William H. Marling, Ph.D. – Professor of English at Case Western Reserve University

Friday March 28, 2008
12:30-1:30 p.m.
Crawford Hall – Room 9
Inamori Center
Case Western Reserve University

In the 1960s many social scientists saw “modernization” as a process of cultural and political convergence driven by technology. Then people in Iran got cassette decks – and used them to listen to tapes of Ayatollah Khomeini. Now both critics and promoters of “Globalization” may believe it is making the world ever more like the U.S. Yet how are American technology and culture in fact influencing the rest of the world?

In How American is Globalization? Bill Marling looks at developments from film and television to food and gender; from the internet and ATMs to who actually owns some of the most prominent “American” brands. His analysis combines history, cultural criticism, and economics, and yields an ironic answer – “less than we think” but “more than we know.” Join us to learn why seeing logos for McDonalds and Burger King, KFC and Mister Donut outside a Tokyo train station is not very important – and what is.

The Friday Lunch is a brown-bag event open to all.  Cookies and some beverages are provided.

The remainder of this e-mail reports what we know about the schedule for the rest of the semester. We will be sending out announcements each week. If you would prefer not to receive the announcements, please inform Dr. Andrew Lucker, Associate Director of the Center for Policy Studies, by e-mail (andrew.lucker@case.edu).

About Our Guest

William H. Marling’s first love was and is Modernism — his dissertation and first book were on the poet William Carlos Williams. Gertrude Stein, John Dos Passos, Marcel Duchamp, Djuna Barnes, and e.e. cummings are other Modernists with whom he values for their play with words, technique, and vision. Looking back, he sees that most of his work has been concerned with the way that visual values, from painting to film, from material objects and popular culture, appear in literature. After his book on Williams, Bill Marling turned to detective novelists. He is also interested in Raymond Chandler, and did a book on him, and finally wrote The American Roman Noir, incorporating the films that grew from these novels. Most recently Bill Marling has written about the export of American popular culture and globalization: How ‘American’ is Globalization? (2006). He is currently at work on a book about the import/export of World Literature.

Friday Lunch and Other Public Affairs Upcoming Topics and Speakers:

April 4: Jerry Floersch PhD, LISW, Associate Professor in MSASS, “The Psychosocial and Sociocultural Dimensions of Prescribing Psychiatric Medication to Adolescents.”

April 11: David Matthiesen, Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, will lead a discussion on “Energy and Alternative Energy Policy in Ohio.”

April 18: Megan Whalen Turner fiction writer for young adults and author of, Instead Of Three Wishes, The Thief, The Queen of Attolia and The King of Attolia; Anne Ursu is the author of the novels Spilling Clarence and The Disapparation of James, Joe White Luxenberg Family Professor of Public Policy and Chair, Department if Political Science, Case Western Reserve University, will discuss, “Moral Dilemmas in Politics and Fiction.”

The Friday Lunch discussions are held on the lower (ground) level of
Crawford Hall.  Visitors with mobility issues may find it easiest to take advantage of special arrangements we have made.  On most Fridays, a few parking spaces in the V.I.P. lot in between Crawford Hall and Amasa Stone Chapel are held for participants in the lunch discussion.

Visitors then can avoid walking up the hill to the first floor of Crawford by entering the building on the ground level, through the garage area under the building.  The further door on the left in that garage will be left unlocked during the period before the Friday lunch.  On occasion, parking will be unavailable because of other university events.

For more information about these and other Center for Policy Studies programs, please see http://policy.case.edu.