American Studies: Culture

Abstract

The study of American culture dates back to national independence and has been profoundly shaped by changes in the meaning of both national identity and culture. The concept of culture has drawn on both universalistic Enlightenment ideals and Romanticism, which introduced a strong nationalist component. The latter informed an idea of national character as a singular ‘spirit’ or ‘mind’ that survived in both humanist accounts of culture as artistic achievement and later anthropological accounts of culture as a ‘way of life’ or ‘pattern of values.’ The academic field of American studies dates back to the 1930s, and initially represented a fusion of literary analysis and the history of ideas around the problem of national character and culture. Since the 1960s, American studies has incorporated other traditions, subjects, and methods of inquiry—especially from the social sciences—that have moved it beyond its humanistic origins, although that early constellation of themes continues to exercise influence. Increasingly, American studies serves less as a distinct field of inquiry than as an umbrella term for a range of topics and approaches that are only nominally and often contentiously organized by the concept of national culture. This includes the creation of subfields around new social movements, a broad reinscription of culture in social processes, and a recognition of the ways in which culture is a contested field of identity and meaning.