This volume examines the interplay between the three notions of 'contacts', 'frictions' and ‘clashes’ in Anglophone culture so as to analyse the dynamics of conflict, SEARCH’s theme of reflexion. From frictions between critical theories on language or literature to clashes between political or artistic views in the British, Australian, Irish and American contexts, taking into account World War One, Shakespeare and reality TV, the thirteen contributions focus on the processes at work in the elaboration of representations resulting from conceptions of the world or of society which seemed or still seem irreconcilable.