American Studies
American StudiesBy: Dayna Hoffenberg
Understanding America November 11, 1999 Midterm Examination American Studies can be a variety of different meanings to a lot of different authors. They are all pretty much on the same note, but with different alterations. For me, I believe that it is to make connections between the past and how it will impact the future. American Studies has transformed overtime. Each individual has their own beliefs and feelings of what it really means. In Gene Wise�s article he states how he is interested in how the field of American Studies has transformed overtime, what American Studies methodology is, and the types of questions that American Studies practitioners ask. I believe that there is no one way to understand America. For Gene, he begins to understand America by looking into the past. On the other hand, there was also the Linda Kerber essay that we had also read at the beginning of the semester. Kerber was saying in her article that there was something that was wrong with the myth and symbolist methodology. She also talked about how there are new approaches and diversity in the field and how it has altered the ways that American Studies practitioners write, teach, and learn. What interested me most in her article is how American Studies was quicker to welcome women and ethnic studies. I believe the answer to this is simply that the women represent a larger group and they are more out spoken. Kerber also saw a great deal of chauvinism with the myth symbolist methodology, as well as this certain approach not looking for structures of power. She looked at points from all different sorts of angles and would then analyze them. Kerber would always have a valid answer and would really go into great detail in her article so that it was easy to pick up the information. These two articles were very much related, but at the same time they were very different. This leads into the past and current methodological approaches in studying American culture and what different authors have to say. �The methodology of early American Studies practitioners in the 30s, 40s, and 50s was named the symbol myth school approach. They came up with a set of assumptions that would guide those working in the field. 1. There is one homogenous mind 2. The American mind is distinguished by its place in the New World- which makes Americans idealistic, individualist, and pragmatic Europeans by contrast, were tragic in temper and corrupted by old world assumptions 3. The American mind can be found in anyone American, and it�s expressed by those who write the high literature gene, such as Whitman, Twain... 4. The American mind is influenced by movements that run through our past Pragmatition, Transcendentalism, and Liberation 5. Popular culture is legit image to study, but the whole of American is best revealed in �high literature.�� (Gene Wise) Again, looking at the other side of the situation, there is Linda Kerber�s...
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