Guest Lecture by Ian Afflerbach (University of North Georgia, USA)
Artists “Selling Out” The Long History of an Idea (and the Short History of a Book)
May 19, 2026, 4.15-5.45 pm, 00.212, Philo II (Jakob-Welder-Weg 20)
For a hundred and fifty years, “selling out” has been a corrosive insult to monitor group betrayal. In this talk, Prof. Afflerbach will discuss the changing ideas that American artists have had about “selling out,” from the anxieties about working for Hollywood studios in the 1930s to the debates over identity and misrepresentation in the publishing industry today.
This talk will not just provide an overview of one chapter from a book, however: it will also think about what “selling out” might mean for literary scholars today. Prof. Afflerbach will discuss his own experience shifting from traditional scholarship to public scholarship—the changes in style, and structure, required to make a book project accessible to a general audience.
A Q+A will follow in which we can discuss not just the contents of the book, but also the process of forming a larger writing project, building a platform for it, and thinking about our audience.
Ian Afflerbach is an Associate Professor of American Literature at the University of North Georgia. He teaches and researches in Modern American Fiction, periodical studies, African American literature, genre fiction, and the history of ideas. His work has appeared in journals like PMLA, Modernism/modernity, ELH, and Studies in the Novel, as well as public forums like Public Books, The Conversation, Podcast Review, and The Bias. He is author of Making Liberalism New (JHUP, 2021) and Sellouts! The Story of an American Insult, as well as co-editor of Bad Art (UGAP, 2027).
You can download the poster for the event here.
