American Mythology & Exceptionalism: Historical Exploration from 19th Century to Present -, Appunti di Letteratura Americana

Scarica American Mythology & Exceptionalism: Historical Exploration from 19th Century to Present - e più Appunti in PDF di Letteratura Americana solo su Docsity! NORTH AMERICAN LITERATURE The US is very big as a territory, but not so big in population numbers but it accounts for a quarter of the world’s economy (a very significant portion) and this is why it is so influential. It is one of the richest countries in the world (for its economy, army and military, production of ideas and knowledge). By the end of the 20th century it was the most crucial country → the fact that we all speak english in this world is because of the US. The US has a large territory: geographically speaking the US is divided in the North-East (New York, Boston, Philadelphia), South (New Orleans), Midwest (Illinois, Michigan, Ohio → combination of the industrial world with the most rural and agricultural part of the US), South-West (Arizona, New Mexico, Texas →very dry and desert part of the US, borders with Mexico), North-West (Nevada, Monatana, Utah → mountain region associated with the free wild West), West (California, Oregon, Washington → technological area of the US economy → silicon valley). My Antonia is set in the American midwest. The history of the US is a story of colonization from Britain. Much of the American myths remember only the power of colonization and conquest but not the extermination of native people. There are a lot of desert areas in the US and this is why it is very difficult and dangerous to immigrate illegally from the South or central America like Mexico. People die for the absence of water. 1 Most of the population lives along the Coast: Atlantic and Pacific. The center has a much smaller population. Their lives are very very different → FARMING VS BIG CITIES. The US is a very diverse continent. The US as a country originated from British colonies. Most of the East Coast was constituted by colonies in the 16th century. British colonial domination in America began in the 16th century and expanded in the 17th and 18th century. 1619 (17th) is the year in which the first cargo is stated to arrive in the US. In 1776 (18th century) America gained its independence with the declaration. The 13 colonies expanding from the top of the north-east to the deep south declared their independence. Then, 20 years later the US added on more and more portions of the territory. By 1803 the US was a large continental nation. By 1845 Texas territory became also part of the US territory, after a long conflict against Mexico. Civil war (1860s) is all about keeping together this newly created nation. The civil war is part of this long process. 1858 →Each state of the union has its name, institutions, are represented in congress (Parliament in Europe). They write the CONSTITUTION → According to it the 2 houses represent the country. Some states allow the institution of SLAVERY to exist → tend to be in the South. Slavery completely subvert the relationship between human beings. The civil war is the only war that has ever been fought in the territory of the US. The war is based on one question: should slavery be allowed? The North won, slavery was officially abolished BUT in the South African-Americans remaind in a state of less rights, under practises of umiliation as second class citizens. Compromise between 2 views → Federal government + state government + local governments. Who takes care of what? CURRENCY: the US dollar is controlled from a federal level. For many years the US did not have a central bank. MILITARY: controlled by the federal power. 2 a. Total depravity (original sin): to the puritans people were not only sinful, but there was no horrendous crime people were not capable of committing. b. Unconditional election (Calvinist doctrine of PREDESTINATION): God chose who would be saved and who would be chosen for eternal damnation. A person could do nothing to determine God’s choice, and being a member of the Puritan church was not enough to be elected for salvation. c. Perseverance of the saints: a person elected by God’s grace would never depart from the path to salvation. The person would have complete power to understand the word of God, and would never turn towards evil. The Puritans also believed - Doctrine of CONSENT: no pope or bishop had a right to impose any law on a Christian soul without consent (M. Luther) - God’s hand was present in every human event: no facts were too small or insignificant - God rewarded good and punished evil and bad - History revealed what God approved of or condemned, and his approval could be evidenced in earthly success - Most of all they developed an understanding of America as PROMISED LAND and of themselves as “the new people of Israel”, recurring in their writings. Heike Paul in her essay “AMERICAN STUDIES SCHOLARSHIP – AN OVERVIEW” states that the first group of Americanists used the Puritans to make America unique → a group of men saw America as a promised land. There are PROS and CONS of seeing America as a predestined land to the puritans: it is very exclusive (God wanted to give this land to a group of white male Anglosaxons) but also a very strong myth. American studies (2nd generation) then, later on, stated that it was not true that America was a white male governed nation Transnational point of view (3rd generation of Americanistst). In her other essay “AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM – SOME DEFINITIONS” she shows the exceptionalism of America. The only exceptionalism is the myth of seeing itself as a promised land. Only America defined itself as a promised land. Tocqueville is a French expert in law → That system was willed by God. 3 types of exceptionalism: religious, political, economic Image of the “New Adam” → America sees itself as the “new beginning” as Eve and Adam → possibility to start from scratch, from nothing. Heike Paul uses the term “ideology” referring to American exceptionalism → it is a construction, it is not a natural consequence. She shows that the construction is not only limited to America and Americans, but Europeans contributed to the construction of this ideology. Economic aspect: self-made man is the result of freedom and equality. The American system puts everybody on the same level, giving the same possibilities. 5 3rd essay → A model of Christian Charity (Winthrop). Charity - caritas - means love. If we unite in brotherly love God will be blessing us. Caesar adds some concepts to Paul’s vision about Exceptionalism → the big distinction in American politics is between liberals and conservatives. By liberals we mean democratic. 300 word synopsis of the Caesar text 13/10/2022 THE WILDERNESS 2nd powerful american myth → myth of nature Roderick Nash is one of the greater authorities about the American wilderness. He wrote The Wilderness and the American mind (1965). Plymouth puritans described American nature as Wilderness, as opposed to the garden of eden. Whenever they talked about this new country God had given them they always say that the land is hasrch, hard, dangerous, a place where you can never feel safe. 17th century puritan writings is permeated with the idea of a sild country as the environment of evil. → BRADFORD’S Of Plymouth Plantation (1620-1647). → WIGGLESWORTH’S God’s Controversy with New England → MATHER’S Decennium Luctuosum: an history of remarkable occurrences They all concur with the same idea: the continent where they landed is not friendly to them, is hostile and survival is very hard. In America emerged 2 primary views of nature: 1. nature as a savage and temptation which threatened the authority of the community → very strong trope that puritanism developed. The survival of the community is in danger. 