American Studies 300, WI 06, Pennock

Discussion Questions and Frameworks

These constitute most of the “big” questions that I expect to confront in the course – especially the ones I want to use to frame the course in the first few weeks -- though not always in a definitive or systematic way. The class evolves and is shaped by the students in it (yeah, you!), and together we will inevitably develop more areas of inquiry and can add them to the list as we go.

These questions are inter-related, and while I have an idea of which ones I’d like to take up during certain class meetings, we will mix and match and revisit. [This isn’t entirely linear.]

Note: I have phrased most of these questions in the present tense, but we can and should approach them historically as well. Have these concepts changed over time?

[Day 1]:

§ What is “culture”? What creates/determines/constitutes culture?

§ Are there insiders and outsiders in a culture? Can we make out the boundaries or borders?

§ Is there ONE American culture – a “super”culture? Are there viable “sub”cultures? “counter” cultures?

· Identity – What factors, elements of experience shape or determine one’s identity?

[Day 2]:

§ How do we define America/American? Is it based on geography (a place, defined by geographical borders)? Citizenship? (a political entity – the United States of America) Values, customs?

§ Should America be considered a separate place – distinct from other places? Which ones? What differences are supposed to set it apart?

§ What has been more important in American culture – individualism or community (i.e. associating with one another in groups)?

§ Should America be considered a political invention?

§ What qualities of government are supposed to set the nation apart? How are individuals and the government related, or supposed to be related?

§ When people speak of “freedom” in America, what do they have in mind? A freedom to or from something? What elements of experience do they tend to emphasize or slight?

[Day 3]:

§ Should America be considered a place where everybody feels they belong?

§ If the composition is so diverse and changing, to what do they actually belong? Is there something substantive and stable about it? Or do they share only a determination to be diverse? Can a society based upon difference hang together and be tenable?

§ How should people be able to tell if they belong? Do they have to meet certain standards or criteria? What kinds of “structures” in society can determine “belonging”? Do individuals only have to believe it (belonging) themselves to make it true?

§ Are different sorts of people supposed to blend in a particular way? How?

§ How might race, ethnicity, gender, class, religion, region [etc.] affect their fates?

· How can we use the concept of borderlands to help us understand American culture and identities?

[Here’s one that’s been nagging me:]

§ Does group identity/pride/solidarity have to develop into power over and subordination of other groups? [Is it all about power? Winners and losers?]

§ What are the advantages and disadvantages of a “melting pot” model for American society? Of a “salad bowl” model? A “kaleidoscope” model? Can you think of other metaphors or images to describe American society – what it has been, is, or should be?

I am indebted to Richard P. Horwitz, editor of The American Studies Anthology, for developing many of these questions.