AMST 201 Study Guide - Fall 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - God, Blackface, American Studies
12 Oct 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
AMST 201
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
Drama & The Four Acts (8/29-9/5)
2 Concerns of American Studies
1. History
• Distinction between past and history
• Always partial
• Always contested- narratives & counter-narratives
2. Interdisciplinary Studies
• Boundary of individual disciplines – sites for seeing culture in new
way
• Crossroads of culture and belief-ways to hear/see dominant
perspectives and alternative voices/ideals
Gee Wise, Paradig Draas Goal/Purpose of Essa
• To historically contextualize American studies
• Understand the cultural & institutional context of the field
• Through a sequence of representative acts: Paradigm Dramas
Act 1: Vernon Louis Parrington (1920s-1940s)
• Paradig does it aloe
o Cut off from other disciplines
o Expression of early American studies approach (most comprehensive)
• Starting point of AMST
• Main Currents in American Thought (1927 published)
1. Draws from American Literature
2. Draws from American political writing and speech
3. Interdisciplinary approach – combine to identify patterns of American
Thought/ideas
• Has very little institutional support
Act 2: Perry Miller (1940s & 1950s)
• Impose form upon experience
o Look deeper into American past
o Tie together different strands of American life into 1 coherent
narrative
o Why did things evolve in the U.S. as they did?
• Has institutional support – Chicago, Harvard
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• Wants to resist disciplinary boundaries
• Similarly, scholarly impulses to Parrington
• First Harvard PhD In AMST in 1940
• Intellectual history synthesis
1. American Mind (1 uniting thought pattern in the U.S.)
2. Location in New World is key
3. Aeria Mid is est epressed i leadig thikers hite e
4. Enduring form – goes through American history
5. Aeria Mid is reealed ost learl i high ulture
Act 3: Corporatization of the Field (1950s & 1960s)
• Seminar on American cultural values of the university of Pennsylvania
(1954)
• Support from foundations, corporations, institutions
• Founding of principal organizations/publications: American Quarterly
(1949) & American Studies Association (1951)
• Interpersonal ties among individuals & institutions leads to consensus
• Stirrings of discontent begin to emerge
At 4: The Coig Apart “tage 96s – 1980s)
• Culture Therap Roert Meredith late 96s
• Teacher as radical – link to events of 1960s
• Incorporation of new fields and approaches – black studies, women studies,
folklore, ethnic studies
• Disintegration or diversification?
Challenges & Characters to American Studies (1970s)
1. Brue Kulik: halleges The th & sol School
- New scholars see as ethnocentric, imperialist, myopic
2. Gordon Kelly: Employing an Anthropological Lens
- Coered ith the soial reatio & futio of literar tet
- Literature must be deeply grounded in social reality, but it can be
uderstood ulturall
3. Ne Ethograph – Cultural Carriers
- Culture as high ulture s. ulture as a a to ake sese of the orld
we live in
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Document Summary
Ge(cid:374)e wise, (cid:862)paradig(cid:373) dra(cid:373)as(cid:863) goal/purpose of essa(cid:455: to historically contextualize american studies, understand the cultural & institutional context of the field, through a sequence of representative acts: paradigm dramas. Challenges & characters to american studies (1970s: bru(cid:272)e kuli(cid:272)k: (cid:272)halle(cid:374)ges (cid:862)the (cid:373)(cid:455)th & s(cid:455)(cid:373)(cid:271)ol(cid:863) school. New scholars see as ethnocentric, imperialist, myopic: gordon kelly: employing an anthropological lens. Co(cid:374)(cid:272)er(cid:374)ed (cid:449)ith the so(cid:272)ial (cid:862)(cid:272)reatio(cid:374) & fu(cid:374)(cid:272)tio(cid:374) of literar(cid:455) te(cid:454)t(cid:863) Literature must be deeply grounded in social reality, but it can be u(cid:374)derstood (cid:272)ulturall(cid:455)(cid:863: (cid:862)ne(cid:449) eth(cid:374)ograph(cid:455)(cid:863) cultural carriers. Culture as (cid:862)high (cid:272)ulture(cid:863) (cid:448)s. (cid:272)ulture as a (cid:449)a(cid:455) to (cid:373)ake se(cid:374)se of the (cid:449)orld we live in. Think about the culture of everyday life: (cid:862)refle(cid:454)i(cid:448)e(cid:374)ess(cid:863) stock-taking consciousness moment. Looking back and inward to american studies: uc davis essay. Seven characteristics of american culture studies: concern for anthropological definitions of culture, emphasis on social structure undergirding intellectual and artistic expression, (cid:862)refle(cid:454)i(cid:448)e(cid:863) te(cid:373)per, pluarlistic approach.
