American Culture Research Articles

Hans Namuth’s Photographs and Film Studies of Jackson Pollock: Transforming American Postwar Avant-Garde Labor into Popular Consumer Spectacle

Abstract Expressionism is often regarded as the first purely American art movement and the first to gain mass cultural recognition. Prior to the 1940s, the consideration and appreciation of abstract art belonged to a certain intellectual elite, but the intimidating complexity of Abstract Expressionism, the daring allure of its artists, and the particularities of mid-century American culture converged to transform the avant-garde into consumer spectacle. This shift represented, and was symptomatic of, a larger societal rearrangement: information and commodity superseded industrialized labor as the core of American culture. Jackson Pollock, America’s first avant-garde superstar, stood at the center of this shift, at once representing both active creative labor and the commodification of the idea of that labor. Hans Namuth’s photographs and films of Pollock placed him and his art firmly in the realm of consumable popular spectacle, underlying further connections to Hollywood film and prominent print media. This article examines how Pollock became a paradigmatic figure in the avant-garde’s proliferation into mass culture and asserts that mass culture did not simply subsume the avant-garde. Rather, the two realms engaged in a mutual construction that pushed the avant-garde across numerous social boundaries. The artistic, critical, and popular receptions that grew out of this convergence erased distinctions between ‘high’ and ‘low’ culture.

Comparison of Translanguaging pedagogies used by Native and Non-native Teachers in EFL Writing Classes

Introduction: The present quantitative study aimed to compare the translanguaging pedagogies (TP) used by native and non-native EFL teachers in their academic writing classes in a Türkish university context. Translanguaging pedagogies included strategies such as switching between and speaking multiple languages, comparing languages and cultures, and making use of translation. Methodology: A native EFL teacher, a non-native EFL teacher, and their students (N=32) were purposefully selected from the English pre-sessional program of a Türkish university. The native teacher is British, and the non-native teacher and the students are of Türkish nationality. Data was collected from two audio recordings of teachers’ academic writing classes. Data were analyzed through descriptive statistics such as the frequency of TP and English and Türkish words of the participants by using CLAN (Computerized Language ANalysis) Program. Results: The findings revealed differences between the teachers’ classes. In the non-native teacher’s class, language integration (students’ L1 and target language) was more intensive, compared to the session with the native teacher. The frequency of Türkish words was high and close to the frequency of English words in the non-native teacher’s classroom, while English was dominating Türkish in the native teacher’s session at a significant level. Similarly, the switches between languages were much more in the classroom of the non-native teacher. Another finding indicated that the non-native teacher made much more use of TP than her native counterpart. Apart from code-switching, the non-native teacher compared English and Türkish grammar and translated vocabulary, sentences, and her questions to the students very often. On the other hand, the native EFL teacher only compared American and British cultures. Conclusion: Native and non-native EFL teachers may approach translanguaging differently in the classroom, and this also affects the translanguaging behavior of their students accordingly. Further research is suggested with qualitative and longitudinal studies on native vs. non-native EFL teachers’ translanguaging. Implications were recommended at the end of the study.

Literature and reading under the light of intermedial and multimodality studies

Professor Grzegorz Maziarczyk specialises in contemporary English and American literature and culture as well as transmedial narrative theory. His main research interests include textual materiality, intermediality, relations between literature and new media, multimodal storytelling, utopia and dystopia. He has been a recipient of fellowships and research grants from the University of Notre Dame, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and European Society for the Study of English. He is the author of two monographs – The Narratee in Contemporary British Fiction (2005) and The Novel as Book: Textual Materiality in Contemporary Fiction in English (2013) – and the co-editor of five collections of essays, including (Im)perfection Subverted, Reloaded and Networked: Utopian Discourse across Media (2015) and Explorations of Consciousness in Contemporary Fiction (2017). He has published widely in edited collections and peer-reviewed journals, including Word & Image, Journal of Narrative Theory, Utopian Studies, Interfaces: Image, Texte, Language and Slavia amongst others. Since 2019 he has been Director of the Institute of Literary Studies at the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin

