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" Citizens without borders: American identity and the cultural politics of globalization "
Lynn M. Ta
M. W. Davidson, Don
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Latin Dissertation
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English
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| Record Number
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55027
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| Doc. No
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TL24981
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3259361
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| Main Entry
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Lynn M. Ta
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| Title & Author
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Citizens without borders: American identity and the cultural politics of globalization\ Lynn M. Ta
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| College
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University of California, San Diego
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| Date
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2007
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| Degree
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Ph.D.
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2007
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| Page No
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196
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| Abstract
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In the liberal democratic tradition, dominant nationalist discourses articulate citizenship as the domain of the nation-state, functioning as a mechanism for dispensing rights and claims through political membership. However, in the wake of heightened globality, national paradigms are rapidly being altered by the increased transnational movement of people, capital, and culture. This phenomenon has resulted in the decline of the nation-state as the primary nucleus for cultural, political, and economic organization and undercuts the traditional power of the state to monitor citizenship and govern the conditions of cultural belonging. This project looks to examine how the changing role of the nation-state under the imperatives of globalizing cultural dynamics is impacting both the conceptualization and enactment of citizenship. I read citizenship as a contested site of identity that is being simultaneously affected by the consolidating, centripetal force of the national, and the re-organizing, centrifugal force of the global. Utilizing various genres of cultural production---novels, films, photographs, and speeches---my project analyzes the cultural meaning of American citizenship as it has been affected by the forces of globalization. I argue that new global formations are challenging the conceptualization of identity as it is situated in nationalist narratives of citizenship. I locate this tension within particular categories of American identity: race, class, gender, sexuality, and nationality. I first consider how the reorganization of the global labor economy impacts gender at the intersection of race, focusing on transnational sweatshop labor among Asian and Mexican women. I go on to examine the ways in which configurations of queer globalization present a liberatory potential for sexual dissidence while also posing the threat of reifying heterosexist nationalist norms. Although these analyses demonstrate the increased permeability of national borders as they police citizenship and cultural identity, I also argue that the rise of post-9/11 nationalism in the U.S. reveals the persistent potency of the rhetoric of the nation-state, as well as evaluate the effect of increased globality on the processes of racialization among Arab and Muslim Americans. I conclude with a discussion of the (im)possibility of a universal citizenship beyond national boundaries, one that engages in questions of human rights theory.
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Communication and the arts; Social sciences; Language, literature and linguistics; Citizens; Cultural politics; Globalization; Identity; Racialization; Sweatshops; American studies; American literature; Motion pictures; 0900:Motion pictures; 0323:American studies; 0591:American literature
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M. W. Davidson, Don
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University of California, San Diego
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