Flagging Patriotism: Crises of Narcissism and Anti-Americanism

408 Pages·2006·3.73 MB·English

by  Ella Shohat

Flagging
Patriotism
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Flagging
Patriotism
Crises of Narcissism and Anti-Americanism
New York London
Routledge is an imprint of the
Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
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Routledge Routledge
Taylor & Francis Group Taylor & Francis Group
270 Madison Avenue 2 Park Square
New York, NY 10016 Milton Park, Abingdon
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© 2007 by Robert Stam & Ella Shohat
Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business
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To Stephen Colbert, Janeane Garofalo, Rachel Maddow,
Bill Maher, