Introduction. A brief overview of "American Studies" in Western Europe (original) (raw)

Coming into View: European Re-Visions of 'America' after 1945

American Studies Inernational, 1999

I am trying to sketch out, in rather broad brush-strokes, a survey of the development of American studies in Europe during the past 50 years.. After a view of the overall situation at the end of World War II and the beginning of American studies at European (and, we may remember, also at U. S.) universities, I then focus on some major developments of the recent years such as the growing independence of European American studies from their U.S. origins; the new situation created with the fall of the iron curtain and the changes in US cultural policy that have resulted from these events; some current trends in European American studies; and then end up with some more detailed information about American studies in Austria.

The Europeanization of American Studies

B. Kettemann and D. Jutronic, eds. Crossing Borders: Recent Developments in Research and Teaching of English and American Studies, 1999

Let me begin by shortly reminding the reader that only about 60 years ago, before World War II, there was a time when English was NOT predominantly the first foreign language taught in central European schools; and though this changed rapidly after 1945 - not least because of the pervasive global presence of the United States - it was Britannia who, for a variety of reasons too large to detail here, ruled the waves of many European English Departments for another couple of decades -- in Austria actually until 1982, when the term “Anglistik und Amerikanistik” officially replaced the old term “Englische Philologie” in the name of university study programs. By that time, American Studies as an acknowledged scholarly discipline had been around in Europe for about 35 years, and even in Austria for about 10, yet the fact indicates that progress then was rather slow. It also helps to understand the maybe unexpected situation that by the time I finished my studies in English and History at the University of Graz in 1971, the only people who offered university courses on American literature/culture were Fulbright Visiting Professors; but as one did not get credits for attending these exotic events, only rhetorical supermen were able to attract more than a handful of ‘privately interested’ students. Since then, things have changed considerably, and one could say that about 200 years after the American Declaration of Independence, American Studies as an academic discipline entered its post-colonial phase at many European and Austrian universities.

EUROPEAN STUDIES IN THE UNITED STATES: CURRENT CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS FOR THE FUTURE

2008

The future of European Studies in the United States is certainly dim, if one presumes that it will parallel the declining importance of “old, tired Europe” for the United States, and for American foreign policy more specifically. 1 Alternatively, it could be viewed in a more positive light if one emphasizes the lasting legacy of the European enlightenment for the United States and for world culture, even while China and India are gaining in global importance.

"American Studies in Europe. 'Divided We Stand'"

Working Papers in American Studies, Vol. 1, eds. Jelena Sesnic and Sven Cvek, Zagreb, 2015.

With its military and economic influence, its cultural and linguistic reach, the United States is—for better or for worse—too formidable and potent not to be understood clearly and critically. HOW to understand the USA has been a vehemently discussed issue ever since 1998 ASA president Janice Radway suggested that “American Studies” better be re-named “cultural studies,” or some such. Since then we have seen the arrival of a plethora of new terms – starting with the not so exciting coinage “New American Studies” and diversifying into a host of terms that preferably include “trans-,” “cross-,” “anti-,” “post-,” “comparative,” “queer,” and even “diasporic” – a term which until not so long ago usually only referred to the history of the Jewish people from antiquity to the present. If, as then ASA President Emory Elliott argued in his 2006 address, “diversity” is now the key concept in American Studies, this lively pool of buzzwords certainly testifies to it. While it also seems to indicate a trend towards the globalization of American Studies, this process itself spawns another debate that is tied to the object of our discipline as well as to the concepts and tools of the field itself: is globalization actually Americanization – often understood as the unfettered spread of ruthless capitalism across the globe? If so, how to assess this phenomenon with the methods of our discipline? Has Radway’s 1998 provocative suggestion been vindicated and has “America” has become a diffuse free-floating signifier for “trans/international” Americanization? As European scholars we have one advantage: looking across the Atlantic, our object of study is very clearly visible – the USA have not disappeared in the flood of buzzwords, and there is little indication they would do so in the foreseeable future. The New Americanists will still try to understand the same old USA, but with different concepts; the debate about US exceptionalism will continue, enriched by more comparative aspects and cross-cultural perspectives. For a better understanding, as Winfried Fluck, Stipe Grgas, and Jelena Šesnić, among others, suggest in recent papers, scholars might pay more attention to the importance of capitalism and economy as decisive forces in U.S. society and culture. We might also look more closely into the extremely mediated character of everyday life in the States, including the new media; at the ownership of media conglomerates like FOX, Time Warner, etc.; and at the impact they have on the practice and processes of U.S. democracy. Another research focus could be the compatibility of fundamentalist religion and democratic society. I expect that the intensified sharing of U.S. and international American Studies scholars’ perspectives will help us to gradually establish a more comprehensive view on all these issues under discussion, and to better place them in their appropriate historical, political, and socio-cultural contexts. For our research and teaching of U.S. culture and society, only an inclusive approach guarantees the necessary and most authentic level of complexity and differentiation which can make students aware that the flood of simulacra they receive via everyday mass media is exactly that.

The End of Americanization? or Reinventing a Research Field for Historians of Europe

The Journal of Modern History, 2020

The "Americanization paradigm is no longer tenable," proclaimed a gathering of German historians a few years ago. 1 This approach to transatlantic exchange, in their view, was too one-sided, too America-centric. Those who subscribed to it were guilty of propagating the outdated notion of American exceptionalism. Other scholars complained the paradigm rested on the false premise of exchanges among static, homogeneous national cultures. Still other researchers inadvertently undermined the field by emphasizing how thoroughly Europeans domesticated American imports. Then there were those who conceded Americanization may capture much about transatlantic relations in the mid-twentieth century, but they saw the process ending by the 1970s, after which Europeans went their own way. And one expert denied it ever existed, calling it "mostly a fantasy." 2 As a research field in European history Americanization reached its peak during the 1990s. Since then doubts about its viability have grown. Recent developments in transatlantic affairs further complicate the issue. The disengagement of the United States from Europe, the relative decline of its power, and the tarnishing of its luster as the embodiment of the ideal modern society seem to remove Americanization from the topics of contemporary relevance. The age of European dependency and American domination, privilege, and influence associated with the early postwar and Cold War years is past. Rather than Americanization, the issue is a widening Atlantic. But I do not think the field is either irrelevant or exhausted. Rather, I propose to reassess the paradigm and make it useful again for historians. * I want to express my gratitude to Volker Berghahn, David Ellwood, Rob Kroes, Anna von der Goltz, and Mario Daniels, as well as the journal's three anonymous readers, for their many valuable suggestions to improve my manuscript.

(Re)structuring American studies in Belgium

IdeAs, 2021

In Belgium, many research or teaching centers and structures on the Americas have gradually withered away. Pressure from donors and university authorities has often overwhelmed the determination of their facilitators, as has the difficulty of bridging the gap between researchers from very different backgrounds. The latter often withdrew to their disciplinary centers. However, the difficulty of institutionalizing the areas of study in a transdisciplinary perspective should not hide the fact that studies on the Americas conducted in Belgium remain as varied as they are dynamic. In this context, experiences such as AmericaS can pave the way for a new way of conceiving the structuring of American studies.