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America(N) Matters peter freese freese America(n) Matters America(n) his anthology brings together 21 of the more than Selected Essays 200 articles and essays published between 1977 and 2017 by Professor Peter Freese from the Matters University of Paderborn, one of the most distinguished freese authorities on American literature and culture within Germany and beyond. Arranged in four broad American Studies # A Monograph Series thematic sections covering the ‘matters of America’, the essays range widely across a vista of subjects, Matters America(n) Volume 283 writers, concepts and contexts, from the evolution of the American Dream to the visions of end times as apocalypse or entropic decay, from the corrupt glitter of Hollywood to the ancient mysteries of mythic landscapes, from literary classics to hip hop. Edited by He convincingly shows how the study of arts, par- michael mitchell ticularly literature, gives privileged access to the markus wierschem kaleidoscopic diversity of American society, opening up incomparable panoramas and fascinating insights. An indispensible aid to the scholar but also accessible to the general reader, these essays show how the study of America matters. isbn 978-3-8253-6852-4 american studies – a monograph series Volume 283 Edited on behalf of the German Association for American Studies by alfred hornung anke ortlepp heike paul peter freese America(n) Matters Selected Essays Edited by michael mitchell markus wierschem Universitätsverlag winter Heidelberg Bibliografische Information der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über http://dnb.d-nb.de abrufbar. umschlagbilder © Peter Freese isbn 978-3-8253-6852-4 Dieses Werk einschließlich aller seiner Teile ist urheberrechtlich geschützt. Jede Verwertung außerhalb der engen Grenzen des Urheberrechtsgesetzes ist ohne Zustimmung des Verlages unzulässig und strafbar. Das gilt ins- besondere für Vervielfältigungen, Übersetzungen, Mikroverfilmungen und die Einspeicherung und Verarbeitung in elektronischen Systemen. © 2o18 Universitätsverlag Winter GmbH Heidelberg Imprimé en Allemagne · Printed in Germany Umschlaggestaltung: Klaus Brecht GmbH, Heidelberg Druck: Memminger MedienCentrum, 87700 Memmingen Gedruckt auf umweltfreundlichem, chlorfrei gebleichtem und alterungsbeständigem Papier Den Verlag erreichen Sie im Internet unter: www.winter-verlag.de Table of Contents Introduction: America(n) Matters7 Europe and the American Dream “Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way”: The translatio-Conceptin Popular American Writing and Painting17 The American Dream53 Fett, sauber undversoffen: Zu drei zeitlosen Konstanten desamerikanischenDeutschlandbildes77 Americansin Europe 101 The Two Cultures: Literature and Science From the Apocalyptic to the Entropic End: From Hope to Despair to New Hope?121 From“Entropy” to The Crying of Lot 49: Thomas Pynchon and the Entropic End149 Invented Religions as Sense-Making Systems in Kurt Vonnegut’s Novels 179 Science and Technology in Kurt Vonnegut’s Novels 203 Surviving the End: Apocalypse, Evolution, and Entropy in Bernard Malamud, Kurt Vonnegut, andThomas Pynchon227 Changing Forms and Shifting Perspectives Die Story isttot, es lebe die Story: Von der Short Story über die Anti-Story zur Meta-Story der Gegenwart 243 Doctorow’s “Criminals of Perception,” or What Has Happened to the Historical Novel273 6 Table of Contents Universality vs. Ethnocentricity, or; the Literary Canon in a Multicultural Society299 Teaching American Multiculturalism through Stories about ‘Growing Up Ethnic’ 319 Textual Kaleidoscopes: American Identities Bret Easton Ellis: From Less Than Zero (1985) to Imperial Bedrooms (2010)351 Jay-Z and Alicia Keys, “Empire State of Mind”: A New Anthem to New York City?401 Coming of Age in the Shadow of the VietnamWar: Sam Hughes’s QuestinBobbie Ann Mason’s In Country (1985) 423 Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony (1977): Universality versus Ethnocentrism451 Joe Leaphorn as a Cultural Mediator in Tony Hillerman’s Mysteries 493 Trouble in the House of Fiction: Bernard Malamud’s The Tenants (1971) 517 A Medieval Crusader in Twentieth-Century New Orleans: John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces (1980) 533 T. CoraghessanBoyle’s TheTortillaCurtain (1995): A Case Study in the Genesis of Xenophobia571 Reprint Notices 598 Introduction: America(n) Matters he essays collectedinthis volume, originallypublished over the Tcourse of four decades, testifytothe extraordinary breadthand depth of Peter Freese’s commitment toadvancing an understandingofthe liter- ature andculture of the United States of America. The grandvista of subjects, writers, concepts, andcontexts spreadout in these pages – from the enduring myth of the