Popular Ideology Research Articles

Death and Rebirth: Images of Death in Sicily

Photographs were often taken during funerary ceremonies in Sicily. Local photographers were commissioned to document funerals as if they were christenings, communions or wedding ceremonies; and it is no mere coincidence that in funeral portraits the relatives arranged around the coffin assumed postures similar to those seen in photos of festivities. This tradition of taking photos during such “mixed occasions” gives the images a profound significance and highlights the archaic roots of the popular ideology of death as a continuum of life.

The Aesthetics of Slovene Popular Music for Different Generations of Slovene Listeners: The Contribution of Audience Research

What is popular music to Slovene listeners? How is it conceived of in terms of vocabulary, and what can be said of the political potential of its aesthetic instance? In the field of Slovene popular music and audience research, these issues have thus far remained un(der)explored. Nevertheless, they need to be addressed: if carefully contextualized, looking into the questions of what popular music signifies, and is connected with, for different Slovene audiences points to the cultural meaning-assigning power-play at work. Bearing this issue in mind, the text attempts to provide a contextually informed overview of how Slovene popular music audiences of different—inductively singled out—age groups conceive of the aesthetics of Slovenian popular music. The text analyzes 150 semi-structured interviews with popular music audiences in Slovenia, conducted in 2012 as part of the HERA POPID project. It employs a Bakhtinian conceptual framework and attempts to locate the aesthetic coordinates of popular music discourse in Slovenia, arguing that the aesthetic moment might offer a possibility of escaping stabilized connections between popular music, nation, identity, and ideology.

The case of the gene: Postgenomics between modernity and postmodernity.

The history of modernity is a story about humans emancipating themselves from prejudice and superstition through reason and science. Scientific research has been a major driving force of progress for human civilization since the industrial revolution in the mid‐18th century. During the past 250 years, humans have rapidly increased their use of science, as a tool not only to understand and shape their environment, but also to improve themselves with better health care and longer, more comfortable lives. Unfortunately, the application of science has not always been appropriate: Darwin's theory of natural selection was applied to social policies in the form of eugenics from the early 19th century until the second half of the 20th century. In this period, eugenics remained a popular ideology and, as a consequence, genetics was a popular science. It was also a period of significant human migration that increased racial diversity in Western nations, with resulting concerns about racial purity. Naturalism and social Darwinism were very popular throughout, while industrialization led to massive urbanization and increasing pauperism. Politically, it was a time of interventionist policies, such as the so‐called Progressive Era in the USA that led to drastic social and political change. > No more divine designer, no more life force is needed; life is determined by a genetic program and evolves as a result of chance—or human choice—and selection Eugenics gained scientific legitimacy in the early 20th century owing to Mendelian genetics, which offered a rational, scientific theory to understand, predict, and control heredity and thereby the characteristics of future generations. As pauperism, criminality, and “feeblemindedness” were thought to be genetically determined, eugenics offered a tool to eliminate these undesirable traits from the human population. Of course, the idea of a single and universal definition of “the gene” is currently disappearing together …

12 The Mexican Legacy in Nicaragua, or Problems when Data Behave Badly

ABSTRACTInvestigations over the past 15 years have sought archaeological evidence for Mexican migrants to Pacific Nicaragua, as indicated in ethnohistorical origin myths and as embraced by contemporary popular culture. Extensive excavations at three Postclassic sites have provided evidence of domestic architecture, foodways, mortuary remains, and religious practices—all considered to be potential archaeological indicators of ethnicity, but none of which provide strong evidence of Mexican identity. A larger theme is the contemporary reaction to challenging the identity of the indigenous ancestors. This paper discusses the Mexican legacy in Nicaragua, and strategies for negotiating popular ideology with badly behaved archaeological data.

Empire and Nation: Australian Popular Ideology and the Outbreak of the Pacific War

In this article my purpose is to measure the popular response in Australia to three key moments that marked the outbreak and early months of the Pacific War – the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor and Malaya, the publication of John Curtin’s ‘The Task Ahead’ article, and the British surrender of Singapore. In comparing the responses of the nation’s political leaders with those of the population more generally, my aim is both to contrast these reactions and explore how they interacted and connected. My theme is that the dramatic events of late 1941 and early 1942 led imperial loyalists to become more extreme in their defence of Great Britain and Britishness, while at the same time prompting many other Australians to explore the prospect of a more independent political and cultural role in the empire.This article has been peer reviewed.

