Wertkörper: Zur Ökonomisierung des menschlichen Körpers im Zeichen von Globalisierung und Neoliberalismus

Recent advances in the fields of genomics and biotechnology have greatly expanded the discretionary autonomy of human beings over their bodies. Biology has so become a new and alluring terrain for the enlightenment project of self-realization and selffulfilment. These developments have been co-evolving with the global expansion of neoliberal capitalism. This article states that there is a common logic at work in both areas, leading not only to the emergence of a global market in biological materials but also to a re-calibration of the biology of human life into lively capital. For this reason, the new „freedom“ of constructing the body according to one’s own preferences and desires in a dialectical inversion entails new obligations and constraints. In the end, only the technologically enhanced human body is fit for the neoliberal world of social cut-backs and can avoid being consigned to a new, this time biologically defined underclass

The White Man’s Medical Burden: U.S. Colonialism and Disease Ecologies in Jack London’s Hawai’ian Stories

Cet article se propose d’examiner une forme de régionalisme littéraire qui trouva à se développer à un moment charnière de l’histoire des États-Unis. L’expansion américaine de la fin du xixe siècle reconfigura en effet la relation entre humains et environnement. Une nouvelle biopolitique du “lieu” émergea alors, suscitée par l’exposition des colons américains à des milieux morbides qui leur étaient jusque-là inconnus et qui menaçaient leur vision exceptionnaliste d’une masculinité et d’une blancheur triomphantes. Cette contribution s’appuie sur des passages tirés des nouvelles hawaïennes de Jack London afin d’y déceler les contours de la dialectique coloniale qui articule expansion et exposition

Cultural Memory and Multiple Identities: An Interdisciplinary Approach to 20th Century Identity Politics

Raussert W, Kunow R. Cultural Memory and Multiple Identities: An Interdisciplinary Approach to 20th Century Identity Politics. In: Kunow R, Raussert W, eds. Cultural Memory and Multiple Identities. Berlin; New Brunswick: LIT Verlag; 2008: 7-17

Another Kind of Intimacy

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Another Kind of Intimacy: Care as Transnational and Transcultural Relationship

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Cultural Memory and Multiple Identities

Raussert W, Kunow R, eds. Cultural Memory and Multiple Identities. Transnational and Transatlantic American Studies. Vol 5. Berlin, New Brunswick: LIT Verlag; 2008.Memory is one of the most important ways in which we construct individual and collective identities. Memory constantly surrounds us as in literature, films, historical accounts, psychologists's talk, or everyday conversations. At the same time, memory has become a culturally contested praxis in the context of 20th century identity politics inside and outside the academy. This book offers a comprehensive exploration of the discoursive construction of memory and seeks to explore the cultural work performed by these constructions. Approaching the juncture of memory and identity from an interdisciplinary and global approach and drawing on S. Hall's assertion that culture and identity are irrevocably intertwined through memory, the essays collected here provide informed readings on a variety of topics and contexts. In their opening remarks the editors establish a context in which the interrelationships between culture, identity and memory are played off against the problematics of loss of and reinvention of "self" in a globalized and yet localized world. In this collection which brings together work by young American Studies scholars from various European contexts and disciplinary fields, the reader will find contributions located in cultural and literary studies, the visual arts, philosophy, and history. In its disciplinary fields and international orientation this book is a showcase of the important work done by the current generation of Americanists in Europe. Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Kunow is Professor of American Literature and Culture at the University of Potsdam and President of the German Assosciation for American Studies. Prof. Dr. Wilfried Raussert is Professor for American Literature and Culture and Co-Director of Inter-American Studies at the University of Bielefeld

"'Burning Down the House" : Houses as Sites of Identity Formation in Faulkner's Fiction

Raussert W. "'Burning Down the House" : Houses as Sites of Identity Formation in Faulkner's Fiction. In: Kunow R, Raussert W, eds. Cultural Memory and Multiple Identities. Transnational and transatlantic American studies. Vol 5. Münster: LIT; 2008: 77-89

Symposium: Redefinitions of Citizenship and Revisions of Cosmopolitanism—Transnational Perspectives

The following set of essays consists of revised versions of contributions read at, or prepared for, a roundtable discussion at the 2009 convention of the American Studies Association in Washington, DC. The short contributions by the individual authors reflect on the boundaries, the perspectives, and the transdisciplinary dynamics of the field imaginary of transnational American Studies and the specific political role of new notions of citizenship and the parameters of a new cosmopolitanism beyond the limits of the Western tradition.</p

Symposium: Redefinitions of Citizenship and Revisions of Cosmopolitanism—Transnational Perspectives

The following set of essays consists of revised versions of contributions read at, or prepared for, a roundtable discussion at the 2009 convention of the American Studies Association in Washington, DC. The short contributions by the individual authors reflect on the boundaries, the perspectives, and the transdisciplinary dynamics of the field imaginary of transnational American Studies and the specific political role of new notions of citizenship and the parameters of a new cosmopolitanism beyond the limits of the Western tradition