When Henry Luce announced in 1941 that we were living in the "American century," he believed that... more When Henry Luce announced in 1941 that we were living in the "American century," he believed that the international popularity of American culture made the world favorable to U.S. interests. Now, in the digital twenty-first century, the American century has been superseded, as American movies, music, video games, and television shows are received, understood, and transformed.
How do we make sense of this shift? Building on a decade of fieldwork in Cairo, Casablanca, and Tehran, Brian T. Edwards maps new routes of cultural exchange that are innovative, accelerated, and full of diversions. Shaped by the digital revolution, these paths are entwined with the growing fragility of American "soft" power. They indicate an era after the American century, in which popular American products and phenomena—such as comic books, teen romances, social-networking sites, and ways of expressing sexuality—are stripped of their associations with the United States and recast in very different forms.
Arguing against those who talk about a world in which American culture is merely replicated or appropriated, Edwards focuses on creative moments of uptake, in which Arabs and Iranians make something unexpected. He argues that these products do more than extend the reach of the original. They reflect a world in which culture endlessly circulates and gathers new meanings.
Endorsements:
"After the American Century offers a fascinating tour of the appropriation and deployment of American popular culture in a globalized, restless Middle East. From cinema and novels to hip-hop and comic books, this wonderfully written and richly observed book presents novel and exciting readings of familiar cultural forms in new political environments." — Marc Lynch, author of The Arab Uprising: The Unfinished Revolutions of the New Middle East
"After the American Century is a book of exquisite audacity. Bold in its detailed precision and daring in its imaginative topography of topics, Brian T. Edwards's writing cuts through much noise and nuisance to lay bare what lies ahead. Its arguments do not just dismantle the imperial fantasy of an 'American century,' but point to the uncharted worlds far beyond its captured imagination." — Hamid Dabashi, Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature, Columbia University
"This book is a rich account of what happens when cultural objects, literary texts, and films circulate between the Middle East and the United States: how they are interpreted and reinvented, in the process engendering new publics and counterpublics. A nuanced analysis of cultural politics that extends our understanding of the forms and limits of Western domination of the Middle East." — Saba Mahmood, author of Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject
"In After the American Century, Edwards has devised subtle, ethnographically informed reading methodologies to explain how anomalous logics of transnational circulation have radically undermined plans for a 'new American century.' The book will fast become indispensable to an understanding of the genealogy of transnational American studies." — Donald E. Pease, Ted and Helen Geisel Third Century Professor in the Humanities and founding director of the Futures of American Studies Institute at Dartmouth College
Edited volume with contributions by 10 members of the Northwestern faculty working from variety o... more Edited volume with contributions by 10 members of the Northwestern faculty working from variety of disciplinary locations in MENA studies. Contributors: Brian Edwards, Katherine Hoffman, Elizabeth Shakman Hurd, Rebecca Johnson, Henri Lauzière, Sonali Pahwa, Wendy Pearlman, Joe Khalil, Kristen Stilt, and Jessica Winegar. Full text online at link below.
Collection of essays that provides global perspectives on US history and culture. Contributors: K... more Collection of essays that provides global perspectives on US history and culture. Contributors: Kate Baldwin, Ali Behdad, Wai Chee Dimock, Brent Hayes Edwards, Brian T. Edwards, Brian Larkin, Claudio Lomnitz, Donald Pease, Naoki Sakai, Elizabeth Thompson, Juliet A. Williams, and Kariann Yokota.
A brief account of the complex history of meanings attached to "Islam" in US cultural history. Th... more A brief account of the complex history of meanings attached to "Islam" in US cultural history. There is a tension between Islam as signifier of the foreign and Islam as domestic practice and sociological phenomenon. As a domestic practice, Islam existed in North America earlier than commonly recognized and is more prevalent in the United States than generally known. Since 2001, the experience of Muslims in the United States has become especially fraught because of the popular and media obsession with Islam as a source of global terrorism and the misapprehension and misrepresentation of the global religion as scapegoat for the actions of individuals. Essay published in 2014.
