Introduction:BiologizingCulture/CulturingBiology 21
experiences across cultures and time" ("We" 953-54). Wald names
especiallytheexpertiseinreadingnarrativesandplotsasusefultoolsfor
scientists; one might want to add here that concept metaphors of
otherness to be found in medical texts about epidemics such as HIV, or
the rhetoric of culpability in fitness regimes can also be subjected to an
informed review with the help of the cultural critique arsenal. This
pretty much circumscribes the contours of an ideology-critique of
science—a critique that is all the more called for as it is likely to have
the effect of taking biocultures beyond the literary and cultural realm
narrowly conceived, and into the public sphere of policy deliberation
and decision-making (Clayton 948). This expansion of more narrowly
"cultural" concerns to include also the public domain with its material
determinations will be a road repeatedly taken in the chapters of this
book.
BiologyandtheResearchImaginationofAmericanCulturalStudies
It is certainly true in a general way that the discipline of American
Studies—with or without sharing the commitments of Cultural
Studies—has by and large and with very few notable exceptions
mentioned above not shown a marked interest in how biology (of the
human body or the natural habitat) has been foundational for the
formation and stabilizing of "America." Even against this hazy
disciplinary background, my own project can nonetheless usefully
engageimportantpreviouswork.DisabilityStudiesandecocriticismare
comingtomindhereasbothhavedemonstratedthecentralityofbiology
and the biosphere for material and symbolic struggles over the identity
of individuals, collectivities and the nation as a whole. Much of this
work will be referenced in the chapters that follow (cf. especially
"Apocalyptic Embodiment" and "Spectral Disabilities"). At this point,
however,Iwanttopointtoanumberofthematicconcernsandresearch
areas within American Cultural Studies which tie in with those which
animate my own project. Without claiming to be exhaustive, I am
thinkingespecially of"theintimatepublic sphere"(LaurenBerlant),the
steadily increasing role of "the microbe in American life" (Nancy
Tomes), the episodic upsurges of collective "moral panic" induced by
the biology of the human body (Margaret Humphreys), the "narrative
power"(HowardMarkel)ofsubcutaneousmicrobioticlife,especiallyin