THE PERIODICAL PRESS AND THE INTELLECTUAL CULTURE OF CONSERVATISM IN INTERWAR BRITAIN

ABSTRACTConservatives usually play down their intellectual credentials because it provides them with an effective means of distancing themselves from the ‘doctrinaire’ or the intellectualized politics of the left. But this approach was challenged by a significant group of Conservative MPs and intellectuals during the interwar period. Conservatives wrote articles for a range of periodicals, which were still important channels of communication for the sharing of political ideas between the wars. Stanley Baldwin banned government ministers from publishing independent journalism, which meant that it was mainly young, ambitious, or marginalized Conservative MPs who wrote for periodicals. When left-wing sentiment started to swell up during the Second World War, some Conservative supporters started to question the interwar leadership's neglect of the party's intellectual and publishing culture. It was now thought that the Conservative party lacked a convincing media-based popular ideology to compete with the left. But if Baldwin prioritized other aspects of the interwar party's appeal, the intellectual culture of Conservatism still acted as an important barrier to communist and fascist thought in elite political circles. This culture also had important resonances for the party in the post-war period because it contributed to its self-evaluation and policy restatements after 1945.

My Father's Past, My Children's Future: Agrarian Identity and a Powerline in Minnesota, 1974-1980

This article discusses the motivations and actions of farmers who protested against the construction of a high voltage powerline in Minnesota between 1974 and 1980. A deeply rooted agrarian identity fostered a sense of injustice over the construction of the powerline, and early victories gave a perceived collective agency that allowed for sustained commitment despite numerous setbacks. This movement was not about promoting social change; rather, it was about protecting perceived traditions, which were at the core of the popular ideology the farmers embraced. Farmers were morally outraged when they perceived that their traditions and values were threatened by the powerline and justified their unlawful activities in a vain attempt to stop its construction.

Fenians and Ribbonmen: The Development of Republican Politics in East Tyrone, 1898–1918, by Fergal McCluskey

If all politics is local, as Tip O’Neill once famously asserted, some politics is more local than others. The methodological framework of the ‘local study’ is possibly the most common form of microhistory deployed within Irish historiography, and has produced several classics, such as David Fitzpatrick’s pioneering study of County Clare (Politics and Irish Life, 1913–1921: Provincial Experience of War and Revolution [1977]; rev. ante, xciv [1979], 232–4), Peter Hart’s controversial snapshot of revolutionary Cork (The IRA and its Enemies: Violence and Community in Cork, 1916–1923 [1988], rev. ante, cxv [2000], 246–7), and Michael Wheatley’s more recent revision of the attitudes of grass-roots nationalism in five counties of what he calls ‘middle Ireland’ (Nationalism and the Irish Party: Provincial Ireland, 1910–1916 [2005; rev. ante, cxxi [2006], 563–5). Fergal McCluskey has now added to this literature with an assured case-study of East Tyrone. Every Irish county will have its own peculiarities, but it is a skill to place the locale into wider national and thematic concerns, and to speak to a broader historiographical audience. To his credit, McCluskey does not view Tyrone in a vacuum, but constantly weaves his local data into the larger national tapestry. Focusing on ‘popular ideology’ (p. 8), McCluskey explores the dynamics of localised Fenianism, represented by the clandestine Irish Republican Brotherhood, and the Ancient Order of Hibernians—the successors to the Ribbonmen. The emphasis of the book is on the early fluidity and later rigidity of nationalist identities within the chosen time-scale of 1898 to 1918. The period begins in a state of flux, with a high degree of overlap between the IRB, AOH and the constitutional nationalist movement, but ends with a clear binary division—with the Hibernians steadfastly blocking the spread of Fenian-inspired popular republicanism throughout Tyrone.

