American Studies Research Seminars, 2016

The American Studies Research Seminar series for Semester 2  kicks off next Thursday (4th February), when we’ll be hearing from our very own Megan Hunt, a third-year PhD student in the department. Megan’s paper is entitled "Protective Fortress? 'The Southern Black Church' in Hollywood Civil Rights Melodrama." The seminar will be in Lipman 332 from 4.30pm.

2016 Seminar Series

Thur, 4 Feb, 4:30, Lip 332: Megan Hunt (Northumbria Univ), “Protective Fortress? ‘The Southern Black Church’ in Hollywood Civil Rights Melodrama.”

Thur, 18 Feb, 4:30, Lip 332: Simon Cooper (American Studies Early Career Visiting Scholar, Northumbria Univ), “Lost in the Ocean of Sorrow: Dissonant Counterpoint and Reznikoff’s Testimony.”

Wed, 24 Feb, 4:30, Lip 121: Matthew Shaw (curator of US collections at the British Library), title TBD. Cosponsored with English.

Wed, 13 April, 4:30, Lip 121: Robert Cook (Univ of Sussex), “The Death of Jefferson Davis, the Making of the New South, and the Thorny Problem of North-South Reconciliation after the American Civil War.” Sponsored by History.

British Association of American Studies PG Conference at the University of Sussex

Megan Hunt

Just a few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of attending the British Association of American Studies (BAAS) PG conference at the University of Sussex.  The November 2014 conference included a wide and varied programme, reflecting exciting and expansive doctoral research occurring across the U.K. and beyond.  The organizers must really be congratulated for their efforts, and the whole day was a great success. 

My presentation, entitled ‘A Monster of the South': Cape Fear, White Trash, and the Oppositional Region, was nestled between a paper on the appropriation and deployment of Native American stereotypes, presented by Sara Gray (Swansea University), and Hannah Murray’s (University of Nottingham) presentation on the ‘protesting corpse’ in the Edgar Allan Poe tale, “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar.”  The panel therefore explored the often intersecting issues of race, class, and gender, through the examination of a number of cultural products spanning from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century: notably promotional websites, Hollywood film, and literature. 

Robert G. Ingersoll speaking, dangling from
a cord at the edge of the stage is Thomas
De Witt Talmage as a marionette, with one
hand pinned to the Bible (Puck, 1882).
Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Other panels proved just as diverse.  The afternoon panel on Religious Dissent was of particular interest to me, and saw examinations of the ‘Great Agnostic’ of the 19th century: Robert Ingersoll, Rebecca Goldstein’s 2010 novel 36 Arguments for the Existence of God, and the Book of Mormon (the original religious text, not the musical!).

Darryl Barthe (University of Sussex) later gave an impassioned genealogy of ‘African American Avengers’, blacks throughout American history who have violently retaliated against the incessant racism and suppression that marked their lives.  In the same panel, Rosemary Pearce (University of Nottingham) presented her remarkable findings on the ‘Reverse Freedom Rides’, ‘a diabolical, inhuman game of revenge,’ in which White Citizens’ Council members offered free transport for African Americans who wanted to leave the South and experience what the Council argued were false promises about greater acceptance and racial harmony in the North.  Fascinating accounts of how the first ‘Riders’ were met off the bus in Massachusetts by Edward Kennedy only added to this already engrossing and yet almost unknown backlash to the civil rights gains of the 1960s.

The conference also benefitted from two excellent keynotes, the first from our own Dr. Joe Street, whose research into the probable effects of solitary confinement on Black Panther founding member Huey P. Newton offered fascinating insights into the last years of Newton’s life and activism.  The constant FBI surveillance Newton was under certainly exacerbated much of Newton’s existing paranoia, which was also linked to his habitual abuse of cocaine.

Following the academic rigours of the day, Will Kaufman’s wonderful keynote on the radicalization of folk legend Woody Guthrie gave us a welcome transition into the more sociable element of the conference. What could have been a more fitting end to the day than a radical, sing-along rendition of ‘This Land is Your Land’?

From the Archives: A Trip to the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin

Megan Hunt

Arriving at the University of Texas at Austin for the first time this August, I was in awe.  They say everything is bigger in Texas, and this was certainly the biggest campus I had ever seen. One of the largest universities in the U.S., UT Austin has 51,000 students and employs around 24,000 people. The campus boasts seven museums and seventeen libraries, while its stadium, pride of place in the middle of the campus, is bigger than Wembley.

Campus view, snapped by Megan Hunt.

The sheer size of the campus meant that my first day was mainly spent exploring the architecture, fountains, and the main student drag Guadalupe Street, where stands the Co-Op where you can literally buy anything and everything with a UTexas logo on it. And I mean anything…

By the time I actually stumbled across the Harry Ransom Center, where I would be conducting my research, I was ready to drop. The heat was intense, averaging around 39°C, and feeling hotter as the Texas sun bounced off the concrete. Once inside the beautifully air conditioned library, I was amazed by how easy it was to register, and how quickly staff were prepared to let me rummage through the papers of one of the most famous and significant actors alive today—Robert De Niro.

The collection was expansive; the research materials and correspondence held in Austin is a testament to the actor’s meticulous preparation for some of his most challenging and

culturally significant roles. Focused on Cape Fear, a remake De Niro persuaded Martin Scorsese to direct in 1991, I sifted through script drafts, annotated by De Niro, as well as a considerable number of research materials relating to prison culture, Pentecostalism, southern poverty, tattoos, and Bible concordances, all of which helped shape the redevelopment of villain Max Cady.

The collection demonstrated just how involved De Niro was in the remake process, and has provided numerous insights for my PhD work, which questions how Hollywood projections of southern religiosity are used to indicate a South that is ostensibly removed from the American mainstream. Examining De Niro’s papers, I learned that Cape Fear’s attempt to unravel the apparent security of white middle-class American suburban identity is deeply rooted in the same ideas concerning education, class, race, and gender that have shaped the direction of southern studies.

Megan Hunt is a second year PhD candidate in American Studies at Northumbria, working with Brian Ward and Randall Stephens.  She is interested in representations of the American South in popular culture. Her PhD research highlights the ways in which southern religious stereotypes intersect with the racial and class-based distinctions that have been used to indicate the region in post-war Hollywood film.