Critical Regionalism

This volume presents cultural analyses in the larger field of American Studies applying a critical regionalist approach. Loosely defined as a set of anti-foundational perspectives in the wake of the spatial turn, critical regionalism seeks to investigate apparent regional specificities against the backdrop of local/global trajectories with regard to cultural practices and literary/visual representations. Taking their cue from urban studies and the work of Kenneth Frampton, the essays in this volume inquire about the region as a category of difference (alongside race, gender, class) and as a possibly subversive point of view from which to critique hegemonic spatial (and capitalist) practices. Topics include an analysis of the commodification of bees and contemporary bee-trucking in the US (Cherryl Herr), an examination of border culture and art at the US-Mexico border (Silvia Spitta), an exploration of the role of the regional and the global as the basis for feminist politics in the modern women’s movement (Katharina Gerund), a critique of region and class in the phenomenon of rednexploitation and television culture (Tanja Aho) as well as a critical regionalist account of ruin landscapes in the US (Miles Orvell), to name only a few contributions to this volume. All of them seek to re-appraise questions of region(alism) in light of (individual and collective) identity formation, consumerism, and political protest.