(4 cr. hrs.)

1:00-3:30 p.m. Tu

How does American Studies map power in the Americas in the era of
U.S. imperialism?


In the last decade and a half, American Studies work on empire has
grown into a vibrant field.  This work descibes itself
as “confounding of the borders between the foreign and the domestic”
(Amy Kaplan), showing “how the local and the global are inextricably
bound up with one another” (Christina Klein) and revealing
those “forces produced by the presence of one nation within another”
(Seth Fein).  Pursuing versions of the global in the local, American
Studies scholars are exploring transnational method, the cultural
aspects of international politics, non-elite agency, resistance,
hybridity, and especially nation-formation.  Part of the burgeoning
interest in studying nationalism and the “nation form,” the field
reflects a world in which nationalisms are more vibrant and powerful
than ever, despite some predictions of their obsolescence.  It
incorporates postcolonial theory and participates in debates over
the “post” in postcolonial and the differences between colony,
postcolony, empire, and nation.  It draws on and contributes to
related work in Diaspora Studies and the study of race, as well as
queer and feminist theory.  This seminar will examine this field,
focusing on work on the Americas, including the U.S., Latin America,
and the Caribbean.  It will draw from some of the subfields within
American Studies of empire as well as those fields that preceded and
influenced it.  In addition to a complex view of an exciting,
emergent field, students will gain a working understanding of the
key terms involved in this body of work, including nation,
nationalism, postcolonial, empire, imperialism, diaspora, and
transnational.