USA300H1 Lecture Notes - Henry Nash, Jooyoung, American Exceptionalism
23 May 2018
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Department
Course
Professor
USA300H1 – Setting the Terms
• Defining the Field: What Is American Studies?
o Convergence of disciplines united by an object of study
o Field based in nationalism: in the very idea of the nation, spec. as an exceptional nation
▪ American Studies unique because of its international prevalence; in contrast to
Canadian Studies, for example, often available outside of the United States
▪ Questions of how we understand American Studies as a singular field; how we
decide what disciplines of study are worthwhile, legitimate, etc.?
▪ Questions of disciplinary structure and the work that it produces
• Perhaps just a useful category within the structure of academia
• Some criticize American Studies as a reification of American
exceptionalism, nationalism, etc. rather than a legitimate discipline
• Theory and Method: what are we talking in USA300 about and why?
o Meta-discourse about American Studies: we must examine both what we do in
formulating theory of American Studies and how we do it (i.e. method)
o Theory: concretely, the scholarly work analyzing and object of study
▪ Projecting this theory onto our own diverse objects of study
o Methods: how do we gather information, what do our methods mean and what are
their impliatios? Joooug Lee’s poess of iteieig, e.g.
o Wide definition of the text: not just literature, say, but critical texts etc.
▪ Primarily, we take critical work as our texts: what are the autho’s goals, what
are they in dialogue with, what are the oseuees of seeig this a…
▪ Rather than looking at a text through a certain critical lens, our goal is to draw
attention to and interrogate the lens itself
• For Example: questions about Theory and Method in the 2016 election
o Political Science: questions of polls; how data is collected and its consequences
▪ “igifiae of edia oeage, esp. i e: Tup’s puliit ia es edia
• Methods: gathering of quantitative data and data analysis
o Histoial iteest i opaisos ith Nio’s 16 apaig: ho codified rhetoric
with respect to race, dog-whistle politics figured in to both elections
▪ Nio i 16: La ad Ode apaig’s odified efeee to lak-ness
• Methods: analysis of historical documents, artifacts, their comparison
o Literary studies: what is the content of rhetoric; (semiotic) interpretation of slogans
▪ Moilizatio of idetif politis i Clito’s I’ ith he, oseatie,
ostalgi ipulse of agai i Tup’s ake Aeia geat agai
• Methods: close reading of text, language, even images
• He Nash “ith’s Ca Aeia “tudies Deelop a Method?
o Smith a scholar primarily at UC Berkeley and an expert on Mark Twain
▪ “ith eeied the fist PhD fo Haad i Aeia Ciilizatio, a peuso
to the discipline of American Studies which he pioneered
o Ca Aeia “tudies Deelop a Method a peeietl aoial atile i A“tud
▪ An attempt to convince the reader of the viability of the new field, etc.; early
uestios of A“tud’s legitia ad geuie, seious sholal igo
▪ In re: Mark Twain, Smith suggests that no existing field is sufficient in its analysis
• Tai’s dialet-switching: a matter of social class insufficiently
described by existing fields of literature, sociology, etc.
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