of self-published texts created from cuts Costinela Drăgan, CristinaGeorgiana Voicu, CostinValentin Oancea and images from magazines and other popular publications. As a manifestation that favors traditional means of communication Research Projects (typing, collage, snail mail) and covers both areas of popular Sorina Chiper culture and gender studies, the growing phenomenon of ‘zining’ is definitely worth investigating and Professor Radway did it with Ph.D. Theses intensity and accuracy. The second plenary talk was held by Corina Mărculescu, Ioana Stamatescu Professor Rodica Mihaila from the University of Bucharest and former President of the RAAS. Professor Mihaila’s topic tackled Book Reviews the question of American exceptionalism, by reconsidering it in Claudia Fizeşan, Dana Mihăilescu, Remus her most challenging analysis of post 9-11 fiction which dwells Bejan, MariaSabina Draga Alexandru on the dichotomous pair: falling man / fall of man. We also enjoyed the presence of His Excellency, Mark H. Calls for Papers Gittenstein, Ambassador of the United States to Romania, who opened the conference with an excellent talk on the topic and US Embassy Events/Notices

presented the prize and diplomas to the first two winners of the Fulbright Scholars 2010-2011 Graduate Student Award offered by the RAAS: Dana Mih ăilescu, University of Bucharest , for the best PhD RAAS Officers & EAAS dissertation and Adelina Vartolomei, Ovidius University

Constanta, for the best MA dissertation . According to the rules replaced her and Dr. Ileana Jitaru (Ovidius of the GSA competition, posted on the RAAS site, the winning University) has now become the new dissertations are the best among those defended in the two- Treasurer in charge of collecting the fee year interval between the RAAS conferences. Although the and making the necessary payments to RAAS board advertised the competition well in advance, we the EAAS and other institutions or believe that only shyness hindered young Americanists from individuals, if need be. sending their theses for a new evaluation. We would like to Most importantly, the RAAS General encourage them to participate in future competitions and to trust meeting decided upon the introduction in the RAAS board’s capacity of organizing a very serious and the RAAS articles of the honorific title of mostly rewarding contest. Founding President . The title was The second important event of 2010, in reverse unanimously granted to Professor Rodica chronological order, was the Biennial Conference of the Mih ăil ă for her seminal role in launching European Association for American Studies (EAAS), held in the association and in supporting the Dublin, March 26-29. The topic of the conference, whose motto development of American Studies in was “Forever Young,” inspired a large number of Americanists Romania. from all the European countries, members of the EAAS. It is The ongoing odd year between the however true that a few countries, among which Germany, two important American Studies events, Austria, the UK, Ireland, and Poland were much better 2011, is crucial for us all who intend to represented than other countries (among which Romania) who attend the EAAS Conference in Izmir and had fewer participants. It is regretful that Romanian academics the RAAS Conference in Constan ţa in do not get involved more deeply in the EAAS conferences, 2012. The RAAS site ( www.raas.ro ) and especially as, according to the comments during, and the our letters to all the members will keep conclusion of, the RAAS – Fulbright conference in Constanta, you informed about deadlines and topics. American Studies is seriously and solidly done in the Romanian Besides, the RAAS board is discussing universities. It is understandable that one of the reasons for the now the editorial board and publishing reduced participation interest in the EAAS is the high costs details of the RAAS journal which, we which attendance would involve. However, besides the grants hope, will be a serious publication to that the American Cultural Center may offer on these occasions enhance American Studies in Romania. and some support from our home universities, the RAAS As regards the board’s activity in 2011, we General meeting in October also decided to offer partial have scheduled a meeting on May 9, in coverage of the costs for young academics and seminar Constan ţa, on which occasion we will coordinators, active members of the RAAS, whose proposals or come forth with the dates and topic of the papers will be accepted for the 2012 EAAS Conference in Izmir, next RAAS Conference and the details Turkey. We are hoping that, in this way, younger and less about the RAAS journal we intend to start young colleagues will be better motivated to attend. We are also this year. positive that Romanian Americanists’ research contribution to Wishing you all a wonderful New American Studies in Europe will not go unnoticed, especially as Year, prosperity and achievements to your we intend to bring the EAAS conference to Romania in 2014. It hearts’ desire and looking forward to your is high time that our research in American culture, history, comments, suggestions and proposals, media, literature, became more visible. Therefore, by augmenting the RAAS participation in the 2012 EAAS Conference at Izmir, we would increase the RAAS chances of being granted the honor of organizing the next conference in Professor Adina Ciugureanu 2014. President of the RAAS The RAAS General meeting, held on October 9, in Ovidius University Constanta Constan ţa, agreed on a number of changes in the RAAS board. Due to new academic engagements, Dr. Ileana Marin, elected Secretary of the RAAS in May 2008, could no longer serve the association in this capacity, so Dr. Ludmila Martanovschi has

