School of Critical Studies

Dr Chris Gair

  • Senior Lecturer (English Literature)

telephone: 01413308596
email: Chris.Gair@glasgow.ac.uk


Research interests  

  • 19th and 20th century American literature
  • Realism and Naturalism
  • The Beat Generation
  • The American Counterculture
  • Postnational Studies
  • Literary and Visual Culture
  • Managing Editor, Symbiosis: a Journal of Anglo-American Literary Relations
  • Sport and Literature (especially cricket and triathlon)

Biography

Chris Gair is a Senior Lecturer in American Literature. He took his first degree at Loughborough University and his MA and PhD at Nottingham University. He has taught at the College of St. Mark and St. John, Plymouth (1993–98), the University of Birmingham (1998–2007) and was Visiting Fellow in English at the University of Chicago in 2001 and in English and American Studies at Yale University in 2009. He has written numerous articles and books, mainly in his chief research areas, late 19th and early 20th century American literary and visual culture, the Beat Generation and the American Counterculture.

He has recently completed a book on the Beat Generation and has now returned to a long-term interest in the World’s Columbian Exposition (the ‘White City’, staged in Chicago in 1893) and its links with American literary and visual cultures of the time. His work in this area assesses the significance of the Exposition in terms of the new American history, literature, art, and anthropology that emerged during a time of social and political transformation in and beyond the United States, as immigration and imperialism redefined understanding of class and ethnic relations at national and international levels. It provides an analysis of a period in American history when the combination of economic recession, arguments about the nation’s place in global affairs, and debates about the meaning of American identity assumed new urgency.

The American Counterculture  (Edinburgh UP, 2006) provides a synthesised analysis of a moment in American history, when the combination of post-War prosperity and the social and political repression that characterised middle class American life in the 1950s contributed to the emergence of both widespread civil disobedience and artistic creativity in the Baby Boomer generation. It focuses on a unique moment in American life, when middle class youth attempted to redefine what American culture should be, and how it could effect social and political change. The American Counterculture looks at the relationship between the Counterculture and American Popular culture, examining the ways in which Hollywood, television, and corporate record labels commodified and adapted Countercultural texts, and at the extent to which Countercultural artists and their texts were appropriated, but also contributed to changes in the workings of American capitalism. It provides an interdisciplinary account of the economic and social reasons for the emergence of the Counterculture, and an appraisal of its key literary, political and visual texts.

Jump to: 2014 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2000 | 1999 | 1997 | 1996 | 1995 | 1994 | 1993 | 1992
Number of items: 48.

2014

Gair, C. (2014) Rituals of Culture: E.L. Doctorow and American History. Series: Contemporary American literature . Humanities-Ebooks LLP. (Unpublished)

2012

Gair, C., and Georganta, K. (2012) Greece and the Beat Generation: the case of Lefteris Poulios. In: Grace, N. and Skerl, J. (eds.) The Transnational Beat Generation. Palgrave Macmillan, New York, pp. 219-229. ISBN 9780230108400

Gair, C. (2012) The Beat Generation: Bolinda Beginner Guide. [Audio]

Gair, C. (2012) Counterculture. In: Dumenil, L. (ed.) Oxford Encyclopedia of American Social History. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, pp. 232-235. ISBN 9780199743360

Gair, C. (2012) Great Britain. In: Hayes, K.J. (ed.) Edgar Allan Poe in Context. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. ISBN 9781107009974

Gair, C. (2012) 'Perhaps the words remember me': Richard Brautigan's very short stories. Western American Literature, 47 (1). ISSN 0043-3462

2011

Gair, C. (2011) Introduction [to Paul McDonald 'Laughing at the Darkness: Postmodernism and Optimism in American Humour']. In: Gair, C. and Varvogli, A. (eds.) Laughing at the Darkness: Postmodernism and Optimism in American Humour. Series: Contemporary American literature . Humanities-Ebooks LLP, pp. 12-24. ISBN 9781847601896

Gair, C. (2011) Very short stories: Richard Brautigan’s “The Scarlatti Tilt” and Other Tales. In: Yemenedzi-Malathouni, S., Rapatzikou, T. and Arapoglou, E. (eds.) Ex-centric Narratives: Identity, Multivocality and Cross-Culturalism. Academica Press, LLC. ISBN 9781936320318

2010

Varvogli, A. and Gair, C., (Eds.) (2010) Approaches to Contemporary American Literature [General editor of book series with Aliki Varvogli]. Humanities-Ebooks LLP .

