Table Of Contents:

List of plates ix
Acknowledgements x
Introduction 1(24)

An exceptional place or what is America? 2(3)

What is American Studies? 5(4)

Using the book 9(1)

Critical approaches 10(4)

A culture of many voices 14(1)

Cultural politics/cultural studies 15(1)

Power, position, hegemony 16(2)

Dialogism 18(1)

Transnational and Hemispheric American Studies 19(1)

The continuous `play' of culture, history and power 20(1)

Note 21(1)

References and further reading 21(4)

1 New beginnings: American culture and identity 25(25)

Reading Columbus 27(1)

The American dream of identity: The Great Gatsby 28(3)

Maybe this is Heaven: Field of Dreams (1989) 31(2)

`The surface of an identity': the past as presidential discourse 33(3)

Counter-cultural dreams 36(3)

Multiplicity, difference and re-vision 39(1)

New interrogations: Gloria Anzaldua, Barry Lopez and Trinh T. Minh-ha 40(5)

Conclusion: digging deep - Lone Star (1996) 45(2)

References and further reading 47(2)

Follow-up work 49(1)

2 Ethnicity and immigration: between many worlds 50(34)

Ethnic America: `A vast ingathering' 50(3)

Native Americans: assimilation and resistance 53(2)

Reinserting the tribe: writing ethnicity 55(4)

Immigration and Americanisation 59(5)

The crucible of difference 64(1)

Immigrant stories: Jewish Americans 65(7)

The future belongs to the mixture: melting pot, mosaic or hybrid? 72(3)

The new Americans? 75(2)

Conclusion: no border here 77(1)

References and further reading 78(4)

Follow-up work 82(2)

3 African Americans: `I don't sing other people's voices' 84(30)

Out of slavery 84(2)

Recovering black history 86(6)

Imaginative cultural retrieval 92(4)

Links in the chain: music and speech 96(6)

New black voices 102(3)

Boyz N the Hood (1991) 105(1)

Conclusion: a story to pass on 105(4)

References and further reading 109(3)

Follow-up work 112(2)

4 In God we trust?: Religion in American life 114(28)

Church and state 115(3)

The eyes of all people shall be upon us 118(2)

Changing patterns in American religious life 120(3)

Contemporary evangelicalism 123(7)

Religion and politics 130(2)

African American religion 132(6)

Conclusion 138(1)

References and further reading 138(3)

Follow-up work 141(1)

5 Approaches to regionalism: the West and the South 142(46)

Case study 1 Revising the American West 143(1)

Imagined Wests 144(2)

Land and the West 146(4)

Masculinity and the land 150(3)

Women and the West 153(3)

A diverse West: Willa Cather and beyond 156(2)

Conclusion: the contested landscapes of the contemporary West 158(4)

Case study 2 The South - a world apart? 161(1)

South and North 162(3)

A diverse South 165(3)

Writing the South 168(2)

Documentary reportage 170(4)

Southern music 174(3)

Film and the South 177(3)

Conclusion 180(1)

References and further reading 181(6)

Follow-up work 187(1)

6 The American city: `The old knot of contrariety' 188(28)

Can we read the city? 188(2)

Competing versions of the city 190(2)

Theoretical city: the desire for control and order 192(4)

The undivulged city: Poe's `The Man of the Crowd' 196(1)

The `persuasive light': commerce and the city 197(2)

The spaces of the city: architecture, art and ambivalence 199(5)

Collage city 204(5)

Postmodern city: Las Vegas 209(1)

Suburbia: lives placed side by side 210(2)

Conclusion, or no conclusion possible? 212(1)

References and further reading 213(2)

Follow-up work 215(1)

7 Gender and sexuality: `To break the old circuits' 216(29)

Nineteenth-century roots: cultural politics 217(4)

Nineteenth-century roots: literature and the `First Wave' of feminism 221(4)

Gender and the 1950s' `Second Wave' 225(4)

Out of the 1950s: Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar (1963) 229(4)

Sexuality and gender 233(5)

Roseanne: the world blown apart 238(3)

Conclusion: Peyton's Place, Nurse Jackie 241(1)

References and further reading 242(2)

Follow-up work 244(1)

8 Representing youth: outside the sunken nursery 245(30)

Youth/history/representation 246(3)

Boundaries and youth spaces 249(2)

Housing the self 251(3)

A model youth text? The Adventures of Tom Sawyer 254(2)

The dream of Eden 256(3)

The spaces of self-creation 259(4)

At the edge: the dark mood 263(4)

Generation X/Generation Y 267(3)

Conclusion: Twilight 270(2)

References and further reading 272(2)

Follow-up work 274(1)

9 The spread of freedom 275(32)

American power: rise and decline 277(2)

Exceptionalism and the mission of freedom 279(3)

Cultural superiority 282(3)

America as a model 285(2)

Pre-emption and unilateralism 287(4)

Empire 291(3)

Image 294(1)

Anti-Americanism 295(2)

War at home: security and liberty 297(4)

Conclusion 301(1)

References and further reading 302(3)

Follow-up work 305(2)

10 The transmission of American culture 307(30)

Changing patterns of American power 308(4)

Coming to terms with Americanisation 312(7)

Assessing Americanisation 319(12)

Case study 1 The media 321(4)

Case study 2 The Internet 325(3)

Case study 3 Music 328(3)

Conclusion 331(1)

Note 331(1)

References and further reading 331(5)

Follow-up work 336(1)
Index 337