When Henry Luce announced in 1941 that we were living in the "American century," he believed that... more When Henry Luce announced in 1941 that we were living in the "American century," he believed that the international popularity of American culture made the world favorable to U.S. interests. Now, in the digital twenty-first century, the American century has been superseded, as American movies, music, video games, and television shows are received, understood, and transformed.
How do we make sense of this shift? Building on a decade of fieldwork in Cairo, Casablanca, and Tehran, Brian T. Edwards maps new routes of cultural exchange that are innovative, accelerated, and full of diversions. Shaped by the digital revolution, these paths are entwined with the growing fragility of American "soft" power. They indicate an era after the American century, in which popular American products and phenomena—such as comic books, teen romances, social-networking sites, and ways of expressing sexuality—are stripped of their associations with the United States and recast in very different forms.
Arguing against those who talk about a world in which American culture is merely replicated or appropriated, Edwards focuses on creative moments of uptake, in which Arabs and Iranians make something unexpected. He argues that these products do more than extend the reach of the original. They reflect a world in which culture endlessly circulates and gathers new meanings.
Endorsements:
"After the American Century offers a fascinating tour of the appropriation and deployment of American popular culture in a globalized, restless Middle East. From cinema and novels to hip-hop and comic books, this wonderfully written and richly observed book presents novel and exciting readings of familiar cultural forms in new political environments." — Marc Lynch, author of The Arab Uprising: The Unfinished Revolutions of the New Middle East
"After the American Century is a book of exquisite audacity. Bold in its detailed precision and daring in its imaginative topography of topics, Brian T. Edwards's writing cuts through much noise and nuisance to lay bare what lies ahead. Its arguments do not just dismantle the imperial fantasy of an 'American century,' but point to the uncharted worlds far beyond its captured imagination." — Hamid Dabashi, Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature, Columbia University
"This book is a rich account of what happens when cultural objects, literary texts, and films circulate between the Middle East and the United States: how they are interpreted and reinvented, in the process engendering new publics and counterpublics. A nuanced analysis of cultural politics that extends our understanding of the forms and limits of Western domination of the Middle East." — Saba Mahmood, author of Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject
"In After the American Century, Edwards has devised subtle, ethnographically informed reading methodologies to explain how anomalous logics of transnational circulation have radically undermined plans for a 'new American century.' The book will fast become indispensable to an understanding of the genealogy of transnational American studies." — Donald E. Pease, Ted and Helen Geisel Third Century Professor in the Humanities and founding director of the Futures of American Studies Institute at Dartmouth College
Edited volume with contributions by 10 members of the Northwestern faculty working from variety o... more Edited volume with contributions by 10 members of the Northwestern faculty working from variety of disciplinary locations in MENA studies. Contributors: Brian Edwards, Katherine Hoffman, Elizabeth Shakman Hurd, Rebecca Johnson, Henri Lauzière, Sonali Pahwa, Wendy Pearlman, Joe Khalil, Kristen Stilt, and Jessica Winegar. Full text online at link below.
Collection of essays that provides global perspectives on US history and culture. Contributors: K... more Collection of essays that provides global perspectives on US history and culture. Contributors: Kate Baldwin, Ali Behdad, Wai Chee Dimock, Brent Hayes Edwards, Brian T. Edwards, Brian Larkin, Claudio Lomnitz, Donald Pease, Naoki Sakai, Elizabeth Thompson, Juliet A. Williams, and Kariann Yokota.
A brief account of the complex history of meanings attached to "Islam" in US cultural history. Th... more A brief account of the complex history of meanings attached to "Islam" in US cultural history. There is a tension between Islam as signifier of the foreign and Islam as domestic practice and sociological phenomenon. As a domestic practice, Islam existed in North America earlier than commonly recognized and is more prevalent in the United States than generally known. Since 2001, the experience of Muslims in the United States has become especially fraught because of the popular and media obsession with Islam as a source of global terrorism and the misapprehension and misrepresentation of the global religion as scapegoat for the actions of individuals. Essay published in 2014.
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Books by Brian T Edwards
How do we make sense of this shift? Building on a decade of fieldwork in Cairo, Casablanca, and Tehran, Brian T. Edwards maps new routes of cultural exchange that are innovative, accelerated, and full of diversions. Shaped by the digital revolution, these paths are entwined with the growing fragility of American "soft" power. They indicate an era after the American century, in which popular American products and phenomena—such as comic books, teen romances, social-networking sites, and ways of expressing sexuality—are stripped of their associations with the United States and recast in very different forms.