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and political history of the United largely white, middle class, girls States. inspired by all girl punk bands in the Most notably, conference 1990s. Calling themselves riot The RAAS --- presenters together established grrrls, these young women clearly that traditions of dissent in communicated among themselves the United States have played a through hand-made, self-published, Fulbright pivotal role in both contesting and underground pamphlets known as constituting the very idea of the zines, where they explored the Conference: “American” over the years. By slights and everyday oppression focusing on the key role played by experienced by girls in high schools, Constanta, 77---- 9 African-Americans, especially colleges, workplaces, and on the African American women, as well as streets. Significantly, as these by immigrants and ethnic zines began to circulate more October 2010 communities in the US, the broadly, they drew many more girls conference was highly successful in to the form, including young women establishing that strong ties have of color who critiqued zines’ political always connected the US to other limitations. Recently, girl zines have The American Tradition of regions, cultural traditions, and begun to migrate to other cultural Descent/Dissent: The nations. Attendees also made it venues like libraries, classrooms, clear that the familiar notion of and art installations significantly Underground, The American exceptionalism has perpetuating the impact of their Countercultural, the always been contested by a critical particular understanding of (Anti)Utopian and internationalist counter- feminism. tradition. The RAAS conference Professor Janice Radway was additionally remarkable for its Northwestern University ability to attract scholars working in a range of disciplinary traditions, The Biennial International including literature, art history, film Conference of the Romanian studies, political science, American Studies Association was anthropology, and sociology, as well held at Ovidius University in as for the obvious vitality of its Constanta from October 7 to 9, efforts to integrate the work of a 2010. Organized around an high number of extraordinarily exciting, provocative, theme -- “The creative graduate students with the American Tradition of research and writing being done by Descent/Dissent: The Underground, more experienced scholars. Finally, the Countercultural, and the the conference was notable for its (Anti)Utopian” -- the conference was ability to incorporate the study of jointly sponsored by Ovidius American popular culture into its University and its Faculty of Letters, agenda. It is difficult to summarize the including the English Department His Excellency, Mark H. extensive and impressive program Centre for Cross-Cultural Studies; Gitenstein, U. S. Ambassador to of papers that followed this initial by the Romanian – US Fulbright Romania, who spoke forcefully session. I’m certain my fellow Commission; by the Romanian about the role dissent has played in conferees felt as frustrated as I did Association for American Studies; American history, formally opened in trying to choose which sessions and by the American Cultural the conference program. to attend. More often that not, I Center, Bucharest. The conference Grounding the right to dissent in the deeply regretted having to miss the featured the work of some 87 First Amendment to the sessions scheduled simultaneously scholars drawn from all over Constitution, Ambassador against those I finally selected. I Romania, the larger eastern Gitenstein explored how the should note, however, that generally European region, and around the amendment has both enabled and these sessions enabled participants world. Clearly building on the highly protected vigorous debate within the to rethink American literary successful efforts of the RAAS U. S., thereby allowing its people, traditions through dissenting voices under the able leadership of institutions, and leaders to be self- and discourses; to learn about Professors Rodica Mihaila and critical, to change policy and counter-traditions in American Adina Ciugureanu to promote direction, and generally to revise political philosophy and literary ground-breaking work in American what is understood as the American theory; to investigate key historical Studies throughout Romania, the tradition. My own paper, “From the events and movements involving conference was remarkable for the Underground to the Library Stacks subaltern populations and to take way its carefully crafted theme and Beyond: Girls, Zines, and account of their dissenting engaged emergent trends in Itineraries of Dissent at the Turn of perspective on events that have international American Studies the 21 st Century,” sought to usually been seen through scholarship while re-considering familiarize conference attendees documents left by the privileged; to and revising our collective with the vibrant, unruly feminism explore the ways various discourses understanding of the social, cultural, practiced by a small cohort of of dissent have sought to contest the structure and meaning of work, Professor Mihaila focused on capitalism and commercialism in the four post 9-11 novels written by U. S.; and finally to take careful note Jonathan Safran Foer, Don DeLillo, of the extraordinary vibrancy of John Updike and Cormac U.S. AmbassadorAmbassador’s’s’s’s American popular culture, of its McCarthy. roots in underground and counter- cultural passions and political Remarks aaatat ttthethe concerns, and its extended, still percolating effects on all that has RAAS --- Fulbright been considered mainstream. Even a short list of some of the topics Conference examined in conference papers demonstrates how successful the conference was in complicating our sense of what constitutes the Dissent and Peaceful Change American cultural tradition: the literary work of Anzia Yezierska, H.E. Mark H. Gitenstein Douglas Coupland, Paul Auster, Sandra Cisneros, Toni Morrison, Some time ago a young student Alice Walker, Wendell Berry, asked me if I could name the one Ernesto Quinonez, and many She suggested that the national most important contribution America others; the autobiographies of trauma surrounding the events of 9- had made to world culture. It was a contemporary American immigrant 11 pushed these writers to re- difficult question. I assumed he women; the pragmatic philosophical examine the self-destructiveness of meant something positive, tradition in the U. S.; American exceptionalism and the something that had made the world multiculturalism as counter-history costs of a too confident belief in the a better place. Not the cure for to discourses of assimilation and possibilities of redemption polio or even the I-pod. Not assent; old order Amish embodied in the figure of the new McDonald’s, hamburgers or Coca communities; Quakers and man, the new American Adam. Yet Cola. abolitionism; underground commix; Professor Mihaila demonstrated After a few minutes of thought, quilts and election posters; blogs clearly through an analysis of the I said the First Amendment to the and social networking; Afro- workings of the falling man/fall of U.S. constitution. It reads: centrism as a form of political man trope in this fiction that despite “Congress shall make no law dissent; advertising of the 1940s their desire to face with respecting an establishment of and 1950s; the art of Kara Walker; determination the tragic religion, or prohibiting the free the films of James Cameron, Paula deterioration of the human condition exercise thereof; or abridging the Vogel, and Quentin Tarantino. in our contemporary era of freedom of speech, or of the press; Conference presenters examined all technologized violence, these or the right of the people peaceably of this and much more. profoundly American writers, to assemble, and to petition the ironically and paradoxically, also Government for a redress of sought to transfigure the grievances.” consequent fear, terror and horror When the 13 U.S. states set by exploring the possibilities for about to ratify the new Constitution their amelioration in a new ethical in 1789, some of its critics, led by relation between Self and Other Thomas Jefferson, decided that the necessitated by a world Constitution needed a Bill of Rights characterized by mobility, fluidity, and first among them would be this and ineluctable, unavoidable unequivocal recitation of civil encounters and confrontation. liberties. In effect we created a It was a fitting culmination powerful new government and at to the ongoing conversation the same time an ironclad limitation generated by the conference’s on its power, enshrining in our theme about the relation between organic law the right of the people This summary of what was American traditions of descent and to criticize their government. clearly a dynamic and dissent over the course of several A few years later in his consequential conference would not centuries. inaugural address, Thomas be complete without a short account Jefferson set out the basic rationale of the thoughtful keynote address for the protection of dissent and the given by the RAAS’s first president, untrammeled right to disagree with Rodica Mihaila of the University of the government and each other: Bucharest. Characteristically “Error of opinion may be tolerated grounded in her deep familiarity with where reason is left free to combat past American literary traditions as it.” well as her knowledge of the most One of our greatest Supreme contemporary of American literary Court Justices, Oliver Wendell Holmes, said it slightly differently over a hundred years later: “The he did not know it then, it was the descended in blood and in spirit best test of truth is the power of the beginning of the Revolution." from revolutionists and rebels – thought to get itself accepted in the With that simple act of men and women who dare to competition of the market.” reassurance and courage he, in dissent from accepted doctrine.” But they were both making a effect said, come forward and let But one hundred years after very similar and fundamental point you defy the power of this tyranny. our revolution, in the late 1880s, we about what defined us as Like Dr. Martin Luther King still had powerful economic interests Americans and what I believe is at and Rosa Parks in my home state controlling our economy, our the heart of our success as a of Alabama, in the U.S., Laszlo political parties and our media. country. We built into our country, Tokes inspired the dispossessed to Sound familiar? its government and its culture, the assert their God-given rights and in Dissent was not particularly notion that the best way to combat so doing launched a revolution. meaningful in those years in mistakes is to leave people free to In that sense dissent is the America when those economic debate and argue with each other. critical catalyst for change. Indeed, interests controlled the media and So we created a mechanism I would argue without this freedom the political parties and, through that corrected error by the of speech, real and lasting change them, the court system. government and the society as a is really not possible. That began to change with the whole. At the time it was a unique As young Romanians who political reform movement in notion and, indeed, it was the first care about the future of your America. time such a basic civil liberty was country, the most important In the United States our enshrined in the organic law of any question you should be asking monument to our greatest republic. yourself is how you preserve this presidents is Mount Rushmore in We have made our share of freedom to dissent, leaving truth South Dakota. George Washington mistakes in America, but one thing free to correct error. is on Mount Rushmore because he that you can count on in America is I would argue that there are at led our revolution; Jefferson that we have the ability to self- least five basic safeguards that you because of the First Amendment; correct through open and robust must protect above all else: Lincoln because he preserved the debate and usually we’re able to • Remember the basic rule of union and ended slavery. Teddy recognize and correct our mistakes. every patriot – eternal vigilance is Roosevelt is on Mount Rushmore Ours is a government based the price of liberty. You must be because he led a reform movement on the consent and the wisdom of prepared to challenge any threat to which began to take on these the governed freely expressed. freedom of speech. But it takes economic oligarchs. In so doing he For almost 50 years here in more than just moral courage to helped to strengthen these other Romania that was not possible. disagree. You need your institutions institutions which make change Under fascist and communist to serve as the fora and vehicles for possible by curbing that economic regimes, ideology drove your both hosting that debate and power. government policy and implementing its conclusions within That will happen here in authoritarianism stifled all dissent. a democracy. Romania as well but until it does, Your government was based on the • So too, you need a court dissent and the ability of truth to principle that all the wisdom resided system that will adhere to the rule of combat error will not be ensured. in the government and any law and protect anyone against the And without that core freedom, disagreement from the governed power of the state which seeks to lasting change is not possible. needed to be ruthlessly repressed. suppress dissent I daresay that is why a despot like • Three, you need an Ceausescu could starve his people independent media -- not simply and almost destroy this beautiful independent of the state but country. independent of powerful economic But you and I have seen how interests that use the media to dissent can, in the end, manipulate the discourse; RAAS Graduate fundamentally change the direction • Four, you need political of a culture for the better. You saw parties that are strong, independent Student Award it here in Romania 20 years ago of these economic oligarchs and and I saw it where I grew up in the committed to the welfare of average Deep South of the United States 50 Romanians years ago. • Five, you need a free In June 2010 the Romanian In December 1989, Laszlo market that is protected from Association for American Studies Tokes appeared in the window of powerful economic concentrations launched the RAAS Graduate his apartment in Timisoara to tell his by antitrust laws and sensible Student Award, which aims at parishioners that he had not been regulation. rewarding one best MA dissertation evicted. We have learned in America and one best PhD dissertation As one congregant put it that it is not enough just to have a submitted by graduate students recently: First Amendment and even a and/or junior faculty members every "Laszlo appeared at the citizenry committed to its principles. two years. The submitted window and made a sign with his In America, as President manuscripts will be evaluated on arm for us to come forward. Though Eisenhower once said “we are the clarity and persuasiveness of the demonstration, on the originality modern subjectivity, by considering considering the writings of M.E. and significance of the research and the modifications brought about by Ravage, Konrad Bercovici, and on their making an outstanding relocation to a new regime of state, Maurice Samuel. My intention has contribution to American Studies in namely the passage from been to revitalize the histories of Romania (defined as literary, understanding identity as fixed in their experiences in the face of loss autocratic Eastern Europe to seeing and forgetting, underscoring their cultural, or historical studies it as contingent and fluid in specific voices out of the pool of focused on the United States of democratic America. My other generalizations associated to early America). interest has been to investigate the twentieth century Eastern European This year the association need to re-imagine the subject’s Jewish American writings. There awarded the following RAAS ethical agency in a new regime of has also been a social component members for their dissertations state by showing that there is a to my endeavor – the attempt to defended between 2008 and 2010 passage from double ethical show the locally specific forms of and submitted for the Graduate standards used in Eastern Europe power relations and types of logic Student Award: as a result of official unfair practices that worked towards creating against Jews to emphasis on ethical dominant norms which responsibility for the other via discriminated against others and the Dana Mih ăilescu, University of critical resistance to limitations of attempt to trace the emergence of Bucharest , for the best PhD institutional norms in the U.S. an ethical agency out of suffering dissertation ; In order to articulate my thesis, which worked as an alternative Adelina Vartolomei, Ovidius I have analyzed the power relations individual stance of responsibility for University Constanta for the within these writers’ narratives as the precarious other. best MA dissertation . instances of moral “struggles for In the final analysis, I have recognition” set out by society, considered the importance of The awarding ceremony took drawing on Axel Honneth’s ideas. Foucauldian power fields for place on October 7 th , on the By also using Emmanuel Levinas’s analyzing early twentieth century occasion of the 2010 RAAS- and Judith Butler’s insights, I have Jewish American literature, but Fulbright Conference opening, meant to show that these works rather than focus my argument on when H.E. Mark H. Gitenstein, offer not simply a critique of the the mere struggle with different U.S. Ambassador to Bucharest, dominant norms of different regimes norms, I have argued in favor of an presented the GSA certificates to of state but also an alternative ethics out of contingency (drawing the two awardees . agency carried out by unique on Honneth, Levinas, Butler and individuals who pay attention to the Cavarero), stressing that East (http://www.raas.ro/stiri ) vulnerability of a unique existent European Jewish Americanness is and who are ready to challenge basically a matter of uncertainty, society’s imperfect justice in the dependence on variable events, name of the vulnerable. In that, my and individual responsibility as Ethical Dilemmas and project finally sustains, I believe, opposed to the fixed set frames of Reconfigurations of Identity Adriana Cavarero’s recent Eastern Europe. suggestion that narration can stand in Early Twentieth Century for an alternative sense of politics The thesis was defended in Eastern European Jewish that takes into account people’s January 2010 . American Narratives uniqueness. Finally, I have drawn on Martha Nussbaum’s insights Dana Mih ăilescu from Love’s Knowledge (1990) and In with the Old, Out with the University of Bucharest Poetic Justice (1995), showing how early twentieth century literary texts New: The Black Woman’s My Ph.D. research thesis is a by Eastern European Jewish Doppelganger before the Civil American authors sustain that the comparative study of the Jewish War response to complex identity in quality of human life does not Eastern Europe and America in primarily depend on opulence or Adelina Vartolomei early twentieth century narratives of utility but on human functioning and Ovidius University Constanta writers coming or descending from capability, on the acknowledgment either the Pale of Settlement (Mary of the complexity of individual lives The paper, In with the Old, Out with Antin, Abraham Cahan, Anzia and the salience of individual the New: The Black Woman’s Yezierska) or from the slightly less differences. In the final analysis, I Doppelganger before the Civil War , restrictive background of Romania have meant to prove how these focuses on the similarities and (M.E. Ravage, Konrad Bercovici, books sanction Nussbaum’s idea differences between the African Maurice Samuel or Michael Gold). that literary imagination is essential American women described in Alice In relation to this, I have probed into in both the theory and practice of Walker’s novels, The Color Purple , how dilemmas associated with citizenship. Possessing the Secret of Joy , By identity for early twentieth century Related to this, my other aim the Light of My Father’s Smile , and Eastern European Jewish has been to recuperate the literary The Temple of My Familiar and the immigrants to America has been a voices of Romanian Jewish ones in Kara Walker’s cut paper critical element in fashioning their immigrants to the Unites States by silhouettes. The idea of the doppelganger is introduced in order as a cause and effect in women’s Walker portrays miscegenation in to explain black women’s identities lives. Various characters in Alice her entire work, presenting her nowadays in connection to their Walker’s novels, such as Tashi, perspective on the relations past. Moreover, parallels are drawn from Possessing the Secret of Joy , between white and black people. between the two artists and other and Irene, from By the Light of My Alice Walker, on the contrary, writers that have focused on similar Father’s Smile , go back in time only rejects the presence of any topics; writers such as Toni to reveal gruesome details in their Caucasian men or women. She Morrison, Jean Rhys, Harriet sisters’ history. There is physical takes on the systems left behind by Beecher Stowe, and even male abuse meant to stop many of them white masters but replaces the writers such as Alex Haley and from talking or different types of masters with black men and slaves Ralph Ellison have presented their torture to prevent them from with black women. view on the hardships that African contributing to a conversation. If Last but not least, both artists Americans have had to overcome in they refuse to conform to these take a closer look at the the past as well as the challenges norms, they are quickly described aggressiveness of the nature of they still face in the present. as mad. Unfortunately, some even love. Black women were forced to The first chapter, “Women abandon any contact with reality submit and obey their masters’, Alienated in Words and Images”, because of the pressure. husbands’, fathers’, and sons’ reveals the problems that women Moreover, the nostalgia after desires. As slaves they were have of adapting in various social Africa is noticed in both Alice beaten, raped, and practically and political contexts. It actually Walker’s novels and Kara Walker’s transformed into sex objects meant consists of five different parts, each silhouettes. In fact, Kara Walker’s to satisfy men’s sado-masochistic part taking a closer look at a certain short motion picture, 8 Possible dreams. Kara takes a step further, aspect of women’s isolation from Beginnings , is analyzed in detail so depicting bestiality in her paintings the mainstream and their struggle to as to offer a greater understanding and silhouettes. being accepted. These five to this sense of alienation that black In the third chapter, “Creation subchapters are: ‘The Issue of Race people have felt for such a long and Destruction”, I focused on the in Possessing the Secret of Joy and time. An attempt at an explanation acts of creation and destruction and Wide Sargasso Sea ’, ‘Madness and takes form under the last the manner in which they intertwine. Silence’, ‘Nostalgia after Africa’, ‘8 subchapter. African American In Possessing the Secret of Joy , Possible Beginnings and women have been seen very much Alice Walker states that “Creation Representations of Black Female as exotic beings. This, of course, itself began with mutilation and Bodies: Stereotypes’. also meant that they were portrayed rape…”, an idea which Kara Walker The first subchapter draws a as intellectually and spiritually manages to transmit through her