摘要：In writing about American studies in Greece, one is tempted to consider for a moment the fact that the field, ever since it placed itself on the international academic map, has been in a constant process of self-discovery and self-becoming. Its openness, which may be taken as evidence for its vibrant existence and its ability to reconstruct and deconstruct itself, has led to new areas of research, new formulations, new critiques, as well as to an essential paradox : although we currently witness an increasing interest in American studies, as evidenced by the steadily growing number of American studies organizations all over the world, there seems to be no fixed definition of what American studies is or represents. In the context of the new global conditions, a number of scholars have argued that American studies should develop “new paradigms for thinking about the United States, through the shared critical dialogue of national and international perspectives.”1 Shelley Fisher Fishkin, in her Presidential Address at the American Studies Association (Nov. 12, 2004), pointed out the transnational turn in American studies, while Benjamin Lee, as early as 1995, spoke of the need for a “critical internationalism,” a continuous de-centering of “our preconceptions both of ourselves and of others.”2 In view of this turn towards the transnational, Heinz Ickstadt reminds us that “the study of American culture can have a national focus and a transnational perspective, since cultural identities are the result of complex cultural exchanges embedded in histories that extend beyond national borders.”3
关键词：Heinz Ickstadt; F.O. Matthiessen; Henry Nash Smith; Shelley Fisher Fishkin; Savas Patsalidis; J. Hillis Miller; Perry Miller; Sue-Ellen Case; Sander Gilman; Michael Hays; Mary Jacobus; Thomas Laqueur
