Asian American Solidarities in the Age of COVID-19
‘The majority of Americans [regard] us with ambivalence… We [threaten] the sanctity and symmetry of a white and black America whose yin and yang racial politics [leaves] no room […]
(Re)Constructing the Past in George Saunders’ “CivilWarLand in Bad Decline”
The American Civil War (1861-1865), which cleaved the country into two halves, the North and South, is known as one of the most violent, tumultuous, divisive events in American history. […]
Reality Check or Business as Usual? COVID-19 and the Future of U.S. Capitalism
“Even Gordon Gekko now agrees that Wall Street is a fraud.” This caption marks the conclusion to a debate that started in 1987 between economist and soon-to-be labor secretary Robert […]
Faith-healer parents, child brides, and 12-year-old Tobacco pickers
The day before President Joseph R. Biden’s inauguration, the National Children’s campaign held a virtual children’s inauguration. Speakers included politicians, such as Massachusetts senator Ed Markey (D), and young activists […]
Not Your Grandparents’ Grand Strategy: Rethinking Liberal Hegemony
Since the end of the Cold War, America’s commitment to a grand strategy of liberal hegemony has habitually set the parameters of foreign policy debate. The bipartisan consensus in Washington […]
America Now
In this short series, a group of scholars consider important issues facing the United States as the Biden administration begins and the economic and health crises facing the country continue. […]
Spaces of Empire: Two Early Modern Views from both sides of the Atlantic
In order to understand the relationship between empire and space in American history, it is necessary to address the historiographical tendencies and myths of the past four hundred years.[i] Retrospective […]
For a Series so Concerned with Leaning into the Horror, The Handmaid’s Tale Utterly Fails to Address Race
Whenever the TV series or the new sequel to Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale are mentioned, the same question arises: do we really want to know what happens after Offred (pre-Gilead name June) steps “into the darkness within; or else the light”? This is June’s infamous last line, which finds its way into the first series with meticulous fidelity before the HBO adaptation continues her timeline. Until Atwood released The Testaments in 2019, critics have been asking whether the HBO adaptation ought to have done this – yet the original novel did play with such boundaries, giving readers glimpses of past lives and future conclusions about those lives in the academic conference provided in the “Historical Notes.” What makes Handmaid so appropriate for this golden age of television is that the political premise finds its place just as comfortably in the Trump era as it did under Reagan.
Video Games and American Studies: Reverberations of Trumpism in Far Cry 5
Politics and contexts of publication are two interesting focalisers when examining video games from an American Studies perspective. While not all video games are overtly political, many have explicit political agendas. The example of Far Cry 5 shows how real-world political rhetoric can find parallels in virtual environments, in this case the ludonarrative design of a video game.
Video Games and American Studies: Weirding the Empire in West of Loathing and Other Digital Games
Stepping beyond the game’s comical and surrealist façade affords a closer look at the ways West of Loathing de-mythologizes and parodies the US West in a subtle, pun-oriented sub-generic rendering of the Wild West, that is, the Weird West.