Andrew Jones

Description

Whether you envision the U.S.A. as a collection of symbolic landscapes, a multiethnic melting pot, a set of ideas or a collection of like-minded (or otherwise) human beings, America’s self image has been contested since its inception. This is no less true for people who live outside America where the impact of U.S. foreign policy, economics and culture are increasingly inescapable and where many populations are almost as familiar with American culture their own. In recent decades, (but by no means exclusive to the present) America has reputedly suffered from a negative image abroad, attributed to strained foreign relations and a reaction against the “coca-colonization” of globalization. There are, however, myriad reactions to American culture and we will be interrogating some of these throughout the course. We will be less interested in this class about examining the foreign policy of the U.S. (although this will certainly play a part) but we will be more interested in looking at how American culture has been critiqued, used, resisted and adapted by people across the globe.

The term “image” in the title is used in an open-ended sense: I wish to complicate, in particular, what it means to see oneself as part of a nation (an “imagined community” as Benedict Anderson has famously remarked) but also what it means to be seen as (an) American by non-U.S. population. Image also implies a visual text, and we will be looking in particular at sets of photographs and movies that explicitly address how other cultures approach what it means to be American and attempt to provide an essence of “Americanism” that can be equally troubling and transcendent. 

Requirements

Short Paper 1:                  Advisory

Paper 1 revision:                  15%

Short Paper 2:                     15%

Research Paper:                  45%

Photographic Assignment:    15%

Response Papers/Quizzes:   10%

Possible Texts

Appadurai, A.,  Modernity at Large : Cultural Dimensions of Globalization

Baudrillard, Jean, America

Campbell, Neil, The Rhizomatic West: Representing the American West in a Transnational, Global, Media Age

Holdt, Jaco, American Pictures: A Personal Journey through the American Underclass

Kooijman, Jaap, Fabricating the Absolute Fake: America in Contemporary Pop Culture

Kroes, Rob, If You've Seen One, You've Seen the Mall: Europeans and American Mass Culture

López, Marcos, Pop Latino

Mazierska, Ewa, and Laura Rascaroli, Crossing New Europe: Postmodern Travel and the European Road Movie

Osondu, E.C., Voice of America

Rowe, John Carlos, ed., Post-Nationalist American Studies

Satrapi, Marjane, Persepolis

Sardar, Ziauddin, Why Do People Hate America?

Watson, James L., Golden Arches East: McDonald's in East Asia

Wenders, Wim, Alice in the Cities

Flag(s): Writing

Description

Whether you envision the U.S.A. as a collection of symbolic landscapes, a multiethnic melting pot, a set of ideas or a collection of like-minded (or otherwise) human beings, America’s self image has been contested since its inception. This is no less true for people who live outside America where the impact of U.S. foreign policy, economics and culture are increasingly inescapable and where many populations are almost as familiar with American culture their own. In recent decades, (but by no means exclusive to the present) America has reputedly suffered from a negative image abroad, attributed to strained foreign relations and a reaction against the “coca-colonization” of globalization. There are, however, myriad reactions to American culture and we will be interrogating some of these throughout the course. We will be less interested in this class about examining the foreign policy of the U.S. (although this will certainly play a part) but we will be more interested in looking at how American culture has been critiqued, used, resisted and adapted by people across the globe.

The term “image” in the title is used in an open-ended sense: I wish to complicate, in particular, what it means to see oneself as part of a nation (an “imagined community” as Benedict Anderson has famously remarked) but also what it means to be seen as (an) American by non-U.S. population. Image also implies a visual text, and we will be looking in particular at sets of photographs and movies that explicitly address how other cultures approach what it means to be American and attempt to provide an essence of “Americanism” that can be equally troubling and transcendent. 

Requirements

Short Paper 1:                  Advisory

Paper 1 revision:               15%

Short Paper 2:                  15%

Research Paper:                45%

Photographic Assignment:                  15%

Response Papers/Quizzes:                  10%

Possible Texts

Appadurai, A.,  Modernity at Large : Cultural Dimensions of Globalization

Baudrillard, Jean, America

Campbell, Neil, The Rhizomatic West: Representing the American West in a Transnational, Global, Media Age

Holdt, Jaco, American Pictures: A Personal Journey through the American Underclass

Kooijman, Jaap, Fabricating the Absolute Fake: America in Contemporary Pop Culture

Kroes, Rob, If You've Seen One, You've Seen the Mall: Europeans and American Mass Culture

López, Marcos, Pop Latino

Mazierska, Ewa, and Laura Rascaroli, Crossing New Europe: Postmodern Travel and the European Road Movie

Osondu, E.C., Voice of America

Rowe, John Carlos, ed., Post-Nationalist American Studies

Satrapi, Marjane, Persepolis

Sardar, Ziauddin, Why Do People Hate America?

Watson, James L., Golden Arches East: McDonald's in East Asia

Wenders, Wim, Alice in the Cities

Flag(s): Writing

Description

Whether you envision the U.S.A. as a collection of symbolic landscapes, a multiethnic melting pot, a set of ideas or a collection of like-minded (or otherwise) human beings, America’s self image has been contested since its inception. This is no less true for people who live outside America where the impact of U.S. foreign policy, economics and culture are increasingly inescapable and where many populations are almost as familiar with American culture their own. In recent decades, (but by no means exclusive to the present) America has reputedly suffered from a negative image abroad, attributed to strained foreign relations and a reaction against the “coca-colonization” of globalization. There are, however, myriad reactions to American culture and we will be interrogating some of these throughout the course. We will be less interested in this class about examining the foreign policy of the U.S. (although this will certainly play a part) but we will be more interested in looking at how American culture has been critiqued, used, resisted and adapted by people across the globe.

The term “image” in the title is used in an open-ended sense: I wish to complicate, in particular, what it means to see oneself as part of a nation (an “imagined community” as Benedict Anderson has famously remarked) but also what it means to be seen as (an) American by non-U.S. population. Image also implies a visual text, and we will be looking in particular at sets of photographs and movies that explicitly address how other cultures approach what it means to be American and attempt to provide an essence of “Americanism” that can be equally troubling and transcendent. 

Requirements

Short Paper 1:                  Advisory

Paper 1 revision:               15%

Short Paper 2:                  15%

Research Paper:                45%

Photographic Assignment:                  15%

Response Papers/Quizzes:                  10%

Possible Texts

Appadurai, A.,  Modernity at Large : Cultural Dimensions of Globalization

Baudrillard, Jean, America

Campbell, Neil, The Rhizomatic West: Representing the American West in a Transnational, Global, Media Age

Holdt, Jaco, American Pictures: A Personal Journey through the American Underclass

Kooijman, Jaap, Fabricating the Absolute Fake: America in Contemporary Pop Culture

Kroes, Rob, If You've Seen One, You've Seen the Mall: Europeans and American Mass Culture

López, Marcos, Pop Latino

Mazierska, Ewa, and Laura Rascaroli, Crossing New Europe: Postmodern Travel and the European Road Movie

Osondu, E.C., Voice of America

Rowe, John Carlos, ed., Post-Nationalist American Studies

Satrapi, Marjane, Persepolis

Sardar, Ziauddin, Why Do People Hate America?

Watson, James L., Golden Arches East: McDonald's in East Asia

Wenders, Wim, Alice in the Cities

Flag(s): Writing