World War II SW-TX PCA/ACA Conference Albuquerque, New Mexico February 13-17, 2002 www.swtexaspca.org Please consider attending the Southwest-Texas Popular Culture/American Culture annual meeting in Albuquerque and presenting a paper on some aspect of World War II in the popular culture. In the past five years there has been considerable attention given to what Tom Brokaw dubbed "The Greatest Generation." Scores of books, movies, memoirs, and re-prints of books long out of print (e.g. Bill Mauldin's _Up Front_), not to mention the new D-Day museum, have re-kindled interest in World War II. Stephen Ambrose has turned the war into a cottage industry and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee--the home of Dollywood---launched a week-long celebration of World War II in the fall of 2000 that featured veterans, scholars, WWII era music, parades and the like. How has the recent flood of material re-shaped our image of WWII? Why were films like _Saving Private Ryan_ box office successes while Terrence Malick's version of James Jones _Thin Red Line_ received lukewarmly? Here are some suggestions to consider: --representations of World War II in children's and adult literature --philosophical arguments about the depiction of Japanese versus Germans in propaganda --why is the Pacific War less popular than the war in Europe --How have filmmakers in other countries depicted the war or aspects of it --Holocaust films or literature (e.g. _Schindler's List_, _Seven Beauties_) --analysis of controversial films like _The Night Porter_ --World War II in comic books --Wartime cartoons The 2002 meeting of the SW-TX PCA/ACA will be at the Albuquerque Hilton near the U of New Mexico campus. Special events are planned for the meeting and any modern language is welcome for presentations. For details about the meeting, the site, and travel, see the web site at www.swtexaspca.org Please send or e-mail a 300-400 word paper proposal, a brief biographical note, and a short bibliography for the paper-- BY December 15--to: Dr. Michael Birdwell Department of History P.O. Box 5064 Tennessee Technological University Cookeville, Tennessee 38505 Or e-mail to: birdie@tntech..edu Or FAX: 931-372-3356 ---- For past messages, visit the Screen-L Archives: http://bama.ua.edu/archives/screen-l.html