AmLit
The American Literature Working Group, generally referred to as “AmLit,” is one of the most broadly conceived working groups at Penn, considering it does not limit itself to particular timelines, topics, or sets of problematics. Even so, the grounding analytic—the “Am” in “AmLit”—points to the field’s highly situated and contested position in relation to national histories and formations. A word often deployed as shorthand for the U.S., in its adjectival state, American nevertheless belongs, more accurately, to a multiplicity of persons, communities, geographies, and states claimed across the Western Hemisphere, as well as through other continents. Rather than trying to determine where the field should begin and end, AmLit defines itself conscientiously in the interrogative, asking, what modes of living and feeling have been or are now available through the trope of the Americas? To what ends do American literary texts themselves dramatize the porosity of national frameworks? And how do we, as scholars, approach the contemporary geopolitical persistence of American empire?
To engage these questions, AmLit brings together graduate students and faculty throughout the fall and spring semesters to hear invited lectures; offer feedback on works-in-progress by visiting scholars, faculty, and grads; and discuss current issues facing the field. Our concentrations have been broad and interdisciplinary, ranging from Colonial and Antebellum print culture to Post-45 and Twenty-First Century cultural studies, and spanning African American, Asian American, Latin American, Caribbean, Postcolonial, Feminist, Queer, and Disability studies. In the past few years, we’ve heard from speakers like Jodi Byrd, Crystal Parikh, Kyla Wazana Tompkins, Lara Cohen, Caleb Smith, and Edlie Wong. We strive to promote collegial exchange between a variety of intellectual communities in the Philadelphia area and encourage Americanists from the region to join our listserv.
If you have any questions or would like to subscribe to our listserv, please contact Arianna James (aqjames@sas.upenn.edu).
Past Events
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Margo Natalie Crawford, Cornell University
Post-Department Lecture Series ConversationMarch 23, 2016 - 12:00pm to 1:30pm -
Dagmawi Woubshet, Cornell University
"Mourning = Survival: Remaining Human in the Wake of AIDS"March 3, 2016 - 4:00pm to 5:30pm -
Lindsay Reckson, Haverford College
"The Ghost Dance and Realism's Spiritual Frontier"February 11, 2016 - 4:00pm to 5:30pm -
Kalyan Nadiminti, WIP
"Impermanent Residence: The Post-1945 Foreign Student and American Knowledge Work"November 4, 2015 - 4:30pm to 6:00pm -
Robert Reid-Pharr, CUNY Graduate Center
November 2, 2015 - 4:30pm to 6:00pm -
Gustavus Stadler, Haverford College
"Woody Guthrie and the Intimate Life of the Left"October 27, 2015 - 4:30pm to 6:30pm -
Urayoán Noel, NYU
October 20, 2015 - 5:00pm to 6:30pm -
Ana Schwartz (WIP)
October 1, 2015 - 5:00pm to 6:30pm -
Introductory Meeting
September 23, 2015 - 5:00pm to 6:30pm -
Omari Weekes (WIP)
"Bodily Attunements: Healing, Time, and Corporeality in Toni Cade Bambara’s The Salt Eaters"April 28, 2015 - 5:00pm to 6:30pm