I have yet to hear from anyone at the annual conference of the German Association for American Studies, which is going on now (May 31 – June 3, 2012) in Mainz, but the volume pictured above — Transnational American Studies, edited by Udo Hebel — was scheduled to make its debut there. (The Amazon page is up, but currently listing the book as not yet available.) In any case, I look forward to reading the contributions to the volume, which the publisher (Winter) describes thus:
Transnational approaches and theories have reshaped the interdisciplinary trajectory of American Studies since the turn of the millennium. The further extension of perspectives on the United States and North America to prominently include Atlantic Studies, Hemispheric Studies, and Pacific Studies has complicated long-standing notions of ‘American Studies’ and problematized concepts such as nation, identity, and American exceptionalism.
The collection gathers thirty original contributions to transnational American Studies from the fields of cultural studies, literature, history, politics, and media studies. Individual essays reassess the global role of the U.S. and its perceptions from within and without, discuss how transnational and comparative explorations emphasize multidirectional processes of cultural exchange and transfer, and show how paradigms of migration and cultural mobility have taken definitions and practices of American Studies beyond traditional geographical and disciplinary limits.
Oh, and did I mention that I have a chapter in the book? (Sorry for the self-promotion, but that’s what blogs are for, right?) Anyway, my piece is called “Frame, Sequence, Medium: Comics in Plurimedial and Transnational Perspective,” and it’s a reworking of a talk by the same title that I gave at last year’s DGfA conference. (In case you missed it but are interested, a screencast video of the full presentation can be viewed here.)
It’s been seen and sold and now it’s vanished, Shane. Appears they sold all copies they brought to the conference… congrats! 🙂
Thanks for the update, Ilka. I wonder when I’ll get to see a copy…
(On another note, I noticed that the links above to the book on Winter’s website don’t in fact lead to where they’re supposed to. Has something to do with the frame structure of their site, so you’ll have to use their search function to find it…)
same here…
Yes — the volume is out! And yes — the representatives of Winter had it on display at the Mainz 2012 DGfA conference and sold all display copies.
Udo Hebel
Thanks to all of you for the updates. Wish I could have been there! Anyway, I look forward to getting a copy soon. I’m sure it turned out nice!
Very nice 🙂 I trust that Winter will send out copies soon.
Excellent. And thanks for all the work you put into it!
amazon.de lists the book now as “in stock” 🙂 thanks from me, too. that was incredibly fast!
PS: If anyone actually has a copy, could you please comment here and tell me the exact page numbers of my chapter (which a colleague needs for citation)? I would greatly appreciate it!
561-580
Excellent, thanks!