The Devil’s Marriage: Folk Horror and the Merveilleux Louisianais

At the beginning of his Creole opus The Grandissimes, George Washington Cable refers to Louisiana as “A land hung in mourning, darkened by gigantic cypresses, submerged; a land of reptiles, silence, shadow, decay”. This anti-pastoral view of Louisiana as an ecosystem of horrific nature and the very human melancholy it breeds is one that has persisted in popular American culture to the present day. However, the literature of Louisiana itself is marked by its creativity in blending elements of folktales, fairy tales, and local color. This paper proposes to examine the transhuman, or the transcendence of the natural by means of supernatural transformation, in folk horror tales of Louisiana. As the locus where the fairy tale meets the burgeoning Southern Gothic, these tales revolve around a reworking of what Vladimir Propp refers to as transfiguration, the physical and metaphysical alteration of the human into something beyond the human. The focus of this paper will be on three recurring figures in Louisiana folk horror: yellow fever, voodoo, and the Devil. Drawing upon works including Alcée Fortier’s collection of Creole folktales Louisiana Folktales (1895), Dr. Alfred Mercier’s “1878”, and various newspaper tales of voodoo ceremonies from the ante- and post-bellum periods, this article brings together theorizations about the fairy tale from Vladimir Propp and Jack Zipes and historiological approaches to the Southern Gothic genre to demonstrate that Louisiana, in its multilingual literary traditions, serves as a nexus where both genres blend uncannily together to create tales that are both geographically specific and yet exist outside of the historical time of non-fantastic fiction. Each of these figures, yellow fever, voodoo, and the Devil, challenges the expectations of what limits the human. Thus, this paper seeks to examine what will be termed the “Louisiana gothic”, a particular blend of fairy-tale timelessness, local color, and the transfiguration of the human. Ultimately, the Louisiana gothic, as expressed in French, English, and Creole, tends toward a view of society in decay, mobilizing these elements of horror and of fairy tales to comment on a society that, after the revolution in Saint-Domingue, the Louisiana Purchase, and the Civil War, was seen as falling into inevitable decline. This commentary on societal decay, expressed through elements of folk horror, sets apart Louisiana gothic as a distinct subgenre that challenges conventions about the structures and functions of the fairy tale.

Adult illiteracy and the distortion of American culture

Adult illiteracy and the distortion of American culture

“No Future to Be Had”: Journeying toward Death in Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon

Abstract This article examines Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon (1977) by focusing on the way that the novel’s protagonist, Milkman Dead, rejects various traditional Euro-American formulations of “progress.” I argue that Milkman’s actions uncover a legacy of loss associated with African American culture and, relatedly, buried narratives of African American history. I take a cue from dance scholar Ann Cooper Albright’s attentiveness to what she terms “the cultural hegemony of the vertical” (37) in considering Milkman’s embodied resistance to existing paradigms of progress. By positing a vertical conceptualization of racial uplift ideology, the Dead family ancestry, and the journeys North and South between Michigan and Virginia in Song of Solomon, I demonstrate how Milkman’s very corporeality comes to signify the importance of African American cultural preservation and moving “counter-to” in re-visioning liberatory, counter-hegemonic routes of progress. My reading unfolds from a critical moment in chapter 2 of Song of Solomon; in this scene, the Dead family journeys northward in Milkman’s father’s Packard toward the wealthy white neighborhoods of Honoré, meanwhile Milkman demonstrates a remarkable preoccupation with what lies behind him. Situating Milkman’s embodied opposition to the journey’s progress as a point of departure, I examine how Morrison disrupts various paradigms of progress throughout Song of Solomon.

International communication and cultural exchange based on music: a study of the experience of Chinese music education in other countries

ABSTRACT Within the scope of this presented study, the authors aimed to investigate the peculiarities of intercultural communication and cultural exchange based on musical knowledge, considering the exploration of the Chinese music education experience in other countries. The scholars find that the strongest relationships of Chinese musical education are with American, European, Korean, and Japanese musical cultures. The research found that intercultural learning motivated students from European universities (202 respondents) and universities of Chinese (200 respondents) to pay special attention to American music (23%), reflecting modern approaches to performance. Western European (21%) music has a strong relationship with Chinese music. The research finds that Chinese music is popular among 20% of students who value national traditions. The research found that the benefits of intercultural learning involve learning mobility (an attitude of students reflected by rating index: 3.01), the development of worldview (an attitude of students reflected by rating index: 2.73), melodic skills development (an attitude of students reflected by rating index: 2.52), and the uniqueness of musical composition performance (an attitude of students reflected by rating index: 2.85). The scholars identified that for 86% of students, intercultural learning had a positive value and promoted musical knowledge development.