Arguing against those who talk about a world in which American culture is merely replicated or appropriated, Edwards focuses on creative moments of uptake, in which Arabs and Iranians make something unexpected. He argues that these products do more than extend the reach of the original. They reflect a world in which culture endlessly circulates and gathers new meanings.
Endorsements:
"After the American Century offers a fascinating tour of the appropriation and deployment of American popular culture in a globalized, restless Middle East. From cinema and novels to hip-hop and comic books, this wonderfully written and richly observed book presents novel and exciting readings of familiar cultural forms in new political environments."
— Marc Lynch, author of The Arab Uprising: The Unfinished Revolutions of the New Middle East
"After the American Century is a book of exquisite audacity. Bold in its detailed precision and daring in its imaginative topography of topics, Brian T. Edwards's writing cuts through much noise and nuisance to lay bare what lies ahead. Its arguments do not just dismantle the imperial fantasy of an 'American century,' but point to the uncharted worlds far beyond its captured imagination."
— Hamid Dabashi, Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature, Columbia University
"This book is a rich account of what happens when cultural objects, literary texts, and films circulate between the Middle East and the United States: how they are interpreted and reinvented, in the process engendering new publics and counterpublics. A nuanced analysis of cultural politics that extends our understanding of the forms and limits of Western domination of the Middle East."
— Saba Mahmood, author of Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject
"In After the American Century, Edwards has devised subtle, ethnographically informed reading methodologies to explain how anomalous logics of transnational circulation have radically undermined plans for a 'new American century.' The book will fast become indispensable to an understanding of the genealogy of transnational American studies."
— Donald E. Pease, Ted and Helen Geisel Third Century Professor in the Humanities and founding director of the Futures of American Studies Institute at Dartmouth College
Papers by Brian T Edwards
How do we make sense of this shift? Building on a decade of fieldwork in Cairo, Casablanca, and Tehran, Brian T. Edwards maps new routes of cultural exchange that are innovative, accelerated, and full of diversions. Shaped by the digital revolution, these paths are entwined with the growing fragility of American "soft" power. They indicate an era after the American century, in which popular American products and phenomena—such as comic books, teen romances, social-networking sites, and ways of expressing sexuality—are stripped of their associations with the United States and recast in very different forms.
Arguing against those who talk about a world in which American culture is merely replicated or appropriated, Edwards focuses on creative moments of uptake, in which Arabs and Iranians make something unexpected. He argues that these products do more than extend the reach of the original. They reflect a world in which culture endlessly circulates and gathers new meanings.
Endorsements:
"After the American Century offers a fascinating tour of the appropriation and deployment of American popular culture in a globalized, restless Middle East. From cinema and novels to hip-hop and comic books, this wonderfully written and richly observed book presents novel and exciting readings of familiar cultural forms in new political environments."
— Marc Lynch, author of The Arab Uprising: The Unfinished Revolutions of the New Middle East
"After the American Century is a book of exquisite audacity. Bold in its detailed precision and daring in its imaginative topography of topics, Brian T. Edwards's writing cuts through much noise and nuisance to lay bare what lies ahead. Its arguments do not just dismantle the imperial fantasy of an 'American century,' but point to the uncharted worlds far beyond its captured imagination."
— Hamid Dabashi, Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature, Columbia University
"This book is a rich account of what happens when cultural objects, literary texts, and films circulate between the Middle East and the United States: how they are interpreted and reinvented, in the process engendering new publics and counterpublics. A nuanced analysis of cultural politics that extends our understanding of the forms and limits of Western domination of the Middle East."
— Saba Mahmood, author of Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject
"In After the American Century, Edwards has devised subtle, ethnographically informed reading methodologies to explain how anomalous logics of transnational circulation have radically undermined plans for a 'new American century.' The book will fast become indispensable to an understanding of the genealogy of transnational American studies."
— Donald E. Pease, Ted and Helen Geisel Third Century Professor in the Humanities and founding director of the Futures of American Studies Institute at Dartmouth College