14 RüdigerKunow
backdrop for theoretical formulations concerning the politics of life that
have significantly shaped contemporary work in American studies. I
refer here to the analyses associated both with the conception of
"biopolitics" and with race theory and ethnic studies; I want to suggest
that these analyses have roots in common questions and have begun to
come together in productive ways in American studies. These common
roots constitute the legacy I am claiming for the field. ("American
Studies"188-89)In what follows, issues related especially to the development and
current concerns of American Cultural Studies will repeatedly surface,
among them the vexed question of a U.S.-American exceptionalism
whichcanbeshowntohavebiological,ifnotbiologistic,overtones(cf.
the debate about DIY genetics in the chapter on "Semantics and
Semiotics") or the reconstitution of the Puritan self in the guise of a
biotechnologically enhanced ego. These and multiple other areas where
biologyhasmadedeepinroadsintotheculturesoftheUnitedStateswill
be discussed from a critical perspective which will be repeatedly
unfoldedastheoccasionrequires.
At this point I want to define briefly this critical perspective by
saying that the "disciplining" attempted in this volume will proceed
from the perspective of amaterialistculturalcritiquerepresented at its
best by the work of Teresa Ebert, Fredric Jameson, Douglas Kellner,
TimothyBrennan,andothers.^10 By"materialist"Imeanacritiquewhich
focusesontheinsistentpresenceofsocialandcertainlyeconomicforces
in cultural practices,even those which on the surface seem farremoved
fromthe"sordidrealities"ofeverydaylife.Culturalformsandpractices
emergeinspecificpoliticalandeconomicconstellationsthataresocially
andculturallydivisive,becausetheyserveparticularinterests(Kellnern.
pag.). Teresa Ebert captures this orientation quite well when she argues
(^10) There is no generally accepted definition of the ambit of materialist critique.
Itsworkoftenrunscountertothecriticalzeitgeistinculturalcritique,asStephen
Tumino notes: "the materialist concepts which lay bare the social totality and
explain how culture is always shaped by labor have for the most part been
displaced in cultural theory by the terms of poststructuralist linguistic
philosophy, such as difference (play), articulation, ideology (as discourse),
hybridity,performance,and'pleasure'(jouissance)"(Tuminon.pag.).