530 The American Century: Literature since 1945continued belief, at least in some quarters, in the special destiny of America, then it
succeeded – but at an enormously high cost to the national reputation. The gap
between the promise and performance of the mission was measured by two events.
On April 9, 2003 a statue of Hussein was torn down by crowds in Baghdad to mark
the fall of the city. Exactly six years later, tens of thousands of Iraqis gathering in
Baghdad to demand the immediate departure of coalition forces, burned an effigy
of George W. Bush.
By the time of that second event, Bush had ceased to be in power. The war, an
economic crisis that came to be known as the Great Recession, a gathering sense
that the nation had lost its way – all contributed to a remarkable event: the election
of the first African-American, Barack Obama, to the office of president. Obama
was born in Kenya, raised in Indonesia and then in Hawaii; and the “experience
of a variety of cultures in a climate of mutual respect,” he has said, became
“an important part” of his “worldview.” That worldview, after he was elected to
the Senate, made him one of the few major politicians initially to oppose the Iraq
War. During and after the presidential campaign, it also prompted him to stress the
importance of reducing energy dependence and extending healthcare. Whether
Obama will fulfill his stated ambitions as president – a rapid withdrawal of troops
from Iraq, a reduction in carbon emissions, a radical increase in energy sources,
and the realization of a universal healthcare system – remains to be seen. What is
clear, however, is that like Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930s, Obama has restored
the international reputation of the United States and reignited America’s belief in
itself. And his agenda, if exceptionalist, is so only in the sense that he embraces the
idea of the United States as the first universal nation. What the story of the last ten
years has told us is that there is still a deep division of opinion about the place and
destiny of America, its position either as a crusader with a special mission, a
Manifest Destiny to be realized at home and abroad, or as a crossroads of culture,
part of an international community of nations. In his inauguration speech, Obama
referred to the “patchwork heritage” of America and called it a “strength, not a
weakness.” “We are shaped by every language and culture,” “drawn from every end
of this earth,” he added. It is this notion of a mosaic of cultures that has now
reasserted itself, recapturing the center ground from the idea of mission, an
exclusive destiny. But both ideas still command loyalty, and will presumably
continue to struggle for supremacy, as Americans continue to engage in the task of
reinventing themselves – or in what Obama, in his inauguration speech, called “the
work of remaking America.”
The consequences of all this for literature in America are debatable. Given that
writers are responding on some level to their own unique encounters with history,
they are in any event not easy, perhaps impossible, to summarize. For some, there
has been a notable shift away from public affairs and commitment and toward
introspection, the cult of the personal. Writers, quite a few of them, have turned
away from immediate history, the pressures of the times, and devoted their
imaginations to the vagaries of consciousness, the deeper forms of myth, ritual, and
fantasy, the imagery figured and the language articulated by the isolated mind.GGray_c05.indd 530ray_c 05 .indd 530 8 8/1/2011 7:31:29 PM/ 1 / 2011 7 : 31 : 29 PM