comparison between Jean Rhys’s inferior. As a consequence, they silhouettes. Both women describe novel, Wide Sargasso Sea , and were not allowed to better the process of birth as one that is Alice Walker’s Possessing the themselves as such an ability was more painful rather than blissful and Secret of Joy . This parallel between thought extinct in them. They could offer an insight into African the two novels demonstrates that not learn how to read and write or American women’s struggle with race is not necessarily a factor express themselves artistically. violence. “Creation and Destruction” influencing the degree of difficulty Most representations of them focus is made up of four sections: ‘Giving women have when fitting in on their bodies. Light’, ‘Motherhood’, ‘Torture and because Rhys’s novel has as a The second chapter, Death’, and ‘Creation’. The two protagonist Antoinette, a white “Polymorphous Sexuality”, bears in women present a less cheerful woman, while in Possessing the mind Freud’s theory regarding perspective of motherhood. Alice Secret of Joy the main character is abnormal perversity which occurs in Walker writes from her experience Tashi, an African woman. Both a very repetitive, obsessive way as and her own struggle to combine novels are a sequel or prequel to opposed to a normal perversity writing with taking care of her another book that has managed to which lies within us all. Kara and daughter. Nonetheless, her establish itself within the cannon. Alice include various forms of conclusion is a positive and The protagonists, Antoinette and sexuality in their work which might optimistic one and manages to Tashi marry men who desire to be deemed as taboo. Consequently, reflect the advantages of “colonize” them and pressure them the chapter divides itself into three motherhood in her novels. into assimilating a different culture. parts, each part describing a Kara Walker takes a different They are both forced to change dominant form of sexuality: path as she portrays the hard times their names and no matter how hard ‘Women’s Comfort in Other black women had during slavery. they try to satisfy their husbands, Women’, ‘Interracial Relations’, and They were making babies as if they they simply end up being ‘Aggressive Love’. were making jars of jam, not having considered marginal, In the first part, more attention one moment to get attached to or misunderstood, mad, and belonging is given to Alice Walker as she is even get to know their offspring. For to a mysterious culture. the one that stressed the theme of this reason, her cut-paper Consequently, Antoinette and Tashi lesbianism. However, it is not only silhouettes tend to be grotesque are each other’s double despite sexuality that brings women and to depict motherhood as a their different skin color. together. There are different types messy and obligatory chore. Furthermore, the concepts of of comfort they find in each other Moreover, she presents scenes of madness and silencing are tackled either as friends or sisters. Kara torture and suicide so as to emphasize the dreadful times African American women be was established at the Faculty of before the Proclamation of capable of recognizing their sisters European Studies, the American Emancipation. in suffering and reassure them that Studies program in Cluj epitomized However, both Alice and Kara they are not alone and strange on a long tradition and interest of believe that creation and destruction account of their feelings of American scholarship here, ranging quite often come hand in hand. It inadequacy. Celie, as an angel of from the interwar studies in was only from the miserable history among Kara Walker’s cut- American politics authored by the moments that they had learnt paper silhouettes, observes the sociologist and Americanist Virgil something they wanted to transmit tragedy of her own life and Barbat to more recent courses held further on. Other times, it was only manages to escape it. at various faculties at Babes-Bolyai their outlet as artists that stopped University, dedicated to American them from turning to violence and The dissertation was defended in topics, such as those taught in the self-loathing. They turned to their July 2010 . departments of Letters, History, roots in order to understand their Philosophy or European Studies. present and to deal with their being Thus, in 2004, when the Faculty of set aside as outcasts. European Studies and International As one has observed, Kara’s Relations initiated the BA program entire art, i.e. paintings, drawings, American in American Studies, and then, in collages, shadow-puppetry, light 2009, when the MA program projections, and video animations, changed its name into Transatlantic shocks and awes. One might Studies Studies, we may say that a whole assume that in order to make a series of preoccupations matured statement through visual art, one into an institution where needs to be more direct in order to professional research and best reach the audience instantaneously. American Studies BabesBolyai learnings could be offered. Alice Walker has hundreds of pages University, ClujNapoca: The Fortunately, within the process, at her disposition to make her ideas BA and MA Programs fruitful relationships have been clear and to create an impact on her established with the Fulbright readers. She can afford the time to Șerban Văeti șiii Commission in Romania and the describe the subtle racism in her BabesBolyai University, ClujNapoca Romanian Association for American world, the roots and traditions of her Studies, with some American ancestors and African-Americans’ If we were to describe the American universities, such as Michigan State attempt to integrate into this New Studies at the Babes-Bolyai University or Plymouth State World. However, Kara has to University in two words we would University, as well as with European portray all of the above in one cut say multidisciplinarity and partners such as the Department of paper silhouette. transatlantic perspective . The Transatlantic and Media Studies of Change and, especially, members of our Department’s the University of Lodz, Poland. The progress will prevent the chance of faculty are teachers specializing in a Institute of English and American history repeating itself. If one fails to wide range of fields related to Studies in Debrecen, Hungary, and learn from one’s mistakes and from English, literature, law, philosophy, the American Studies Seminar in the mistakes of others as well, one cultural anthropology, political Salzburg, Austria. At the same time, is bound to repeat the injustices and studies, film etc., while the Euro- members of our department’s misjudgments from the past. American and global perspective faculty studied or lectured in Improving the present and the (expressed in many course topics American universities. All this, future does not mean ignoring and but, mostly, in the MA program in together with the conferences they eventually forgetting past events. Transatlantic studies) is animated participated in, the articles and Kara Walker focuses on slavery by a curricula addressing such books they wrote, and the from the moment it started until issues as: modernity, ideologies, competent university environment Abraham Lincoln made the Americanization, postcolonialism, where they evolved contributed Thirteenth Amendment official. She postmodernism, race, class, significantly to the experience of a depicts most painful and grotesque religion, or human rights – seen in still young professional group. events that no longer take place particular and broader contexts, Recently, this experience of nowadays and are completely both theoretical and as comparative researching and teaching in reserved for the past. If one was not discourses, as well as social- American Studies took shape in a aware of the period portrayed by cultural-political forms in the US, collective volume titled America Kara Walker, one would not be able Europe and at the global level. Today. Essays in American Studies , to understand Alice Walker’s Distinctively from many other coordinated by Professor Marius novels. What would the angelus departments of American studies in Jucan. novus be like if he flew into the Romania, our department emerged On a subjective evaluation I future without even taking a small outside of an English Language and would say that our department is glimpse at the past? How familiar Literature program, although we well versed in approaching and would the surroundings be for him have faculty who graduated in formulating discourses on or how aware would he be of the English or Philology. contemporary issues concerning the meaning of his own skin, gestures Founded in 1997, when a American and Euro-American and expressions? No longer would master degree in American Studies space, and the social, cultural, political, legal, philosophical or benefited from the beginning, more that, the methods involved in these artistic fundamentals and than the Bachelor program, from the courses are varied but balanced, transformations these spaces contribution of other professors covering a series of styles and experience. throughout Babes-Bolyai University approaches, from lectures on The courses offered in the first offering courses related to American political history, philosophy or law to year introduces the students with and Transatlantic studies, as well as interpretations of literature, music basic information on American of some American professors and film, and from composing a politics, law, history, institutions, participating in the Fulbright scientific text to analyzing racial and literature, as well as with Teacher Exchange Program. Our discourses, buildings, pop art or theoretical and critical knowledge Master program acknowledged objects of consumption. From about the American society recently a particular focus on Latin exposing theoretical debates on (provided by such courses as America, as legitimate part of the historical and contemporary “American Sociological Paradigms” American continent, and as suitable problems, the courses and and “American Urban Studies”) and partner of the Euro-Atlantic seminars invite students to the very American studies as dialogue. participate in seminar debates, to discipline (with the “Introduction to The topics range from critically think about controversial North American Studies” course). theoretical aspects of transatlantic issues, or simply contribute with In the second year students relations, expressed in such essay-like articles to the have the opportunity to apply this courses as “Euro-Atlantic discussions suggested by the knowledge and broaden their Intellectual Perspectives” or seminar topics and readings. background with courses and “Theories of International Relations” Courses are normally interactive, seminars on “American to more historical-political many of them providing multimedia Constitution”, the “American approaches on the “History of materials (photographic, audio, Political System”, “The Civil Rights Transatlantic Relations: Europe, video) and the possibility to express Movement”, “Contemporary USA, South America”, “The Cold alternative points of view or American Economics” and about War: A Transatlantic Perspective” or positions. Thus, values such as the “African-American Culture and „Terrorism and State in the democracy, tolerance, participation, Literature”, “Aesthetics of Jazz” or Transatlantic World”. Some other critical thinking, creativity etc. are “Material Culture in America”. Of courses are dedicated to critical suggested, exercised and more theoretical interest are, in the reassessment of historical and internalized by students in a same study year, the courses on contemporary processes linking the dynamic curriculum where they can the “Philosophy of the American two regions, such as: “Transatlantic profitably learn about America. Pragmatism”, the “American Legal Geopolitics: Europe and the Two They have the opportunity to Studies” or “Approaching Americas”, “Postcolonialism and confront or merely converse about Postmodernism”. Globalization in Transatlantic all these in the regular meeting at In the third year students are Perspective”, “The Americanization the American Club (“Clubul oriented towards more discursive in Europe and South America after americanistilor”), where also and critical approaches through 1945 and the Anti-American students from other departments courses on “American Intellectual Backlash” or “Nationalism and and even non-students are invited History”, “American Film”, Multiculturalism in the View of to participate. A great part of these “American Contemporary Theatre”, Global Theory”, while other are curricula and activities is presented “American Arts” or “Representations designed to study contemporary on the Department website. of American Popular Culture“ as processes affecting the Euro- The American Studies in well as with “American Perspective Atlantic region, seen in a Cluj have continuously received in International and Transatlantic comparative perspective: “The US attention from students and people Relations”, “Interethnic Relations in Constitution and The EU interested in America and Euro- the US” or “The Role of Religion in Constitutional Treaty: Comparative American relations, and, over time, American Society”. Besides these Juridical Perspectives” or have constantly developed and core curricula, students take two “Transition and Consolidation in diversified the courses offered in the foreign language courses (English Eastern Europe and Latin America”. curricula, for an increasingly and another language from Finally, some other courses, such numerous and diverse groups of German, French, Spanish or as: “American and European Film in students. Consequently their focus Italian), complete an internship the 20 th century”, “Representing is not limited only on teaching and practice in a local institution, and, Social Dilemmas in Film: Europe on the regular university activities, optionally, complete the and the Two Americas”, “Dystopian but also on collaborating with other pedagogical unit. Imagery in Euro-Atlantic Fiction and institutions (cultural, media, or The two-year Master Program Movie” or “Individual and administrative) and on responding in Transatlantic Studies, Community in North and South to various educational, scientific or coordinated together with the America” are representative as professional requirements from the Department of International visual, literary and ethnographic broader community. Relations, is a curriculum of interest support for critical descriptions and for graduate students from many appraisals of Europe, Americas and fields and scholarships, both the transatlantic relations. Romanian and international As anyone can figure out, and Erasmus students. This program the students generally appreciate events on different kind of topics: for financial aid in order to be American lectures, film presentations, admitted to US universities. children’s programs, educational Corners advising sessions with the support of the Fulbright Commission from Bucharest, Digital Video Conferences, Holiday Events. A Living Space for American This year we have had Culture: American Corner important events happen at our Timi șoara American Corner. In our programs we have an enormous support from Coordinators: Sebastian Ciocan and CCălinălin Peace Corps Volunteers, NGOs Murariu and the American Studies Program at West University - Timisoara. At The American Corner Timi șoara, a the beginning of the year we were In May American Corner partnership between the US glad to be visited by Professor Tom Timi șoara was the host of the Embassy, Bucharest and the Timi ș Grunfeld, Senior Fulbrighter at West conference with the subject: County Library, with the support of University in 2009. He returned to “Ecocriticism and American Studies” the Timi ș County Council, is Timi șoara for a month, in which he organized with the support of the primarily an information and accorded enough time to our Corner American Studies Master Program resource center for the public of all for lectures requested by our public. from West University Timisoara. A ages interested in US life and Topics such as Middle East group of eleven students joined by culture, as well as a platform for Relations with the European Union their professors presented their joint programs. It is the first Corner and the USA or Globalization and works on environmental subjects opened in Romania, on June 15 th , its impact on East European inspired by the modern and 2005. AC – Tm offers a collection of countries raised our audience’s contemporary American eco- materials on topics covering US interest in Professor Grunfeld’s literature. At the end of the culture, lifestyle, and values, both in talks. In the spring we had the conference the students attended a their historical evolution and as part opportunity to receive the visit of His Digital Video Conference sustained of contemporary American society. Excellency James B. Gray, the US by Dr. Stacy Alaimo from Texas General Consul in Bucharest, for University, Arlington, USA. the third time at our Corner. His There are many good reasons Excellency addressed the students, for everyone to visit American teachers and the general public Corner Timisoara, located present there on the importance of downtown, in the main building of the Romanian – American relations the Timi ș County Library, P-ta and the role of the International Libert ății nr. 3. ( www.bjt.ro/ac ) Security Treaties. The audience Welcome! asked questions, which meant that our topics were interesting for them. Almost 3000 Romanian students are studying in the US with Conference The American Corner the financial support of American Timi șoara is interested in interacting Universities. How is this possible, Participation directly with the public by using its and how can our students apply for resources in conducting programs studying in the US? They could find out information through the from speakers and student advising, EastWest Cultural Passage to art exhibits and professional Fulbright Commission in Bucharest, development training. Our book which organized two advising Conference, Lucian Blaga collection is destined for a wide sessions in April 2010 for graduate University of Sibiu, April range of readers, from kindergarten and undergraduate studies. The participants were high-school 2010 children to retired people. Our titles AncaAncaAncaAnca LuminitaLuminita Iancu and AnaAnaKarinaKarina include books on American history, students and college students, as geography, political science, art, well as teachers from Timisoara, Schneider literature, environment, educational interested in applying for the US Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu advising, biographies, Gale educational system. Dr. Mihaela reference resources, English Arsene, the director of the Fulbright A tradition was inaugurated at the Department of British and American grammar books and more. Over the Advising Center, promised to help those students who want to apply Studies at Lucian Blaga University last five years, we have organized of Sibiu in communist times of organizing an American Week in perspective. The “Cultural The American Week has of spring. When this tradition was Encounters in Media and Film” late become Anglo-American in taken up again in the mid-1990s, it section comprised multimedia scope, and, as of last year, it has gradually became one of the events presentations on film, the media, encouraged the participation of organized under the aegis of the C. and photography, exploring the sex academics and students from Peter Magrath Centre for Cross- masquerades in Stanley Kubrick’s A throughout the country. The 2011 cultural Studies (set up in 1999) and Clockwork Orange and Eyes Wide edition of the “East/West Cultural it incorporated the annual Fulbright Shut , the tensions in interracial and Passage” Conference has already scholars’ conventions, while its intercultural dating in two romantic launched its Call for Papers, inviting student symposium component comedies ( My Big Fat Greek presentations and round table remained a constant. The events Wedding and Something New ), the proposals on the theme of “Contact take place under the generic titles intriguing story of the short-lived Zones in the Global World.” The “East/West Cultural Passage” and “Radio New York International” in organizers hope to welcome an “Cultures in Transit” respectively, the 1980s, and a breath-taking ever increasing number of Anglists although the conferences vary visual journey through the American and Americanists, Romanian and thematically from one year to the West. The sections on foreign, to Sibiu in early May 2011, next. interdisciplinary and cross-cultural and thus to continue a prestigious This year’s edition of the dialogues examined thought- tradition of English Studies and “East/West Cultural Passage” provoking East-West perspectives intercultural dialogue. Conference, the ninth, organized by on the environment, sports, medical our Department in association with sanatoria, immigrant identity, and Third International The Fulbright Commission in on Chinese cultural values. The Romania, took place on April 23, conference concluded with two Conference of English as a 2010. Under the auspices of its round tables: one that brought Lingua Franca, University of generous theme, English Studies together national and international Reconsidered , the conference scholars who debated “The Vienna, Austria, May 2010 brought together Romanian Contribution of Modern Languages Rodica Ştefan scholars and Fulbright researchers to Promoting Intercultural Spiru Haret University, Bucharest who offered thought-provoking Communication” from a global points of view on American Studies perspective, and one that examined The University of Vienna hosted, through literary, linguistic, or cultural the local implications of the between 22 and 25 May, the Third studies lenses. The conference connections between secondary- International Conference of English opened with Dr. Samuel Ludwig’s and college education in Sibiu. as a Lingua Franca , following the (Université de Haute-Alsace, The “Cultures in Transit” success reached by the previous France) keynote speech on student symposium (21-22 April editions held in Helsinki (2008) and “Currencies and Realities: 2010), too, opened with a keynote Southampton (2009). About 200 Capitalism, Formalism, and speech, delivered by last year’s delegates participated in the three American Studies.” Dr. Ludwig Fulbright senior scholar in Sibiu, main sections of the conference: discussed issues of general theory Matthew Ciscel, on “The Impact of sociolinguistics, methodology and (from formalism to Global English on Linguistic teaching. Also, special time slots poststructuralism) and Minorities in Romania and Moldova: were allotted to visual presentations demonstrated “the artificiality and Global Integration or American (posters). inadequacy of such a project, which Cultural Imperialism?” The papers In the first section, the reduces all issues to a currency of were then presented in parallel contributions discussed the ‘exchange value’.” The keynote panels, covering almost as wide a situational features of English as a speech was followed by concurrent range of literary and cultural topics Lingua Franca (ELF) as they have sessions. In “Fictions and as the conference and eliciting emerged in a wide variety of Representations,” the presenters enthusiastic debates. The event environments, geographically and explored aspects of American also included a creative writing professionally, ranging from East history in the fiction of Philip Roth, workshop conducted by Dr. Claudia Asia workplaces to the Court of transatlantic perspectives in D.H. Doroholschi of West University, Justice in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Lawrence’s fiction, instances of Timisoara, as well as a much from Swiss University lecture halls