Introduction:BiologizingCulture/CulturingBiology 23
rare instances when American Studies, especially in the wake of the
cultural turn, did explicitly address the interpellations grounded in
biology, it tended to focus primarily on how such interpellations have
been articulated socially and culturally along the lines of religion, race,
gender, class, age, and sexual orientation, and only rarely their physical
ormentalspecificities.
The association of America or Americans with forms of biological
exceptionalism is playing a great role also in the present conjuncture.
Whereasinthepast,Americansocietyandculturehavebeenpicturedas
marking a new stage of human development—defining the U.S. "not
merely as different from, but also as qualitatively better than" Europe
(Pease, "Exceptionalism" 109)—so can Americans' eager embracing of
biotechnologies and their subjection to new and intense forms of
biopolitical production (Hardt), the "biopolitics of disposability"
(Giroux) or "biological citizenship" (N. Rose) be understood as new
instances of exceptionalist attitudes or positions. This new
exceptionalism is rightnow positioning the United States in yetanother
exceptional or vanguard position, this time with regard to the emerging
"bio-"basedconceptsofpersonalandcollectiveidentity(Mitchell73-78
andpassim).
In historical perspective, the insistence on a biology-based
exceptionalism has worked politically, socially, and also culturally as
yet another interpellation of embodied individuality which ties in with
the ongoing neoliberal reformatting of governance and the social
compacts(CloughandWillse,Dillon,Giroux).Inthepagesthatfollow,
anattemptwillbemadetoaddtotheoverallfieldofAmericanCultural
Studies a sustained interest in the cultural presences of biology of
matter, most particularly the biology of the human body. This will be
done through a materialist reading of biocultural images, texts, and
America, with the myths and symbols of American exceptionalism... To say,
then, that the field of American studies has long been grounded in a romance
with America means that it was motivated by a search for, and a projection of,
certain ideals... like anti-authoritarianism, informality, pragmatism,
experimentalism,youthfulnessor,more recently,diversity....Recenttrendsin
U.S.-American studies—most notably animal studies, disability studies, and
transnationalstudies—allprovidelogicalextensionsofthisideaofdiversityand
itsclaimsforafullrecognitionofotherness"(87-91).