Applying American Studies

remember, a text can be anything...

a book

a website

a movie

a group of people

a place

a thing

the list goes on!

put the text in context

author/creator's background?

time period written/published/created?

place it was written/published/created?

how was the text received by the public?

how does it compare to similar works of the time?

use some of the many theories and methodologies

quick links can be found on the key terms page

realize that not all theories or methods work for everything

if it doesn't seem like a text deals with a specific term, that's okay!

do an in-depth analysis

when you have found a theory or method that does apply, examine it fully

in what ways does the theory/method work?

in what ways does the theory/method not work?

what would the author say about your findings?

How to do a Close Reading

"What does this activism have to do with American studies today? it seems to me that there are two American studies traditions in existence. One is the institutional American studies canonized within easily recognized paradigms [...] All of these offer vital, important, and even essential ways of understanding culture in the United States, but they are tied to connections between culture and place that no longer may be operative. The present moment and the present crisis threatening the connections between culture and place require us to draw upon what we might call the 'other American studies,' the organic grassroots theorizing about culture and power that has informed cultural practice, social movements, and academic work for many years."

     --George Lipsitz, American Studies in a Moment of Danger

American Studies is constantly influenced by social movements

the "other American studies" are the people who are the outsiders, not the professors, who make up these social movements

those of the "other American studies" are the ones that need to be listened to

ties to social movements demanding that we listen to them and their cultures

1. Nike Air Jordans (6)

interdisciplinary cultural studies looking at the hard facts/statistics of an object of culture

cheap labor vs. expensive shoes

transnational: some are oppressed, some make money

2. Immigrant Workers (8)

Imagined Communities: migrant workers have a common sense of identity

transnational: immigrants coming to the US for work

run by large corporations

3. End of the Cold War (17)

sense of direction and time; a new way of looking at things

rise of American Studies

transnational: immigrants were forced to assimilate

4. Age of the C10 (20)

"cult of the common person" (21)

the first union that welcomed anyone

rising emphasis on the folk hero

5. The Age of Civil Rights (23)

social movements make a paradigm shift in American Studies in the 1960s

6. Age of Networks (26)

people/things from the margins become popularized; these are intersectional and cultural crossings

Zapatistas: activists of Mexico; important social movement

Close Reading Practice

Do a close reading of Vernon Silver's article "Apple's iPhone, the New International Currency" while keeping in mind the theories learned from Kaplan, Jacobson, and Wagnleiter.  Here are some questions to ask yourself:

in what ways is this transnational?

how is Apple functioning as an empire?

what is the significance of the iPhone being considered "currency"?

culture as an industry

sometimes expansion via American culture is more effective than expansion via American armies

culture was a weapon of the Cold War

In your readings, make sure to notice:

the absence of culture from the history of US imperialism

the absence of empire from the study of US culture

the absence of the US from the study of post-colonial imperialism

"it takes 6,258 typical Apple worker salaries to match Cook’s total pay"

Close Reading Practice

Look at this article showing an Apple CEO’s pay vs. an average Apple employee’s pay using some of Gramsci and Lipsitz's theories.  Here are some questions to help you begin your close reading:

what bloc (group of people) is in power?

what blocs are vying for power?

what ideas are common sense hegemony?

What is hegemony?

power so much so that we think of it as common sense

norms that are expected and accepted

In what ways does Gramsci think of hegemony?

willingness and consent of people to be governed