SOAR: the Journal of the Society of Americanists Review
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SOAR: The Journal of the Society of Americanists Review VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 FALL 2018 SOCIETY OF AMERICANISTS REVIEW SOAR Editorial Staff: Managing Editor Anthony Bak Buccitelli, The Pennsylvania State University, Harrisburg, United States Senior Editors Lauren Sklaroff-Lamey, University of South Carolina, United States Evangelia Kindinger, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany Associate Editors Duncan Moench, University of Texas, Austin, United States David Gordon Misal, The Pennsylvania State University, Harrisburg, United States William P. McGovern, Akita International Univeristy, Japan Features Editor Faune Albert, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, United States Reviews Editor Donna L. Sinclair, Central Michigan University, United States Editorial Assistant Denis M. Crawford, The Pennsylvania State University, Harrisburg, United States SOAR Editorial Board Mohammed El Amine Moumine, Hassan II Mohammadia University, Morocco Joyce Chaplin, Harvard University, United States Philip Deloria, University of Michigan, United States Cheryl Keyes, University of California, Los Angeles, United States Hideyo Konagaya, Waseda University, Japan Lesley Marx, University of Cape Town, South Africa Philip Mcgowan, Queen’s University, Belfast, United Kingdom Jay Mechling, University of California, Davis, United States Carroll Pursell, Australia National University, Australia Eric Sandeen, University of Wyoming, United States Navneet Sethi, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India Werner Sollors, Harvard University, United States Shamoon Zamir, New York University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates Mónica Szurmuk, University of Buenos Ares, Argentina Journal Address SOAR: Society of Americanists Review W356 Olmsted The Pennsylvania State University 777 West Harrisburg Pike Middletown, PA 17057 SOCIETY OF AMERICANISTS REVIEW Contributions Drawing on scholarship in the fields of history, literary studies, media and communication, anthropology, folkloristics, sociology, and American studies, among others, SOAR: Society of Americanists Review’s mission is to bring together an interdisciplinary and international conversation on the history, culture, and social life of the United States. As the flagship journal of the Society of Americanists, SOAR seeks to publish scholarship of the highest caliber and broadest appeal. Individual article submissions undergo a rigorous multi-tiered peer review process which includes the journal’s editorial staff, advisory board members, and external reviewers. In addition to individual submissions, special issue proposals are welcomed and will receive an expedited initial review. The journal publishes work in a variety of formats, including research articles; forum, discussion, memorial, and state-of-the-field essays; dialogues and interviews; reports on programs, organizations, and pedagogy; as well as book, exhibit, and media reviews. Multimedia content is encouraged and can be accommodated at the discretion of the editors. To ensure that your piece is reviewed by the appropriate member of the editorial staff, please indicate the journal section to which you wish to submit. The “articles” section is intended for research-based articles of approximately 6,000 – 9,000 words. Both solicited and unsolicited articles can be submitted for review. Shorter research notes, survey articles, or commentaries should be submitted to the “Essays, Notes, and Dialogue” section. Unsolicited work can be submitted here as well, but you may wish to consult with the Features Editor prior to submission. Media and book review authors should also submit their manuscripts here, but only with prior discussion and approval from the Review Editor. Please visit the SOAR journal website (https://sites.psu.edu/americanist/journal) for full submission details. About SOA The Society of Americanists (SOA) is a coalition of persons, organizations, and academic programs devoted to the study of the United States. SOA has as its purpose fostering integrated studies of American history, society, arts, and culture in all their aspects; providing a forum for discussion of scholarly and professional issues among its members, including an annual conference and communications; and promotion of the profession of Americanists devoted to the study of the United States in a global context. Its distinctive niche in the organizational landscape of learned, professional societies in American Studies is to represent the discipline and profession of Americanists and advance analytical approaches to the research and interpretation of the United States. The SOA is a not-for-profit educational organization incorporated in the United States. In compliance