America and American studies from metaphor to catachresis

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Enikő Bollobás

Abstract

The topic of this paper is the conceptualization of “America,” especially its tropological and epistemic aspects—in literature and in American studies alike. I claim that in American literature, “America” and “Americanness” have been typically conceptualized by two tropes: metaphor (for example, Thoreau’s “different drummer”) and catachresis (for example, Philip Roth’s Coleman Silk). I also claim that a comparable move can be observed in the epistemic changes that American studies has been informed by in the past decades. While “Old American studies” was framed by the modern episteme and as such by a metaphorical understanding of “America,” “New American studies” is framed by what we might call, after Michel Foucault, the postmodern episteme, and as such, by the conceptualization of “America” and “Americanness” as catachresis.

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How to Cite
Bollobás, Enikő. 2018. “America and American Studies: From Metaphor to Catachresis”. AMERICANA E-Journal of American Studies in Hungary 14 (1). https://iskolakultura.hu/index.php/americanaejournal/article/view/45045.
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Essays
Author Biography

Enikő Bollobás, Department of American Studies at Eötvös Loránd University

Enikő Bollobás is Professor of the Department of American Studies at Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest. She has published seven books on American literature, including monographs on Emily Dickinson and Charles Olson, and a history of American literature. Email: ebollobas@gmail.com