FAILURE OF FAMILY REINTEGRATION INTO HOME FROM EARLY PLAYS OF SAM SHEPARD

Sam Shepard is not just a “western essayist”, but one who has the capacity to assess contemporary American culture through the symbols and topics of conventional Western American writing. His plays follow the liquidation of American society, in which characters are no more coordinated into their reality by adherence to habitual qualities and standards. Shepard raises the icons of this convention to send them slamming from a more prominent stature, delineates the whole-world destroying end of customary American society in which long-held qualities, especially those celebrated in Western American writing, are ceremonially exorcized to make space for some new, up till now unheard of America. Shepard’s plays don’t advance sequentially to these ends. Shepard, depicts the search for home within contemporary American culture. In this paper, we are focusing on Shepard’s selected plays to depict the failure of family reintegration into Home or Family. Shepard’s Fourteen Hundred Thousand (1967), The Unseen Hand (1972) and Mad Dog Blues (1972). Fourteen Hundred Thousand - is a play about Husband and Wife who tries to build a bookshelf. The Unseen Hand - is a play about Morphan brothers who lives far away from their home. Mad Dog Blues - this play is all about a couple of best friends who were unhappy with their misguided lives set off to discover a treasure.

Dreamers, Queer Kids, and American Culture Wars: Centering Young People in Identity Politics

Abstract Children routinely sit at the center of American culture wars, as parents, officials, and other adults battle over what kids learn in the classroom, which bathrooms they can use, whether they must wear masks or get vaccines, what sports teams they can join, and which schools they can attend. In Democracy’s Child, we describe the crucial reciprocal relationship that exists between children and politics: young people are constituted by their political environs, but liberal democratic politics in turn are shaped and influenced by their young constituents. In this article we ask: what happens when the youngest voices in the most contentious policy battles take the reins – with a specific focus on youth leaders who are challenged by multiple identity-based structural barriers. We train a spotlight on how two youth-led movements – gay straight or gender-sexuality alliances (GSAs) and Dreamers – influenced the rights of LGBTQIA+ people and immigrants amidst opposition from adult adversaries and allies.

Depilatory Practices and the Dichotomization of Sexes in Twentieth-Century America

Depilatory practices (hair removal) have become commonplace for many in the United States, especially women. Although depilatory practices are now entrenched in American culture, their social enforcement has a surprisingly recent history. I review U.S. advertisements from the period 1915-1945 and situate the rise in popularity of hair removal in its historical context: the increased popularity of more revealing women’s clothing, changing conceptions of modesty, and stocking shortages. I then jump back further in history, and examine ancient Roman depilatory practices to further denaturalize and historicize hair removal. Finally, I reflect on how this history has shaped the present, through an empirical review of modern body hair perceptions. I assert that hair removal in America was originally, and remains, a tool for dichotomizing sexes amid fears about changing gender roles. Deviations from expected depilatory practices have become a social marker of queerness. These beliefs surrounding hair removal have created a unique and undue pressure for conformity in American women and men.

Gender Issues in Comfort Woman by Nora Okja Keller

Through an exploration of the comfort women system, this article analyzes how the female gender has been oppressed in history. It follows the story of Akiko, the main character of Comfort Woman (1998) by Asian American author Nora Okja Keller. Keller is one of the first authors to write about comfort women, gaining publicity for this issue. This article provides an examination of terms such as sex, gender, and gender issues. Certain concepts influencing American and Asian cultures and their stance towards gender are also analyzed, after which focus is placed on the portrayal of gender roles as illustrated in the novel. The article briefly mentions the history of the relationship between the United States and Korea. The characteristics of the comfort women system are described as well as the causes leading to its establishment such as patriarchy, Confucian traditions, and the exploitability of lower-class society. Additionally, the article highlights how the comfort women issue helped define feminist theory in the US and identifies the transnational nature of the issues involved.

Hashtags and heritage: the use of #italianamerican on Instagram

Abstract Purpose Using both framing theory and Collier’s cultural identity theory, this paper seeks to study the use of #italianamerican on Instagram by first attempting to determine if it is used exclusively by Italian Americans as a way to demonstrate their own cultural identity. The paper will then examine whether the message valence of posts using #italianamerican demonstrates users’ personal perceptions of Italian American culture. Finally, the paper will examine if there is a relationship between #italianamerican posters’ ethnicity and the message valence of their posts. This paper does not argue that Italian Americans are the only Americans of European ancestry taking part in the hashtag phenomenon; rather, this paper is meant to examine how one ethnic group attempts to define itself by its use of digital and social media. Design/methodology This simple exploratory study examined the 50 most recent Instagram posts using #italianamerican as they appeared on November 1, 2022. The posts were sent to two independent coders who analyzed their visual content. Findings This study provides insight into how ethnicity and cultural familiarity are associated. Results show that message valence and ethnicity are not linked, as anyone can admire and respect a culture and post a positive message about it on social media, even if it is not their culture of origin. Members of a specific ethnic group tend to have a stronger familiarity with their culture of origin, as demonstrated by the posts selected for this study. Implications This study showed that Italian Americans use social media to educate others about their heritage, as well as to celebrate their culture of origin. Value The methods used in this study could be applied to other European American ethnic groups and their social media usage, including Irish Americans, Polish Americans, and German Americans, among others.

