American Cultural History Lecture (New & more precise) Flashcards
1
Q
Anthropocene
A
- New suggested geological period succeeding the Holocene (period since glacial period)
- Marking influence of human beings on geology
-> Decrease in biodiversity, climate change, pollution,…
-> Defined in the 1980s & 2000s
2
Q
Culture (analytic definition)
A
- All material & symbolic practices of society, which server as systems of orientation & interpretation
- Culture is organized in discourse
3
Q
American Exceptionalism
A
- Idea that America is different from all other states
- Because of a specific/ divine mission in world history
- “the greatest country on earth”
4
Q
American Studies
A
- Mixture of historical & literary scholarship -> including urban studies & media studies
- Especially interested in structures of social differentiation -> race, class, gender, ability, age, etc.
5
Q
Trickster
A
- Mythological figure in indigenous American cultures
- Called “Coyote”
- Transformer, boundary crosser
- Both good &bad, male & female
- Friend & teacher for humans -> stole fire from the gods
6
Q
Conquest according to Stuart hall
A
- act of taking possession -> goes along with idealization & vilification of indigenous population
- trough projection of European categories & failure to respect difference
7
Q
Invisible bullets
A
- indigenous people believed that they were killed by white people through “invisible bullets”
-> died from diseases (e.g. smallpox) which Europeans brought to America
8
Q
city upon a hill
A
- phrase from the bible
- John Winthrop used phrase to tell puritans what he expected of them
- Be a shining example of Christianity & perfection for the whole world
- Might be the origin of American exceptionalism
9
Q
Middle passage
A
- Atlantic slave tribe forced voyage of enslaved Africans
- One leg of the triangular trade
- Transportation of millions of people from Africa to the americas on slave ships
- Many died during passage
- Traumatic climax & symbol for their deportation
10
Q
Predestination/Providence
A
- Providence -> book of history (by Puritans)
- All events (past & future) pre-determined by divine will
-> All human action, fates & ideas foretold/predestined
11
Q
King Philips’s War/ Metacomet’s War
A
- Colonial/ intercultural War between white population of New England (settler colonists) & Wapanoag Nation with their sachem (chief Metacom)
-> Killed 40% of indigenous population in New England & prisoners sold into slavery - Power of indigenous nation was broken
12
Q
American enlightenment
A
- Age of reason
- Period that led up to the American revolution
- Characterized by writings form John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, Benjamine Franklin, etc.
-> Culminated in the declaration of independence & the constitution of the bill of rights
13
Q
Checks and Balances
A
- Separation of powers (executive, legislative, judiciary) through specific institutions
-> Presidency, congress, courts
14
Q
Federal style in architecture
A
- Palladian style of architecture (imitations of Greek & Roman architecture)
- Imported from Europe to America by Thomas Jefferson
-> Serve as a symbol for the new republic - Suggests learning, democracy, civilization & empire, whiteness, elitism
15
Q
Ante bellum Reform Movements
A
- Variety of reform movements -> at the end of early republic, during Ante -Bellum era
-> Abolitionism, temperance, Sunday school movement, etc.
16
Q
Abolitionism
A
- Movement to end slavery & liberate enslaved people
17
Q
Temperance
A
- Promoting moderation & complete abstinence from alcohol consumption
18
Q
Nativism
A
- Anti-immigration movement in the 1840s & 1850s (Know Nothing movement, American Party)
- Was anti-Catholic, anti-Irish, anti-German
19
Q
Cult of true womanhood
A
- Cult of domesticity
- New image of women as the angel in the house
-> Characterized by the four cardinal virtues of domesticity, purity, piety & submissiveness
20
Q
Tocqueville’s America
A
- Alexis de Tocqueville (French noblemen) -> travelled through America in the 1830s
- Wrote “Democracy in America
-> Described the American character -> individualism, restlessness, materialism, tyranny of the majority, etc.