Jewishness in Kafka’s short prose, enjoyed performance by our to Catalan secondary schools. The and the metaphor of the desert in Department’s Reading Club of Brian use of language was analysed in Cormac McCarthy’s fiction. The Friel’s play Translations and a relation with identity, section titled “New Perspectives on music evening with the Confucius accommodation strategies and Language and Education” included Institute Band at LBUS and student cross-cultural aspects. presentations on the significance of Flavia Dârv ă of Timisoara. The papers in the methodology foreign language acquisition as a A selection of the proceedings section focused on the emergent means of self-development, the of both events is included in the two patterns in ELF pronunciation, consequences of new media publications issued by the C. Peter lexico-grammar and creative use of development on language, and an Magrath Research Centre, idioms in the process of achieving a examination of patient-doctor East/West Cultural Passage and the fluent and mutually understandable communication (in English and students’ journal, Cultures in discourse. Equally, the use of Romanian) from a pragmatic Transit . various corpora (VOICE, ELFIA) was described as a valuable Travel, Trade and Ethnic to which community development in support for in-depth research. general and ethnic identity in Finally, a great number of Transformations Seventh particular may be enhanced by presentations discussed the MESEA Conference, Pécs, tourism. The second was delivered implications of ELF in language by Prof. Miklos Kontra from the education and in language policy. Hungary, June 2010 University of Szeged. His lecture on Of particular importance was the Monica Manolachi language rights, nations and ethnic issue of designing and University of Bucharest communities produced mixed implementing specific courses, tests reactions among the audience, and materials, teachers’ and Have you ever got lost on streets which led to admit that Europe still learners’ attitudes towards ELF, and with strange names? Have you ever has to learn from the postcolonial intercultural awareness. On the seen Othello stepping out of experience and that the aim should other hand, the decision-making Shakespeare’s drama to try the be not to obstinately preserve a process as regards curricula in Devil’s Fiddle? Have you ever language but to offer equal chances South Korea, Brazil and Finland tasted wine while listening to The and reduce conflict. Prof. Minoo was investigated from the point of Blue Danube in a vineyard under a Moallem from University of view of the solutions found to wonderful sunset? Did you watch California was the third keynote teaching in a Lingua Franca FIFA World Cup South Africa, when lecturer. She approached the environment. Germany lost 0:1 against Serbia? symbol of the Persian carpet and All of the contributions Have you ever tried cold berries the ethnic transformations it implies addressed, in one way or another, soup or seen teenagers smoking in a digital world, highlighting the the fundamental matters concerning narghile in the central park? Have difference between a book ELF and its evolution. The spread of you taken photos in a church with manuscript and a digital project, the English and its status acquired the priest and after half an hour latter offering a more complex along centuries have reached a relaxed on the carpet in a mosque? framework for weaving our reality. global scale nowadays and Have you seen an Irish bridegroom The fourth lecture by the Canadian therefore call for a reconsideration wearing kilt? You may have done all author Aritha van Herk was an of traditional approaches. The fact of these, but what if they happened essay on the subtleties of the hotel that myriads of communicational in the same place, the European culture as a space between interactions conducted in English cultural capital of 2010: Pécs, community and estrangement that occur between non-native speakers Hungary? hinges the privilege of travel and throughout the world on a daily The same town was the choice homeliness. Apart from these, the basis has to be taken into account. of the seventh conference agenda included a plenary session Moreover, ELF stands for the organized by The Society for Multi- that discussed the cooperation natural use of language in its own Ethnic Studies: Europe and between the journal of Atlantic right and not for an unacceptable the Americas (MESEA) at the Studies published by Routledge and version of native English. ELF has University of Pécs. The society acts the MESEA event. developed its own formal features, as an international forum for motivated by authentic situations as cooperation between cultures of globalisation brings together people Europe and the Americas in their of different linguistic backgrounds. circum-Atlantic relations from a Practitioners and researchers are transdisciplinary literary, historical therefore getting ever more and cultural studies perspective. interested in examining the nature The president of the society, Prof. and specificity of this new variety, Dorothea Fisher-Hornung from and in its implications for teaching: Heidelberg University, the local which English (EFL or EFL?), what director Monika Fodor and their kind of communicative competence team were very efficient in and, consequently, what kind of organizing this remarkable testing are more appropriate in the international event. It gathered current educational context? almost 150 papers presented by The conclusions drawn in the scholars from four continents, plenary sessions and panels of the especially from North America and four-day conference emphasise the Europe. The nine Romanian Regarding the content of the need for further research in this participants represented the conference, the 42 panels covered quite dynamic field of linguistics and roots/routes dichotomy, which was themes such as: the relation the assessment of ELF impact on the slogan of the conference, some between fiction and autobiography communicational interactions in our of them coming from Romanian in the context of travel; traveling globalised society. The fourth universities, others from abroad. texts and metaphors; ethnic edition of the ELF Conference, to be There were four keynote transitions and translations; space held in Hong-Kong in 2011, will lectures tackling pressing issues and the politics of identity formation definitely present significant results often left unspoken. The first was and representation; anthropology as in these respects. offered by Prof. Richard Sharpley examination and introspection; from the University of Central transnational journeys in history and Lancashire, who explored the extent anthropology; mobility and the politics of nationhood; the politics vineyards where the conference Rector of the University, Dr. Corin and poetics of diaspora; mapping dinner took place. Braga, Dean of the Faculty of transcultural geographies and I would also like to mention Letters, and Dr. Mihai Zdrenghea, genealogies; gendered that, at the site of the conference, Head of the Department of English ethnographies of travel and return there was a stand with books where Language and Literature, also at the margins of Europe; writings one could buy titles in English, Conference Chaiperson, held about Eastern encounters and some of them translations of welcoming speeches. This initial Balkan travels; Occidentalism Hungarian literature, both classical section was followed by two versus Orientalism; Africa as and contemporary. As an keynote lectures, the first of which destination and its relationships with undergraduate who studied was entitled Young and Adult Europe and America; race, space, Hungarian language and culture as Speech – Competing Discourses in nation in the Caribbean; re- a minor, I was happy to find a the Context of Globalization , considering South America; Native collection of short stories translated presented by Dr. Maria Georgieva. American perspectives on travel from Hungarian, Give or Take a The second touched a more literary and trade; from new worlds back to Day , edited by Layos Szakolczay, topic: Dr. Pia Brînzeu’s lecture old homelands in Irish diaspora and a Bloodaxe edition of modern analyzed Surfictional Intratextuality fiction; transnational crossings in Hungarian poetry, The Colonnade in Raymond Federman’s work. Asian American and Asian Dutch of Teeth , edited by George Gömöri The sessions were divided narratives; Canadian travelogues; and George Szirtes. according to the line of research, ecotourism; transnational ethnic yet, apparently, the most “crowded” migration in European film; Constructions of Identity VI: and popular ones were American transoceanic hip-hop; technology, Literature, British and media and art trade. However, no Identity and Globalization , Commonwealth Literature and matter how large a list of themes BabeşBolyai University, Cluj Cultural Studies, since they featured may be and how many questions up to five “reprises”. Other sessions they raise, there are always still Napoca, October 2010 were less represented, such as many others which remain MihaelaMihaelaCristinaCristina Lazăr Language Studies, ELT, Literary unanswered publicly. Ovidius University Constanţa Theory, Translation Studies and Among the papers presented Gender Studies. The latter, where I at the conference, some of those An extremely generous theme, participated with a paper on gender delivered by the Romanian identity became the hot topic of roles, entitled The Will to Self: academics are: A Traveling Self debate and argument at the Masculine and Feminine Identity in with No Return Address: Anca Department of English Language Will Self’s Cock and Bull was a Vlasopolos (Ioana Luca, National and Literature of Babes-Bolyai notably fruitful session, varying from Taiwan Normal University), The University in Cluj-Napoca during the social aspects of identity to Travel and Translation of Ethnic last days of October. Already heterogeneous literary Minority Discourse from the US to following a well-established tradition backgrounds. Romania – The Case of Roma in this particular field, The Faculty of All in all, the theme of (Ludmila Martanovschi, Ovidius Letters at Babe ş-Bolyai gathers, identity was subjected to close University), Romanian Immigrant every two years, conferees from all scrutiny, elaborated upon, Travel Routes to America (Mihaela corners of the country as well as examined in all its pulsating Mudure, Babes-Bolyai University), from abroad. For two days, the 28- components, generating productive Mother Metaphors in Contemporary 29th of October, academics strove debates and interesting Caribbean British Poetry (Monica to pinpoint different perspectives on conclusions, and, albeit being such Manolachi, University of Bucharest). the subject of discussion, ranging a complex umbrella term, it To cultivate more informal from American and British literature, successfully managed to interaction, the program of the to popular culture, ELT, gender, and encompass the proposed target of conference featured several social language studies. “Identification” the conference. events such as a welcome with the postmodern self was reception with the Mayor of Pécs inevitable: postmodernity transpired Language, Literature and and an evening of readings and from the very extensive range of the performances. There was also a papers, their challenging outlooks Cultural Policies – Centres tour to a local open air sculpture site and conclusions, the focus on and (Ex)Centricities , and to the most southern Hungarian globalisation, and from this actual University of Craiova, town, Siklós. Here we visited the „bricolage” of identities, to borrow fortress that bears the history of the one of the conferees’ way of putting November 2010 Battle of Mohács (1526), when the it. A celebration of difference, given Aloisia Sorop Ottoman Empire occupied a large the title of the conference and the part of Hungary. After five centuries, University of Craiova variety of topics, this event covered the mosque and the Serbian church literary, cultural, didactic, still in service for a few parishioners In mid-November Craiova hosted sociolinguistic and political subjects. th the 9 International Conference are a proof of interethnic The conference opened on ‘Language, Literature and Cultural cooperation in the region. The last the 28th with a plenary meeting Policies’ that the local University evening was dedicated to a trip to where the organizers and hosts, and the Ruhr University Bochum Villany, a place with famous among whom Dr. Andrei Marga, the organized. This year’s topic, ‘Centres and (Ex-)Centricities’ discussed how the adaptations of appealed to specialists and doctoral existing works in opera (librettos) Academic students from various fields of can affect the literary canon, its research at home and abroad as it centre and periphery, they analysed Exchanges and offered a rich range of possibilities the 2008 Royal Shakespeare for interpretation, metaphorization Company’s production of Hamlet and conceptualization. and enlarged upon ‘generic Summer Schools The two plenary lectures eccentricity’ and ‘generic centre’ in were delivered by two outstanding Henry Fielding’s ‘comic romances’. academic figures: Professor Brian In the British and Summer School at Wayne Leonard Mott from the University of Commonwealth Studies section State University, Detroit, USA, Barcelona and Professor Christian several papers dealt with literary Moraru from the University of North eccentricities whether they were May 2010 Carolina, Greensboro. Professor called ‘rewriting’ (Joyce Carol Oates Costinela Dragan Brian Leonard Mott has had and Will Self), ‘reworking’ of old University of Bucharest longstanding expertise in English legends (Will Self’s My Idea of Fun ), phonetics and phonology and his poets writing prose and prose Organized by Wayne State lecture posed the issue whether the writers writing poetry (Alice Walker University Department of English actual changes in English phonetics and Jean Toomer). and the Bavarian-American should call for a readjustment of the In the American Studies Academy in Munich, the Second teaching of English pronunciation to section the tension between centres International Summer Academy for overseas students. Defending the and (ex)centres was best revealed Doctoral Students and Junior theory that salient changes should in such papers that dealt with Faculty in American Studies not be overlooked but be taught logocentric struggles in the provided in-depth attention to using the symbols that current academic world (David Mamet’s Dissertation and Habilitation pronunciation dictionaries provide, Oleanna ), narrative innovation projects by 24 doctoral students and Professor Mott suggested the (Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood ), junior faculty, and presented a introduction of such minor the concept of postmodern woman series of keynote lectures in modifications as L-vocalization, (Gail Godwin’s His House ) American Studies by speakers from YOD-coalescence and intrusive [r]. The sections devoted to WSU, other American and German Professor Christian Moraru, Theoretical Linguistics and th universities. a specialist in literary theory, 20 Translation Studies offered the In keeping with the WSU century American literature and the participants plenty of opportunities mission to foster interdisciplinary relation between globalism and to discuss such issues as the and intercultural exchange across culture, dealt with translation as a functional and pragmatic the Atlantic, the 2010 summer transnational enterprise within the approaches to clichés, English school lived up the expectations context of fast globalization and its loans in Romanian and given the varied backgrounds of the impact on the modern world. If stereotypical patterns in the participants and the diverse topics traditional theories of translation translation of EU legislative of research that were tackled - from relied mainly on the linguistic model documents. Detroit and associated topics such of semantic accuracy, nowadays’ Interesting and reflecting the as Fordism, social modernity, model emphasizes the cultural and current concerns of teachers of African-American culture, social historical context of the work English, the papers presented in the space, to gender studies, food translated as well as the Section of ELT and ESP dealt with studies etc. translation’s own context and issues relating to teacher-mentors The boost for dialogue was author. Professor Moraru also training and teaching general given by Prof. Barrett Watten from highlighted the need that language versus teaching WSU whose introductions to the literary/philosophical/cultural works professional sub-language. Detroit urban space, the in-depth should be retranslated every 50 The conference held in analysis of each presented project years or so to provide the new Craiova proved both challenging and the emphasis on the current generation of readers with an and seminal as a forum for debates, cultural challenges, offered obvious updated version of the respective exchanging opinions, verifying benefits and a mind blowing work, one in keeping with the new hypotheses, and finally endorsing experience to European students. cultural assets that such a the idea that both centres and (ex-) The 12 days of summer long/short period of time produces. centricities are inspirational loci for school, the WSU campus, the city of Benefiting from the spiritual progress. Detroit created a unique scholarly conference’s generous topic the event. Every minute was participants took all sorts of liberties information – presentations, plenary and played ad libitum with the lectures, comments, suggestions concepts of centre and (ex- and brainstorming, not to mention )centricity. I am going to mention DIA, the tour at the Rouge plant and only a few papers, randomly Greenwich Village, tours of the chosen, to illustrate the scope of the Motown Museum and urban conference. In the Literary/Cultural gardens, the Heidelberg project and Studies section the presenters the downtown hoedown. That was for me, the best way exclusion involved in the analytical, rather than descriptive, of traveling, learning and globalization process of culture. Our new concepts opened up new fields discovering the U.S.A. With a little purpose of focusing on concepts of of study and new possibilities for distance now – in terms of time and transgression was to try to develop critique. space – I really think I accomplished conceptual spaces within which it is Finally, the wish to set up a lot (intellectually and personally). I possible to grasp and to study cultural relationships and to widen have loved the intellectually buzz in cultural identity without resorting to my knowledge horizon in the the new created community, the cultural essentialism. A discussion university scientific framework was friendly atmosphere, the mixture of of cultural alterity, identity, diffusion another reason for opting for this different personalities and the and race led on to consideration of International Summer School. Such diverse perspectives and how syncretism and hybridity seem a rich learning experience allowed approaches to a multitude of topics. to do duty as terms for the me to follow up particular interests management of the more esoteric for my PhD research, in terms of cultural aspects of the globalization American experience. I decided to Center for the Study of the phenomenon. My argument focused undertake Summer School on cultural creativity – innovation ‘Identities’ seminar to spread out my Americas Summer School, and authenticity, ownership of work with my students and to have Graz University, Austria, JulyJuly cultural forms, and of technological a more balanced workload across August 2010 modes of cultural mix. This fact links all areas of my life. I have found the Americas’ identity to more explicit International Summer School 2010: CristinaCristinaGeorgianaGeorgiana VoVoicuicuicuicu political terminologies and The Americas: When one is not Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi constructs hybrid artefacts as enough to be challenging and commodities of difference in the stimulating and taught in a relaxed Forty-five students and twelve context of culture. learning environment besides the teachers from eighteen nations flexibility to focus in a particular participated in the third subject of interest. The intensive C.SAS/Utrecht Network summer nature of study really helped me to school from July 18th until August understand the information. It was 1st, 2010. In this two-week course like a ‘Journey into Otherness on students and teachers dedicated the Road to the Americas’. During themselves to the interdisciplinary my staying at Seggau Castle, I analysis of the Americas. My really developed strong friendships participation in the Utrecht Network in the smaller classes, which offered Inter-American Summer School more interaction and sharing of 2010 at Graz University entitled The ideas that really made it a much Americas: When One is Not Enough Moreover, I was interested in more enjoyable process. I also was motivated by the intention of the topic of the lectures and of the appreciated the academic staff of getting more profound knowledge seminar modules because of the the University of Graz for their about new conceptual approaches analytical perspectives and professional organization of the regarding the Americas in time of hemispheric approaches, program. I am planning to go to globalization, as well as by the wish suggesting that we sharpen our Seggau in 2011 as well and I of improving my academic insights attention towards the complexities recommend this Summer School to into the discursive and symbolic of the power in transgressions as anyone wishing to complete their constructions of the ‘Americas’ seen well as in constructions of degree quicker, and especially if from the political, historical, essentialist identities. We need to there is a subject on offer they feel literature and cultural viewpoints. move beyond the limitations of both passionately about. For other By attending this summer identity politics and the critique of Students’ Comments about the school courses/seminars, I was essentialism without losing sight of Summer School, check: interested in marking a clear the commitment to social and http://www.uni-graz.at/zas1www/ difference between different cultural critique. On the other hand, zas1www summer_school1/ cultures and concepts of national I argue that we should not only be endorsements.htm identities. The study I undertook concerned if one America is not during the summer school was enough, but also how the notions of centred upon the construction of cultural identity and alterity are The Eastern Generative American identities with a focus on applied, by whom, to what ends and the shifting of identities that articulated with which other Grammar Summer School at transcended the Americas over the elements. Transcending the narrow Ovidius University, Constanta, past century. Transgression confines of national perspectives concepts such as ‘hybridity’, and the aspects that influence Romania, JulyAugust 2010 ‘alterity’, ‘diaspora’, ‘creolization’, identity constructions my interest in CostinCostinCostinCostin ValentinValentin Oancea ‘transculturalization’ and the seminars is sustained by the University of Bucharest ‘syncretism’ have to an increasing different discourses and the so- extent become key concepts in called ‘border thinking’ Inter- This year Romania was privileged various attempts at escaping the American approach. Turning to host the 17 th Central European problems of suppression and notions of transgression into Summer School in Generative Grammar, or simply the EGG, as beach, singing, telling jokes and Myself and Philip Roth’s The Facts: the participants baptized it. The discuss computation in phonology A Novelist’s Autobiography , summer