2. nature as a new Garden which begins with Columbus and continues in the 17th and 18th century → the garden of Eden that could flourish with the right cultivations by european settlers. In Early New England literature, art and folklore, wilderness is where reason succumbs to passion. In Pennsylvania and Virginia, the wilderness represented the Garden, a place to be tamed and cleared for the establishment of a human community. A good representative of Virginia’s view of nature is JEFFERSON, writing when the industrial revolution was spreading in England. He is skeptical about the industrial revolutions and believes that America should develop as an agrarian society. He believed that America should be admired not for its culture but for its wilderness in the other parts of the world → wilderness made America unique. The chosen people from God are those people laboring the land, living in nature, not industrial workers. With Jefferson we see a very different vision from Bradford’s. 6 PASTORAL, PICTURESQUE, SUBLIME → crucial terms to understand the vision of nature (romantic era). Three aesthetic concepts established during the Romantic era divided the natural world into categories: the Pastoral, the Picturesque, and the Sublime. - Picturesque and Pastoral: nature as a comforting source of physical and spiritual sustenance. Pastoral landscapes celebrate the dominion of mankind over nature → human beings are in full control, the scenes are peaceful, often depicting harvests. The picturesque refers to the charm of discovering the landscape in its natural state. The artist and the viewer delight in unspoiled panoramas, sunsets, mountains, everything is quiet. - Sublime: as articulated by Burke in his Philosophical enquiry int the origin of our ideas of the sublime and beautiful → the thrill and danger of confronting untamed nature and its overwhelming forces (thunderstorms, deep chams..). Sublime images show nature in its most fearsome. terror is in all cases the ruling principle of teh sublime. Humanity is small and impotent in front of raging rivers, cliffs and canyons, ferocious animals, and violent storms. The sublime emphasizes God’s dominion over humanity and considers the possible folly in mankind’s overriding confidence. THE CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE AMERICAN WILDERNESS by Nash Americans have always strived to decide who they are. According to Nash, after the revolutions, nature became for many American intellectuals the distinguishing feature of americans. Why is nature more important than industrialization? Because it is in nature that we are closer to God. The topic of Nash’s essay is the centrality of nature as wilderness in shaping discourses of early america. The argument is that Americans, in early phases of the republic, turned to wilderness as a source of National pride. However, the American national ego is AMBIVALENT about nature. It longs to both preserve and conquer wilderness, as key literary and visual artist texts of the 19th century demonstrate. The treaty of Paris did not really establish American independence. 18th century philosophers of romantic nationalism claimed that nations had a unique Geist (spirit) found in art, literature and the character of its people. Gradually american nationalists began to find american geist in its wild nature. INTELLECTUAL FOUNDATIONS of America’s championing of the wilderness: 1. proximity to the wild sublimity of the american landscape would inspire artists and poets to great achievements. 2. wilderness will furnish the subject matter for american art and letters 3. if pure nature was the medium through which god spoke most clearly, then merica with ist abundance of wilderness had a distinct moral advantage over the old world 4. A wilderness environment produced a distinctive and desirable national character. 7 20/10/2022 THE FRONTIER Westward expansion from the East is not a migration but an EXPANSION. The frontier and wilderness were one and the same. Cronon essay → critique of environmentalism, wilderness is not what it seems, wilderness is a myth, he explores the roots of this myth and digs into the jeudo-christian roots, the changing meaning of wilderness in the US. - Bradford writes about the desolate wilderness → full of wild beasts… (in Italian wilderness=deserto is not the same thing → natura incontaminata). The desert is connected to a land that cannot be exploited BUT nature can. Concepts connected to wilderness: 1) Nature is sublime, a place where you can come in contact with God but it is a very dangerous space where humans do not survive. Sublime is something that creates terror, anxiety… → Transcendentalism is the American version of English Romanticism. NATURE MAKES AMERICA A NATION, MAKES AMERICA UNIQUE AND GIVES AMERICA ITS TRUE IDENTITY. In America an identity could not be based on history. 2) Frontier → To move out into the wilderness meant to be free from the constraints of civilized world 3) Primitivisms → Myth of the “American Adam” + “Virgin land” 4) Individualism → Only in the wilderness man can live individually Nature is just a human construct → the big CONTRADICTION is that people want to live a life in wilderness BUT that is the fall of nature itself. Unspoiled nature is something in which NO human beings should be. KUNSTLER → Concept of the suburb There are no services, just homes (very similar to each other) and dormitory communities. 80% of Americans live in the suburbs so this is their life experience. Suburban life is criticized because people are very homogeneous, like their houses. In the 1950s when suburban expansion began, after WW2, there was a company specialized in building the suburbs. The early suburbs even had laws and regulations according to which the houses could not be sold to African Americans (residential segregation). Why are the subsubs so important in the “nature” theme? When they were built the promise of the suburb was to sell your home away from the dangers and pollutants of the city. The suburb is like a place in between nature and the city BUT there is nothing natural about a suburb, it is only a myth, a fantasy. → Where does “into the wild” fall? Where do we place it in this discussion? Wilderness is a cultural illusion. What is the real value? There is no control, you are free, no society. Thoreau → isolation, living in solitude, this is the value → the myth of American individualism. 10 People look at nature for what they are longing to see. Chris is a pure soul, but naive, because he misunderstood Thoreau’s theories and he pays with his own life. He does not put this on others. → find redemption into wilderness and leave your past behind Why do people follow his path? WEEK 3 - THE FRONTIER A border is different from the frontier. The term frontier is a term that acquires its meaning in an American contest and ideal in a very specific debate. Its meaning was developed by Turner in 1893. 1783 → Treaty of Paris !!! → ending the war of the American revolution, recognizing US independence, granting the US significant western territory. The New Latin Spanish empire becomes MEXICO. 1789-1790 colonies were incorporated as states but the northwest territory was not incorporated. 