Series American Studies in Austria (ed. by Astrid M. Fellner, Klaus Rieser, and Hanna Wallinger):

American Studies in Austria is a series edited by the Austrian Association for American Studies. Its goal is to publish the annual conference proceedings of the AAAS as well as other monographs and collections by members of the Association. American Studies in Austria reflects the variety of approaches and contributions to the field of American Studies produced in Austria.

You can visit the publisher's website at http://www.lit-verlag.de/reihe/amsia and via the links to the individual volumes below:

Astrid Fellner (Ed.) Body Signs. The Latino/a Body in Cultural Production. Bd. 6, 2011, 240 S., 19.90 EUR, br., ISBN 978-3-643-90182-8 > publisher
This collection of scholarly articles as well as creative writings by leading Chicano/a writers and critics focuses on the primacy of the body as the site and means of enunciation in U.S. Latino/a culture. Exploring the multiple forms of how the body is written, performed, and represented, the essays address a series of questions such as: In what ways is the body depicted as the site where representations of difference and identity are inscribed? By considering how cultural signifiers, practices, and discourses have been creatively reconfigured, this volume asserts the significance of the body in Latino/a cultural production.
Heinz Tschachler, Eugen Banauch, Simone Puff (Eds.) Almighty Dollar Bd. 9, 2010, 272 S., 29.90 EUR, br., ISBN 978-3-643-50172-1 > publisher
Almighty Dollar brings together papers and lectures from the 35th International Annual Conference of the Austrian Association for American Studies (AAAS). The conference took place at the very time that the United States and world economies were plunging downward. However, money has never been simply an economic issue; it has also always been a cultural one, conveying complex historical, social and political meanings. Contributions consider people's engagements with the "Almighty Dollar" from the most ordinary, mundane daily practices to the most extra-ordinary, life-changing ones. They deal with these engagements in literature, the arts, film, and popular culture.
Dorothea Steiner, Sabine Danner (Eds.) Exploring Spaces: Practices and Perspectives. With an Afterword by Amritjit Singh. Bd. 8, 2009, 200 S., 24.90 EUR, br., ISBN 978-3-643-50094-6 > publisher
This collection cuts across the work of - mostly young - Americanists in Austria. It focuses on the opening-up of space in terms of a broad Cultural Studies approach. Some essays pay attention to revisionism as triggered by postcolonial studies, border studies, globalism and transculturality, others test American myths and policies by linking them to the military and educational agenda; yet others use close analysis of individual texts for "reading Culture," or reflect on gender, popular culture and subcultural issues, modernity, capitalism, and the New Media. Pedagogy is a deep concern: "perspective" translated into "practice." The Afterword assesses the "local" work in the "global" American Studies perspective.
Walter Hölbling, Justine Tally (Eds.) Theories and Texts For Students - By Students. 2. Auflage Bd. 7, 2. Auflage, 328 S., 24.90 EUR, br., ISBN 978-3-8258-0809-9 > publisher
Theories and Texts, a guide written by students for students, explores the critical ideas of twelve of the most influential philosophers of the last 150 years - Marx, Freud, Bakhtin, Lacan, Derrida, Barthes, Foucault, Bhaba, as well as a variety of feminist critics (Kristeva & the French feminists, black feminists, and theological feminists), New Historicists, and Postcolonialists. Carefully "digested" and then set out in lucid and easily accessible language, these essays explain major ideas of each critical approach and exemplify them through practical application to one or more literary texts. At a time when "theory" is on everybody's lips and yet is often more of a deterrent than an attraction for students of literature and culture, we believe that these essays show how theories can enrich our understanding of literature, facilitate our analysis of a particular text, elucidate the multiple layers of meaning, and thus significantly enhance the juissance in our acts of reading. Literary theory with a différance!
Astrid M. Fellner (Ed.) (forthcoming) Body Signs: The Body in Latino/a Culture Bd. 6, 200 S., 19.90 EUR, br., ISBN 978-3-8258-0439-8 > publisher	forthcoming
