OBSERVATION
479
American students' deficiency in foreign languages, which, I believe,
ends up furthering our cOllntry's isolation, and provincialism.
Alas, my own Spanish was not good enough to follow the panel dis–
cussions that were held in Spanish. The first day's presentations ran the
gamut from, for instance, "Jack London's Spencerian Cage" and
"Power and Culture in Babbitt" to "Power Relations and Southern
Aristocratic Values," to "Cultural Interaction and Poetic Renewal:
Williams on Cummings," and to "Mythologies of Power in Emerson
and Whitman." That morning's plenary lecture was given by the Cali–
fornian Emory Elliott, on "The Culture Wars and the Revenge of the
Aesthetic," followed by a session on Afro-American Studies (this one in
English), by a plenary lecture on Political Propaganda in the United
States since
1945,
and by a roundtable on Cultural Studies. That day
ended with a first-rate piano recital by the young Milton Ruben Laufer
in yet another magnificent, medieval auditorium-which was followed
by a very late dinner.
The second day started with sessions on "Latinos and Native Dia–
logues," "Power and Culture in Hollywood," and "Visual Power and
Culture" (with emphasis on Hollywood and on fiction). My own plenary
lecture, "End of American High Culture?" was followed by a roundtable
on Women's Studies, and a lecture by Michael Rockland on "The Euro–
peanization of the United States." I was surprised that after my talk a
number of Spanish participants approached me to say that I had been
"brave" by coming out against what, in shorthand, we call political cor–
rectness. Some applauded my "courage"-for having done (with a bit of
trepidation) what I thought lowed the organizers.
The last day began with "Visions of American Culture" by various
Spanish contingents, which was followed by (immigrant) "Women's
Selves." Hans Bak, who came from Holland, gave a lecture on "The
Interplay of Race, Ethnicity, and Religion in Contemporary American
Multicultural Literatures," and Linda Kauffman presented another one
on "Old Art/New Masters: The Public Role of Artists and Intellectuals."
Panels on "Visions of Masculinity" and on "Culture and Ideology"
were succeeded by a lecture on "National Identity and Character in
U.S.-Mexico/Mexico-U.S. Travel Narratives" by John Hazlett. Even a
quick reading of the titles of these talks-their often exotic subjects and
the takes on them-indicates the idiosyncratic ways of American cul–
ture, whether "high" or "low," and how these may appear to "others"
whose countries' traditions and personal perspectives come into play.
Such personal perspectives were the meat of the London conference,
as participants focused on some of the consequences in individuals'
