Technologies of a 'new world' citizenship: American frontier narratives in the late-twentieth century.

摘要

Many contemporary American narratives about frontiers emphasize the displacement of the “American Dream” of infinite resources to a space that is always just beyond our reach and underscore the effect of the frontier as a means for Americans to organize a psychic identity, an identity that achieves stability and coherence through images of exploring and colonizing “the frontier.” Such texts invoke images of power and control to suggest that to be “American” we must find and pursue frontiers. Each of the late-twentieth century American narratives I look at in this project testifies to the enduring power of the concept of the frontier to shaping the conceptual boundaries of American citizenship. These frontierist narratives transpose a utopian ideal, borrowed from our nostalgic reconfigurations of the originary American frontier, of a space with infinite resources, often repressing the specific historical conditions that were also very much a part of the originary American frontier West. In effect, the narratives demonstrate that the concept of the frontier as a space of unlimited socioeconomic and political opportunities has been conceptually colonized by American narratives and said to signify “American.” Contemporary frontierist narratives reproduce contradictions about citizenship and attempt to elide inequalities by deferring them to the promised equality of a frontierist terrain of representation.