school was held at Ovidius or nanosyntax. So, you have no Operation Shylock and Patrimony) University, Faculty of Letters, in excuse but to come to the EGG and as illustrations of what Paul John Constan ţa and was organized by quench your thirst for linguistics! Eakin calls “relational self”. Drawing Professor Tobias Scheer (University on findings in psychology and of Nice, France), Professor Michal neurology, Eakin has built a theory Starke (University of Tromso, of the self that takes into account Norway) and by our local organizer, Research the formative role of significant assistant professor Nicoleta Sava others in the development of the (Ovidius University). The EGG self and the relevance of the body in started on July 26 th and ended on Projects one’s sense of self. In my analysis, I August 6 th 2010, offering the egg- dwell on the formation and ers two weeks of hardcore representation of relational selves in linguistics. EAAS IntraEuropean Travel the above mentioned In this summer school there autobiographies, against the are several things, both intellectual Grant, Konstanz University, background of the American and social, that the organizers try to Germany celebrity culture of which the four achieve: a place where it feels nice authors were part. to do intensive intellectual work, a Sorina Chiper Celebrity culture was only in its place which is cheap enough for Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Iasi inception in Adams’s time; with everybody to assist, it is for Gertrude Stein, however, the medium/advanced people with or In August 2010, an Intra-European publication of The Autobiography of without a background in generative travel grant from the European Alice B. Toklas turned her into a grammar, an extremely useful kick Association for American Studies celebrity figure in America, and as a for beginners and a place that gave me the opportunity to work on result, it brought changes to her invites new ideas rather than the my PhD dissertation in Konstanz perception, representation and rich-and-famous established University. I had the privilege to experience of her self, which are all scholars. All these ideals represent conduct research in an impressive expressed in Everybody’s the school’s “manifesto”. library that felt like a busy academic Autobiography . Mailer’s In these two weeks the beehive on weekdays as well as Advertisements of Myself traces his participants got acquainted with the during the weekend, during day- conscious effort and struggle to latest developments in phonology time as well as late at night. The enter the American celebrity culture, and syntax. For the phonology recent bibliographical material that I to sell himself – his literary self – courses I would like to mention the found in the library stacks as well as and enjoy the benefits bestowed by professors who gave incredible the electronic resources available the American cult of celebrities on lectures: Joe Patter, Mark Van on campus, together with the fruitful the individuals who manage to Oostendorp, Tobias Scheer and conversations that I had with succeed in the literary culture Charles Reiss. For the syntax part: professors in the American Studies industry. Philip Roth, on the other Marika Lekakou, Michal Starke, and British Studies department, hand, seems to deny himself the Omer Preminger, Roberta have been instrumental in spoils, advantages, and potential for D’Alessandro, Tarald Taraldsen and sharpening the focus of my political engagement that seem to Lobke Aelbrecht. They are all highly dissertation. When I started my PhD be naturally bestowed on celebrity respected academics and well- program, I planned to work on icons. In Operation Shylock , his known linguists who came to teach, American autobiography in the 20 th double, in Israel, legitimizes his for free, at this summer school. century by combining literary impersonation precisely on claims From my point of view, as studies with anthropological insights that Roth himself – the “real” Philip participant, it was an extremely into the cultural phenomenon of life Roth – fails to acknowledge the interesting experience, this being writing in the US. The purpose of impact that he can have in the world my second EGG. You are invited to my research in Konstanz was to of international politics to support choose the courses that interest you refine the theoretical framework of the agenda of Israeli Jews. The most and all takes place in a my dissertation, to narrow down my ironic, meta-autobiographical and relaxed and very friendly path of investigation and to define self-undermining style in which Roth atmosphere, an ideal place for my line of argument. writes (with the exception of debates, discussions. I remember In contrast to Gusdorf’s view of Patrimony ), as well as his multiple that last year, in 2009, besides autobiography as a culture-specific selves, complicate the notion of a syntax and phonology there had genre, that has flourished in the relational self, by inviting questions also been classes on language West as an apologetics of the on the “reality” and “fictionality” of acquisition. Every year the focus is individual, I propose a possible selves. on different aspects of generative reinvestigation of canonical I myself am a relational self grammar. In the evening, parties American autobiographies (Henry and as such, I feel that I owe to are organized and you can enjoy a Adams’s The Education of Henry express my gratitude to the fruitful conversation at the bar with a Adams , Gertrude Stein’s The academic “significant others” who beer/juice in front of you. This year, Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas , have made it possible for me to people really enjoyed going to the and Everybody’s Autobiography , spend a month in a vibrant Norman Mailer’s Advertisements of academic environment, and to focus knowing, social relations, racism, personal communist and post- exclusively on mapping the territory class polarization. communist experiences. of my future dissertation: Prof. My argument is further The cinematic works I draw Stefan Avadanei, my supervisor at supported by a comparative study upon are D. W. Griffith’s The Birth Alexandru Ioan Cuza University in of the social control in Romania of a Nation (1915), Bamboozled Iasi, Dr. Monika Reif Huelser from under Communist rule. The (2000) directed by black filmmaker Konstanz University, and Dr. comparative analysis is ultimately Spike Lee, and The Business of Stephen Metterson, the EAAS meant to explain the efficiency of Fancydancing (2002), the directorial treasurer. They have all been the American method of social debut of American Indian writer extremely supportive in the control, of building and maintaining Sherman Alexie. In these films an application process and provided consent, pointing to the viability of extremely subtle and devious type valuable advice after I was awarded American democracy while of social control is achieved, mostly the grant. revealing possible causes that led through commodifying the ethnic to the failure of the Communist others’ bodies and cultural products, experiment in Romania. through seducing, bamboozling On the other hand, the them into dancing to the whites’ comparison also reveals problems tune. However, Alexie’s film in Ph.D. Theses of the American consumer culture, particular offers as well alternatives such as the potential of of survival and active resistance, indoctrination and uniformity, the and of joining, on equal footing, the atomization of the society, as well mainstream culture rather than The American Cinematic as incoherencies of the notion of becoming separate part of it. “freedom” when it is reduced to The thesis is structured in five Culture: Consumerism, Social consumer choice. The collapse of chapters. The first chapter, Control, and Individual the communist alternative made Consumption as Social Control , Freedoms even more evident the provides the theoretical framework shortcomings of the market- of the analysis, addressing such Corina Mărculescu centered version of freedom, concepts as “naturalized” power University of Bucharest previously obscured or played down (Gramsci), consumerism and the when compared to the much less manufacturing of desire, overall This study proposes to explore alluring aspects of the totalitarian commodification as the cultural logic strategies of social control within the regime. of postmodernism, of “late”, postmodern American culture To illustrate the role of “the postindustrial, consumer capitalism organized around consumption, cinematic” in the processes of social (Jameson), media manipulation, mass-media, information and control in the American media and cinematic discourse (Denzin) and technology. The focus of my consumer culture, the case studies surveillance culture, spectacle investigation is the “soft” control, are taken from film and literature. I (Debord) and image culture, subtle and insidious, through also use such visual texts as hyperreality and simulation entertainment and cinematic documentaries (Edvins Snore’s The (Baudrillard), space and its imagination, using seduction rather Soviet Story , 2008, and Florin metamorphoses in relation to power than coercive measures, in a Iepan’s Born to Order – Children of and the visual, space as social consumer and media society turned the Decree , 2004), advertisements production controlled by the into a “society of the spectacle” (to and news images. The literary texts dominant class (Lefebvre), ideology use French media theorist Guy are represented by the novels of of the future, power invested in Debord’s famous phrase). American writer Don DeLillo, acceleration, information as a new The cinematic culture is a reflecting the anxieties and type of social control. culture in which the quotidian is uncertainties of the modern man in The second chapter, The being increasingly influenced and a culture that promises consumer Omnipresent Eye of Power , defined by its relationship with happiness and freedom to choose juxtaposes structures and various visual media. My paper, at every turn, and the novels of the mechanisms of power and control in therefore, understands “the Romanian writers Marin Sorescu two different cultural spaces – in cinematic” as a cultural, social and and Augustin Buzura, illustrating a Romania under Communism, a political phenomenon extending far simulacrum of civil liberties in a country trapped in a labyrinth of beyond the screen, not just as a universe plagued by fear and ideological masquerade and police phenomenon confined to moving duplicity. I also analyze the travel surveillance, and in the U.S. where image media such as film and narratives of French philosopher spectacles have taken the place of television. Reflecting the Jean Baudrillard ( America ) and surveillance yet without losing any convergence of media culture, Romanian writer, journalist and of the Panopticon’s disciplining technology and consumerism, “the political analyst Stelian Tanase power. My study shows that cinematic” concerns their role as (L.A. vs N.Y. – Jurnal american ) strategies of social control like powerful ideological tools, as who visited America in the ’80s and seduction, surveillance, fear, are at instruments of seduction and the ’90s, respectively. Stelian work in both systems but the (self)surveillance, as primary Tanase’s ‘American diary’ is a motivations, the cultural contexts, determinants of identity for critical reflection of American their mechanisms and Americans, shaping opinions and realities filtered through his own consequences, their character and perceptions, structuring ways of intensity are, to a great extent, media; consequently, I examine the creative-subversive acts and means different. It also shows how utopian, various discourses competing for of cultural survival for American ambitious projects of “social the control and influence over Indians, of making money, gaining engineering” and visions of a bright human imagination (the totalitarian power and political voice. future turn into instruments of social narrative and the Cold War The conclusions outline the control and oppression, leading to narrative, the capital market arguments which support the class/race/ethnic cleansing or, in discourse, the narrative of spectacle efficiency of the American method the consumer ideology, to the and dark sensationalism, the of building popular consent. The exclusion of those who do not live terrorist narrative). To all this, secret is the identification of the up to the condition of compulsive, or DeLillo opposes a counter-narrative dominant interests with the interests at least reliable, consumers. of authenticity and human of the society at large, in contrast The third chapter, The dimension. In fact all of DeLillo’s with the communists’ incapacity of Definition of the Everyday by the work points to the value of forgotten “naturalizing” power. Another Cinematic: Jean Baudrillard’s quotidian things in the fast-paced distinctive feature of America is the America , illustrates the social contemporary world, to the “humble” extraordinary capacity of reconciling control through the consumption of everyday narrative, to deceleration its great ethnic, religious, socio- images in Reagan’s America, and self-examination (as an economic diversity. On the other highlighting the convergence of the individual and as a nation), to inner hand the comparative study reveals notions of “spectacle”, “cinematic”, freedom and genuine connection. possible excesses of the advanced “hyperreal” when defining reality for And that is actually what my own capitalist system and potential the American consumer. In thesis ultimately pleads for. abuses of power. One of the Baudrillard’s view, Reagan is the The final chapter, lessons that the current global perfect exponent of the cinematic Commodifying the Other as economic crisis seems to be culture, illustrating the so-called Strategy of Social Control: The teaching is that American capitalism “consensus around simulation”. In Case of Ethnic Film , investigates should no longer settle for its so far Baudrillard’s America, everything is the relation between the taken-for-granted superiority to commercialized, from consumer commodification of the ethnic Other Communism. There is no doubt that goods to politicians and lifestyles; and racist politics, proposing a a flawed democracy is preferable to everything turns into a spectacle, reconsideration of the African- a totalitarian utopia. In the last moving into the televised space, in American and Native American analysis, democracy, flawed as it is, a culture whose ideology is the identity in the larger context of remains the best existing formula, entertainment. American entertainment and the system that best guarantees The fourth chapter, Media capitalistic enterprise in which individual rights. But American Saturation, Postmodern Anxiety, popular culture has become such a capitalism has to rethink, reform, and Social Control in Don DeLillo’s powerful ideological tool in the reinvent itself in order to survive, to Novels , illustrates what Baudrillard hands of white colonizers. The face the challenges of the future, to terms “the hyperreal” quality of omnipresent “white noise” – the protect the middle class (the American life, exposing the oppressive noise of white mass- bedrock of the American society). controlling powers of spectacle, produced culture that surrounds In a culture of mediating media and technology. In DeLillo’s people and blurs their sense of technologies and endlessly novels the postmodern condition reality – does not spare the poor yet recycling images, of throw-away, manifests as a kind of information media-saturated Indian reservation; replaceable commodities, in this overload as the protagonists move here its role is even more complex, liquid modernity where those through a world increasingly serving “white propaganda” while engaged in the consumer race submerged in marketing imagery silencing all other narratives, the seem to rule and where a “profit and media stimuli, a culture of Indian voices, their stories, their morality” seems to no longer exist, “stimulation and simulation”. This truth. Acknowledging the power of in a world governed by “cost-benefit omnipresent “white noise” television, film, popular culture in analysis” and by the triumph of surrounds the characters, seduces general, to persuade and define, efficiency as the ultimate standard and disorients them, and ultimately American Indian filmmaker of value, my study points to the frightens them. The (irrational) fear, Sherman Alexie realizes that he need to recover the moral sense, the abandonment of critical thinking, must take advantage of today’s and, along with it, the critical creates the conditions for control media in order to expose the way thinking as a shield against mind and exploitation by powerful Indians have been represented in control and “total integration”. institutions. I also discuss in this Hollywood cinematic discourses, My paper ultimately pleads for chapter the social control exerted the “tragic simulations” of Indian a return to America’s founding through the ideology of the future identity – Indians created in values – a genuine return, not just a promoted by the ubiquitous American imaginations and thus resuscitation of old clichés. A self- discourses of media and much easier to control and examination, a recovery of the technology, through the “logic of dominate. With Alexie humor is no ethical and moral principles, a consumption”, the hegemony of longer an instrument of control and reassessment of values and capital or the pressures of the oppression as in the blackface priorities would be just as refreshing network society. Much of DeLillo’s minstrelsy; on the contrary, Alexie for each individual as for the nation work also reflects the struggle for presents humor, performance, play as a whole. This will make it even world narration in the age of global as powerful political tools, as more receptive to outside messages and signals, and more open to of Toni Morrison, who was born in represent different ways of spatial dialogue, to various messages, Ohio and later moved to New York. insertion of the self in a warnings, voices, from within and They represent the three most contemporary city that recognizes from without. America will thus prominent ethnicities in New York, its diverse ethnoscapes, as well as continue to be inspiration to people as far as cultural production and the various layers of temporal all over the world as the land where number of representatives are reinscription of its space. Chapter man is free to develop his genius concerned: the American-born, the four, “Between Park Avenue and and to be the architect of his own African American and the Hispanic- Bronx: New York City and its destiny. born population (the latter being Powerscapes in Tom Wolfe’s The illustrated by the Cuban-American Bonfire of the Vanities ”, situated in The thesis was defended in writer Oscar Hijuelos and the the middle, initiates the shift to a June 2010 Puerto-Rican Ernesto Quinonez) New York City that puts forth its and they also describe different multicultural dimension, even if in a areas of New York City, from the limited, dualistic vision. The Lower East Side and Wall Street, to chapters that succeed it, “The Space and Metropolitan Harlem and the Bronx. (G)host City: Oscar Hijuelos’s The Identities: Readings of New The period, as mentioned Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love ” before, spans approximately three and “Erotics and Violence in the York City in the Late decades, however the novels are City: Toni Morrison’s Jazz ” focus on Twentieth Century American not organized considering their specific ethnoscapes and the Novel temporal precedence, but rather decentered identities associated to according to the types of cityscapes them. Ioana Stamatescu and the various identities they Beyond the multifarious University of Bucharest describe. Thus, the current responses that the city triggers in arrangement suggests a shift in the the novels examined, the The dissertation examines the way the city and the self are Conclusions chapter delineates spatial framework of New York City perceived and negotiated and in the certain tropes describing the city- in relation to the self – to way New York City is fictionally self dynamics which are recurrent in contemporary identity and portrayed as a result. Hence, the most novels and which paint a sensibility - in the fictional discourse first two chapters (“The City of picture of the contemporary of novels written in the late Hypervisibility, Schizophrenia and dimension of metropolitan sensibility twentieth century. It explores how Commodity Culture: Don DeLillo’s that the current thesis focuses on: during a time period mostly Great Jones Street ” and “The hyperreality and simulacra, a delineated between 1980s and Mysteries of the City of “Nowhere” pedestrian rhetoric that foregrounds 2000s, novels about the city deal and “Anywhere” - Paul Auster’s City a contemporary form of dialogue with a range of strategies to depict of Glass ”) foreground a city-self between space and self, a state of and investigate problems of dynamics centered on the anxieties in-betweenness that most novels subjectivity and spatiality. of a more individualistic put forth in various guises, a Since the city and the self are consciousness whose depths the dimension of violence, the socially mutually dependent and manifest texts delve into, as well as into its constructed city contrasted with a themselves through each other, my spatial insertion. They also explore city of the imagination, where space interest lies in the various kinds of the depths of the space the is a pure fantasy or a projection of spatial and personal constructions characters are or are not grounded the characters’ subjectivity. There is and perceptions that arise out of into, with all its implications on also an erotic dimension that the this reciprocally constructive and/or identity construction. On the other city-self coordinate makes visible in deconstructive relation and the hand, the last two chapters (“A City the novels discussed, interestingly ways identity is shaped by or of “lowercase people”: Ernesto foreshadowed by that of violence. shapes the urban space it inhabits. Quinonez’s Bodega Dreams” and Starting from the fictional The different ways the city impacts “Between Memory and History: discourse to the social one and the self and the various imagery Retrieving the Traces of a Layered complementing the analysis with and strategies the latter uses to City in Richard Price’s Lush Life ”), theories focusing on identity, both cope with and make sense of the particularly the last one, foreground individual or social, and spatial, the urban environment give rise to a preoccupation with the diversity of thesis intends to show how the texts alternative, personal spaces and identities and scapes that compete can be used for creating not only an sometimes alternative identities that in the city – a space that is image of the late twentieth century the characters try to adopt as investigated in its lateral sprawl and American urban novel, but also an adjustment mechanisms, defense ramifications, as far as the various image of contemporary urban strategies or escapist projects. New ethnoscapes are concerned, rather sensibility, of its anxieties and York represents the spatial than in the depth of its implications means of expression. framework within which this imagery regarding a single representative and these spatial perceptions arose consciousness, like those in the first The thesis was defended in in the novels discussed and on two novels analyzed. Lush Life puts October 2010. which my analysis is developed. forth different consciousnesses, The novels included were all each having singular relations to the written by authors born and residing space they inhabit. They all in New York City, with the exception