Volontà di potenza come volontà di naufragio: quando il superamento passa dall’autodistruzione

The concept of will to power is one of the most important Nietzsche’s theories, that deals with the capacity of a person to face death and the thought of his own sacrifice without any fear, in order to obtain one’s self-overcoming. The so called will to wreck is the most powerful objectification of will to power, and it is deep-rooted in European society, especially German popular ideology. Actually, it is possible to find this conception of will to wreck in connection with will to power in Nibelungenlied, the greatest Nordic poem of 13th century, and, years and years later, in Nazi ideology (and of course Nietzsche himself), as a proof of the temporal continuity of this particular philosophy. A philosophy which is probably part of our psychology, and which is not likely to be easily forgotten though its terrible, destructive power.

A Suitable (Hindu) Boy

In translating Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy into Hindi, Gopal Gandhi, who, as Harish Trivedi remarks, sees himself as the ‘rightful possessor’ of the story, emphasizes and dramatizes its Hindu-centricity. The authority to do so seems to be derived from the confidence that his translation rescued the story from being de-Indianized (and hence de-Hinduized?) by the English language. Hindi, on the other hand, is projected to be strictly Indian and Hindu, undisturbed by foreign conceptual infiltrations. Therefore, the concept of secularism (projected as a foreign import, with a cosmopolite elite appeal, but no grounding in popular ideology) is distanced from the Hindi/Hindu milieu. Through detailed textual analysis of the Hindi translation, Koi Accha-Sa Ladka, alongside Seth's novel, where I trace both the linguistic and ideological discrepancies between the texts, I argue that Gandhi's translation ultimately competes with Seth's vision of the story.

Ideology, Politics and Economy - An Empirical Essay on Popular Ideology, Public Politics, and Economic Development

One of the classical questions of political economy, going back at least to Marx and Weber, is how culture and economy interact. Different aspects of culture have been studied in terms of how they affect economic development and are in turn affected by the economic situation and development. This empirical essay inquires how popular ideology may interact with economic development. Looking at the development of ideology over a three decade-period, one finds a significant shift to the left and also a homogenization of individual-level ideology. One also finds certain policy developments, such as more employment protection and more social transfers, which affect economic growth negatively. Ideology may affect economic development via the cultural route, in that less people have the mind-set required for strong economic growth. But after controlling for other factors, popular ideology does not affect economic development in a meaningful way, contradicting the argument of a cultural route. Ideology may also operate via the political route, in that people with certain ideology vote for certain parties, which then implement certain policies which affect economic growth. But the evidence for a political route linking ideology and policy is also weak, in that ideology does not strongly matter for the composition of governments, and government composition does not strongly matter for the choice of policies by governments. Policies, notably employment protection and social transfers, expand, despite the fact, that there is no clear demand in the electorate for those policies. One potential explanation is that of a free floating political system, where all political actors share certain preferences, among them an expansion of the state. So given that there are quasi-exogenous policy developments, the next question was, whether these policies affect individual level ideology. Here too, the evidence is quite weak, despite some significant effects.

Naturalizing Apocalypse: Last Men and Other Animals

Expectations of a dystopian or apocalyptic future are central to twentieth and twenty-first century culture, and constitute a pervasive influence on popular culture, religious identity, and political ideology. Political scientists, philosophers and literary critics have emphasized the Manichean worldview that underlies present-day concerns with the future: a desire to cast historical events in terms of a struggle between light and darkness, good and evil, until the end of time. 1 ‘The apocalyptic imagination’, notes sociologist John Wallis, ‘has a tendency to conceive the world in starkly dualistic terms [...] There are, in other words, no shades of grey within apocalypticism, nor any moral ambiguity’. 2 Millenarian ideology, according tothisinterpretation, precipitates violence: for the believer, events cohere as part of a universal, apocalyptic plan; actual or perceived opponents are traitors or agents of evil; the sense of an imminent end of history inspires plans of empowerment, and calls for ruthless action. The Revelation of John, with its mythic and graphic description of end-time conflict, provides a compelling context for such narratives of apocalyptic bloodshed. Revelation, according to feminist theologian Tina Pippin, is a source of ‘sublime horror’, a celebration of sadistic violence that casts its shadow on other public expressions of religious faith. 3 In her wide-ranging study of spirit forms, Phantasmagoria, Marina Warner reaches an even bleaker conclusion. For the British novelist and cultural historian, ‘the present disturbing diffusion of this biblical book [Revelation] has a new, unexamined moral force, a redundant nastiness, the kind that many centuries of thought about justice and humanity have striven to put aside’. 4 But not all expressions of apocalyptic culture lend themselves to this interpretation. Unlike other end-time narratives, last man fictions–tales of solitary survivors and of the sudden annihilation of