21
Q
Manifest Destiny
A
- Idea (in the 1830s), that divine mission of the US is to overspread the entire American continent because of its “superior” democratic institutions
-> Form of exceptionalism & beginning of American Imperialism
22
Q
Indian Removal
A
- Policy of the US against indigenous nations (Choctaw, Cherokee, Creek, …)
-> Evicted in the 1830s to the areas west of Mississippi
-> Forced displacement - Policy of ethnic cleansing -> resulted in thousands of deaths -> Trail of Tears (1830/31)
23
Q
Self-reliance
A
- Made famous by Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Concept -> time of individuals & America to leave behind imitation of European ideas
- Rely on one’s true self
- Part of transcendentalist & romantic discourse of self-improvement
24
Q
Conservation
A
- Interest in protection & preservation of natural environments & ecological communities
-> Came with industrialization & romanticism - Theodore Roosevelt called the conservationist president (1901-1909)
-> Saved Yellowstone & created US forest service - John Muir (ecologist & philosopher) helped establish Yosemite & Sequoia
25
Fugitive slave Law
- Law -> fugitive slaves from the south have to be returned by the north
- Part of the compromise of 1850 between north & south
-> Deepened the tensions between north & south
- Let to Stowe’s novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” -> abolitionist novel
26
Minstrel Show
- Entertainment show in the 1830s
- skits, variety acts, dancing & music performed by white people in blackface
-> made fun of black people & affirmed stereotypes about African Americans
27
American Civil War
- 1861-1865
- Civil war between the north & the south -> over the dispute over slavery
- End of the southern states slave system
28
Plessy vs. Ferguson
- Racist supreme court decision (1896) -> valid until 1954
-> Segregation in the south (Jim Crow laws) upheld through formula “separate but equal”
29
Jim Crow laws
- Local laws of the south that enforced racial segregation
- Introduced in the late 19th & early 20th century -> remained in force until 1965
30
Indian Appropriation Acts
- Several acts (1851,71,…)
- Members of indigenous nations were moved to reservations in the west
- From 1871 on Indian reives were not recognized as independent nations
-> Indigenous people were treated as individuals & “wards” of the federal government
31
Turner Thesis
- Frederick Jackson Turner suggested in 1893 that the American Character was formed through a frontier between civilization & wilderness
-> Established the myth of the West (idealized)
-> Largely rejected today
32
Realism
- Western art movement (1850s)
- Reaction to romanticism & sentimentalism
- Rejected the demand for morality (in the arts)
- Turned to mundane topics -> business, science, technology, modern life problems
33
Gilded Age
- Era of big business in America
- In the post-bellum time
- Characterized by materialism, corruption & exploitation
34
Horatio Alger
- Writer of books for boys in the 1870s, 80s & 90s
- Invented the rags-to-riches formula
-> Hard working, morally good boys will rise in society & become “somebody”
-> Myth of the self-made man
35
Naturalism
- Later version of realism (1890s+)
- Explored philosophy of determinism & social Darwinism
-> Certain people become powerful in society because they’re innately better
-> Survival of the fittest, natural selection, struggle for survival & determination by strong forces
36
Stream of thought
- William James’s description of human consciousness
- Describes cognition as a “stream of thought, of consciousness, of subjective life”
- All experiences take place within this stream & it is the only known reality for the individual
37
Modernism
- Name for various cultural movements in the west
- Reaction to sense of social breakdown & alienation
- Against ordered ideas of Victorianism, Realism & tradition
- E.g. dadaism, surrealism
38
Armory show
- Art exhibition in NY in 1913
- Introduced modernist art to America
-> Picasso, Gaugin
39
Film Noir
- Modernist American cinema in the late 1930s & 1940s
- Working with low key lighting (noir)
- Reacts to modern experiences of urbanization, rise of suburbia, change in manners & values,…
40
Harlem Renaissance
- Livley & multifaced cultural movement centred in Harlem, NY
- Produced African-American Art (literature, music, film,…)
- Characterized by pride & self-assertion
- But haunted by the trope of “primitivism”
41
Popular Culture
- Popular forms of entertainment
- Exploited by the culture industry since the end of the 19th century
- Characterized by a belief in the common man, liberalism, pragmatic problem solving,…
42
Populism
- Agrarian protest movement after the civil war
- Calling for support of the “common man”
- Cheaper money, graduated income tax, direct election of senators,…
- Haunted by white supremacy
43
Progressivism
- Reform movement at the end of the 19th century
- In reaction to the industrialization & the gilded Age
- Called for government activities against corruption, social misery & more efficiency in all areas of society
44
WPA Photography
- Documentary photography sponsored by the Roosevelt Administration
-> In the new deal through the works progress administration
- E.g. Langes’s “Migrant Mother”& works by Walter Evans
45
Social Realism
- A return to realist techniques within modernist literature
- To explore questions of poverty, history, middle class life, etc.
- E.g. works of Steinbeck, Lewins, Faulkner
46
Civil Rights Movement
- African American protest movement led by Martin Luther King & others
- Insisted in non-violent action & civil disobedience
-> Organized demonstrations, boycotts, sit-ins,…
47
Counterculture
- Youth movement in the 1960
-> Inspired by civil rights movement
- Opposing militarism (Vietnam, bureaucracy, conformism, …
- Influenced by philosophy, psychoanalysis & Buddhism
48
Black panther party
- Militant African American organization, founded in Oakland, CA
- Inspired by Malcom X & Marxism
- Patrolled with arms & organized community social programs
- Discredited & destroyed by the FBI
49
Postmodernism
- International art movement
- Embraces eclecticism, historical nostalgia, paradox,…
- Themes: identity, history, disbelief in grand narratives,…
50
Grand narratives
-> Meta narratives
- Belief systems
- Claim to explain the course of history & necessities of the future in a comprehensive & normative way
- E.g. Liberalism, Marxism, Christianity,…
51
Gender performance
- Idea that gender (socially sanctioned masculine/feminine behaviour) does not “naturally” follow biological sex
- But in fact a publicly supported or supressed performance
-> Has a normalizing consequence
52
Orientalism
- depiction of middle eastern, south Asian & east Asian cultures by writers, painters, etc. from the West
- east depicted as “the other” (othering) & as underdeveloped, barbaric, exotic, etc.
-> with a patronizing point of view
53
Hybridity
- suggestion that cultural identities are not marked by essential/natural qualities but by blends, mixtures,…
- on account of various colonialisms & neo-colonialisms (including globalization)
54
Post/neo-colonialism
- theoretical orientation wich explores the consequences of colonialization, de-colonialization & neo-colonialization
- consequences are present in
-> question of identities (hybridity)
-> observations (orientalism)
-> migration (diasporas)
-> forms of power (hegemony, othering)