2009

Gair, C. (2009) Introduction [to Reinaldo Francisco Silva 'Portuguese American Literature']. In: Portuguese American Literature. Series: Contemporary American literature . Humanities-Ebooks LLP. ISBN 9781847601070

2008

Gair, C. (2008) The “horror of self-reflection”: writing, cancer and terrorism in Philip Roth’s American Pastoral. Gramma: Journal of Theory and Criticism, 16 . pp. 235-249. ISSN 1106-1170

Gair, C. (2008) The Beat Generation: a Beginner's Guide. Series: Oneworld beginners' guides . Oneworld, Oxford, UK. ISBN 9781851685424

2007

Gair, C. (2007) 24 and postnational American idetities. In: Peacock, S. (ed.) Reading 24: TV Against the Clock. Series: Reading Contemporary Television . I.B. Tauris, London, UK, pp. 201-208. ISBN 9781845113292

Gair, C. (2007) The American Counterculture. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, UK. ISBN 9780748619887

2006

Gair, C., (Ed.) (2006) Beyond Boundaries: C.L.R. James and Postnational Studies. Pluto Press, London, UK. ISBN 9780745323435

Gair, C. (2006) Beyond boundaries: cricket, Herman Melville, and C.L.R. James's cold war. In: Gair, C. (ed.) Beyond Boundaries: C.L.R. James and Postnational Studies. Pluto Press, London, UK, pp. 89-107. ISBN 9780745323435

Gair, C. (2006) Introduction: C.L.R. James and postnational studies. In: Gair, C. (ed.) Beyond Boundaries : C.L.R. James and Postnational Studies. Pluto Press, London, pp. 1-12. ISBN 9780745323435

Gair, C. (2006) Literary nationalism. In: Gabler-Hover, J. and Sattelmeyer, R. (eds.) American History Through Literature, 1820-1870. Charles Scribner's Sons, Detroit, USA, pp. 679-683. ISBN 9780684314600

Gair, C. (2006) Sherlock Holmes and the red indians. In: Pim, J.E., Crespo Argibay, O. and Kristensen, B. (eds.) Estudos Atlânticos: Novos Rumos Para Uma Matriz Multidisciplinar Circum-Atlântica. Series: Atlantica (2). Instituto Galego de Estudos de Segurança Internacional e da Paz, Rianxo, Spain, pp. 49-58. ISBN 9788469002735

2005

Gair, C. (2005) "Whitewashed exteriors": Mark Twain's imitation whites. Journal of American Studies, 39 (2). pp. 187-205. ISSN 0021-8758 (doi:10.1017/S0021875805009680)

Gair, C. (2005) The "American Dickens": Mark Twain and Charles Dickens. In: Messent, P.B. and Budd, L.J. (eds.) A Companion to Mark Twain. Series: Blackwell companions to literature and culture (37). Blackwell Publishing, Malden, USA, pp. 141-156. ISBN 9781405123792

Gair, C. (2005) American art at the world's Columbian exposition, Chicago 1893. In: Holloway, D. and Beck, J. (eds.) American Visual Cultures. Continuum, London, UK, pp. 48-55. ISBN 9780826464842

2004

Gair, C. (2004) Sherlock Holmes and the Red Indians. 49th Parallel, 14 . ISSN 1753-5794

Gair, C. (2004) Sister Carrie, race, and the world's Columbian exposition. In: Cassuto, L. and Eby, C.V. (eds.) The Cambridge Companion to Theodore Dreiser. Series: Cambridge companions to literature . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, pp. 160-176. ISBN 9780521815550

Gair, C. (2004) The doppelganger and the naturalist self: the call of the wild. In: Wilcox, E.J. and Wilcox, E.H. (eds.) The Call of the Wild: Complete Text with Introduction, Historical Contexts, Critical Essays. Series: New Riverside editions . Houghton Mifflin, Boston, USA, pp. 190-213. ISBN 9780618300099

2003

Gair, C. (2003) Theory comes to Harlem: the New York novels of Chester Himes. Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, 139 . pp. 314-319. ISSN 0276-8178

Gair, C. (2003) The crumbling structure of "appearances": representation and authenticity in The house of mirth and The custom of the country. In: Singley, C.J. (ed.) Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth: A Casebook. Series: Casebooks in criticism . Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, pp. 271-297. ISBN 9780195156027

2002

Gair, C. (2002) Beyond boundaries: cricket, Herman Melville, and C. L. R. James's Cold War. Symbiosis: A Journal of Anglo-American Literary Relations, 6 (2). pp. 159-178. ISSN 1362-7902

London, J. (2002) South Sea tales. Series: The Modern Library classics. Modern Library, New York, USA. ISBN 9780375759291

Gair, C. (2002) Preface and notes. In: South Sea Tales [by Jack London]. Series: The Modern Library classics . Random House Modern Library , New York, N.Y.. ISBN 9780375759291

2000

Gair, C. (2000) Introduction and notes. In: Maggie: a Girl of the Streets [by Stephen Crane]. Trent Publications, Nottingham. ISBN 9780375759291

Gair, C. (2000) Theory comes to Harlem: the New York novels of Chester Himes. 49th Parallel, 6 . ISSN 1753-5794

Gair, C. (2000) Whose America? White city and the shaping of national identity, 1883-1905. In: Balshaw, M., Notaro, A., Kennedy, L. and Tallack, D. (eds.) City Sites: Multimedia Essays on New York and Chicago, 1870s-1930s: an Electronic Book. University of Birmingham Press, Birmingham. ISBN 9781902459097

