States of Emergency: The Object of American Studies

by Russ Castronovo (Editor), Susan Gillman (Editor)

Overview

The contributors to this volume argue that for too long, inclusiveness has substituted for methodology in American studies scholarship. The ten original essays collected here call for a robust comparativism that is attuned theoretically to questions of both space and time.States of Emergency asks readers to engage in a thought experiment: imagine that you have an object you want to study. Which methodologies will contextualize and explain your selection? What political goals are embedded in your inquiry? This thought experiment is taken up by contributors who consider an array of objects—the weather, cigarettes, archival material, AIDS, the enemy, extinct species, and torture. The essayists recalibrate the metrics of time and space usually used to measure these questions. In the process, each contributes to a project that redefines the object of American studies, reading its history as well as its future across, against, even outside the established grain of interdisciplinary practice.Contributors:Srinivas Aravamudan, Duke UniversityIan Baucom, Duke UniversityChris Castiglia, The Pennsylvania State UniversityRuss Castronovo, University of Wisconsin-MadisonWai Chee Dimock, Yale UniversityNan Enstad, University of Wisconsin-MadisonSusan Gillman, University of California, Santa CruzRodrigo Lazo, University of California, IrvineRobert S. Levine, University of MarylandAnne McClintock, University of Wisconsin-MadisonKenneth W. Warren, University of ChicagoThe contributors are Srinivas Aravamudan, Ian Baucom, Chris Castiglia, Russ Castronovo, Wai Chee Dimock, Nan Enstad, Susan Gillman, Rodrigo Lazo, Robert S. Levine, Anne McClintock, and Kenneth Warren.—>

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807895511
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	12/01/2009
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	214
File size:	523 KB

About the Author

Russ Castronovo is Jean Wall Bennett Professor of English and American Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Susan Gillman is professor of literature and American studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction

The Study of the American Problems Russ Castronovo Susan Gillman 1

Rogue States and Emergent Disciplines Srinivas Aravamudan 17

Migrant Archives: New Routes in and out of American Studies Rodrigo Lazo 36

Toxicity and the Consuming Subject Nan Enstad 55

Past Burning: The (Post-)Traumatic Memories of (Post-)Queer Theory Christopher Castiglia 69

Paranoid Empire: Specters from Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib Anne McClintok 88

Taking the Measure of the Black Atlantic Kenneth W. Warren 116

Cicero's Ghost: The Atlantic, the Enemy, and the Laws of War Ian Baucom 124

World History according to Katrina Wai Chee Dimock 143

American Studies in an Age of Extinction Robert S. Levine 161

Contributors 183

Index 187

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Each essay in States of Emergency offers a fresh new approach to the deep complexity and contradictions of different ways of cognitive mapping of time, space, and culture. The collection combines broad theoretical ambition with careful analyses situated in specific times and places. It offers exemplary models of how to do new and better scholarship that is fully cognizant of the enormous ethical and political responsibilities that scholarship entails.—George Lipsitz, University of California at Santa Barbara

Editorial Reviews

Inspired.—Virginia Quarterly Review

From the Publisher