American Dream to newmyths created (and undermined) by youthculture andhip hopartists, or fromThomas Pyn- chon’s arcane pursuit of the implications of entropytothe ancientwis- dom thatenables TonyHillerman’s Navajo detective to solve mysterious crimes – is truly impressive. Butfor alltheir diversity, certainconstants emerge from these essays. They are the result of diligentscholarship and penetratingclose reading, never failingtorevealthe heart of the matter, butalwaysallowingthathearttoremainbeating andalive, andalways making manifest why the subject of his studies matters. While scholarship andclose readingare to be expected of one of the pre-eminent voices in German American studiesof the past fortyyears, Peter Freese possesses a far rarer quality:the abilitytoexcite andinspire, andthese essays evince these qualitiesagain andagain. They are the qualitiesof agreat teacher;and as head of the American Studiesdepart- ment of PaderbornUniversity fromits inceptionin1979until2005 and afterwards as Professor Emeritus, Freese hasdedicated hiscareer not only to educatinggenerationsof students (not leastthroughtwo highly successful series of school textbooks, Schöningh’s Textsfor English and AmericanStudies andLangenscheidt’s Viewfinder, with combinedsales of over a million copies) butalsototrainingfuture teachers. The essays conveysomething of hisunique gift for showing howthe studyof the literature and culture of America matters. Why doesitmatter? The most obvious answer is that the United States, as the dominantworld power over the last 100years, hasinflu- encedall our lives in fundamental political, economic andcultural ways. Andaswe move into an era of increasing global interconnectionbut con- comitant change anduncertainty, it becomes more andmore important to trytogainanunderstandingwhich can take us beyond cliché or superfi- cial criticism. The best waytodothis, as Freese demonstrates, is by pay- ingattention to the nation’sculture andarts, in particular itsperspica- cious writers, andthere couldbe no better guide in thisprocess thanthe articlescollected here, for another salientfeature of these essays is the almost uncanny clairvoyance withwhich Freese highlights aspectsof 8 Introduction American societyand how the authorshedealswithhave viewed them, so that he makesphenomena which mightatfirst seem merelybaffling comprehensible in their subtle differentiations. In this regard, Freese sub- scribes to Kurt Vonnegut’s view of the social role of art and the artist as a “canary in a coal-mine”1 sensitive to changesand dangerslongbefore anyone else becomesaware of them. Some mayobject that artspeaksfor itself, anditdoes; yetitdoesnot always do so clearly, and – in an age of constant informationaloverloadand entropic noise – not always unmedi- ated. Hence, to quote another greatcritic, it maynot be “expectedofcrit- icsasitisof poets that they should help us to make sense of our lives” yettheycan certainly help us in “makingsense of the ways we tryto make sense of our lives.”2 To listentosubtletiesinthe arts, then – the how andwhy of readingliterature, for instance – is something that needs to be learned. Goodcriticism, thatis, such criticism as teaches, enlight- ens, andexcites itsreadersinopening up newhorizons – can also be an art form. Freese helpshis readers, in other words, to see what really matters aboutAmerica andwhy America matters. At the same time there is no magic about howhe does this. The essays provide an exemplary justifi- cationfor the studyofliterature, since, for allFreese’sattentiontocul- ture andthe fascinatingculturalmosaic that constitutes today’s United States, his conviction thatwriters andimaginative artistshave a unique contribution to make constantly comestothe fore. By eschewingthe claims of ‘theory’ – while stillaware of itsfunction andmerits – andre- turning to an exact analysis of text andattention to the authors’works themselves, he allowshis readers to approach textstheythought they knew with fresh eyes or to embark on the discovery of newpaths witha sense of curiosity and adventurous enthusiasm. At the same time, the essays assembledhere, for alltheir varietyand depthof insight, presentlittle more than the tipof the scholarlyiceberg. Starting with the 1971 publication(and1998reprint) of his nowclassic study Die Initiationsreise, a critical tour de force tracing the evolution of the youthful hero’s journeyofinitiation in American literature, Freese’s signature approach hasbeenamixture of contextual (e.g. historical, so- cial, religious, anthropological) investigation, the analysis of recurrent andevolving culturalthemes, andindividualinterpretationthatalways 1 Kurt Vonnegut Jr., “Physicist, PurgeThyself,” Chicago TribuneMagazine, June 22, 1969, p. 44. 2 Frank
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