A Study on the Teaching Model of Cross Culture and Speculation on EFL Writing

Under the background of post critical pedagogy, teachers should pay attachment to the awakening of students’ self-identity consciousness and the cultivation of critical thinking skills. The teaching model of writing course adopted by the author is as follows: firstly, the writing course is equipped with a dedicated reading manual. It is compiled to establish cultural reading materials which include 12 theme reading passages to introduce Chinese and American culture and 12 writing sharing to promote identity thinking based on the relevant theories of Constructivism and Output Hypothesis by using the Flesch Kincaid Readability Test. The teaching process emphasizes the integration of students’ vertical and horizontal knowledge. Referring to the Knowledge Transformation Model of Writing proposed by Bereiter and Scardamalia, the teaching model vertically emphasizes the integration of pre-class cultural reading, in-class skill training, and post-class thinking reinforcement; it horizontally emphasizes on the integration with reading courses, cultural courses, and speculative courses. Overall, the model stresses the cultivation of cross-cultural communication skills. It emphasizes understanding oneself and the other and stimulates students’ writing interest in cultural reading; it emphasizes that the other is for my own use and enrich students’ cultural illustrations in skill training; it emphasizes that I see the world and reflect on my own learning, life, and social hotpots in theme writing. In short, the author actively explores “playing” with learning, “stealing” with learning, and “using” in learning.

Colleen Hoover’s Formulas for Best-Sellers as Seen in Reminders of Him and it Ends with Us

Abstract Using John G. Cawelti’s theory of formulas for understanding the relationship between a work and its culture, this article looks at two of Colleen Hoover’s novels, Reminders of Him and It Ends with Us, in order to comprehend Hoover’s appeal to the public.The popularity of romance novels formula indicates a high interest of the American public in the topic of romantic relationships, and it touches a sensitive nerve existent in American culture.

Translation as a Means of Intercultural Communication

Translation is considered to be the most economical type of intercultural communication. This idea is announced by Monica Năstase, a Romanian researcher who investigated the difficulty of translating realia words from Romanian into English. Realia are words and expressions for culture-specific items. As realia carry a very local overtone, they often represent a challenge for translators. They are born in popular culture, and are increasingly found in very diverse kinds of texts. In this paper we discuss the translation variants of such realia words as “colac”, “ie”, “mămăligă”, “horă” and “dor” from Romanian into English as they represent translatable lacunas and the interpreter has to be very accurate in transposing them into another language. At the same time we concentrate on the ways of rendering word combinations containing „privacy” lexeme in English, a value which is typical to the English and American cultures, and analyse variants of these realia words translated into Romanian.

Early Black Thought Leaders and the Reframing of American Intellectual History

Abstract: This essay examines the broad impact of African American thought leadership on early American intellectual history. Though marginalized in many mainstream histories of American intellectual life–which often focus on the emergence of Black philosophers and Black professional historians later in the 19th century -- early national Black thinkers helped shape public understanding of critical ideas in American society and politics, including the meaning of citizenship and civil rights, emancipation and equality, and racial justice. African Americans also influenced public discourses on other key topics in American intellectual life, including the nature of human dignity and spiritual redemption in the Second Great Awakening, the meaning of Romanticism and Transcendentalism in American reform culture, and the authority of science and technology in antebellum society. Using the concept of thought leadership as a framing device to understand the power and impact of early Black ideas, I follow recent trends in the field of African American intellectual history that focus on that way that African American men and women became public authorities on key ideas and issues in American culture between the American Revolution and Civil War. Though they did not often occupy positions of educational, institutional, or legal power (the main provinces of intellectual leadership), Black thought leaders had a significant impact on early American intellectual history.