Argentina: Back to Peronism

Argentina: Back to Peronism

"E fez-se o samba": Condicionantes intelectuais da música popular no Brasil

In this article I analyze the process of the legitimization of samba in Rio de Janeiro during the period between 1910 and 1930. During this time of the institutionalization of a popular artistic field, the actions of specific agents competed to symbolically demarcate what would later be considered a musical genre. Among these actions, I call attention specifically to the work of two diverse groups of intellectuals whose efforts were of great importance for the recognition and the introduction of samba in the cases of musical reproduction and appreciation in high culture. I seek also to understand the tensions which developed between certain agents linked to the nascent musical genre with respect to the advancement of the process of commodification of artistic production. As such I aim to illuminate one of the possible "levers" that contributed to the shaping of the Brazilian national popular ideology in the arts.

Fenians, Ribbonmen and popular ideology’s role in nationalist politics: east Tyrone, 1906–9

Irish nationalist politics between 1906 and 1909 revolved around the twin demands of self-government and a resolution of the land issue; as such, the period was demarcated by two pieces of Liberal government legislation: the May 1907 Irish Council Bill and Birrell’s December 1909 land act. The latter was partially a response to western Irish Republican Brotherhood (I.R.B.)-inspired ‘agrarian militancy’ on the part of the United Irish League (U.I.L.) and the emerging Sinn Féin movement’s ability to ‘outfank’ the Irish Parliamentary Party (I.P.P.) on the issue, which effectively forced Irish Party leader John Redmond ‘to adopt a radical agrarian policy in June 1907’. However, outside Connacht, the U.I.L. could not be regarded as ‘the Land League reborn’. In east Tyrone, the demand for self-government dominated the nationalist agenda, a situation reinforced by the fact that local politics had been ‘cast in the denominational mould which has characterised them ever since’. As a result, the Board of Erin section of the Ancient Order of Hibernians (A.O.H.) was the motor of popular nationalist mobilisation, leaving the U.I.L.

The Interpellations of Interpolation; or, The Disintegrating Female Musical Body

This essay interrogates the popular ideology of integration in American musical theater, arguing that the “integration” of Oklahoma! was less the integration of music and narrative and more a related (and almost equally uneasy) attempt to minimize the eruptive force of female musical bodies. This integration seems to be invested with limiting the potential positions from which spectators can approach the musical performance—most crucially, in preventing identification with singers' bodies. In this way, the integration of Oklahoma! participates in the tradition of the Wagnerian Gesamtkunstwerk, a poetic concept that also “integrates” music through the taming of female musical bodies. Though Bertolt Brecht's sophisticated critique of the Wagnerian Gesamtkunstwerk adumbrates a useful direction for understanding the generic disintegration of the musical, Brecht, too, ultimately resists the feminine associations of the disintegrating power of music. However, despite the integrating impulses of journalistic criticism and aesthetic theory—which continue even today—the ideology of integration lost some of its allure during the 1970s, when a number of older stars began to star in revivals. These shows foreground the aesthetic features—musical bodies—central to every musical, and in doing so they demand that we resist the misleading and indeed stiflingly unmusical mantra of integration.

The Unbounded German Nation: Dr. Otto Hahn and German Emigration to Canada in the 1870s and 1880s

