Transactions, Transgressions, Transformation - American Culture in Western Europe and Japan

American culture has been one of the most controversial exports of the United States: greeted with enthusiasm by some, with hostility by others. Yet, few societies escape its influence. However, not all changes should be interpreted simply as "Americanization." The shaping of the postwar world has been much more complex than this term implies as is shown in this volume that explores the links between Americanization and modernity in Western Europe and Japan. In considering the impact of products and images ranging from movies and music to fashion and architecture, a multi-disciplinary group of contributors asks how American culture has been employed internationally in the articulation of postwar identities - be they national or subnational,socially sanctioned or socially transgressive. Their essays on France, Italy, Germany and Japan move beyond the simple paradigms of colonization and democratic modernization, yet retain a sensitivity to the asymmetries in the postwar power relationships between these countries and the United States. An extensive introduction historically locates changing interpretations of American influences abroad and suggests the problems and promises of "Americanization" as an analytical tool. Its comparative focus and interdisciplinary scope will appeal to a wide range of students and scholars of cold war and post-cold war history.

List of contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgements

Notes on Contributors

Introduction: Americanization Reconsidered

Heide Fehrenbach and Uta G. Poiger

PART I: TWENTIETH-CENUTRY MODERNITIES

Chapter 1. America in the German Imagination

Mary Nolan

Chapter 2. Comparative Anti-Americanism in Western Europe

David W. Ellwood

Chapter 3. Surface Above All? American Influence on Japanese

Botond Bognar

PART II: DRAWING CULTURAL BOUNDARIES, FORGING THE NATIONAL

Chapter 4. Persistent Myths of Americanization: German Reconstruction and the Renationalization of Postwar Cinema, 1945-1965

Heide Fehrenbach

Chapter 5. No More Song and Dance: French Radio Broadcast Quotas, Chansons, and Cultural Exceptions

James Petterson

PART III: TRANSNATIONAL STYLINGS: AMERICAN MUSIC AND THE POLITICS OF IDENTITY

Chapter 6. American Music, Cold War Liberalism, and German Identities

Uta G. Poiger

Chapter 7. Jukebox Boys: Postwar Italian Music and the Culture of Covering

Franco Minganti

Chapter 8. The Social Production of Difference: Imitation and Authenticity in Japanese Rap Music

Ian Condry

PART IV: DE-ESSENTIALIZING "AMERICA" AND THE "NATIVE"

Chapter 9. Learning from America: Postwar Urban Recovery in West Germany

Peter Krieger

Chapter 10. The French Cinema and Hollywood: A Case Study of Americanization

Richard F. Kuisel

Chapter 11. Waiting for Godzilla: Chaotic Negotiations between Post-Orientalism and Hyper-Occidentalism

Takayuki Tatsumi

Select Bibliography

Index

About the author

Heide Fehrenbach is Professor of History at the University of Northern Illinois

Summary

American culture has been one of the most controversial exports of the United States: greeted with enthusiasm by some, with hostility by others. Yet, few societies escape its influence. However, not all changes should be interpreted simply as "Americanization." The shaping of the postwar world has been much more complex than this term implies as is shown in this volume that explores the links between Americanization and modernity in Western Europe and Japan. In considering the impact of products and images ranging from movies and music to fashion and architecture, a multi-disciplinary group of contributors asks how American culture has been employed internationally in the articulation of postwar identities - be they national or subnational,socially sanctioned or socially transgressive. Their essays on France, Italy, Germany and Japan move beyond the simple paradigms of colonization and democratic modernization, yet retain a sensitivity to the asymmetries in the postwar power relationships between these countries and the United States. An extensive introduction historically locates changing interpretations of American influences abroad and suggests the problems and promises of "Americanization" as an analytical tool. Its comparative focus and interdisciplinary scope will appeal to a wide range of students and scholars of cold war and post-cold war history.

Additional text

"... this anthologies offers important stimuli ... a comprehensive index and bibliography round off this successful volume."  · Historische Zeitschrift

"The book is a valuable contribution in terms of its critical stance on cultural hegemony and interpretation of influence flowing in directions other than unilaterally. Power gains new dimensions in these interpretations."  · Journal of Intercultural Studies

"... an excellent collection of essays that sets out to problematise the notion of 'Americanization' and, in so doing, advances many current debates about identity and culture ... The cope of perspectives, cultural forms, and national experiences represented under one cover is a great strength of this volume ... Through its empirical studies of the varying ways in which Americanization is conceptualized and negotiated, this volume renders the valuable service of moving beyond the assumption of the complexity of culture and identity to an examination of what underlies this assumption."  · Millenium

Product details

• Authors: Heide Fehrenbach
• Assisted by: Heide Fehrenbach (Editor), Heidi Fehrenbach (Editor), Uta A. Poiger (Editor), Uta G Poiger (Editor), Uta G. Poiger (Editor)
• Publisher: Ingram Publishers Services
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 01.12.1999
• EAN: 9781571811073
• ISBN: 978-1-57181-107-3
• No. of pages: 272
• Dimensions: 145 mm x 222 mm x 19 mm
• Weight: 513 g
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > 20th century (up to 1945); History: 20th Century to Present