11 1803 → Louisiana purchase !!! The 19th century is the crucial period in the making of america as we know today: - high birth rate and brisk imigration - Us population exploded from 5 million people in 1800 to more than 23 million by 1850 - millions of americans looked for new land and new opportunities OUT WEST 1804 → ⅓ of the continent became part of the US after the Louisiana purchase, the part that white Americans liked to believe as “new and virgin land, ready for conquest”. 1823 → President Monroes gives a speech to congress: “OLD WORLD and NEW WORLD have different systems and must remain distinct spheres” which means that European powers have no influence on the american continent. He made 4 basic points: - 1. The US would not interfere with European internal affairs - 2. The US recognized and would not interfere with existing european colonies in americas - 3. The americans were closed to future colonization - 4. Any interference by European powers in the americas would be viewed as a hostile act against the US MONROE DOCTRINE → foreign policies are imposed by the US By 1912 all territories were converted to states, fully established and incorporated. 12 2: the separatists - Plymouth colony 3: the Puritans immigrants under John Wintrop Separatists did not compromise but to perfection and the Puritans were somewhere in the middle and didn’t see America for what it was, but they always looked to Europe. They didn't care about America and with the restoration, Carl II, they were left alone and behind. Scriptural precedent and prophecy → they were the people of the new Jerusalem, the people of God. Their purpose → was to establish their own identity once they were left alone. New jerusalem was not a metaphor for them, but it was America, it was real. In creating America they also created/invented a new mythology based on a new literary genre called JEREMIAD → 90% of puritan literature, which is based on the lamentation about the corruption of the world and that God will intervene and will punish this corrupted world. Jeremiad is a genre that will survive the Puritans. pages 39/40/41/42 → conclusion 3 lasting contributions: 1: Puritans invested America with a mythology of its own → utopian dreams of New world 2: the corporal ideal → they came from an individualistic mindset and they were able to transform into a society, a corporate, structural society. 3: the literature they created, a new genre. 27/10/2020 SELF-RELIANCE (Let use internet to help us to understand the texts.) to become a citizen means we can use everything we can to understand things, until then we’re just subjects, slaves of other :p This session completes the first part- exceptionalism, wilderness, frontier, self-reliance. This made the identitarian elements of American culture. Self- reliance – a synonym is individualism. Song of Myself – Walt Whitman, a poet who made a new way of writing poems, he refused the traditional tools. His major work is Leaves of Grass, a collection of poems to which he devoted his whole life to write it. He in many ways is symbolic of American representation of 15 Self, and the most important is the song of myself. He was under the influence of the romantic movement, and he wanted to express his individual political vision. America felt that they needed to establish their own identity, but they were able to establish a culture of their own. How does the frontier work in this context? As an identarian element ? it is not a friendly space, BUT Turner says YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND AMERICA UNTIL YOU UNDERSTAND THE FRONTIER AND THE WEST, a race toward understanding the uniqueness, to establish the uniqueness of the American experience. – the individualism of , highly nationalistic celebration of America. And today this individualism is taken for granted. The celebration of the American wilderness became the place where you could feel the presence of god, the sublime, the nature is distinct for that reason, the construction of the American identity. ( these are key concepts*) Song of Myself- the essence of the American individualism- he is full of himself, the key elements are, myself, the commitment to keep going till the end, the grass represents nature, as Emerson calls the distinction between humans and nature, the 2 entities : everything that is me and the not me, and Whitman says that they’re just the same, there’s a deep relationship between this entities. Whhitman is just the introduction, because of the center of the self- reliance is Emerson Emerson (1803-1882) TRANSCENDENTALISM We know him as the author of NATURE , he is the founder of transcendentalism- the american romanticism - An ideal spiritual state transcendents the physical and empirical - And that one achieves that insight via personal intuition rather than religious doctrine, it’s your own intuition. This sounds like eastern philosophy, Indian spiritualism, not much like European traditional doctrine. A combination between western and eastern philosophies. - A nature Is the outward sign of inward spirit, expressing the ‘radical correspondence of the visible things and human thoughts’ (Nature, 1836) - Central doctrine : ‘the infinitude of the private man’ Transcendentalism was a spiritual movement that had a significant following in the 1830-1850 and Emerson established a utopian community, individuals who were related not only spiritually but even geographically, where everyone was free to form his individuality inside the community. The Usa has been rich in all kinds of spiritual utopians. 16 Emerson’s Self (1841)– reliance is a key essay. The quotation in the beginning is an epigraph, to not look outside yourself, but Inside yourself. Transcendentalism also champions the idea of individual freedom, that the spiritual transcends the physical. It came from Emerson's journals which were the source of this essay, and for many of the lectures he gave, that is how he made money. He was a great intellectual. The essay is structured in 3 sections. We’ll focus on the first, where he explains what self- reliance is. The essay begins by saying : don’t seek the truth in other people but inside yourself, let's not follow the culture of England, but our own. Truth relies inside yourself, this is the genie. Trust thyself- Children -they don’t care what others think, and adults should take their example. Develop your self- esteem. Children are models, for they are not hypocritical. The next step: first of all, he discusses conformity, and he wants people to be Nonconformists, which is crucial in his opinion. Fitting in is not a human virtue. People should resist the pressure to conform. People should dare to break the laws, the rules, the social order, the covenant, challenge the laws and which may be a dangerous decision. He’s not saying to break the law for fun, but laws are not absolutely made by god, but there may be a time when it’s necessary to do it. The nonconformists reject many of society moral authority – it refers to a political issue- slavery. The debate going on in the north is that people think that is something not concerning them, this is the social convention to the people in the north. He says that people should challenge this convention, which has become a political issue. SHOULD THE NORTH GET INVOLVED IN THE SLAVERY ISSUE OR SHOULD JUST LET IT GO? He says that not looking at the problem, doesn’t solve it. You need to stand for what you believe, even if the moral consensus is of a certain type, you don’t