Otto Hahn, un avocat et un organisateur de l’émigration de l’État de Würtemberg en Allemagne, fit partie intégrante du débat allemand sur l’empire colonial, l’identité germanique et l’émigration. Dans cet article, nous suggérons que toute discussion portant sur cette dernière au niveau européen au dix-neuvième siècle doit prendre en considération là où elle a eu lieu dans le contexte de l’expansion coloniale. Hahn était, à bien des égards, un représentant typique du colonialisme émigrationiste. Pourtant, il avait des idées qui déviaient de ce qu’on comprend normalement sous ce terme. Sa fascination toujours plus grande pour le Canada jette une lumière sur la manière dont cette idéologie populaire pouvait s’altérer. Par ailleurs, tout débat sur une identité germanique conçue à un niveau transnational vers la fin du dix-neuvième siècle doit inclure des communautés intellectuelles et spirituelles en tant que sources d’une telle identité, et doit les placer dans le contexte général de la diffusion de la modernité. Enfin, la dernière partie de l’histoire d’Otto Hahn nous permet d’avoir un rare aperçu d’un colonialiste émigrationiste devenu lui-même un émigrant, ce qui nous permet ainsi de concevoir l’émigration comme un moyen de contester et de négocier le nationalisme plutôt que d’y voir une porte de sortie de la communauté nationale.

‘Snag bags’: Adapting condoms to community values in Native American communities

HIV/AIDS researchers working among Native Americans have consistently noted resistance to discussions of sexuality and the distribution of condoms. This resistance is inspired by long held values about shame and public discussions of sexuality. Also, American Indians have been reluctant to welcome public discussions of HIV/AIDS and sexuality from external entities, such as governmental agencies. As a result, Native peoples have some of the lowest documented condom use rates. However, innovations in culturally integrating condoms and safe sex messages into Native cultural ideals are proving beneficial. One such innovation is the snag bag, which incorporates popular Native sexual ideology while working within local ideals of shame to distribute condoms and safe sex materials to sexually active young people and adults. Using snag bags as an example, this research proposes that an effective approach to HIV prevention among Native peoples is not cultural sensitivity but cultural integration. That is, HIV prevention strategies must move beyond the empty promise of merely culturally‐sensitizing ideas about disease cause. Instead of simply ‘translating’ HIV/AIDS programming into Native culture, prevention strategies must be integrated by Native peoples into their own disease theories and contemporary culture. Résumé Les chercheurs en matière du HIV/sida qui travaillent parmi les Amérindiens rencontrent invariablement des résistances vis‐à‐vis de toute discussion de la sexualité et de la distribution des préservatifs. Cette résistance est basée sur des valeurs qui, depuis fort longtemps, portent sur la honte et sur toute discussion en public de la sexualité. En outre, les Amérindiens ont beaucoup hésité à accueillir favorablement les initiatives en provenance d'instances extérieures telles que les organismes gouvernementaux visant à encourager un débat public autour du HIV/sida et la sexualité. En conséquence, le taux d'utilisation de préservatifs chez les Amérindiens est parmi les plus bas jamais relevés. Cependant, certaines initiatives visant à intégrer dans la culture des Amérindiens des messages à propos de l'utilisation de préservatifs et des rapports sexuels sans risque commencent à porter leurs fruits. L'une de ses démarches novatrices concerne le “sac à malices”, qui, tout en tenant compte de l'idéologie sexuelle populaire amérindienne et de l'attitude de cette communauté vis‐à‐vis de la honte, distribue aux jeunes et aux adultes en activité sexuelle des préservatifs et autres matériaux favorisant les rapports sexuels protégés. Prenant ce “sac à malices” comme exemple, l'auteur suggère qu'une approche efficace de la prévention du HIV chez les Amérindiens devrait se focaliser non sur la sensibilité culturelle mais sur l'intégration culturelle. Autrement dit, toute stratégie de prévention du HIV devra aller au‐delà d'une vaine promesse de respecter les sensibilités culturelles concernant les causes de la maladie. Au lieu d'une simple “traduction” des programmes anti‐HIV/sida pour la culture amérindienne, les stratégies de prévention doivent être intégrées par les Amérindiens eux‐mêmes dans leur culture contemporaine et selon leurs propres théories concernant cette maladie. Resumen Los investigadores del VIH/sida que trabajan entre nativos americanos han notado una resistencia sistemática a hablar de sexualidad o la distribución de preservativos. Esta resistencia está inspirada en valores arraigados sobre la vergüenza y los discursos públicos en materia de sexualidad. Asimismo los indios americanos se niegan a aceptar que este tipo de discusiones públicas sobre el VIH/sida y la sexualidad procedan de organismos externos, tales como agencias gubernamentales. En consecuencia los nativos presentan una de las tasas más bajas del uso de preservativos que se haya documentado. Sin embargo, se han demostrado los beneficios de las innovaciones en aras de integrar culturalmente el uso de preservativos y los mensajes sobre seguridad sexual en los ideales culturales de los nativos. Una de estas innovaciones es la bolsa (snag bag) que forma parte de la ideología popular entre los nativos con respecto a la sexualidad. Con este tipo de bolsa se tienen en cuenta los ideales locales con respecto a la vergüenza para distribuir preservativos y materiales relacionados con la seguridad sexual a los jóvenes y adultos sexualmente activos. En este estudio hemos incluido estas bolsas como ejemplo para proponer que un planteamiento eficaz sobre la prevención del sida entre los nativos no consiste en sensibilidad cultural sino integración cultural. Es decir que las estrategias de prevención del sida deben ir más allá de la promesa sin sentido de que para hablar de la causa de las enfermedades hay que ser sensibles a las culturas. En vez de traducir simplemente los programas contra VIH/sida en la cultura nativa, los nativos deben incorporar las estrategias en sus propias teorías sobre enfermedades y en su cultura contemporánea.