Hanna Wallinger (Ed.) Transitions: Race, Culture, and the Dynamics of Change Bd. 5, 2006, 264 S., 24.90 EUR, br., ISBN 3-8258-9531-9 > publisher
This volume is about transitions, the manifold and dynamic process of change and exchange, variety and variation, difference and diversity, migration and globalisation. Contributions emphasize issues of race and ethnicity in the American cultural context, look at class-based, gender-oriented, religious, political, historical, social, and cultural negotiations, and question the meaningfulness of distinctions and boundaries in todayÆs fast-changing world. Contributions include analyses of historical changes from Brown vs. Board of Education to 9/11, examinations of cultural transitions from regional identity to migratory artists, as well as explorations of literary adaptations ranging from Affrilachian poetry to cyberspace narrativity.
Walter W. Hölbling, Klaus Rieser, Susanne Rieser (Eds.) US Icons and Iconicity Bd. 4, 2006, 304 S., 29.90 EUR, br., ISBN 3-8258-8669-7 > publisher
This book investigates the ontology as well as the social and cultural impact of US icons. American Studies scholars from various nations have come together to explore origins, maintenance, and manipulation of icons and to trace their hegemonic as well as subversive impact. Icons experience mutation, modulation, adjustment, and diversification until they either fade or join the pantheon of core US icons, becoming almost eternal. Contributions include analyses of iconic figures such as Billy the Kid, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, they cover stereotypes from obese bodies via Aunt Jemima to iconic femmes, and they examine material icons such as the Dollar Bill, the Zapruder footage of the JFK assassination or iconic sites like the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
Walter W. Hölbling, Klaus Rieser (Eds.) What is American? New Identities in U.S. Culture Bd. 3, 2004, 392 S., 24.90 EUR, br., ISBN 3-8258-7734-5 > publisher
Identity is one of the central cultural narratives of the US on which both dominant and resistant discourses draw. This critical anthology honors the topic's diversity while concentrating on one central aspect, that of newness. Construction of identities, their invention, reinvention and reformulation are discussed within four thematic categories: New Concepts and Reconsiderations, Migration and Multiple Identities, Individuation and Privatized Identity Construction, and (Re-) Inventions and Virtual Identities. Written by European as well as U. S. scholars, ranging from the 19th century to the utopian future, from mainstream canonized figures to transgender performers, from a critique of individualism to a celebration of loneliness, the articles present a cross-section of current research on U.S. identities.
Michael Draxlbauer, Astrid M. Fellner, Thomas Fröschl (Eds.) (Anti-)Americanisms Bd. 2, 2004, 352 S., 20.00 EUR, br., ISBN 3-8258-6763-3 > publisher
"(Anti-)Americanisms" is a collection of articles presented during the international conference of the Austrian Association for American Studies in 2002. Focusing on the various propagations of American culture in literature, music, film, "the new media", architecture, politics, and ways of life, these essays question the notion of (Anti-)Americanism as an object-oriented construct, a convenient vehicle used to transport ideology. The spectrum of topics includes the historical dimensions of European Anti-Americanism, roots of Anti- Americanism in post-World-War II Austria, and the relationship between Anti-Americanism and American Studies.
Heinz Tschachler, Maureen Devine, Michael Draxlbauer (Eds.) The EmBodyment of American Culture Bd. 1, 2003, 224 S., 19.90 EUR, br., ISBN 3-8258-6762-5 > publisher
American culture has literally become fixated on the body at the same time that the body has emerged as a key term within critical and cultural theory. Contributions thus address the body as a site of the cultural construction of various identities, which are themselves enacted, negotiated, or subverted through bodily practices. Contributions come from literary and cultural studies, film and media studies, history and sociology, and women studies, and are representative of many theoretical positions, hermeneutic, historical, structuralist, feminist, postmodernist. They deal with representations and discursifications of the body in a broad array of texts, in literature, the visual arts, theater, the performing arts, film and mass media, science and technology, as well as in various cultural practices.