displays features of both a federation and a confederation. Book ReviewReviewssss US are a presidential republic, while most European states are parliamentary republics. Ştefan Olteanu relates the semantics of possible worlds with fictional discourse uncovering the truth America Today. American Studies. incorporated in such fiction. This is applied on Henry Ed. Marius Jucan James’ novel The Turn of the Screw which admits of two Tribuna, Cluj-Napoca, 2010 interpretations: ghosts are real or ghosts are mere hallucinations. Ovidiu Pecican applies Turner’s frontier criterion to Claudia Fizeşan the birth of a civilisation, to interpret Romanian history. BabesBolyai University, ClujNapoca The settling of a nation implies much more that a political borderline, a cultural space. Romanian historians such as The volume edited by Professor Marius Jucan comprises Ha şdeu communicate with the same romantic source of a wide variety of topics concerning contemporary Turner’s conception. American issues, that exert a massive impact on the entire Marius Jucan takes into consideration the heated world. Rather than arguing for the legitimacy of American topic of anti-americanism, as an alternative (negative) studies, the concept of this volume is more practical: it explanation of the American exceptionalism. Such figures simply displays their relevancy with each new chapter. We as Susan Sontag or Allan Bloom converged in therefore have approaches of the American world and its acknowledging the crisis of authority, education, American pervasive global influence from philosophy, political values and the need to re-examine tradition, but diverged science, cultural studies, literature, history, law, as to the cause or solutions advanced: the first urged a anthropology. radicalisation of the aesthetics and politics, while the latter Andrei Marga reads Europe as seen through discarded relativism, nihilism and ideologization. American eyes. European struggle to regain its central Doina Micu presents the international legal provisions position is sceptically assessed by such leading figures as related to human rights and the way they must be Tony Judt, George Weigel, Glyn Morgan, Joseph Stiglitz, incorporated into the domestic law. The US Constitution Walter Laqueur, Allan Greenspan etc. Despite the provides us, however, with an exception because of the euphoria, many are inclined to speak about the decline of Supremacy Clause. Any time there is a conflict of laws, the old continent, based on such factors as the the Constitution will take precedence over the treatises. demographic, moral, economic and civic crises. Georgiana Ciceo questions whether the Obama administration has really achieved a substantial shift in the US foreign policy. She argues that even though Obama has engaged into renouncing unilateralism in favour of multilateralism in order to regain US credibility in the world, the major objectives of US foreign policy were not radically altered. They were only subjected to a more principled approach. Vlad Mure şan argues against Richard Rorty’s ethics without principles, that discarding theory and principles is contradictory and unpractical, in the end. An attempt to achieve liberty without truth is destined to fail, while there’s no such thing as a blind liberty. Şerban V ăeti şi deals with the transformations of the American urban communities during the last century. Modernization immigration, suburbanization, segregation – this are the major issues related to this historical process. But the conclusion is rather optimistic: despite such Virgil Stanciu portrays the American 20 th century damages, urban community can and actually finds new novel-writing. He argues that even though the ideal of the resources in creative approaches of urban renewal. New great American novel was the prime mover of American media technologies revived public participation and civic fiction writing, it was not attained and that the excesses of engagement. postmodernism are responsible for a diminution of public Gabriel Gherasim takes a look back to a century of interest for fiction, alongside with the image-centred and American philosophy of art, trying to highlight its specific computer culture. nature based on the continuity pervasive in different Liliana Mihu ţ compares the US and EU reflections (Santayana, Dewey, Morris Weitz, Stanley exceptionalisms, from a political standpoint. Both are Cavell, Goodman and Danto). However, from idealist unique structures, but the US has a long-enduring visions centred on the objectivity of aesthetics we have constitution, whereas EU has not been able to achieve a reached a theoretical crisis reconciled with a pluralist proper constitution. While US are a federation, EU theory on the meanings of art. Raluca Moldovan approaches the controversial some of whom have become contributors or advisors to representations of the Holocaust based on a case analysis the present volume. of the movie Sophie’s Choice . William Styron was criticised for appropriating the symbol of the Holocaust, transforming it into an image of universal evil, therefore weakening its irreducible Jewish specificity. The representation of the Holocaust cannot be pure aesthetics, it should fall within some historical and ethical limits. Lucian Bogdan analyses the controversy aroused around the efficacy of Roosevelt’s New Deal reforms during the Great Crisis, between mostly liberals and conservatives. The overall conclusion highlights the enduring legacy of the New Deal and its merits in safeguarding the American cultural model. The volume ends with a group of answers provided by the professors of the American Studies Department for the university cultural magazine Verso (Cluj-Napoca), America at the Crossroads, debating the American exceptionalism today. This volume is a substantial contribution in the Romanian (young) field of American Studies. The wide The volume opens new provocative paths in a variety of fields and issues taken into consideration challenging and increasingly fertile area of creation and provide us with an informed and also reflected encounter research situated at the intersection of (post)traumatic with core aspects of the American way that gives us memory, autobiography studies, visual culture, gender and encouragement for the newly emerging community of sexuality studies. More precisely, the book is structured in researchers in this academic field. three parts that focus on the plural and complicated facets of identity construction and representation in different visual-related media. Part 1 looks on constructions of the American Visual Memoirs after the 1970s. personal self in film and photography; Part 2 focuses on gender configurations in visual autoethnographies; Part 3 Studies on Gender, Sexuality, and Visibility in the deals with how identity engages with mourning and PostCivil Rights Age violence in autobiographic comics. Ed. Mihaela Precup The essays in Part 1 use the Butlerian-Foucauldian Editura Universităţ ii din Bucure şti, 2010 paradigm of power fields in the attempt to reposition vulnerable bodies in less constraining frames. Three of its four essays closely configure and interrogate the Dana Mihăilescu rebellious discourses of queer identities in their relation University of Bucharest with hegemonic societal claims, while the final essay destabilizes the patriarchal construction of motherhood. British art historian John Berger once wrote that “[t]he Emma Heaney’s opening article problematizes sudden anguish of missing what is no longer there is like transsexual identities in their relation with America’s suddenly coming upon a jar which has fallen and broken legally-sanctioned double discourse of intimacy and into fragments. Alone you collect the pieces, discover how privacy. The author discloses the complex pressures to fit them together and then carefully stick them to one entailed by the latter mainstream discourse on the trans another, one by one. Eventually the jar is reassembled but public figure and its project of autobiography narration, but it is not the same as it was before. It has become both she equally discusses the pitfalls in front of rebellious flawed, and more precious” (Berger, The Shape of a documentaries–those of producing new regulatory Pocket 59). Like Berger’s jar, American Visual Memoirs narratives and elisions unless they allow alternative after the 1970s. Studies on Gender, Sexuality, and spaces to play a fundamental role in their projects. Tamsin Visibility in the Post-Civil Rights Age is a collection of Whitehead relevantly problematizes the early reactions of essays made up of the contributors’ sustained activist artists against the simplistic conflation of AIDS- engagement with artifacts, photos, and memories as sufferers with homosexual identities in the early days of deployed in post-1970s American visual memoirs and the crisis from the 1970s, by offering an empowering which have been reassembled in absentia, in full positive representation of these people’s identities as awareness of their elusiveness and complexities but also socially and politically active. The author highlights the of their lingering relevance. equal pitfalls behind such activist stances in discussing Edited by Mihaela Precup, Assistant Professor of two documentaries by activist Gregg Bordowitz, Fast Trip, English/American Studies at the University of Bucharest, Long Drop (1993) and Habit (2001) in which he goes on to and published by Bucharest University Press, this is the identify the psychic effects of having to deal with fatigue, first book-length collection of essays entirely dedicated to despair, or mourning on a day-to-day basis. As Whitehead the study of contemporary visual memoirs. The project rightly shows, the foregrounding of doubt in these grew out of the editor’s 2006-2007 Fulbright grant at the documentaries allows for the creation of an ethical Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program at Yale commitment to complex humanity, ranging from a University, where she got initial support and insight from temporally changing outlook developed in Fast Trip, Long both established and emergent academics in the field, Drop to a spatial configuration of the gaze in Habit , capitalizing on the responsibility of American AIDS- while the last paper specifically focuses on women’s sufferers to those who do not live in the West and do not sexuality. Thus, Efrat Bloom’s essay engages with Art benefit from the same treatment facilities. Mihaela Speigelman’s widely-discussed Maus ; the author offers a Precup’s essay starts from the same premise as the brilliant close reading of the artist’s work as bearing the previous article–the need for activism against the imprint of maternal loss and of the son’s co-indexed conflation between homosexuality and AIDS in the 1970s “narcissistic wound.” Bloom shows that by exploring the and contends that the identity-related conundrum was stances of the mother drawn into Portrait of the Artist as a already in the underground artists’ New York community Young %@?*! , “Prisoner on Hell Planet” and Maus . In her before the ACT UP movement. To prove her point, analysis, the mother’s blurring facial contours stand for Art Mihaela analyzes the case of Nan Goldin’s Cookie Spiegelman’s psychological wound and identity confusion, Portfolio (1976-1989) made up of photos she took of the for his emotional vulnerability and, ultimately, for the AIDS-suffering members of that community as “immutability and unassimilability of traumatic memory.” confirmation of PWA’s presence in the face of imminent My own essay engages with Miriam Katin’s 2006 death. She wonderfully shows how these photos become Holocaust memoir, We Are On Our Own which traces of sick, grieving ghosts’ presence. Most importantly, supplements Spiegelman’s insight into the mother-son in Mihaela’s reading, they stand for rehearsal of mourning couple with the case of the mother-daughter relation. My (the case of the photographer) and rehearsal of death (the paper reads the performance of gender identity in the case of the photographed individual) which imply a context of constant threat and violence directed at the fundamental shift in point of the social community, which female body, as well as the complexities of affect in the from that moment on will forever enclose the invisible case of trying to tell the story of a reality one can hardly wound of losing an other and a part of oneself. The final remember, as a toddler during the Holocaust. Finally, J. essay in Part 1 by Celeste Ianniciello analyzes Chantal Andrew Deman’s essay proves how Phoebe Gloeckner’s Akerman’s autobiographical film-letter, News from Home memoir, A Child Life and Other Stories (1998) is an (1976), as a reaction to the patriarchal view of motherhood important narrative in feminist underground projects by creating the image of a “mother of excess” – one reacting against the tendency of comics to portray women whose domain is no longer the manly prescribed domestic in a highly sexualized way geared by patriarchal norms. space but the urban setting of New York, its architecture of As Deman effectively demonstrates, Gloeckner ambiguity and indeterminism, its mobile symbols of complicates any potential visual pleasure in her memoir by homelessness, wandering, streetwalking. strategically creating a contradictory tension between The following three essays in Part 2 engage with image and text. Deman additionally shows how complicated intersections between class, race/ethnicity Gloeckner’s narrative uses distortion/enhancement of two and gender. Among these, Edvige Giunta’s largely key elements of the human anatomy, genitalia (suggesting creative opening essay uses as point of departure sexuality) and the face (the locus of emotions) in order to fuori/outside , an autobiographical film by Kim Ragusa, suggest the conflict between visual pleasure and drawn on her mixed heritage as a daughter of an African traumatizing human consequences, of male sexual American mother and an Italian American father; this film fantasy and female victimization at the hands of it. shows the degree to which race is socially constructed At bottom, born out of what the editor calls and mutable, always elusive, both limited and attempting “ghostliness”–the haunting presence of (post)traumatic to go beyond the hegemonic politics of recognition. Yet, experiences as inscribed upon the gendered body–the Kim Ragusa’s film is just a framework occasioning unique power of this collection consists in each one of its Giunta’s own relevant autobiographical pondering over her essays’ indefatigable ability to forever haunt the reader, to identity as a Sicilian woman and its problematic shake the self from any attempt to situate itself within the configurations in Italy where being Sicilian has been often comfortable realm of life complacency. The essays racialized by mainstream Italians’ whiteness discourse. In continuously question any set discourse and fixing addition, Adriana Katzew’s essay focuses on the interpretation and plead for a constant, vigilant fundamental role of Chicana artist, feminist and activist acknowledgment and assessment of the complexities, Yolanda López, whose visual art works Three dilemmas, and conundrums of contemporary embodied Generations: Tres Mujeres (1976-7) and Our Lady paths of change born out of suffering. Guadaloupe (1978) represented the fundamental work of an artist-provocateur in the early days of the Chicano Revilimiento movement. Katzew reads López’s Ovid, Myth and (Literary) Exile autobiographical use of working-class women’s body as a subversive device to decolonize Chicana women from the Ed. Adina Ciugureanu, Ludmila Martanovschi, claims of patriarchy. Finally, Ruxandra R ădulescu’s essay Nicoleta Stanca engages with the visual subversion of Indian Ovidius University Press, Constanta, 2010 representation in Native American memoirs by Gerald Vizener and Louis Owens. As a reaction against the early Publication supported by the CNCSISUEFISCU, Project number PNII – IDEI – image of the essentializing “feather-and-beads Indian” 802/2009 Director: Professor Adina Ciugureanu, Ovidius University other, the author shows how contemporary writers foreground relational, collective voices via a photographic gaze extended over land and community. Remus Bejan Finally, the essays in Part 3 discuss identity in Ovidius University Constanţa relation to the haunting presence of mourning and violence in autobiographical comics. To that end, the first This volume brings together thirty-one of the most two essays deal with Holocaust-centered experiences, significant papers originally presented by prominent academics and scholars from Romanian and a number of European universities, at the conference held at contemporary American Indian Poetry (Ludmila Constanta, Romania, September 10-12, 2009, which the Martanovschi). organizers placed under the tutelary figure of Ovidius, the The articles in the Romanian Exiles and Transfers of Latin Poet who, two millennia ago, was unhappily exiled Myths to Romanian Culture section delve into anti- ‘at the edge of the world’, to the ancient city of Tomis communist cultural resistance aspects of self-imposed (Constanta today), on the western coast of the Black Sea. exile (Mihaela Paraschivescu, Mihaela Albu), while Adina The contributions included in the book revisit not only Ciugureanu examines the American ‘acculturation’ and the legacy of the great Latin poet but they also examine globalization of Dracula’s myth, and the irony of its crucial problematics of the exilic experience and mythic ‘homeland’ return, in this new guise. With Professor journeys, as articulated across British, American and Rodica Mih ăil ă’s analysis of For a Barbarian Woman Romanian literatures, from a variety of theoretical (2009) , a play Saviana Stanescu, a Romanian ex-patriate approaches. dramatist, living in New York, the thematic investigation symbolically comes full circle. Written in English, from the perspective of a newly-hyphenated American from post- communist Eastern Europe, the play, bridges history and myth to offer a fresh insight into the Ovid’s exile, seem in the light of his relationships with the barbarians, while shedding a new light on the post-colonial the condition of ‘in-betweenness’ of the displaced writer. The book proves to be an insightful reading and makes a remarkable contribution to the existing literature and academic debates on the Ovid’s literary and cultural heritage.