East Main Street: Asian American Popular Culture ed. by Shilpa Davé, LeiLani Nishime, Tasha G. Oren

B o o k R e v i e w s 3 6 1 East Main Street: Asian American Popular Culture. Edited by Shilpa Dave, LeiLani Nishime, and Tasha G. Oren. New York: New York University Press, 2005. 382 pages, $22.00. Reviewed by Joel M iyasaki University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign One of the most important roles of Asian American studies is to debunk the idea that Asian Americans play the role of the perpetual “other” in American society. Asian Americans exercise agency, and this agency appears often in mediums of popular culture. In this boom time of Asian American cultural pro­ duction, it befits the academy to evaluate Asian American cultural influences as they move from the fringe to the mainstream of popular studies. In East Main Street, editors Shilpa Dave, LeiLani Nishime, and Tasha G. Oren have organized a collection of seventeen essays that engage some of the most fascinating debates in present-day Asian American studies. East Main Street’s editors claim that Asian American studies’ traditional paradigms have often shied away from acknowledging the group’s immigrant origins and ethnic diversity. The essayists in East Main Street remedy these parochial weaknesses by moving the discussion of Asian American popular culture outside national borders, conventional canons of cultural expression, and ethnic exclusivities. The result is an eclectic group of essays organized roughly into sections focused on the global interchange of popular culture, the affects of history on popular culture, and how popular culture affects ethnic identity. Spatial limits make it impossible to adequately discuss the diversity of scholarship represented in these brilliant essays, but this review will highlight a few demonstrative offerings. In addressing the globalization of culture, Sunaina Maira argues that rave culture not only allows suburban youth to imbibe orien­ tal exoticism but also gives Asian American youth a medium to invent cultural traditions. In the section on history and popular culture, Victor Bascara claims that the unusual domestic relationships that existed in Filipino bachelor com­ munities— men in these communities created unique domestic roles for them­ selves in the absence of women— offer opportunities for queer analysis and popular representation. In another essay, Hiram Perez purports that mainstream popular culture has stolen Tiger Woods’s “Asianness” in order to hide a historic legacy of racial intolerance toward Asian miscegenation. The final section on identity construction and popular culture contains the editors’ offerings for the collection. Nishime offers an explanation about how part-Asian actors who deceptively play white characters, such as Keanu Reeves and Smallville’s Kristin Kreuk, open the possibility for alternative racial and queer readings of movies and television programs. Dave argues that the character of Abu on The Simpsons represents an example of “brown voice”—a racial accent reifying or complicating racial constructions. Oren specifies how popular depictions of Asian American anger in movies, such as Better 3 6 2 W e s t e r n A m e r i c a n L i t e r a t u r e F a l l 2 0 0 6 Luck Tomorrow, and comic strips, such as “Secret Asian Man,” allow Asian Americans to transcend stereotypes and create a more realistic space for themselves in popular depiction. East Main Street creates its own relevance by touching on an abundance of cultural mediums and themes. Scholars of film, literature, the Internet, music, and history can all find essays in which to sink their teeth. More important, this book is a must-read for scholars of Asian American popular culture because it imagines the field in so many creative and complex ways. Individuality Incorporated: Indians and the Multicultural Modern. By Joel Pfister. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2004- 340 pages, $84.95/$23.95. Reviewed by Linda Lizut H elstern North Dakota State University, Fargo In Individuality Incorporated: Indians and the Multicultural Modem, Joel Pfister claims as his subject the making of the individual self. It would be more accu­ rate to say that he is investigating the historical change in the popular ideology of individuality and how this change, the result both of Freud’s radically new insight into depth psychology and the shift from producer-oriented to...