need to adapt but think for yourself, resist the law and the moral consensus and do what you think is right. Next step- not be afraid of being judged, it doesn’t matter what people think of you. The mistakes of the past should not influence our present thoughts. There are 2 enemies of the free thinkers: the society's disapproval and the sense of consistency. The last point is: society is not the measure of things, but you are, the individual is. Trust yourself, return to a state of childhood which knows not hypocrisy. THOREAU He ended up in jail for refusing to pay taxes, because he was complaining about the policies of the government, which was at war with Texas. After that he wrote the Resistance To Civil War. 17 3. it expresses… stand before kings 42 4. in truth this peculiar idea… fundamental basis of it 42 5. IT ORIGINATED “In the country of … capitalistic order 43 6. “A state of mind” such as that expressed in Franklin “would both in ancient times… in self-respect” 43 7. In order to prevail the spirit of capitalism has to struggle with “that type of… traditionalism 44 8. page 44-45: for CAPITALISM to succeed, it had to revolutionize traditional attitudes to LABOR. Labor must become a quasi-religious CALLING 9. Modern capitalism is based on increasing production HOWEVER: Ever increasing production works against traditional human nature: humans are not inclined to increase productivity if they do not need extra income 10. In capitalism labor must be “performed as if … education 44 11. “The ability of mental … background” … “this provides …of the religious” Success is individual, success is in the end of success → WEBER’S LESSON 3/11/2022 DA RECUPERARE 4/11/2022 MY ANTONIA THEMES → Wilderness, nature, frontier, self reliance and success. When does the story begin? Late 19th century and published in 1918. An important text that came out during those years (late 19th century)? 1893 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE FRONTIER IN AMERICAN HISTORY → myth of the frontier in the novel. Which stage of the frontier the book is showing? page 87 Turner. Second phase → beginning of the agrarian society. Why was it Autobiographical? Cather remixes some of the experiences of her own life. The narrator is NOT Cather, but a man, Jim. ESSAY by POLLEY → “Americanizing Cather” She connects My Antonia with national identity. Examples in the novel? Description of Antonia’s family, their habits … Description of Otto (page 15) → he’s from Austria, Peter and Pavel from Russia and their crazy story about the wedding and the wolves. Language is very important Religious aspect sets apart the national identity (chapter 15) → during the ceremony of Mr. Shimerda → different views? without a priest his soul could be saved, according to Jim’s grandfather. 20 Polley also mentions American myths → the first one is the longing for a more innocent America, nostalgia for the frontier. Does Cather really celebrate American myths? Actually she criticizes the myth of the American Adam (in this case Jim) and the myth of America as a promised land (for the Shimerdas). Jim’s story is the story of an American myth, but he is unreliable and inconsistent → he narrates what he remembers, his memories and the fact that he’s choosing some things → last page → “the road of Destiny”, “predetermined” → he’s shifting his responsibilities. Myth of the Manifest Destiny. In each chapter we are moving in one direction, from rural life to urban cities. Concept of the American Adam → PAGE 19 (Heike Paul) → Biblical passages of the novel? Nature is Eden-like when he kills the snake (Chapter 7). Is he really an American Adam? It is Antonia and Lena. The American myth is not thigh to man but woman, who embody this myth with different sets → Antonia’s is linked to nature while Lena is a self-made woman. We have American Eves in this case. EMERSON’s vision can be seen → in the concept of nature, where we can see God → Emerson’s Essay “Nature”. In the very first chapter, at the end we see Jim’s vision of the frontier, the sublime and GOD IS EVERYWHERE IN NATURE → he says “i don’t need to pray”. “I was entirely happy…” → Chapter 2 at the end. SCENE that puts together all the themes of the novel → Chapter 14, when they do the picnic → last page “presently…” → we have the plough, nature… but it is just ephemeral, it lasts seconds. VIRGIL → epigraph “optima dies prima fugit” the best days go faster → it appears in Book III, chapter 2. “Muse” → which essay talks about a muse? Antonia and Lena are muses for Jim. She is always present mentally in his mind BUT he does nothing for pursuing his muses. In the moment when something could become REAL, he steps back. Is Jim happy? At the end he is not, but he had the chance to be happy. He could have married Antonia → metaphor of the sun and moon, taking two different directions. How do we know that he’s not happy? From the INTRODUCTION. He is a very good lawyer, but he’s far from the Emersonian vision of self accomplishment. ESSAY “My Antonia revisited” by SLAYTON → difficult life → WINTER + INSECTS (grasshoppers) Chapter? SLAYTON’S VIEW? POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE? Very negative Chapter 15, Book I → “although …” ESSAY by Ross in the New York Times → interview. Is Cather fighting the myth or offering something else? Cather created an alternative to the male mythology of the West. 21 10/11/2022 Americans vote every 2 years during the first week of November following the original Constitution → MIDTERM ELECTIONS. The American system → government works on 3 powers: legislative, executive and judicial. These 3 crucial elements must remain separate (in this way the democratic constitution works and does not fall in dictatorship). Every 4 years the executive is renewed via an election. Judicial → Judges from the top to the bottom. The supreme court can overrule decisions of the lower courts. The supreme court bases its decisions on the INTERPRETATION of the Constitution, which is a highly political acta and has less to do with the law and more on political positions. The supreme court consists of 9 judges. How are they appointed? All of the judges are nominated by the President and then the senate confirms them. In order to create the supreme court (which happens when one judge dies or retires). The choice is made based on a highly political position. Legislative → Congress divided into 2 branches: upper house (senate) + house of representatives. The house of representatives is renewed every 2 years. Not all the senates are renewed every 6 years → ⅓ is renewed after 2 years, ⅓ after 2 years and so on… This is why Americans have to vote every 2 years. The November elections do not only regard the senate but also other smaller institutions like school councils. The majority of American states are REPUBLICAN. How come the president is DEMOCRATIC? Because of the density of the population → the most populated areas are democratic, while the rural areas are republicans. Each state elects 2 senators. The American elections ARE NOT based on VOTES but in how many countries you win. In 1932 the country went from completely red (REPUBLICANS) to completely blue (DEMOCRATIC) → ROOSEVELT AND THE GREAT DEPRESSION. In 1952 → the country became almost completely red → TRUMAN AND THE WW2. Americans are afraid of communism and the Soviet Union. In 1964 → the country became almost completely blue → KENNEDY DIED AND EVERYBODY VOTED FOR THE PARTY OF KENNEDY. In 1968 → everything changed again → VIETNAM WAR → JOHNSON became the face of the war in which young Americans were dying and the war needed to be stopped. In 1980 → the country went red once again → IRAN HOSTAGE AND REVOLUTION → REAGAN became President. → HISTORY DICTATES BIG CHANGES 22 2) CAN I BE BOTH? What has assimilation meant for African Americans, whose ancestors were brought to the US by force? DuBois asked himself “am I an American, or am I a Negro? Can I be both?”