Critical Regionalism

This volume presents analyses of cultural practices and literary/visual representations in the larger field of American Studies that apply a critical regionalist approach. Loosely defined as a set of anti-foundational perspectives in the wake of the spatial turn, critical regionalism seeks to investigate apparent regional specificities against the backdrop of local/global trajectories. Taking their cue from urban studies, the essays in this volume inquire about the region as a category of difference (alongside race, gender, class) and as a possibly subversive point of view from which to critique hegemonic spatial (and capitalist) formations. Topics include an ecocritical analysis of the commodification of bees in the United States (Cheryl Herr), a discussion of multifarious border cultures in the Southwest (Silvia Spitta), an exploration of the role of the regional and the global in the modern women’s movement (Katharina Gerund), a critique of region and class with regard to “rednexploitation” in television culture (Tanja Aho) as well as a critical regionalist account of ruin photography in the United States (Miles Orvell), to name but a few contributions to this volume. All of them seek to re-appraise questions of region(alism) focusing on patterns of affiliation, economic structures, political protest, and/or aesthetic practices.