Past Events
- Edinburgh International Book Festival 2005
- American culture: a contradiction in terms?
- Venue: Edinburgh International Book Festival, Charlotte Square, Edinburgh
- Date: August 23, 2005
- Time: 7.30pm
- Tickets: £8 (£6 concs)
- Booking: Call 0131 624 5050 or visit the festival website
America is the undisputed world superpower, militarily, politically and, for the time being at least, economically. But what about culturally? The global reach of Hollywood and Britney Spears is often seen as an aspect of America's political dominance – 'Coca-Colonisation' or 'cultural imperialism' rather than an expression of superior culture. Critics often seem more outraged by McDonald's appearing in the developing world than by tanks and warplanes. But can US cultural influence be reduced to brands and an imposition of populist trash?
Is America the cultural backwater it is sometimes made out to be? From jazz and Broadway musicals to abstract expressionism, Pop Art and beat poetry, from the novels of Henry James, F Scott Fitzgerald and William Faulkner to the films of Charlie Chaplin, Frank Capra and Martin Scorsese, America has a history of vibrant and innovative cultural output. Today, novelists like Philip Roth, John Updike and newer writers like Don Delillo and Jonathan Franzen capture the zeitgeist and are admired throughout the world. American television dramas like The Sopranos and Six Feet Under have raised a popular form to great heights, while American cinema dominates the independent as well as commercial sector. Is America in fact quite rightly at the centre of world culture?
Speakers include
- Allan Massie
- journalist and historical novelist
- Alan Miller
- director, Old Truman Brewery, London and co-founder of the NY Salon, New York
- Francine Prose
- author of 13 books of fiction including 'Blue Angel' and 'A Changed Man'; Director’s Fellow at the Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library
- Adriano Shaplin
- critically acclaimed Fringe First winning playwright; artistic director, Riot Group; play at Edinburgh Fringe festival 2005 'Switch Triptych'
Chair
- Claire Fox
- director, Institute of Ideas; panellist on BBC Radio 4’s Moral Maze