. He says you cannot think about race as a biological fact, but something that is socially and culturally constructed → SCIENTIFIC RACISM= people believe there were physical and biological differences between people of different races. DuBois sees himself as a social scientist and feels like through demonstrating the inherited humanity of black people, refusing the stereotypes connected to african americans, he could be able to undermine the race problem and create a space in which african americans could be treated as equal human beings. The durability of white supremacy during the 20th century eventually mined DuBois’ confidence. He understands that being a detached social scientist is insufficient when faced with that type of brutality and barbarism. In his article “Segregation” he makes a point saying that segregation was nothing new and African Americans in their modern history had to face various forms of segregation, sometimes by choice and other times by circumstances. It was not always somethin bad → This idea was opposite to the vision of the organization, from which DuBois split up. What does it mean, for DuBois to embrace African inheritage and be American at the same time? DuBois wanted the ability, the safety for black people to be able to live, to fully embrace their humanity and to share and cultivate their gifts with the rest of the nation and the world. That is what democracy looks like for DuBois, and it was not unrealized. He committed his life to push the US, to perfect this experiment. How can we answer DuBois’ question “Can I be both?” → At the end DuBois left America and went to Ghana so this explains a lot… Probably he felt that these 2 parts cannot be reconciled. 3) 100% AMERICAN - the story of a Japanese-American neighborhood in Chicago that faded away. First of all This community of Japanese were not immigrants in the US but were forced to move. The US government forcibly relocated 20000 Japanese-Americans to Chicago during WW2. This story starts on the west coast in the 1940s when WW2 exploded and thousands of Japanese-Americans were living in towns on the West coast in entirely Japanese neighborhoods. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which led to WW2, the US government was worried about the high concentration of Japanese and their loyalty. 25 They incarcerated them in camps, all over the country but keeping them there was expensive and the government changed vision → they were let free but they had to spread all over the country and assimilate. They left the camps under some conditions: - the west coast was closed for japanese - They had to answer a series of questions on loyalty before. For example they had to promise that they were not going to hang out with other japanese, to not speak japanese and to “conform to american costumes”. They believed that Chicago would be more tolerant to Japanese Americans because they did not have prejudices towards them. In fact, when they first arrived, they easily found jobs in light industries. In the city they had to be invisible BUT when the government started to pay less attention to their community, japanese started to cluster together. By the 1960s the biggest community was in Lake View. The children were 100% American with an American childhood but their parents had a difficult time, trying to separate from the stigma of being Japanese and WW2, being the enemy. They were trying so badly to assimilate, not speaking Japanese with their children. 4) KILL THE INDIAN, SAVE THE MAN In the past, during the movements toward the West, assimilation of natives meant just one thing: total erasure of Indian culture → americanization of native children In 1879 an Industrial school opened in Pennsylvania, a school designed to educate native american children. The basic idea was to KILL THE INDIAN AND SAVE THE MAN. Schools imposed the use of western clothes and the christian religion. The Chilocco Indian Agricultural School was also created to assimilate children. The school had a strict military style regime. Students had to wear uniforms and academic instruction was quite secondary, because natives were not considered, by nature, productive. The idea was that they were civilized through labor and not study. This practice of children who were forced to abandon their families, sometimes far away, went along for a long time. And the key is: whose family? Native people. The fact is that Indians were sticking around and that was a reminder → The denigration of native society, the idea that natives live in the past and cannot cope with modernity, was at the base of American vision, of the self as a nation. 5) BORDERLINE How “who could become American?” changed as the US expanded west. 26 The fact that Germans in Pennsylvania did not have to be defensive about their religion allowed them to embrace other aspects of becoming American and to be less fearful of abandoning something, because they were not forced to abandon the sense of who they were. After the Louisiana purchase, US territories started to move West, englobing many creole populations BUT Jefferson was more concerned with the native americans. He wanted them to assimilate and become part of the Americans. 6) A MAN AND A METAPHOR One of America’s most enduring civic metaphors is that of the melting pot. This metaphor took off at the beginning of the 20th century, in particular after immigration peaked in 1907, when 1.3 million immigrants arrived. The hero of the melting pot is a jewish man, David Quixano, who embraced his life in the US. He is the hero of a play entitled “the melting pot” by Israel Zangwill. This play helped the metaphor to spread and be used. BUT Zangwill was often frustrated by the way some Americans used his metaphor to promote conformity. Zangwill saw America as a place where Jewish people could prosper, even though he never lived there. “the process of american amalgamation is not a simple process of assimilation”. What does the melting pot mean today? Today it still endures BUT it does not mean that you lose yourself in the melting pot. 7) HYPHEN-NATION? - explanation of Roosvelt’s famous speech in which he says “there is no room for hyphenated Americans”. 1915 - Columbus Day → Columbus is considered as the first Italian immigrant in the US or the first immigrant in general. “Columbus, by discovering America, opened the greatest Era in world history.” - Roosevelt “When I refer to hyphenated Americans I do not refer to naturalized Americans born somewhere else, But an hyphenated American is not an American at all. The man who calls himself an American citizen and who yet shows, by his actions, that he is primarily the citizen of a foreign country, has NO PLACE here and the sooner he returns to his land the better it will be for every GOOD AMERICAN”. → An Hyphenated American is someone tied to its ethnic background. Can immigrants be considered American ever? Can we trust the loyalty of immigrants and their children? 