After World War II, writers and literary critics - black and white - engaged in heated debates centred on the literary and imaginative problem of representing African-Americans in American literature. As the Cold War unfolded, many of these debates began to appear in journals, conferences and other events, including those directly sponsored by the Congress for Cultural Freedom and other organisations funded by U.S. and British intelligence agencies. Ralph Ellison, who would eventually join the American Congress for Cultural Freedom, was one of the most famous and frequently published critics...

This collection examines the multiple ways people listen to, consume, and produce music and sound in an increasingly digital world. Technologies such as social networks, recommendation algorithms, virtual cloud storage, and portable listening devices increasingly mediate both personal and communal experiences with music. While such technologies may be convenient, their unexamined use raises ethical, socio-political, and philosophical questions. This volume brings together multiple contributions which engage with these questions and others posed by emergent musical and social technologies....

While many studies focus on Obama as a politician, few consider his literary merit. This collection of essays approaches Obama's writings as a negotiation of literary tradition, rhetorical modes, and historical narratives. Obama, in turn, emerges as a notable figure within a long tradition of American literary-political authorship.