Romanian Culture in America’s Mirror

Publications resulting from the CNCSIS project Romanian Cultural Space in The book opens with Stephen Prickett’s Exile as An Transatlantic Perspective: From Post-Communism to Post-Accession (2007 Existential Condition. This complex study scrutinizes 2010), Director: Professor Rodica Mihăilă, American Studies Center, University various aspects of exile (place, home, marginality, etc.), of Bucharest which the author sees as inherent to the creative process, as the very existential condition of the writer, in general, MariaSabina Draga Alexandru and thus sets the stage for subsequent contributions. University of Bucharest The papers grouped under the title of Revisiting the Classical Tradition focus on such aspects of Ovid’s works as the symbolism of the ship, or the classical and Cultura românească în perspectivă transatlantică. Ciceronian literature of exile (Maria Stefania Montecalvo). Interviuri Antonio Moniz’s comparative study of Ovid’s Tristia and Edited by Maria-Sabina Draga Alexandru and Teodora Camoes’ Cancoes and Elegias, both born out of painful Şerban-Oprescu experiences of exile, traces the Roman writer’s poetic Bucure ști: Editura Universit ăț ii din Bucure ști, 2009 bequest and influence on the sixteenth century Portuguese poet. The section called Representations of Exile and This volume documents Romania’s cultural presence in Myths in British and Postcolonial Studies brings together the contemporary world as reflected in America’s mirror, papers that reflect on the fictional reconstruction of Ovid’s through a series of interviews conducted by the members exile to Tomis in David Malouf’s An Imaginary Life (1978), of the project team and a few external collaborators. The which the author, Laura Savu, sees as emblematic for the interviewees are American and Romanian-American condition of the poet as a wanderer on earth pushing out academics belonging to, acquainted with or specializing in beyond the limits of the known world and of his own Romanian culture (Andrei Brezianu, Andrei Codrescu, consciousness, on the exilic dimensions of D. H. Marcel Cornis-Pope, Domni ţa Dumitrescu, Constantin Lawrence’s work (Camelia Anghel), on the use of myth as Eretescu, Radu Florescu, Eliza Ghil, Valentina Gl ăjar, a demythologizing tool by Joyce (Gulden Hatipoglu), or on Sanda Golopen ţia, Gary Holcomb, Ernest Latham, re-interpretations of ancient myths in modernist and Norman Manea, Sorin Adam Matei, Paul E. Michelson, postmodernist literature (Nicoleta Stanca, Corina Lungu, Christian Moraru, Barbara Nelson, Ileana Orlich, Domnica Irina Toma, Ioana Mitrea). Rădulescu, Adam Sorkin, Saviana St ănescu, Alexandra The section entitled Exilic and Mythic Journeys in Târziu, Vladimir Tism ăneanu and James Welsh). As the American Literature and Culture explores Europe, as a participants in this extended transatlantic dialogue express place of exile, in the American imaginary (Roxana Oltean), opinions on the visibility of Romanian culture in America racial and gendered representations of White, the Black- and the world, an impressive amount of details related to African and Native American experiences, through the Romanian cultural presence in the current global autobiography and fiction (Anca Peiu, Marius Juncan, exchange of ideas are revealed to the reader. Cornelia Vlaicu), as well as re-constructions of myths in

the poet’s stay in Romania and his direct experience of Romanian culture as a Fulbright lecturer. The essays focus on the changes and challenges in Romanian culture caused by the encounter between globalization and Romania’s efforts to overcome post- communist transition and become a democratic member of today’s world, following E.U. accession. They tackle and attempt to answer some of the difficult questions posed by the current refashionings and redefinitions in Romania’s image, as well as its ways of reconciling itself with the difficulties of its past and present and forging a new global identity. Through the impressive variety of topics and approaches, the studies gathered together in this collection offer a broad analysis of Romanian culture at The strength of the volume – based on a set of home and abroad as we perceive it today. Apart from each starting questions adapted to match each interviewee’s essay’s individual contribution to scholarship, one of the individual carrier – consists mainly of the fact that it most visible merits of the collection as a whole is the represents a database of primary material about dialogical perspective it brings on transatlantic studies. Romanian cultural experience across the Atlantic, the reception of Romanian culture in the United States, as well as the extent to which it is currently possible to talk about a cultural dialogue between Romania and the United States. As Romania’s participation in the global world has grown with NATO and EU accession, Romanian culture has become more visible. This is shown by the literature written by writers of the Romanian diaspora (such as Andrei Codrescu, Norman Manea and Domnica Rădulescu), more and more widely read in the US, by the rising popularity of new wave Romanian cinema, as well as by the multiple ways in which the Romanian diaspora across the world has been using the Internet to shorten distances and foster communication. Last, but not least, one is bound to notice the important number of academics of Romanian origin who currently hold positions in American universities, who have greatly contributed to the dialogue between Romania and the United States and While the model of American Studies as a plurivocal who are important opinion-leaders with respect to discipline is a crucial starting point, the essays in this Romania’s current world image. collection share an awareness of the importance of maintaining a worldwide perspective in all definitions of cultural identity and, as the editors stress in the Romanian Culture in the Global Age introduction, of projecting all criticism of “the other” in the Edited by Rodica Mih ăil ă and Dana Mih ăilescu light of responsible self-analysis. This is a lesson which Bucure ști: Editura Universit ăț ii din Bucure ști, 2010 Romanian Studies, a discipline on the rise in the new global guise promoted by this volume, as well as by the This collection of essays is structured thematically in four project to which it belongs, could and should learn from parts ( Romanian Identities in the Global World: Cross- the consecrated discourse of American Studies. Cultural Exchanges ; Portraying Romania and the Global World in Romanian Cultural Productions ; Romanian Cultural Space and the Global World in the Works of Diaspora Romanians ; Representations of Romania in the Global World through Western Lenses ), followed by a Coda , an original creative addition to a scholarly work containing a few poems by Martin Woodside, inspired by

Calls for Papers

The Health of the Nation The Biennial EAAS Conference A workshop may be chaired by one person but Izmir, Turkey should preferably be chaired by two persons from different countries. No one may (co-) chair a workshop at two March 30 April 2, 2012 consecutive EAAS conferences. Chairs are required to be members of their national or joint-national associations as “Leave all the afternoon for exercise and are all presenters accepted by chairs. This also applies to recreation, which are as necessary as reading. I will parallel lecturers. EAAS accepts presenters from the U.S. rather say more necessary because health is worth who belong to the American Studies Association or the more than learning.” (Thomas Jefferson, letter to Organization of American Historians. Other speakers from John Garland Jefferson, June 11, 1790.) outside of Europe must also be members of their respective American Studies Associations. Over the past two years, President Obama’s proposed health care reforms initiated an often bitter and Please send proposals to: sometimes divisive debate which, while focused on health provision, also asked fundamental questions (and Dr. Jenel Virden exposed tenaciously held positions) about the state of the EAAS Secretary General nation, its history and ideology. Our conference theme, American Studies Department the Health of the Nation, addresses these issues, where University of Hull health can be both literal and metaphorical, personal and Hull HU6 7RX public, human and environmental. United Kingdom E-mail: [email protected] The self-analysis involved in considering the health of the Phone: +44 1482 465287 nation has always been a characteristic of Americans, and Fax: +44 1482 466107 is an issue variously understood according to time, circumstance, and disciplinary approach. Health and the body also retain their metaphoric power in national self- awareness, while a heightened awareness of Cultural Texts and Contexts in the English Speaking World environmental health and risk is a topic of growing importance, as is the development of Recreation and 2nd International Conference Organized by the University of Leisure Studies as an academic subject. Oradea Oradea, Romania The EAAS welcomes proposals for parallel lectures 1719 March 2011 and workshops investigating the Health of the Nation from all perspectives and disciplines. Topics addressed might Dear Colleagues, include: • The relation between health and wealth (Emerson The Department of English said “The first wealth is health”) Faculty of Letters, • The health of the individual and the health of the University of Oradea (Romania) state; the politics and economics of health care • The legal and constitutional dimensions of is pleased to invite you to participate in the 2nd healthcare provision; the body’s health in literature edition of its international biennial conference. and film (often linked symbolically to national trauma) Papers are invited in the following conference • The relation between health and healing sections: • Illness as metaphor. ▪ British and Commonwealth Literature • The ideals of health communicated by the media ▪ American Literature • Health and the environment ▪ Cultural Studies ▪ Gender Studies The deadline for submission of workshop and ▪ Film and Drama parallel lecture proposals is: ▪ Language Studies February 28th, 2011 ▪ Translation Studies ▪ Teaching English as a Foreign Language Potential workshop chairs and parallel lecturers should prepare a one-page abstract and a ½- All presenters will have 20 minutes to present their page cv. Please do not submit proposals for individual paper: 15 minutes for presentation and 5 minutes for workshop papers at this time. These should be sent to questions (give or take a couple of minutes). A selection of selected workshop chairs who will be announced in the papers presented at the conference will be published in May 2011 issue of the ASE newsletter. the Conference Proceedings.

