What is American? : new identities in U.S. culture ; festschrift für Arno Heller

2004·21.6 MB·English

by  Hölbling, Walter

WalterW.Holbling,KlausRieser(Eds.)
What is American?
Thl8 One
H: GQ-8S3-06BS
American Studies in Austria
editedby
Astrid M. Fellner
(UniversityofVienna)
Klaus Rieser
(UniversityofGraz)
Hanna Wallinger
(UniversityofSalzburg)
Volume 3
LIT
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WalterW. Holbling, Klaus Rieser(Eds.)
WHAT AMERICAN?
IS
New Identities in U.S. Culture
Festschrift fiirArno Heller
LIT
Coverimage:"ImmigrantWomenSewFlag":Theeditorshaveobtainedrights
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Internetathttp://dnb.ddb.de.
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Dedication
This collection ofessays is dedicated to Arno Heller on the occasion
ofhis 65th birthday by friends and colleagues who have contributed
original articles on the theme ofnew identities in U. S. culture. Arno
Heller's own research has frequently investigated the issues of what
constitutes 'Americanness' and what characterizes an 'American iden-
tity', and thus the contributions in this volume can be understood as a
continuation of the critical dialogue on topics like initiation, uto-
pian/dystopian and regional identities, the (re)construction of identi-
tiesinliteratureandfilm, andthedynamicprocessofregeneratingand
re-inventingnewAmericanselves.
The Editors
1
TableofContents
Dedication 5
9
1. New Conceptsand Reconsiderations
Gudrun Grabher
AnUnheard(of)Transcendentalist?CharlesIvesand
America'sMusical Identity 13
LouisKern
'UnveilingtheSecret ArcanumofAffectionalAlchemy' andthe
'MysteriesofEulis': PaschalBeverlyRandolph, AfricanAmerican
Sex Magician, and SexRadicalism inLate-VictorianAmerica 35
PaulLauter
Little WhiteSheep, orHowILearnedtoDressBlue 65
CarlD. Malmgren
TheGreatFitzgerald: GatsbyRevisited 93
TheodoreSchatzki
IdentitiesinPractice 107
2. MigrationandMultipleIdentities
SonjaBahn-Coblans
Crossing theAtlanticfortheScreen 123
WalterHolblingandJustine Tally
TheNatureofHybridIdentityinBarbaraKingsolver's
ThePoisonwoodBible 153
BrigitteScheer-Schdzler
EastComes West: America'sNewImmigrants-
NewLivesandNewTexts 173
WaldemarZacharasiewicz
ASeparateIdentityAsserted: Agrarian Affinities
WithEuropeanCulture 19
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RobertFisher
Privatizing IdentityintheGlobalCity 211
PeterFreese
ComingofAgeintheShadowoftheVietnamWar:
SamHughes'Quest inBobbieAnnMason'sIn Country 229
JamesThompson
JohnHaines: ThePoetin"Alaska" 263
Hanna Wallinger
SummerintheAir: EmmaDunhamKelley's
FourGirlsatCottage CityandDorothyWest'sThe Wedding 279
4. (Re-)InventionsandVirtualIdentities
ElisabethKraus
EngineeredIdentities inScienceFiction 297
RobertaMaierhofer
TheOldWomanasthePrototypicalAmerican-
AnAnocriticalApproachtoGender, Age,andIdentity 319
BerndOstendorf
ImmediateExperiencevs. Un-AmericanIdeologiesfrom
WarshowtoHitchens 337
KlausRieserandSusanneRieser
FromModelMinoritytoModelMasculinity:
TheGlobalizationoftheCaucAsian 355
Contributors 373
SelectiveBibliographyofArnoHeller'sResearch 38
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Introduction
Thisbooktraces majorareas ofre-conceptualizationsand inven-
tions in U. S. identities. The anti-essentialist notions which todaypre-
vail within literary, media, and cultural studies maintain that identity
is a social construction which is constituted in the mold of subject
positions which are pre-shaped by language and cultural codes, and
realizedthroughsocialpractice.
Identity (and its intellectual cousin, subjectivity) is a central
concept inrecentresearch, particularly incultural studiesapproaches.1
Ithas the advantage ofbeing both an individual phenomenon but also
profoundly social, centering diverse issues (since a stable identityde-
mandsintegrationofheterogeneityinto the self) aswellasconnecting
todiverse socialgroupings suchasethnicity, class,gender,race, sexu-
ality. Moreover, identityis one ofthe centralcultural narrativesofthe
U. S. which contains pre-established sequential patterns (e. g. devel-
opmentalorconversion stories) onwhich both dominant and resistant
discoursescandraw.
The aim ofthe present volume is to honor the topic's diversity,
but also to concentrate on one central aspect, that ofnewness. It is a
particular American phenomenon to continually bring forth new or
reformed identities, or the reinterpretation ofearlier ones: From rags
to riches, immigrants, migrants, venturing into the territory, going
west, individuation, to move fromdreaming to doing, etc. Within the
volume, issuesofreformulations,ofmultiplicity,ofreinventionandof
social constraining, as well as productive forces will be addressed in
fourthematiccategories:
The firstcategorycomprises articleswhichtraceorsuggest new
concepts and reconsiderations. Gudrun Grabher presents the often
neglected area of musical identity hidden behind the prevalence of
texts and the visual realm, connecting music and the literary move-
ment oftranscendentalism. Louis Kerntraces the radical writings ofa
Victorian African American on orgasm and reproduction, re-
