Full Description
American Studies has long been a home for adventurous students seeking to understand the culture and politics of the United States. Despite being taught in universities around the world, American Studies has resisted developing a coherent methodology for fear of losing the flexibility and freedom to imagine new avenues of thought. But what if these fears are misplaced? Through a fresh look at the origins of the field, this book contends that a shared set of "rules" can offer a springboard to creativity. American Studies: A User's Guide offers readers a critical introduction to the history and methods of the field, useful strategies for interpretation, curation, analysis, and theory, and case studies of American Studies in practice.
Contents
Introduction: The Object of American Studies
PART ONE: HISTORIES
1 • History and Historiography
2 • Four American Studies Mixtapes
3 • An Institutional History of American Studies (Or, What's the Matter with Mixtapes?)
PART TWO METHODS
4 • Methods and Methodology
5 • Texts: An Interpretive Toolkit
6 • Archives: A Curatorial Toolkit
7 • Genres and Formations: An Analytical Toolkit
8 • Power: A Th eoretical Toolkit
PART THREE FROM JOTTING IT DOWN TO WRITING IT UP
9 • A Few Thoughts on Ideas and Arguments
10 • Dispenser: A Case Study
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