27 Heike Paul → the myths that made America. What does she claim in her text? The topic is the melting pot myth BUT the argument is that the melting pot myth is very ambiguous and elastic. She also says that it becomes hegemonic and if you do not assimilate you are discriminated and excluded. The Canadian vision of the melting pot is different → they call it mosaic, composed of many little and individual pieces BUT from a distance you see the bigger picture. The metaphor is completely different from the melting pot. Canada tried to balance between creating an idea of a nation and the personal identity of everyone. One of the early documents of the change of perspective after WW2 → “Beyond the melting pot” by Glazer and Moynihan. They begin to question the melting pot myth saying that this myth does not exist. They study a specific case → New York city. There you can still see the communities at work, they are not melted. So the melting pot is not right, it is insufficient to describe what America is, it does not apply. They are the first sociologists to study the model of the melting pot. NEW MODELS BECOME NECESSARY. How are these communities divided? By geographical areas and cities, by their working positions, the ghettos… MYTH OF MULTICULTURALISM - a new myth of the 1980s and 1990s. It is a new name, a new definition. IDENTITY POLITICS emerges in American culture →Everyone has a claim to his own particular identity that defines who I am (based on my origins, religion, convictions…). The hyphenated part is what really defines you. This idea is the opposite of the myth of the melting pot. You have certain rights that were excluded for you. This changed the perspective completely during the 1980s. IDENTITY POLITICS shapes in a new way american society. Multicultural society is the new name. DEFINITION BY INGLIS → “in sociology, the idea that cultural differences should be respected, even encouraged” She claims that the concept of MULTICULTURALISM has 3 different usages: - 1. DEMOGRAPHIC-DESCRIPTIVE usage= refers to the existence of ethnically or racially diverse segments in the population of a society or State. - 2. PROGRAMMATIC-POLITICAL= refers to specific types of programs and policy initiatives designed to respond to and manage ethnic diversity. - 3. IDEOLOGICAL-NORMATIVE usage= acknowledging the existence of ethnic diversity and ensuring the rights of individuals to retain their culture. This concept is very complex and in the US probably they are not working on all the fronts. Essay by Glazer “The multicultural explosion” (1997) → the essay begins with a minor yet significant episode happening in a rural FLA school in 1994, where the school 30 board refuses to adopt a state-sanctioned policy, passed in 1991, to promote “appreciation to other cultures”. Critics of MULTICULTURALISM in the US are many, both right and left, but the FLA episode teaches that MULTICULTURALISM IN AMERICAN EDUCATION HAS WON. “Schools in America have always been the test case for bringing neglected cultures to the fore, because it is in academia that NEW IDEAS develop: hence the CANON WARS → THE WESTERN CANON → is an important book. The big debate in the 1990s → If we accept that the US is not a melting pot but a multicultural nation, if we promote this idea we start to see a BIG DISCONNECT between this idea and the books used in schools. WHAT SHOULD BE THE CANON OF AMERICAN CULTURE? This debate led to the rewriting of literary anthologies, which then included africans and black authors, women authors and native authors… A very important contribution in this debate is Harold Bloom’s “the western canon”. He was an influential figure in American studies and in the 1990s he said that the western canon SHOULD NOT CHANGE. Multiculturalism should not change what the roots of our culture are! (a very right winged position). Nevertheless, the debate led to a change in the anthologies and the canon has changed. Multiculturalism, which emerged after 1988 has been applied to so many contexts that it is no longer clear what it MEANS. In any case, it is just “the latest in this sequence… diversity” In the 1950s it was race, but the focus was not on DIVERSITY but on INTEGRATION. Today is the opposite. Therefore MULTICULTURALISM is a position that rejects assimilation and the “melting pot” image and instead prefers such metaphors as the “salad bowl” or the “glorious mosaic”. CRITICISM OF MULTICULTURALISM has turned it into “an all-embracing ideology encompassing every aspect of policy in regard to race, ethnicity and gender”: e.g affirmative action. Multiculturalism needs not to be everywhere: “when I say we are all multiculturalists now” I mean that we all now accept a greater degree of attention to minorities and women and their role in American history and social studies and literature classes in schools”. Multiculturalism has LIMITS: IT IS NOT APPLIED evenly across american society and only looks OPPRESSED GROUPS (Europeans, women, LGBT). In short, Multiculturalism emerged as a debunker/ a critique of American exceptionalism. NATHAN GLAZER - REVIEW THE MULTICULTURAL EXPLOSION, GIVES A SUMMARY OF THE IDEA of multiculturalism as applied to the US. The author highlights the fact that within a few years of the idea being introduced by the government, teachers, mostly white American teachers, had began to take ‘multicultural education’ as a given: the attitude of these teachers was that they knew all there was to know about teaching children from different racial and ethnic backgrounds, and that there was nothing new to be learned, and that they could not be faulted. The author argues that this position was wrong. 31 The author, in taking New York City as an example, argues that what is understood by ‘multiculturalism’ is a white European-oriented ‘multiculturalism’- white immigrants from Europe are tolerated, he argues, but those of a different skin color or race have been left behind in the politicization of multiculturalism. For Glazer, the hyphen in ‘African-Americans’ ‘Hispanic-Americans’ is an all important symbol of ongoing societal-level racism. He also argues that the current drive towards multiculturalism in North America, classrooms is a product of the societal guilt that is felt towards the non assimilation of black people into mainstream society, and according to him ‘multiculturalism’ is the price America has to pay for its faults. Glazer points out that Assimilation in America failed, because assimilationist policies were developed by the US government for, and to benefit, white European immigrants, not black immigrants to the US. He also looks at the ways in which multiculturalism policies have been successful in education, and suggests that people in positions of power stop seeing multiculturalism as a panacea, as a solution for all ‘race problems’ and as a solution for problems regarding ethnicity. Surveys, interviews, studies, all show that black people know they are black people every moment of the day, Hispanics feel they are different every moment of the day; college and university entrance statistics show that blacks and Hispanics enter these institutions of learning far less frequently than whites. This is not a situation of true assimilation, acceptance or multiculturalism. Multiculturalism is a dream of white America, but will not become a reality until non-whites, non-Americans can live on US soil without being made to feel different. FISHER FISHKIN - “Crossroads of cultures: The transnational Turn inAmerican studies” - Topic: the transnational approach in the field of American Studies. National and transnational should interpenetrate - America is “a place always in process