Towards a Prismatic “American Studies”

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Notes

¹ Since the 1930s, “American studies” has referred to an expressly interdisciplinary undertaking, anchored in literary and historical studies but not limited to them, that now exists in hundreds of departments and programs throughout the United States. In other parts of the world, this is not necessarily the case. “American studies” can refer to North America (usually excluding Mexico), or “the Americas,” as in hemispheric studies. And the approaches can be interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, or mainly disciplinary, especially as a part of the study of English literature or international relations.

² In fact, “American studies” has been international for a long time. Not only have travelers, writers and scholars from abroad noted their reactions to the United States since its political formation, but since the end of World War II the US government has actively fostered scholarship on the US through its support of “American studies” libraries, conferences, and academic organizations in many parts of the world. In addition, many other sites have felt it necessary to generate knowledge about the US, resulting in centers and institutes for the study of the US in places like Russia and Cuba during the Cold War. Around the world tens of thousands of academic specialists on the US are working to generate knowledge about it. Only recently have members of the US academy who specialize in “American studies” begun to recognize the existence of this massive amount of work and the professionals who produce it. Genuine committed and ongoing intellectual engagement with this work is, with a few exceptions, yet to become the norm in the US.

³ Barnard, “Deterritorializing American Culture.”

⁴ Marx, “Home on the Range: the Americanization of my Father.”

⁵ Watson, “The Un-Americanness of American Literature.”

⁶ Lowry, Lunar Caustic.

⁷ Appadurai offers five key categories for analysis: ethnoscapes, mediascapes, financescapes, ideoscapes, and technoscapes. These are very useful, but leave out the crucial realm of social practice, which intersects with—and is in turn shaped by—all of the others. Appadurai, Modernity at Large.

⁸ Watson, Golden Arches East. This collection includes studies of McDonald's restaurants in Taipei, Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong, and Beijing.

⁹ I am grateful to the many colleagues who hosted our group and offered their time, hospitality, expertise, and thoughtful contributions to this enterprise. In South Africa I particularly want to thank Loes Nas, Lesley Marx, Christopher Saunders, Greg Cuthbertson, and Michael Titlestadt, and the many other colleagues who made this visit possible.

¹⁰ We are grateful to the Ford Foundation and the University of Iowa for financial assistance that helped make this project possible.