Current Objectives of Postgraduate American Studies (COPAS - E-Journal)
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Elijah Anderson’s “Iconic Ghetto” as Transatlantic Template? Problematic Traveling Imaginaries, Future Scripts, and Postindustrial Ruhr Cities
Get PDFThis article explores the presence and function of American templates of the stereotypical “ghetto” in the transnational urban imagination, taking the cities of the German Ruhr region as an example. I argue that this space is significantly influenced by the model of American postindustrialcities, where many of the traveling imaginaries of urban problems that have taken hold in former industrial cities in Europe seem to originate. In a first step, I inquire into the workings of the problematic template ofthe “iconic ghetto,” a concept I borrow from Elijah Anderson and extend transnationally, tracing its influence on urban development narratives in the Ruhr. In a second step, I discuss how social-educational reform initiatives respond to and intervene in such problematic imaginaries in their work. I assert that their activities aim to rewrite or “re-script” the prevalent narratives of this European postindustrial region, which are all too often negative. The alternative development narratives, or “scripts,”these reformers construct and propagate instead imagine cities of the future in a positive light, envisioning how inequality and segregation can be replaced by equality and social inclusion
COPAS at Twenty: Interrogating White Supremacy in the United States and Beyond
Get PDFIntroduction to the Thematic Issue
Memory, Identity and Political Communities – The Discursive Construction of the Transatlantic Alliance
Get PDFThe transatlantic community has, from its inception, been described as a community of like-minded nations that is held together not only by interests but also by shared values. These are based on a common identity – of what Karl W. Deutsch has called a “we-feeling” (36). Memory is a binding factor for both national and international communities because it contributes to their self-understanding in the present and is indispensable for imagining a common future. Given this assumption, this paper uses theories of memory as an analytical tool for studying the transatlantic partnership. More specifically, this paper will introduce the term and concept of a “transatlantic memory community” which is developed from Maurice Halbwachs’s concept of collective memory. It is based on the idea that the members of the Atlantic Community have developed a shared understanding of the past due to their membership in this political and ideational community. The analysis of the historical framing of the Bosnian conflict in Germany, France and the United States (U.S.) will serve as an example of the development of mnemonical commonplaces in the Atlantic Alliance
“Whose Tomorrow is Tomorrow?”: Remembering (Past) Futures in Autobiographical Writings of the US-Nicaragua Solidarity Movement and Contra War, 1979-1991
Get PDFTracing the question of how life writing about the US-Nicaragua solidarity movement and Contra War comments on 1980s US society, this paper investigates the narrative construction of future visions through the plotted narratives of past presents and past futures in John Brentlinger’s The Best of What We Are: Reflections on the Nicaraguan Revolution“ and William R. Meara’s Contra Cross: Insurgency and Tyranny in Central America, 1979-1989“
Playing to Make America Great Again: Far Cry 5 and the Politics of Videogames in an Age of Trumpism
Get PDFThis article examines the politics of mainstream videogames in the contemporary political moment in the United States. To illustrate the political agency of videogames, the paper first considers the entanglements of videogames and gamer culture in the anti-progressive backlash that has accompanied Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and presidency by looking at the GamerGate harassment campaign. The article then provides a critical reading of Ubisoft’s Far Cry 5“ (2018), which demonstrates how the videogame (re)produces reactionary ideologies. Far Cry 5“ repeatedly employs tropes and narratives steeped in American colonialism, expresses a yearning for the past and its way of life, and works through a logic of taking back the country under the feeling of having one’s home taken away by strangers. As it thus evokes a sense of ‘making America great again,’ Far Cry 5“ exemplifies the political resonance of videogames in the ongoing phenomenon of Trumpism in the United States
Between Zero Dark Thirty and Camp X-Ray: Changing Gender Dynamics of Contemporary American War Film
No full textWar films play a substantial role in American society by cultivating an understanding of military politics. I argue that the use of different narrative strategies encouraging spectator identification within the US American war films establishes the political backbone of the genre. This paper concentrates on the transformation of the genre’s conventional gender representation in connection with American military politics. After providing a brief history of female integration into the US military, it offers a comparative analysis of Zero Dark Thirty“ (2012) and Camp X-Ray“ (2014)
“Here They Come to Save the Day” – The New Sincerity in 1990s American Superhero Comics
Get PDFAfter the success of postmodern superhero comics that deconstructed heroism in post-Vietnam, post-Watergate USA, mid-1990s comics experienced a resurgence in unabashedly heroic narratives. This coincided with David Foster Wallace’s call for post-irony and the emergence of New Sincerity, a post-postmodern trend that aims to break with cynicism. I will argue that these superhero comics are inherently nostalgic, drawing on tropes, storylines, and characters from the Silver Age comics of the 1950s and 60s. Discussing this dispute between postmodern cynicism and New Sincerity, a lens through which the current political and cultural landscape can be analyzed and dissected, will shed light on the origin and nature of two opposing narrative trends that have been increasingly shaping American culture, society, and politics
The Future of the Enhanced Self and Contemporary Science Fiction: TED Talks and Dave Eggers\u27 The Circle
Get PDFThis article sets out to examine the ways in which cultural and literary texts actively shape the discourse on human enhancement. First, it identifies the emergence of a “sense of wonder” (Sawyer 87) in TED talks that advance transhumanist ideals. Second, it investigates the critical and ethical potential of Dave Eggers’s The Circle“ (2013) to challenge the notion of a ‘post-bodied future.
Mobility and Literature, An Analysis of the Selected Works of Don DeLillo
No full textThis article seeks to envision a new outlook toward mobility by paying greater attention to how mobility is represented and positioned in Don DeLillo’s narrative works. Through close readings of The Names“ and Americana“, I argue that shifts in the narration—from the first-person to the third-person or from the omniscient narrative to interior monologue—correspond to mobilities of people, information, and culture. I conclude that DeLillo employs literature as a medium to indicate the interconnectivity of textual interactions (transfictionality) in relation to the mobilization of people, culture, and information