appreciatingoneoftheearliest theoreticians ofapleasure-based sexu-
ality. Paul Lautertraces hisown identityformation inrelationto Yale
whileatthe sametime looking back at modernism throughthe lens of
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multiculturalism, setting offthe theory ofT. S. Eliot against writings
by Sterling Brown. Carl D. Malmgren reconsiders the figure of
Gatsby, claiming a shift ofthe attribute ofgreatness from Gatsby via
Carraway to Fitzgerald, analyzing the ambiguity of identities. In a
sophisticated argument, Theodore Schatzki discusses the establish-
ment of identity through social processes and practices, rather than
through abstracts concepts of uniqueness and individualism. These
articles also implicitly set different theories and paradigms into con-
trast,resulting insomeproposals forreconsideration.
Theessays grouped inthe second sectiondealwiththeperennial
source for newness in American identities, ethnicity and migration,
and the resultant multiple and shifting identities. Sonja Bahn looks
at European and American contacts in the movie world, from Euro-
pean immigrants who became filmmakers to American directors who
worked in Europe, and how they assisted and resisted mainstream
ideas ofAmerican identity. Walter W. Holbling and JustineTallydis-
cuss postcolonial perspectives as a new conception ofthe old ethnic
paradigm and the growing attention on Africa, exploring the useful-
ness ofHomi Bhabha's concept of "hybridity" in the reading ofBar-
bara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible. Brigitte Scheer analyzes
Asian immigration and texts, with a particular emphasis on theauthor
Mukherjee, and their impact on what Geok-lin Limcalls "an intraeth-
nic, interethnicnewworldofinterlayeredcultures" inthe U.S. Finally,
Waldemar Zacharasiewicz takes a look at the relevance ofEuropean
societal models for Southern Agrarians and analyzes areas ofconsen-
susanddifference in the worksofprominent Fugitives and Agrarians.
Obviously, these authors have chosen different groups and different
issues, buttogethertheydevelopastrongargumentfortheimportance
of social contacts and relations in the formation and formulation of
identities. The articles thus trace the issues ofstruggle and strife, but
alsoofcooperation, solidarity, andgroupcohesion.
Different fromthe previous section, the articles collected in the
third group focus on the issue of individuation and identity con-
struction, to a large part inthe arenaofindividualism. Robert Fisher
discusses global processes ofprivatization which, as he demonstrates
in his exemplary analysis of developments in the city of Houston,
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Texas, even lead to a privatized identity. Peter Freese takes a fresh
look at an initiation storywhose protagonist is on an individual quest
and analyses a female perspective on the effects ofthe Vietnam War.
James Thompson traces the construction ofan identity of loneliness,
in theexampleofan Alaskanpoet who creates an imageofthe selfas
independent agent in a post-individualistic age. Hanna Wallinger
looksatissuesofindividuationforagroupofyoung blackwomen ina
late 19th century novel and discusses the (ir)relevance ofrace in this
constellation. These contributions primarily deal with the individual,
theone set apart fromgroups, marginalizedorexcluded, but also with
the conscious choice of loneliness. They also discuss the implied
counterpoint: the need for groups, the prevalence of mass living, or
thepoliticalexpediencyofsocialcontact.
The essays in the last section focus on transformative or in-
ventive aspects of identity construction and maintenance. Elisabeth
Kraus analyzes virtual identities under the aspect ofartificial human
enhancement and construction, critically assessing the contribution of
Science Fiction writers Jablokov, Egan, and Kress to these issues.
Roberta Maierhofer analytically combines the issues of aging and
genderin aging identity, pointing outhow theold woman can be seen
as the most useful metaphor for American identity. Berndt Ostendorf
critically examines the phenomenon of left-to-conservative conver-
sions in the American public sphere, taking as starting points Robert
Warshow and Christopher Hitchens and their respective intellectual
environments. Klaus and Susanne Rieser analyze the transformation
ofAsian masculinity in thecourseofits exportto Hollywood and the
resulting shifts in gender and racial paradigms. The articles in this
section, while againdiverse, allfocusontransformationprocessesand
theflexibilityofhumanidentity.
In their entirety, the essays collected in this volume present a
cross-sectionofresearchon- and beyond-U.S. identities: Writtenby
European as well as U. S. scholars, ranging from the 19th century to
the foreseeableandUtopian future, frommainstreamcanonized figures
to minorityartistsandtransgenderperformers, from acritique ofindi-
vidualism to a celebration of loneliness. The diversity ofthe articles
represents itselfan (American) realityofthe multiple status ofidenti-
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