The persistence of the American myth: (re)visions in art and visual culture

• Authors: Lipiński Filip
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The paper concerns the condition of selected aspects of American mythology in contemporary (from the 1960s till today) art and visual culture. Using specific examples and referring to theorists of American culture such as Sacvan Bercovitch, I argue that, despite varied strategies of appropriation and deconstructive critique of American ideals of freedom, equality and the country’s special role in the world, epitomized in the notion of American exceptionalism, the basic structure of the myth, due to its inextricable connection with American history, still persists as an important platform of action and a frame of reference. I analyze a selection of works referring to the Stars and Stripes, the Western film genre as well as the architecture of the post-9/11 World Trade Center, which both reveal the underlying structure of the myth, denaturalizing it, and a strong, continued attachment to it in the 20th and 21st century United States.

Keywords

EN

American myth; American art; visual culture; appropriation; ideology

• Publisher: Wydział Neofilologii, Uniwersytet Warszawski
• Journal: Acta Philologica
• Year: 2016
• Issue: 49
• Pages: 321-330

Contributors

author

Lipiński Filip

• Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu

References

• Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso, 2010.
• Bal, Mieke. Loving Yusuf: Conceptual Travels from Present to Past. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2008.
• Barthes, Roland. Mythologies. Trans. Annette Lavers. New York: Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1972.
• Baudrillard, Jean. The Spirit of Terrorism. New York: Verso, 2002.
• Bercovitch, Sacvan. The Rites of Assent: Transformation in the Symbolic Construction of America. New York: Routledge, 1993.
• Boime, Albert. “Waving the Red Flag and Reconstituting Old Glory.” Smithsonian Studies in American Art 4.2 (1990): 2–25.
• Borch-Jacobsen, Mikkel. The Freudian Subject. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1988.
• Kemp, Martin. Christ to Coke: How Image Becomes Icon. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
• Kroes, Rob. Photographic Memories: Private Pictures, Public Images, and American History. Hanover-London: Dartmouth College Press, 2007.
• Lipiński, Filip. “Re-emergencies of American Landscape in Art and Visual Culture of 20th and 21st Century.” Ed. Ewelina Bańka, Mateusz Liwiński, Kamil Rusiłowicz. Americascapes: Americans in/and Their Diverse Sceneries. Lublin: Wydawnictwo KUL, 2013: 215–223.
• Lipiński, Filip. “Nowy Jork jako obraz. Wizualno-dyskursywne transformacje widoku Dolnego Manhattanu.” Artium Questiones 25 (2014): 93–129.
• Luce, Henry. “The American Century.” Time 17 Feb. 1941: 61–65.
• McLuhan, Marshall. Understanding Media: Extensions of Man. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1994.
• Lundborg, Tom. “The Folding of Trauma: Architecture and the Politics of Rebuilding Ground Zero.” Alternatives: Global, Local, Political 37.3 (2012): 240–252.
• Natali, Maurizia. “The Course of the Empire: Sublime Landscapes in the American Cinema.” Landscape and Film. Ed. H. Lefebvre. New York: Routledge 2006.
• Rahv, Philip. The Myth and the Powerhouse: Essays in Literature and Ideas. New York: Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1965.
• Rosenfeldt, Julian. “Julian Rosenfeldt on American Night.” Online video. British Film Institute website. Web. 25 Feb. 2016.
• Rubin, David S. ed. Old Glory. The American Flag in Contemporary Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, 1994.
• Smith, Terry. The Architecture of the Aftermath. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2006.