Individuality Incorporated: Indians and the Multicultural Modern by Joel Pfister

3 6 2 W e s t e r n A m e r i c a n L i t e r a t u r e F a l l 2 0 0 6 Luck Tomorrow, and comic strips, such as “Secret Asian Man,” allow Asian Americans to transcend stereotypes and create a more realistic space for themselves in popular depiction. East Main Street creates its own relevance by touching on an abundance of cultural mediums and themes. Scholars of film, literature, the Internet, music, and history can all find essays in which to sink their teeth. More important, this book is a must-read for scholars of Asian American popular culture because it imagines the field in so many creative and complex ways. Individuality Incorporated: Indians and the Multicultural Modern. By Joel Pfister. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2004- 340 pages, $84.95/$23.95. Reviewed by Linda Lizut H elstern North Dakota State University, Fargo In Individuality Incorporated: Indians and the Multicultural Modem, Joel Pfister claims as his subject the making of the individual self. It would be more accu­ rate to say that he is investigating the historical change in the popular ideology of individuality and how this change, the result both of Freud’s radically new insight into depth psychology and the shift from producer-oriented to consumer -oriented capitalism, was reflected in federal Indian policy. The Indians of Pfisters title are ideological constructs of the white imaginary, though his text seeks to resist such constructions at every turn. Divided into two discrete parts with no attempt to forge causal or chronological connection, Individuality Incorporated offers a new slant on two familiar stories: the story of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School and its founder Col. Richard Henry Pratt and the story of high modernism in New Mexico, focusing on Mabel Dodge Luhan and John Collier. From Carlisle’s founding in 1879 until Pratt’s ouster as superintendent in 1904, the ideology of the self-made man dominated the school’s educational program. Racial uplift had no place here. Every barrier to advancement, whether institutional, racial, social, or economic, was re-encoded as an individ­ ual challenge. Pfister introduces Pratt’s rhetorical strategies and the ideological tools Pratt deployed in his effort to “workerize” Indians, including “before” and “after” photos taken of each student— ostensible testimony to the program’s success— and a succession of school newspapers that published student work alongside articles by the Carlisle staff and Washington bureaucrats. Always reading against the grain, Pfister suggests that Carlisle’s students often manipulated official ideology to their own ends, though not all of his examples are equally persuasive and many are drawn from the less rigidly assimilationist period after Pratt’s departure. Pfister expands this discussion to show how several Native intellectuals, including Charles Alexander Eastman and Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, strategically deployed in their critique of individu­ BOOK REVIEWS 3 6 3 ality the very techniques Pratt used to create it. It must be noted, however, that among them only Luther Standing Bear was educated at Carlisle. Importantly, Pfister tackles one of the most difficult questions associated with Pratt and his educational project: the loyalty he engendered in his Native students and associates. He suggests that the bond may have grown from a common enmity with the Indian Bureau. Mabel Dodge Luhan, already a convert to Freudian analysis when she moved to Taos in 1917, promoted Pueblo life as the ultimate antidote to the neurosis of contemporary life. The notables Luhan lured to New Mexico to share her discovery included D. H. Lawrence, who published two books on psychoanalysis in the early 1920s, and Collier, an immigrant activist who had promoted cultural pluralism as the fastest route to assimilation. Pfister glosses over the import of Collier’s subsequent successes in reshaping federal Indian policy, offering instead, through Lawrence, a critique of Luhan’s and Collier’s saviorist motives, as well as Collier’s paternalistic management style. For Pfister, Laughing Boy (1986) and The Surrounded (1978) stand as the ultimate modemist refutation of the Indian as ideological therapy for the white psyche. The Pastures of Beyond: An Old Cotvboy Looks Back at the Old West. By...