SOC 110 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, American Exceptionalism, Edward Said
2 Apr 2018
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James baldwin - on being white and other lies. We say americans but really mean people living in the united states, not including middle- and south america. "american studies become more transnational and interested in questions of empire" America"s birth certificate - martin waldseemuller (1507, world map) Process by which powerful forces in society call out to us and invite an coerce us. American studies questions the "exceptional" american identity. What is peculiar of the united states, what is distinctive. Was challenged by university-based research and from real life. "city on the hill" - town hall democracy, but also witch trials, fights over land, excommunications and banishment, conflicts between older and newer generations. American studies changed totally since the 1960s. Identities and identity itself are historical and unstable. Old: the logic of the discourse of identity assumes a stable subject. New: identities are never unified and increasingly fragmented and fractured. Constantly in the process of change and transformation.
