Desmond and Dominguez. “Resituating American Studies in a Critical Internationalism.”

This article argues for American Studies to embrace a “critical internationalism,” the idea that U.S. culture be read, written, cited, and researched in a global context. In the area of the humanities, it is argued, only American scholars have had authority to discuss what is American. The authors urge that the change should come at the departmental level, in making internationalization and the “doing” of AS the top priority, and not just looking at the “Self” (America) as opposed to the “Other.” The article contains a list of 11 “avenues” for revamping AS, including recruiting foreign faculty and students, requiring students to study abroad, have broader dissertation research requirements, and using new technologies to “facilitate ongoing transnational discussions.”

Giroux, Shumway, Smith & Sosnoski. “The Need for Cultural Studies: Resisting Intellectuals and Oppositional Public Spheres.”

According to this article, the “study of culture is conducted in fragments.” Universities produce specialists, or what Paul Piccone calls “alienated, privatized, and uncultured experts who are knowledgeable only within very narrowly defined areas.” AS was organized against this by its interdisciplinary tract, which has now “receded in importance.” The authors state that we need “resisting intellectuals,” or those who provide political, moral, and teaching leadership outside their discipline for the “human emancipation.” This revolution that will allow for a vast public school instead of compartmentalized knowledge cannot happen in universities as they are presently structured. In conclusion, we “should not be resigned to the roles the universities assign us” and cultural studies should address the “questions not asked within academic disciplines.”

Bercovitch. “The Problem of Ideology in American Literary History.”

What is the real and what is the ideal America? This article was difficult to understand, but basically it talks about the problem of ideology in writing history. It states that American ideology has a “hegemony unequaled elsewhere,” which I take as meaning that as a culture we have a dominant set of symbols that are American. Yet, there are problems with this in that America has become a “rhetorical battleground” in looking at language, literature, history, art, and popular culture. There is always a “counterculture” to the main ideology and we are always redefining ourselves as a nation. The article uses Henry Nash Smith’s ideas of myth and symbol as an example of a “model of intellectual constriction.”

Kerber. “Diversity and the Transformation of American Studies.”

Kerber discusses the changes in American Studies from when she first began in the 1950s, when it offered students the freedom to “construct their own curriculum,” to synthesize disciplines as well as the past and present. It also looked for “What’s American about America” and the myth and symbol school attempted to define the field. In the 1960s, AS was “transformed by the cultural explosion” and was left not knowing where to go. In the 70s women and minorities were the focus and in the 80s, ethnicity. Kerber believes, however, that we still need to figure out what we do, because being on the margins of traditional disciplines, there are more risks in addition to potential benefits. She suggests keeping with the idea of interdisciplinary studies by adding technology, engineering, physics and biology, as well as international perspectives.

Mechling. “An American Culture Grid, With Texts.”

American Studies is about the “connectedness of cultural systems” and is really “those stories that Americans tell one another in order to make sense of their lives.” To help his students understand this “web of signification,” Mechling offers a grid that contains the three “realms of culture” – elite, popular, and folk – and different “forms” or “languages” that we use to communicate our culture. For example, narrative form in the elite culture would be a Willa Cather novel; in the popular, a Harlequin romance novel; in the folk, tales and urban legends. I found the grid and discussion very helpful in understanding one method of looking at American culture, although obviously its boundaries are abstract and other dimensions are involved, including gender, ethnicity, race, class, region, and age.