Outside American Studies

On the Unhappy Pursuits of Non-Complicity

  • Robyn Wiegman
Keywords: American studies, internationalization, outside

Abstract

This essay traces the affective and analytic investments that currently equate the internationalization of American Studies with the pursuit of an analytic and geopolitical “outside” to the habits and logics of “American American Studies.” By reading internationalization as a discourse that challenges as much as it mimics the field imaginary of American American Studies, I explore the paradox of seeking an “outside” as the means to interrupt complicity with the global power of the field’s object of study.

Published
2008-09-01
Section
Special Section