1999

Gair, C. (1999) 'The beautiful and true and good?': Culture, race, and nation in The People of the Abyss. Symbiosis: A Journal of Anglo-American Literary Relations, 3 (2). pp. 131-142. ISSN 1362-7902

1997

Gair, C. (1997) Symbiosis: a Journal of Anglo-American Literary Relations [Journal editor]. Symbiosis: A Journal of Anglo-American Literary Relations . ISSN 1362-7902

Gair, C. (1997) Complicity and Resistance in Jack London's Novels : from Naturalism to Nature. Series: Studies in American literature, 22 . Edwin Mellen Press, Lewiston, N.Y.. ISBN 9780773487192

Gair, C. (1997) Policing the margins: Barbara Wilson's Gaudi Afternoon and Troubles in Transylvania. In: Messent, P. (ed.) Criminal Proceedings : the Contemporary American Crime Novel. Series: Cultural studies/American studies . Pluto Press, London, pp. 111-126. ISBN 9780745310176

Gair, C. (1997) Writing Americans: author, race, nation, 1865-1910; reviews of Jonathan Auerbach, Male Call: Becoming Jack London; Sara Blair, Henry James and the Writing of Race and Nation; and Bill Brown, The Material Unconscious: American Amusement, Stephen Crane, and the Economies of Play. Jack London Journal , 4 . pp. 173-197. ISSN 1075-5837

Gair, C. (1997) The disappearing other: exoticism and destruction in the South Sea writings of Jack London. In: Writing and Race. Series: Crosscurrents . Longman, London, pp. 244-266. ISBN 9780582273757

1996

Gair, C. (1996) "The way our people came": citizenship, capitalism and racial diffrence in The Valley of the Moon. In: Cassuto, L. and Reesman, J.C. (eds.) Rereading Jack London. Stanford University Press, Stanford, Calif. , pp. 141-157. ISBN 9780804726344

1995

Gair, C. (1995) From naturalism to nature: freedom and constraint in The Star Rover. Jack London Journal , 2 . pp. 118-132. ISSN 1075-5837

Gair, C. (1995) Looking forward / looking backward: romance and utopia in The Iron Heel. In: Nuernberg, S.N. (ed.) The Critical Response to Jack London. Series: Critical responses in arts and letters, 19 . Greenwood Press, Westport, Conn., pp. 150-165. ISBN 9780313289279

1994

Gair, C. (1994) Gender and genre: nature, naturalism, and authority in "The Sea-Wolf". Studies in American Fiction, 22 (2). pp. 131-148. ISSN 0091-8083

Gair, C. (1994) The doppelganger and the naturalist self: the call of the wild. Jack London Journal , 1 . pp. 193-214. ISSN 1075-5837

1993

Gair, C. (1993) Hegemony, metaphor and structural difference: the 'strange dualism' of 'South of the Slot'. Arizona Quarterly, 49 (1). pp. 73-97. ISSN 0004-1610

Gair, C. (1993) London calling: the importance of Jack London to contemporary cultural studies. Works and Days, 11 (2). pp. 27-43. ISSN 0886-2060

Gair, C. (1993) 'The way our people came': citizenship, capitalism, and racial difference in The Valley of the Moon. Studies in the Novel, 25 (4). pp. 418-437. ISSN 0039-3827

1992

Gair, C. (1992) "A trade, like anything else": 'Martin Eden' and the literary marketplace. (novel by Jack London). Essays in Literature , 19 (2). pp. 246-259. ISSN 0094-5404

This list was generated on Sat May 18 18:44:53 2013 BST.

Postnational Studies. Recent years have witnessed a shift away from the representations of internal national relationships of race, class and gender that emerged and were dominant in the 1970s and ’80s, and toward new transnational paradigms, characterised by associations beyond the geographical and disciplinary boundaries of national multiculturalism. The discipline is being rethought in a manner apposite to an understanding of cultures as participating in complex and overt forms of exchange, in which nationhood is either defended with growing desperation, or recognised as an arbitrary and inappropriate concept in a world where people and ideas traverse national boundaries with ever greater ease. The Trinidadian writer, C.L.R. James (1901–89), is increasingly being seen as a pioneering practitioner of this kind of post-nationalism, and his vast and wide ranging corpus of work, written from the 1920s to 1980s is being re-read and assessed as a counter-model to those that dominated the fields of Cultural Studies, American Studies, Caribbean Studies, etc. during his lifetime. Beyond Boundaries: C.L.R. James and Postnational Studies (Pluto, 2006) is a collection of essays that situate James as a pivotal figure in Cultural Studies, American Studies, Caribbean Studies, Post-Colonial Studies, etc., and as a thinker whose ideas call into question the boundaries between these academic disciplines. The essays relate James to recent moves toward Postnational theory, focus on the ways in which his legacy is significant, and on how his different methodologies can be applied in other areas.