Abstract A093: Implementation of a financial hardship screening among Native American patients with cancer

Abstract Introduction: Financial hardship and financial hardship screening are emerging concerns in oncology. Native American patients may be at increased risk of financial hardship due to factors including poverty, medical comorbidities, and lack of private health insurance coverage. Financial hardship for Native American patients with cancer has only rarely been studied, and implementation of screening for financial hardship for these patients has never been reported. Methods: Guided by input from a stakeholder advisory board consisting of patient, provider, and staff members at a single cancer center in Oklahoma, we implemented a financial hardship screening tool, the COmprehensive Score for financial Toxicity (COST) – Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy (FACIT) among 42 Native American patients with cancer. We conducted key informant interviews with ten of these patients and four clinical staff involved in the implementation process. Patient interviews included questions about current financial hardship, experiences in discussing financial hardship with the cancer care and primary care team, and acceptability of the COST-FACIT tool. Clinician interviews focused on their experience with the project, including implementation of the COST-FACIT tool, barriers to implementation, and sustainability. Recorded interviews were transcribed and thematically analyzed using MAXQDA® software. COST-FACIT tool data were analyzed using SAS v. 9.4 Results: Three-quarters (76%, n=32) of participants who completed the COST-FACIT tool reported moderate or severe financial hardship (Score <25 out of max 44, with lower scores indicating more hardship). A higher percentage of patients experiencing financial hardship were younger, covered by Medicaid, unemployed, not married/cohabiting, had lower income, and lower education compared to those with no/mild hardship (Scores ≥25). Among patients and clinicians, we identified themes of 1) financial hardship screening perception and intervention experiences, 2) screening efficacy and opportunities for improvement, and 3) systematic and patient related themes of Native American health systems and culture. Conclusions: Financial hardship was reported by the majority of Native American patients with cancer included in our study. Patients expressed a positive experience with the screening tool, including identification of financial challenges though timing of the tool in regards to their cancer diagnosis varied across patients. Clinicians experienced challenges in implementation of the COST-FACIT tool related to logistics, the COVID-19 pandemic, and concerns for sustainability. However, clinicians reported a positive experience with the tool and interactions with patients and referrals that resulted from the screening. Citation Format: Amanda E. Janitz, Amber S. Anderson-Buettner, Stefani D. Madison, Mark P. Doescher, Dorothy A. Rhoades. Implementation of a financial hardship screening among Native American patients with cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 16th AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2023 Sep 29-Oct 2;Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2023;32(12 Suppl):Abstract nr A093.

Blackening the Frame: Kerry James Marshall's Rythm Mastr

ABSTRACTThis essay argues Marshall is “blackening the frame” with his African‐centric comic series Rythm Mastr. The series is a corrective to the overwhelming whiteness of canonical comics and the silencing and erasure of Black people in American popular culture and fine art. Through the incorporation of Yoruba figures within the superhero genre, Marshall explores Black history and reframes American popular culture towards an African‐oriented future as part of a broader insurgence among Black comic creators.

Dual Panic Theory: New Insight into Moral Panics

Moral panics have been broadly discussed in the public discourse since Stanley Cohen’s (1972) seminal text on the topic. Despite copious research, we believe that the theory is in need of expansion due to the increased complexity of societal interactions. Through the lens of an increasingly polarizing American culture, we believe the original concept of moral panics is overly simplified and no longer encompasses the intricacies of American society. Using the story of the McCloskey family’s 2020 interactions with Black Lives Matter protestors and Goode and Ben-Yehuda’s (1994) definitional criteria, we propose a new, expanded theory of moral panics – Dual Panic Theory.

Realism, Myth and Spiritual Mestizaje in Las malas by Camila Sosa Villada

Abstract: By reclaiming the power of self-definition and the use of the term travesti to designate their unique experience within the Latin American cultural, economic, and political context, travesti intellectuals have fought the dehumanization of their personhood. In her novel Las malas , the Argentine author Camila Sosa Villada not only reclaims the right to self-definition but also connects the realistic accounts of human rights violations against travesti subjects with the spiritual, mythical, and religious roots of the travesti experience. To make these connections, Sosa Villada appropriates magical realism, a literary mode that provides the space to naturalize the presence of travesti subjects as protagonists of folktales, miracles, and religious narratives while denouncing violence against travesti bodies. In this way, the author unveils and corrects the dichotomic nature of cultural narratives that exclude travesti and trans subjects from religious and cultural spaces in Latin America. Moreover, by rewriting folktales and religious narratives, and by situating travestis as protagonists of narratives of miracles, Sosa Villada deploys "spiritual mestizaje" that dignifies and humanizes travesti personhood, opening previously proscribed spaces for these agents. In this way, Sosa Villada not only disrupts and expands the literary tradition of magical realism by adding the travesti experience to the predominantly heteronormative corpus of magical-realist narratives but exercises religious agency.