itself” - “What would the field of American studies look like if the transnational, rather than the national, were at its center?” - In the last 4 decades, American Studies scholars have attempted to disassociate the present discipline from the practices and ideologies of its exceptionalist past. 25/11/2022 CALL IT SLEEP - Written by Henry Roth Published during the Great Depression in 1936. He is interested in Jewish immigration in the US. Roth was from Galicia (Ukraine today). He wrote this book and then didn't write much. 32 sentiments then dominant in their own party, they had to find a way to deal with President Franklin Roosevelt, whose domestic New Deal was anathema, but whose approach to the war was increasingly in line with their own position. In the winter of 1940-1941, Luce provided the public with a powerful case for American global leadership. We must note, however, that Luce’s idea of an internationalist America was not that of New Deal America. One of the principle arguments of Republican isolationists was that entry into the war would end constitutional democracy in the United States The solution for Luce, however, was not that of isolationism – refusing American global leadership, thereby repeating the mistakes of 1919 – but rather promoting a certain type of internationalism friendly to democratic constitutionalism. Instead of the New Deal America, Luce’s idea of an internationalist America is one that was “conceived in adventure and dedicated to the progress of man,” an America that persevered through its early centuries under “the most exciting flag of all the world and of all history,” the “triumphal flag of freedom.” Luce’s internationalist America is dedicated to the “great American ideals,” those things that are “infinitely precious and especially American—a love of freedom, a feeling for the equality of opportunity, a tradition of self-reliance and independence and also of co-operation.” The American Century and a Vision for the Future He provides three reasons why the twentieth century was endowed with the ability to be claimed by Americans. - First of all, presumably because of technology, - Second, modern man “hates war and feels intuitively that, in its present scale and frequency, it may even be fatal to his species.”[3] - And third, the world of the twentieth century is capable, for the first time in history, of producing all the needs of every human being in existence. Each of these aspects reflects America’s unique national experience and capabilities. That third reason in particular seems to be the most important to Luce. Meeting all human needs is an American promise, Luce writes, because of the principles of freedom: “what we must insist on is that the abundant life is predicated on Freedom – on the freedom which has created its possibility – on a vision of freedom under law. It is a dream that rests on the principles of freedom. Through its own example and leadership, the United States can influence the other nations of the world to embrace those principles of freedom. In order for America to reach these goals, according to Luce it must - embrace internationalism over isolationism - the United States must share its Bill of Rights, its Declaration of Independence, and its Constitution with the world—America’s principles of freedom largely rest on reverence to these documents, and although they may not be applicable to all peoples, other nations could learn quite a bit from them. 35 - Second, the United States must be willing to provide its industrial products and technical know-how to the world. After all, it sells its industrial products abroad and other peoples are consumers of the products of American scientific, artistic, and intellectual life. But the United States must be willing to do more than just export the products it creates. It also must be willing to provide the skills and training for others to create successful artistic, intellectual, and scientific products of their own. - Third, and related to the last, the United States must ensure that its vision of the international economic order is the dominant one—without that economic order, American prosperity could stagnate, and the idea of the “American Century” would fall flat. Pursuant to ensuring that its ideas of economy become (and remain!) dominant, the United States must be willing to defend a principle that Americans have long held dear: the freedom of the seas. Only by guaranteeing free trade among the nations of the world can this vision be fulfilled. - Fourth, and finally, Americans must become the good Samaritans of the world, sending out an “army of humanitarians” to feed the world wherever it is needed. David Ellwood → “The Shock of America: Europe and the challenge of the century” Cultural dimension of American power → “The American century” is a definition invented by Luce. He was a publisher and an internationalist. This essay is very important because he’s talking about how America should have approached WW2. Is the American century over? Or not yet? Where did the 2nd WW come from? → This is a huge debate in the American government of what the world should look like after the war. America is organizing its power for specific purposes. It is a war of opportunities → F.D.Roosevelt calls it AN APPOINTMENT WITH DESTINY. The essential understanding is how these crazy dictators like Mussolini or Hitler get a mass following? → Old fashioned American critique of Europe. The Economic factor played an important and central role in the approval of the following. Desperate people choose extremers. The New York World’s fair was presented by Roosvelt himself and television and telephones were involved → new technologies, international air travels, highways… → Faith in the future, optimism. This is America after the Great Depression, and yet there is a strong affirmation of self confidence. In 1941 The Four Freedoms in Rooslvelt’s speech: 1. Freedom of speech 2. Freedom of worship 3. Freedom from want 4. Freedom from fear 36 America had already designed his objectives and ambitions before WW2. As the war goes on these ambitions change and are transformed in real institutions. There are conferences about world agriculture, money. 3 criteria → connected security organization, free trade (revolutionary proposal in America, which has always been a protectionist of its economic power), raising living standards everywhere (mass production for mass consumption). This is a big challenge. Marshall plan was announced in 1947 → short term goals and long term goals Idea of protectivity + Integration of european masses. What happened in reality? The marshall plan involved a complex interplay between hierarchy and pluralism → PNRR (piano nazionale recupero e ricostruzione). Money never left America, even though people think that the Marshall plan was about conquering foreign markets. REDISTRIBUTING MONEY. Promoting modernization. It was not easy, there were oppositions for ex. in Milan. Fiat, in Turin, on the other hand approved the marshall plan from beginning to the end. The Marshall plan was inspired by George Marshall → George Catlett Marshall Jr. GCB (December 31, 1880 – October 16, 1959) was an American army officer and statesman. He rose through the United States Army to become Chief of Staff of the US Army under Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman, then served as Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense under Truman.