(Re)visions of American Selves: U.S. Mass Culture and its Exclusions

Session Submission Type: Paper Session

Abstract

Looking at the pictures in the news, in our social media feeds, and on the big screen, we learn who “we” are–as individuals and collectives–as well as how so-called “others” see “us.” Taking our cue from artist and scholar Coco Fusco, this Visual Culture Caucus (VCC) sponsered panel explores the visual construction of the American self as an “ongoing social, cultural, and political project” deeply entangled with US imperial efforts. It brings together scholars looking closely at American visual culture in the last fifty years in order to ask questions about the construction of national identity during this critical juncture, in which long-standing images of US citizenship were thrown into crisis. Each paper explores the reconfiguration of aspirational constructions of US identities while simultaneously exploring what these pictures of Americanness work to exclude and obscure. The panel explores how visual culture—spanning narco media, Disney, Beyoncé’s visual aesthetics, and the Oscars— reinforces and challenges the boundaries of U.S. citizenship. These cultural forms illuminate the ways in which American identity is shaped by race, class, gender, and power, and how marginalized communities navigate the exclusionary nature of belonging in the United States. Fernando Esquivel-Suarez explores the portrayal of the war on drugs in American media, with a focus on the representation of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar and his adoption as a cultural icon in hip-hop during the 1990s. He argues that Escobar’s mythos exemplifies the convergence of racialized American imperialist narratives and the emerging neoliberal ethos of the late 20th century. Osarugue Otebele outlines the implications of Beyonce’s aesthetic choices as it pertains to claiming Americanness. She suggests that Beyonce’s image and the popular discourse it engendered points to critical questions of Black claims to the American empire and the stakes of such claims and the ability for one to be within the nation and yet outside of it. Carmen Merport Quiñones uses critical readings of Donald Duck as a point of departure to understand the particularly American notion of emotional literacy espoused in Disney’s Inside Out franchise and the oeuvre of Julio Torres. Betsy Walters traces how the Oscars’ complicated relationship with international cinema and artists subtly but distinctly places American cinema atop the international hierarchies; she shows how the Academy’s refusal to overhaul the International Feature category ultimately continues to perpetuate an outdated dialectic between American and “foreign” cinema. Together, these papers offer an argument on how U.S. citizenship is represented, contested, and redefined in visual culture. They illustrate how citizenship is not simply a legal status, but a contested space, shaped by race, gender, and power. Visual culture not only reflects these struggles but actively participates in the ongoing process of challenging and redefining who gets to be “American”.

Sub Unit

• Annual Meeting of the American Studies Association

Individual Presentations

• Pablo Escobar, Donald Trump, and the Neoliberal Ethos: Hip-Hop and Visual Media in the 1990s - Fernando Esquivel-Suarez, Spelman College

• An invitation to be: What is aesthetics for the non-human? - Osarugue Otebele, University of California, Berkeley

• Para Leer a la Pata Daisy/How to Read Daisy Duck - Carmen M Merport Quiñones, Oberlin College

• Between Hollywood and the World: Globalization, Cultural Imperialism, and the Oscar for Best Foreign Language/International Feature - Elizabeth Walters, Boston University

Chair

• Rebecca Kumar, Spelman College

Biographical Information

Fernando Esquivel-Suarez is an Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies in the Department of English at Spelman College and a current fellow at the James Weldon Johnson Institute at Emory University. He earned his PhD in Hispanic Studies from Emory University and a BA in Philosophy from Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, Colombia. His research focuses on the racial and cultural implications of the war on drugs within a global context. His interdisciplinary work bridges cultural studies, history, and digital humanities to analyze the social and political impacts of drug policies on marginalized communities. He has published widely in academic journals such as Cultural Politics (Duke University Press), The Global South (University of Virginia), and Journal of Global Postcolonial Studies (University of Florida), exploring topics like the cultural narratives of narcotrafficking, racialized criminalization, and the representation of masculinities in popular culture

Osarugue Otebele is a Ph.D candidate in film and media studies at UC Berkeley. Her research explores questions of aesthetics and nation formation, migration and issues of spectatorship. Her work has been published in the Journal of Global Postcolonial Studies and the Journal of transformative works and cultures. She is currently working on her dissertation which examines the employment of aesthetic forms in deconstructing post-independence nation building in
Nigeria.

Carmen Merport Quiñones is an assistant professor in comparative American studies. Her research draws on the fields of literary studies, art history, and media studies in order to examine the manner in which different modes of perception are involved in the composure and discomposure of identities rooted in race, gender, nationality, ethnicity, and sexuality. Her current book project, Life in Motion: An Affective Genealogy of Minoritarian Art, recounts exchanges between avant-garde practices, the art world, and the visual culture of the mass picture magazine.

Betsy Walters is a PhD candidate in the American & New England Studies Program at Boston University, where she also earned her MFA in Film & Television Studies. Her research considers the relationship between the American film and television industry and sites of prestige such as awards and festivals. Her dissertation examines how industrial shifts and cultural controversies have impacted the Academy Awards in the 21st century. Her work has been published in the Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, Media Industries, The Velvet Light Trap and New Review of Film and Television Studies.