with civil rights laws, it does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, age, ethnicity, religion, national origin, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, sex, marital status, disability, or status as a U.S. veteran. It also does not enter into boycotts or exclusionary actions against scholars on the basis of national origin, political beliefs, or academic affiliation. SOCIETY OF AMERICANISTS REVIEW Editor’s Note t is a pleasure to launch the inaugural issue of SOAR. For our debut, we investigate the theme of “Assessing American Studies,” to reflect on the I state of the field, with various possibilities for future scholarship. As a journal dedicated to interdisciplinary, international collaboration, we are proud to feature essays which represent our mission and set the groundwork for intellectual activities to come. As many of the essays indicate, Americanists are a group both grounded in a particular moment in the formation of American Studies, but also all expansive, as each of us brings different disciplinary questions, curiosities, and geographic perspectives to the conversation. This issue presents a variety of approaches to American Studies, while also reflecting on key themes that have dominated the literature in the field: memory, context, language, and the role of American Studies outside of the United States. The issue moves through the central tasks that we as Americanist scholars have, sliding between methodologies and interests. What we have in common is a dedication to the study of American culture, but the contested nature of culture allows for many organizations, media, and outlets to thrive. We welcome you to the dialogue and encourage you to contribute to new formulations of American Studies in this exciting time for collaboration. SOCIETY OF AMERICANISTS REVIEW Table of Contents Ready to Soar: An Americanist Journal Simon Bronner, The Pennsylvania State University-Harrisburg………………………………………………..3 Paradigm Dramas Revisited: A Brief History of American Studies as Reflected in American Quarterly Jeffrey L. Meikle, University of Texas-Austin……………………………………………………………………10 Stand-Up Comedy, Social Critique and a Few Notes on Retelling the Origins of American Studies Michelle Robinson, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill………………………………………………...52 A Future from the Past: Perspectives from Memory Studies Carolyn Kitch, Temple University………………………………………………………………………………...80 Making Context Matter: American Studies and the Connecting Imagination Adam Golub, California State University-Fullerton…………………………………………………………...113 American Studies in the Republic of Turkey: A Journey Unfulfilled Laurence Raw, Baskent University………………………………………………………………………………134 Book Review: Justin Gest. The New Minority: White Working Class Politics in the Age of Immigration and Inequality. David Stebenne, Ohio State University………………………………………………………………………….152 SOCIETY OF AMERICANISTS REVIEW Ready to SOAR: An Americanist Journal Simon J. Bronner The Pennsylvania State University Harrisburg, USA elcome the Society of Americanists Review, or SOAR, to your screens and shelves. As its acronym implies, Wthe digital-era journal contains ideas that gloriously as- cend on the wings of fervid scholarship and compel attention to the exciting directions they take. This innovative publication refl ects the goals of the Society of Americanists (SOA) embedded in its title as a forum for the profession of Americanists devoted to the study of the United States in its global as well as local contexts. Its distinctive niche in the organizational landscape of learned societies is to represent the work of Americanists and advance analytical approaches to the research and interpretation of the United States. As a publication, its special place is to represent disciplinary practice by Americanists to identify and explain beliefs, themes, patterns, trends, behaviors, tra- ditions, and concepts that characterize the United States as a nation, an experience, a rhetoric, and peoples—past, present, and future, in and out of North America, and in thought and action (Bronner 2017). In short, as an intellectual enterprise, the society and the journal are uniquely constructed to seek an understanding of Americanness. The keyword is “Americanist” and by extension the study of the society and culture of the United States that else- where has been labeled Americanistics in contrast to the more dif- 3 READY TO SOAR fuse, and often intellectually suspect “American Studies” (Aaron 2007; Bronner 2018; Kroes 1987; Strunz 1999; Watts 1991). SOAR is not the only one with “Americanist” in its name (see Narecki 2017), but SOAR’S ambitious plan is to develop the journal into the most far-reaching. As the booster rocket of an association for all Americanists world-wide, the journal aims to lead a renewed movement for integrative work on Americanness wherever