American Studies: The Myth of Methodology

Jones, Joel M.

doi:10.2307/2712389

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…Preferring the “right” methods of inquiry is often seen as a means for achieving legitimacy in the pantheon of academia, but it also becomes a dividing line between disciplines that embrace one kind and shun another. The search for a unique American Studies method is linked to its search for legitimacy as a discipline (Jones 1979 ). In the end, Nash (1959) argues that American Studies will have to develop its own method, though his latter-day colleagues lament the very thought (Jones 1979 ; Davis 1990 ).…”

Section: Explaining the Relationshipmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The search for a unique American Studies method is linked to its search for legitimacy as a discipline (Jones 1979 ). In the end, Nash (1959) argues that American Studies will have to develop its own method, though his latter-day colleagues lament the very thought (Jones 1979 ; Davis 1990 ). The “methodology is legitimacy” narrative has parallels in sociology.…”

Section: Explaining the Relationshipmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sociology and American Studies: A Case Study in the Limits of Interdisciplinarity

Dubrow

2011

Am Soc

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American Studies is an academic discipline whose object of study is the United States of America and everything associated with it, and American sociologists largely ignore it. American Studies largely ignores American sociology. What causes this mutual exclusion? An outline of the disciplinary history of American Studies and journal article citation data show that the relationship between sociology and American Studies is weak and asymmetrical; American Studies cites sociology more often, but very little and not by much. I argue that mutual exclusion is due to mutual distrust in methods: sociology sees itself as a science, while American Studies, with roots in history and literature, does not. This article serves as a case study in the limits of interdisciplinarity.

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Section: Explaining the Relationshipmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Explaining the Relationshipmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sociology and American Studies: A Case Study in the Limits of Interdisciplinarity

Dubrow

2011

Am Soc

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The Journey and the Mirror: Emerson and the American Arts

Chmaj¹

1985

Prosp.

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In 1924 van wyck brooks suffered a nervous breakdown while trying to finish a book about Emerson. For four terrifying years Brooks moved in and out of mental hospitals in Europe and America while the Emerson manuscript lay unfinished in his study, “a kind of symbol of his failure to resolve … the dialectical crisis of his own personality — so much like that of Emerson himself.” There were “manic” moments when he thought his depression had left him. In May 1925 he wrote to his good friend Lewis Mumford, “You may know I had a breakdown last spring — it really lasted about two years; and when it came to a head and burst — on May 20th, when I woke up — I felt as if I had expelled from my system the gathering poisons of years. … Everything I have done so far has been a kind of exploration of the dark side of our moon, and this blessed Emerson has led me right out into the midst of the sunny side.” Emerson had become for him a healing agent, a subject that, he told his wife Eleanor, would make him “sane again,” serving as an example of a successful American writer to contrast to his books about failures.

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Prismatics, Multivalence, and Other Riffs on the Millennial Moment: Presidential Address to the American Studies Association, 13 October 2000

Frisch¹

2001

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American Studies: The Myth of Methodology

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

Sociology and American Studies: A Case Study in the Limits of Interdisciplinarity

Sociology and American Studies: A Case Study in the Limits of Interdisciplinarity

The Journey and the Mirror: Emerson and the American Arts

Prismatics, Multivalence, and Other Riffs on the Millennial Moment: Presidential Address to the American Studies Association, 13 October 2000

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