Deadline for submission of proposals: ▪ interdisciplinary perspectives on history, politics, February 15 th 2011 anthropology, and religion ▪ the global impact of media and technology on To register, check your registration or keep up with education and sociology conference news, you may visit our site at ▪ changing perspectives on global migration and www.deoradea.info cultural identity

Conference fee: Presentations should be 20 minutes long, allowing for For participants from Romania: 150 RON (early 10 minutes of discussion. Please send an abstract (no registration) / 200 RON (late registration) more than 200 words), a list of 5-7 keywords, and a short For participants from abroad: 40 EURO (early biographical note in word format. Proposals should include registration) / 50 EURO (late registration) titles of papers/ panels, name and institutional affiliation, mailing address, phone, fax, and e-mail address. The fee covers participation costs, coffee breaks, lunches on Thursday and Friday, the conference cocktail A selection of the papers presented will be published on Thursday, print programme and the publication in the in East/West Cultural Passage. conference volume. Deadline for submission of proposals: 15 February 2011

East-West Conference: Contact Zones in the Global World Please send proposals to: Lucian Blaga University, Sibiu, Romania Anca Iancu School of Letters and Arts Ana Blanca Ciocoi-Pop 67 May 2011

Participation/Conference fee: 40 Euros (to be paid The Department of British and American Studies at upon arrival). Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu and the C. Peter Magrath Research Center for Cross-Cultural Studies invite you to The participation/conference fee covers coffee- the CONTACT ZONES IN THE GLOBAL WORLD breaks, lunches and conference portfolios. international conference, to be held in Sibiu , 6-7 May 2011. We look forward to welcoming you in Sibiu!

In the changing social, political, economic, and cultural global landscape, such terms as the national, the international, cosmopolitanism, globalization, and Tales of War: Expressions of Conflict and Reconciliation otherness, to name only a few, need to be constantly The 13th Annual Conference of the English Department reinvented, redefined, reinterpreted, and reorganized. In Literature and Cultural Studies Section this context, Ulrich Beck’s unpacking of globalization and University of Bucharest cosmopolitanism clarifies the implications of “the 2–4 June 2011 pluralization of borders” and “globalization from within.” The latter concept, a synonym for the “cosmopolitanization The English Department of the University of of nation-state societies” (Beck 2002: 18), stands for the Bucharest invites proposals for the Literature and Cultural “dissonance in drawing of borderlines,” as “borders are no Studies section of its 13 th Annual Conference: Tales of longer predeterminate, they can be chosen (and War: Expressions of Conflict and Reconciliation interpreted), but simultaneously also have to be redrawn and legitimated anew” (Beck 2002: 19). As a result, “when Venue: The Faculty of Foreign Languages and cultural, political, economic and legal borders are no Literatures, Str. Pitar Mos 7-13, Bucharest, Romania longer congruent, contradictions open up between the various principles of exclusion” (Beck 2002: 19). Invited speakers will include: Andrei Cornea (University of Bucharest) The spaces where identities are negotiated, fraught Radu Surdulescu (University of Bucharest) as they are with these social, economic, political, religious, and cultural conflicts/contradictions, are also culturally Conflict, as well as versions of antagonistic and fertile contact zones. paradoxical affinities in war-related, real and fictional situations, are at the centre of current preoccupations of We invite you to explore these contact zones from critical theory, literature, visual arts, the media, historical theoretical and/or text-based interdisciplinary perspectives and political discourse and at the centre of ontological in individual presentations, panels, and/or workshops. concern for the contemporary world. As a phenomenological issue, as the privileged subject matter Topics might include (but are not limited to): of cultural debates, historiography, theology, philosophy, interpretation strategies and anthropological research the ▪ global perceptions in literature, language, art, and problematic of war appears to illustrate and confirm, popular culture beyond Eliade’s “terror of history” or Ricoeur’s “hermeneutics of suspicion”, the correlatives of subjectivity, as well as a richly connotative “existential heritage” of the “fallable man”. As (remembered?) Deadline for proposals: 15 February 2011. pastness, as the counter-possibility of freedom, as an Please send proposals (and enquiries) to account of empathy with the Other, as illustrative of a “limit [email protected] situation”, as a set of empirical appearances or a utopian pact, as a figure of (repetitive) mortality or a marker of We look forward to welcoming you in Bucharest. identity, warfare remains an issue of signification Prof. Irina Pan ă comprehensible through a series of disconcerting aporias, Dr. James Brown a category of both active and meditative attitude related to Conference organizers the “primordial conflict” and at the same time to the affirmation of hope for a time of both memorial and prophetic war-free “ideal history”. US Embassy Events/Notices The aim of the conference is to explore and highlight modalities through which expressions, representations or perceptions of “warfare”, as well as contemporary http://romania.usembassy.gov/ interpretative approaches to the development, resolution or effects of conflict deal with the significance of http://www.facebook.com/bucharest.usembassy antagonism in various cultural and historical contexts and contribute to the comprehension and redefinition of the authorial message. Fulbright Scholars 20102011 Suggested topics: • Visions and connotations of warfare • War – myths, symbolism, iconography ROMANIAN SENIOR GRANTEES • War as allegory and metaphor • Representations of conflict Catalin Nicolae ALBU • War and psychoanalysis Home University: Bucharest Academy of Economic • War between reality and fiction Studies • The space of war Host University: University of Dayton, OH • War and temporality Field: Business Administration/Managerial Accounting • Wartime affinities • War narratives Cristina Adela CHEVERESAN • War protagonists Home University: University of the West, Timisoara Host University: Harvard University, MA • War and peace Field: American Literature • The political and historical discourse of war • War and memory Radu DUDAU • War and identity Home University: University of Bucharest Host University: Harvard University, MA It is anticipated that participants will adopt a variety of Field: Political Sciences approaches, including examinations of individual works in various genres and media, comparative, transcultural and interdisciplinary studies, and discussions of theoretical Ludmila MARTANOVSCHI issues. Home University: Ovidius University of Constanta Host University: City University of New York Presentations should be in English, and will be Field: American Studies allocated 20 minutes each, plus 10 minutes for discussion. Prospective participants are invited to submit abstracts of up to 200 words (including a list of keywords) in Word Marian MUNTEANU format, with an indication of their institutional affiliation, Home University: Al. Ioan Cuza University of Iasi and a telephone number and e-mail address at which they Host University: Michigan State University, MI can be contacted. Proposals for panel discussions (to be Field: Mathematics organized by the participant) will also considered. Radu MUTIHAC A selection of papers will be published in University Home University: University of Bucharest of Bucharest Review (listed on EBSCO, CEEOL and Host University: University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, Ulrichsweb). NM Conference fee: 50 euro or equivalent in Romanian Field: Neurosciences Lei The fee is payable in cash on registration, and covers Constantin Marius PROFIROIU the opening reception, conference materials, and Home University: Bucharest Academy of Economic refreshments during the conference. Studies Host University: University of Kentucky, KY Malina Denisa OMUT Field: Public Administration Home University: National University of Arts, Bucharest Host University: Host University: Savannah College of Art Dan Eugen RATIU & Design, GA Home University: Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj Field: Graphic Design Host University: Northeastern University, MA Field: Philosophy of Arts and Cultural Policies Ioana PAL Home University: University of Bucharest Andrei Dorian SOFICARU Host University: Maxwell School of Syracuse University, Home Institution: “Dr. Francisc I. Rainer” Institute of NY Anthropology Field: Political Sciences Host University: The Ohio State University, OH Field: Archaeology/Anthropology Zeno Reinhardt Home University: Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj Cristian TANASESCU Host University: Boston University, MA Home University: University of Bucharest Field: Education Host University: San Diego State University, CA Field: American Studies/Poetry Iulian Daniel SANDU Home University: National School of Political Studies and ROMANIAN JUNIOR GRANTEES Public Administration, Bucharest Host University: University of Cincinnati, OH Field: Communication Oana Liana ALMASAN Home University: Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj Anamaria VRABIE Host University: Arizona State University, AZ Home University: Bucharest Academy of Economic Field: Public Policy Studies Host University: Host University: The New School for Sorin DUMITRESCU General Studies, NY Home University: Bucharest Academy of Economic Field: International Affairs Studies Host University: Boston University, MA Field: Economics/Finance Alexandru ZEGREA Home University: University of the West, Timisoara Host University: University of Washington, WA Mihai Bogdan IOVU Field: International Affairs (Middle East) Home University: Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj Host University: Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, NJ FULBRIGHT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Field: Social Sciences Gina Cristina ADAM Ioana Codruta MARTIAN Home University: POLITEHNICA University of Bucharest Home University: Bucharest Academy of Economic Host University: University of California, Santa Barbara Studies Field: Nanoelectronics Host University: Tulane University, LA Field: Economics/Finance HUBERT H. HUMPHREY GRANTEES

Ioana MOLDOVAN DRECIN Oana Caludia IACOB Home University: “I. L. Caragiale” National University of Home University: University of Bucharest Theatre and Cinematographic Arts, Bucharest Home Institution: Presidential Administration Host University: University of Southern California Los Host University: University of Washington, WA Angeles, CA Field: Public Policy Analysis and Public Administration Field: Film/Drama AMERICAN SENIOR GRANTEES Catalina Andreea NAN Home University: Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj Dr. James C. DENNISON Host University: Vanderbilt University, TN Home University: McNeese State University, LA Field: Business Administration/Finance Host University: : Bucharest Polytechnic University, Bucharest Field: Electronic Engineering

Dr. Bryan Wesley HALL Host University: Lucian Blaga University, Sibiu Home University: Indiana University Southeast Field: English Teaching Assistantship Host University: University of Bucharest Field: Teaching and Research in the History and Ms. Laura Iris MATTES Philosophy of Science Home University: At-Large, California Host University: University of Bucharest Dr. Dennis Lee JOHNSON Field: Public Health Home University: Pennsylvania State University--Milton S. Hershey Medical Center Mr. Jacob Charles SHULMAN-MENT Host University: Transilvania University of Brasov Home University: At-Large, New York Field: Medicine, The Care of Children with Life-Limiting Host University: Univ. of Arts G.Enescu, Iasi Illnesses in Romania Field: Ethnomusicology

Dr. Mihaela LEONIDA Ms. Aline Nicole CAUTIS Home University: Fairleigh Dickinson University-- Home University: At-Large, Illinois Metropolitan Campus, NJ Host University: The University of Art and Design at Cluj- Host University: Bucharest Polytechnic University Napoca Field: Chemistry, Biochemistry Field: Painting and Printmaking

Dr. Barbara Laud MUELLER Ms. Annie Jordan PENNELL Home University: Casper College, WY Home University: Arizona State Univ. Host University: Ovidius University, Constanta Host University: Al.I. Cuza University, Iasi Field: American Society and Culture, U.S. Minority Field: English Teaching Assistantship Studies, Native American Cultures FULBRIGHT HAYS GRANTEES Dr. Dan Allen RATLIFF Home University: St. Mary's University, TX Mr. Bruce O’NEILL Host University: Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj Home University: Stanford University, CA, Field: Enhancing Social Services for Children and Families Host University: University of Bucharest in Romania Field: Boredom as Practice: Boredom, Space and Homelessness in Post-Socialist Romania Dr. Emmanuel Nicholas ROUSSAKIS Home University: Florida International University Host University: Bucharest Academy of Economic Sciences RAAS Officers & EAAS Field: Business Administration, International Banking RAAS

Dr. David Christian WEINDORF President : Adina Ciugureanu , Department of English and Home University: Louisiana State University American Studies, Faculty of Letters, Ovidius University - Host University: University of Agricultural Sciences and Constanta, Aleea Universitatii 1, Campus, Constan ţa; Veterinary Medicine, Cluj Field: Agriculture, Soil Morphology Vice President : Roxana Oltean , Faculty of Foreign Languages, Department of English, University of Bucharest, AMERICAN JUNIOR GRANTEES 7-13 Pitar Mos Street, 70151 Bucharest; Ms. Nguyen Thu-Trang THACH Home University: Yale University, CT Secretary and Newsletter editor : Ludmila Martanovschi , Host University: Babes Bolyai University, Cluj Department of English and American Studies, Faculty of Field: Environmental Studies Letters, Ovidius University - Constan ţa, Aleea Universitatii 1, Campus, Constan ţa;

Ms. Ruth BLIDAR Treasurer : Ileana Jitaru, Department of English and Home University: North Park Univ., IL American Studies, Faculty of Letters, Ovidius University - Host University: Ovidius Univ., Constanta; Univ. of the Constan ţa, Aleea Universitatii 1, Campus, Constan ţa; West, Timisoara Field: English Teaching Assistantship European Association for American Studies (EAAS) Ms. Staci R. DEFIBAUGH Home University: Ball State Univ., IN