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Full-Text Articles in American Studies

Transforming English With Graphic Novels: Moving Toward Our "Optimus Prime", James Carter Oct 2007

Transforming English With Graphic Novels: Moving Toward Our "Optimus Prime", James Carter

James B Carter

I argue for the transformative potential of graphic novels in the English classroom.


Who’S Your Mammy?: Figuring Aunt Jemima, Harrison W. Inefuku May 2007

Who’S Your Mammy?: Figuring Aunt Jemima, Harrison W. Inefuku

Harrison W. Inefuku

In existence for over a century, the advertising icon Aunt Jemima remains a point of contention for many African Americans, despite a recent makeover that attempted to remove visual signifiers of slavery. To understand the icon's negativity, I explore its roots in slavery,the minstrel stage and The Exhibition of the Other. I then move to an analysis of "The Legend of Aunt Jemima," a series of advertisements produced in the 1920s, to determine how racism was manifested in the icon*s promotional materials.


Who's Your Mammy?: Figuring And Refiguring Aunt Jemima, Harrison W. Inefuku May 2007

Who's Your Mammy?: Figuring And Refiguring Aunt Jemima, Harrison W. Inefuku

Harrison W. Inefuku

In existence since the late 1890s, advertising icon Aunt Jemima has been indelibly etched into the American memory—virtually unchanged from her debut until her makeover in 1989. Before this recent transformation, Aunt Jemima was the quintessential embodiment of the mammy stereotype—a heavyset black woman, complete with apron and bandana. Her creation was situated at the locus of several racist traditions and discourses directed towards African Americans—the mammy stereotype, the minstrel show, The Myth of the Old South, and the Exhibition of the Other. This embodiment of multiple racist practices helps to explain how the mammy in general, and Aunt Jemima …


Pollution And Hybridity: Cultural Collision In Masami Teraoka's Mcdonald's Hamburgers Invading Japan (1974–5), Harrison W. Inefuku Apr 2007

Pollution And Hybridity: Cultural Collision In Masami Teraoka's Mcdonald's Hamburgers Invading Japan (1974–5), Harrison W. Inefuku

Harrison W. Inefuku

Japanese-born artist Masami Teraoka immigrated to the United States in the 1960s, in the midst of a burgeoning post-war mass consumer society. During a visit to Vancouver, the artist was struck by the Golden Arches of McDonald's looming over the city and was prompted to create his series, McDonald's Hamburgers Invading Japan (1974-5), which shows the impact of the American multinational corporation on a post-World War II Japan. Completed in watercolor to resemble ukiyo-e woodblock prints, Teraoka shows the permeability of the boundaries between East and West. In my analysis of the series, I build on concepts of pollution and …


Pollution In Inner And Outer Spaces: Masami Teraoka's Mcdonald's Hamburgers Invading Japan, 1974–5, Harrison W. Inefuku Apr 2007

Pollution In Inner And Outer Spaces: Masami Teraoka's Mcdonald's Hamburgers Invading Japan, 1974–5, Harrison W. Inefuku

Harrison W. Inefuku

Japanese-born artist Masami Teraoka arrived in the United States in the 1960s, in the midst of a burgeoning post-war mass consumer society. During a visit to Vancouver, the artist was struck by the Golden Arches of McDonald's looming over the city as a portent of a global takeover by the company. This awareness prompted his series, McDonald's Hamburgers Invading Japan (1974-5), which depicts an old, traditional Japanese culture coming into contact with a new, modern American one with results that are at times humorous, and at others, chaotic. Completed in watercolor to resemble ukiyo-e woodblock prints, Teraoka masterfully fuses Eastern …


Armored Bodies, Elaine Cardenas, Ellen Gorman, Joanne Dillman Mar 2007

Armored Bodies, Elaine Cardenas, Ellen Gorman, Joanne Dillman

Joanne Clarke Dillman

The Hummer: Myths and Consumer Culture is a study of the notorious automobile/sports utility vehicle. Featuring more than fifteen essays, this collection analyzes the Hummer through a wide array of disciplines, including material culture, marketing and advertising, popular culture, military technology, urban planning, and political economy. It provides a complete overview of the vehicle: production, marketing aspects, and cultural significance. The only book of its kind, The Hummer is of great value to cultural studies and American studies scholars and students, as well as to any general reader with an interest in contemporary American culture.