[4] Winston Churchill lauded Marshall as the "organizer of victory" for his leadership of the Allied victory in World War II. After the war, he spent a frustrating year trying and failing to avoid the impending Chinese Civil War. As Secretary of State, Marshall advocated a U.S. economic and political commitment to post-war European recovery, including the Marshall Plan that bore his name. In recognition of this work, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953. The marshall plan was a “everespanding prosperity for a everespanded majority” Feminism was a creation of America Professor Ellwood argues that Americanization was an ideological process. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Always refer to the author → “Paul claims”, “Paul argues” etc. Assignment has 2 parts: 1. Identify TOPIC and ARGUMENT in two different paragraphs 2. Identify RELATED TEXTS in the course reader TEMPORAL REFERENCES are crucial (DATES!!) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 37 explicit (but never complete) withdrawal from the international political arena in the 1920s and early 1930s created even more room for culture to spread these expectations of achievable prosperity. European countries, esp. the UK and France experimented with rational change and inspired American thinkers and President Franklin Roosevelt. FDR began to emphasize the world’s interdependence. He underscored a contrast of American free enterprise with the economic determinism of dictatorships and consolidated the political ties with the UK to advance economic liberalism in the future. Expanding free trade was the key instrument and he supported international institutions for this goal. These ideas took shape during World War II. American bureaucrats and businessmen envisioned the postwar period as the greatest opportunity to solve global problems by applying American solutions. 3 Ellwood emphasizes the fact that American policy makers pushed international/multilateral institutions as the best strategy for improving the world. They did that with missionary zeal, but failed to inform their allies about these plans. The European nations were not keen on stripping their empires to increase economic liberalism and the growing tension between East and West caused the Americans to moderate their ambitions. The Europeans engaged in a postwar debate about renovating their societies and showed mixed feelings about the American assistance. They greatly desired a higher standard of living, but pursued different productivity levels and consumer goals and formulated appealing social-democratic alternatives. 4 The processes of incorporation of American ideas differed per country as the different role of the US army in Europe showed. In Italy it had to provide food and got entangled in politics. France quickly resumed political control to resist American culture. The enormous number of soldiers overwhelmed the opportunities for autonomous responses in Austria. Collectively, these experiences convinced Americans that both sides had to adapt. The result of the innovations of the 1950s and 1960s increased the production levels and committed European leaders to consumer capitalism, which undermined traditional hierarchies. 5 After the Cold War it seemed that Europe had gained so much economic weight that it could take over the American leadership role, however, it lacked sufficient political unity. In fact the post Wall era resembled the end of World War I in its cultural innovation (Internet, McDonalds). Ironically the US cut back in cultural diplomacy and put its efforts on deregulation to make the labor market more flexible. But private voices of business executives and opinion-makers continued to carry the message. These triggered strong defensive mechanisms all over the continent. This showed that the European nations did not just surrender to America’s mission, but debated what they could use from America and what not, while simultaneously hanging on to expressing their dependence on the US. 6 40 In an epilogue the author assesses the “end of the American Century,” which he underwrites since the crisis revealed the fundamental flaws in the American economic model. He tunes down the high expectations of transnational research to better understand the American position in the world, by resolutely rejecting the argument of equal exchange between Europe and the United States. In the twentieth century the US used its cultural products to project its power on Europe and did it much better than any other nation. In defense of transnational perspectives one may emphasize that in the Progressive Era the American intelligentsia derived many ideas and models from Europe, as Daniel Rodgers, Axel Schäfer and others showed, and that Europeans shopped around in Europe for useful models as well. So even if the United States tipped the transatlantic balance, this was not necessarily true for internal European relations. 2/12/2022 JUNOT DIAZ - DROWN He was accused of sexual assault from one of his students. That is interesting because the minute these accusations happened, interest in him disappeared completely. The world he represents is a more contemporary configuration of ethnic groups in the US, not a melting pot and neither multiculturalism. American transnational writing → latest label to try to understand the dynamic of the international diaspora to the US. In the early 2000s multiculturalism fell out of fashion. Writers like Diaz, stand for something which is neither multiculturalism nor a melting pot → diaspora is much more fluid. These days ethnic individuals do not just belong to one nation or citizenship but are constantly influenced and Diaz is an example of this. He was Dominican and American, and was raised bilingual. The people he writes about are people that he knows and whose lives have been in the middle → a combination of many different things. We get this in the language but also in their stories → constant switching between the US and the rest of the world, from where people are coming. America as a transnational entity → we can understand America only in relation to the other parts of the world. Americans find this very problematic. Scholars say that you cannot understand America if you do not consider it a transnational entity. DIAZ IS THE LIVING EXAMPLE THAT YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND AMERICA IF YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND THE OTHER PLACES FROM WHERE AMERICANS COME FROM. He helps us to understand a more complex and transnational identity. Junit Diaz’s work reflects a turn in American letters toward a hemispheric and planetary literature and culture”. He was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, on December 31 1958 and was raised there until he was six years old. This place is important for America → Haiti was the first place where the independence revolution took place. 41 DECOLONIAL IMAGINATION → this is the center of Diaz’s world view. In the part “decolonial term” of the essay. It is the Theoretical core of the discussion. CRITIQUE OF THE COLONIALITY OF POWER MATRIX. Colonial subjects in the carribeans are dumbed to this kind of course that comes to them for being african slaves brought to America. He appears to be very interested in human weaknesses. NEGOCIOS= BUSINESS → what is the business he’s talking about? immigrant’s survival. Always trying to survive with new schemes. The author is not necessarily the narrator. Here papi is the father of the narrator. Miami is not the final destination. He wants to go to New York. Move to the suburbs. 42