After the American Century

Brian T. Edwards’ book boasts of an insightful interdisciplinary approach that draws upon his expertise in anthropology, literary and cultural studies, American studies, and Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) studies. His approach and overall argument can benefit both the specialists in these...

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Autor principal: Mojtaba Ebrahimian
Formato: article
Lenguaje:EN
Publicado: International Institute of Islamic Thought 2016
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Acceso en línea:https://doaj.org/article/a8dffeae8bfa4d1a8e0298cc5adbb107
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spelling oai:doaj.org-article:a8dffeae8bfa4d1a8e0298cc5adbb1072021-12-02T19:22:39ZAfter the American Century10.35632/ajis.v33i3.9262690-37332690-3741https://doaj.org/article/a8dffeae8bfa4d1a8e0298cc5adbb1072016-07-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ajis.org/index.php/ajiss/article/view/926https://doaj.org/toc/2690-3733https://doaj.org/toc/2690-3741 Brian T. Edwards’ book boasts of an insightful interdisciplinary approach that draws upon his expertise in anthropology, literary and cultural studies, American studies, and Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) studies. His approach and overall argument can benefit both the specialists in these disciplines and the non-academic audience interested in the MENA region’s contemporary cultural history and connection to the United States’ international cultural politics. Edwards introduces two principal concepts to formulate his arguments: the “ends of circulation” and “jumping publics.” In his view, the former describes “new contexts for American texts” and the latter explicates “the way culture moves through the world in the digital age” (p. 27). He offers four reasons why the circulation of cultural products “across borders and publics” is important to the contemporary American audience. First, “The U.S. Department of State has invested time and funding in propagating the circulation of American culture.” Second, “American media venues have a continuing interest in this topic, whether in the coverage of the Egyptian revolution or in the popular fascination with books such as Reading Lolita in Tehran (2003) that depict Americans or American culture displaced in the Middle East.” Third, many “popular and influential writers,” including “the developmentalist Daniel Lerner in the 1950s to Thomas Friedman in the 1990s and 2000s to media studies journalist Clay Shirky, assume a technocentric or cyberutopian determinism,” and thus consider “access to new technologies and media” and “modernization and freedom” inevitably intertwined. And fourth, “In the fields of American literary studies and comparative literature, the ways in which the American culture and literature are taken up around the world puts pressure on the ways of doing things in those disciplines” (p. 16) ... Mojtaba EbrahimianInternational Institute of Islamic ThoughtarticleIslamBP1-253ENAmerican Journal of Islam and Society, Vol 33, Iss 3 (2016)
institution DOAJ
collection DOAJ
language EN
topic Islam
BP1-253
spellingShingle Islam
BP1-253
Mojtaba Ebrahimian
After the American Century
description Brian T. Edwards’ book boasts of an insightful interdisciplinary approach that draws upon his expertise in anthropology, literary and cultural studies, American studies, and Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) studies. His approach and overall argument can benefit both the specialists in these disciplines and the non-academic audience interested in the MENA region’s contemporary cultural history and connection to the United States’ international cultural politics. Edwards introduces two principal concepts to formulate his arguments: the “ends of circulation” and “jumping publics.” In his view, the former describes “new contexts for American texts” and the latter explicates “the way culture moves through the world in the digital age” (p. 27). He offers four reasons why the circulation of cultural products “across borders and publics” is important to the contemporary American audience. First, “The U.S. Department of State has invested time and funding in propagating the circulation of American culture.” Second, “American media venues have a continuing interest in this topic, whether in the coverage of the Egyptian revolution or in the popular fascination with books such as Reading Lolita in Tehran (2003) that depict Americans or American culture displaced in the Middle East.” Third, many “popular and influential writers,” including “the developmentalist Daniel Lerner in the 1950s to Thomas Friedman in the 1990s and 2000s to media studies journalist Clay Shirky, assume a technocentric or cyberutopian determinism,” and thus consider “access to new technologies and media” and “modernization and freedom” inevitably intertwined. And fourth, “In the fields of American literary studies and comparative literature, the ways in which the American culture and literature are taken up around the world puts pressure on the ways of doing things in those disciplines” (p. 16) ...
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author Mojtaba Ebrahimian
author_facet Mojtaba Ebrahimian
author_sort Mojtaba Ebrahimian
title After the American Century
title_short After the American Century
title_full After the American Century
title_fullStr After the American Century
title_full_unstemmed After the American Century
title_sort after the american century
publisher International Institute of Islamic Thought
publishDate 2016
url https://doaj.org/article/a8dffeae8bfa4d1a8e0298cc5adbb107
work_keys_str_mv AT mojtabaebrahimian aftertheamericancentury
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