The Voices Of Transformational Archetypal Energies: The Psychic Energy Behind Ahp's Mission, Carroy U. Ferguson Dr. Feb 2007

The Voices Of Transformational Archetypal Energies: The Psychic Energy Behind Ahp's Mission, Carroy U. Ferguson Dr.

Carroy U "Cuf" Ferguson, Ph.D.

I want to use this opportunity to expand on my previous message, which I called “Path of the Bridger,” a path nurtured by what I have called Archetypal Energies. Again, these are Higher Vibrational Energies with their own transcendent value, purpose, quality, and “voice” unique to the individual that operate deep within our psyches, at both individual and collective levels. And, we tend to experience them as “creative urges” to move us toward our highest good or optimal realities. My purpose in offering this perspective is simply to suggest to AHP members, and other kindred spirits, that there has been …


Building Literacy Connections With Graphic Novels: Page By Page, Panel By Panel, James Carter Dec 2006

Building Literacy Connections With Graphic Novels: Page By Page, Panel By Panel, James Carter

James B Carter

A book devoted to using graphic novels in the classroom for authentic literacy experiences, focusing upon pairing graphica with young adult or canonical texts. The URL is to the book's page at the publisher's.


Carving A Niche: Graphic Novels In The English Language Arts Classroom, James Carter Dec 2006

Carving A Niche: Graphic Novels In The English Language Arts Classroom, James Carter

James B Carter

An introduction to the roles that graphic novels can play in the secondary English Language Arts classroom.


Imagetext In The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time, James Carter Dec 2006

Imagetext In The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time, James Carter

James B Carter

Notions of WJT Mitchell's imagetext are explored as they are revealed in Mark Haddon's young adult novel *The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time*. Christopher Boone's particular way of reading the world illuminates imagetext relationships.


Why The Rwandan Genocide Seemed Like A Drive-By Shooting: The Crisis Of Race, Culture, And Policy In The African Diaspora, Seneca Vaught Dec 2006

Why The Rwandan Genocide Seemed Like A Drive-By Shooting: The Crisis Of Race, Culture, And Policy In The African Diaspora, Seneca Vaught

Seneca Vaught

From the American perspective, the Rwandan genocide developed amidst a cultural and racial crisis of the 1990s. The American attitude towards the crisis in Kigali provides a complex historical case study on how race and culture have profound and often-ignored policy implications. Specifically, the lack of American intervention in Rwanda reveals the complexity race and policy in American history and the shared fates of Africans throughout the world. Taken as a whole, the domestic cultural background of the early 1990s, including the rise of gangsta rap, rioting, and the dilemma of "black-on-black crime," collectively influenced American policy towards Africa at …


"'Mira, Yo Soy Boricua Y Estoy Aquí': Rafa Negrón's Pan Dulce And The Queer Sonic Latinaje Of San Francisco", Horacio N. Roque Ramirez Dec 2006

"'Mira, Yo Soy Boricua Y Estoy Aquí': Rafa Negrón's Pan Dulce And The Queer Sonic Latinaje Of San Francisco", Horacio N. Roque Ramirez

Horacio N Roque Ramirez, Ph.D.

For a little more than eight months in 1996–1997, Calirican Rafa Negron promoted his queer Latino nightclub “Pan Dulce” in San Francisco. A concoction of multiple genders, sexualities, and aesthetic styles, Pan Dulce created an opportunity for making urban space and claiming visibilities and identities among queer Latinas and Latinos through music, performance, and dance. Building on the region’s decades-old lgbt/queer history, and specifically diasporic queer Puerto Rican and Caribbean cultures, Pan Dulce became a powerful site for latinaje: the multilayered hybrid process of creating Latina and Latino worlds and cultures from below. In the context of HIV and AIDS, …


American Infants: Coping With Trauma And Becoming Historical In A Home At The End Of The World And American Pastoral., Vincent L. Stephens Dec 2006

American Infants: Coping With Trauma And Becoming Historical In A Home At The End Of The World And American Pastoral., Vincent L. Stephens

Vincent L Stephens

A literary analysis of the depiction of postwar child and child-like figures in the novels A Home at the End of the World and American Pastoral.


Review Of A. J. Meek Bio Of Clarence John Laughlin.Pdf, Jeffrey Ian Ross Ph.D. Dec 2006

Review Of A. J. Meek Bio Of Clarence John Laughlin.Pdf, Jeffrey Ian Ross Ph.D.

Jeffrey Ian Ross Ph.D.

No abstract provided.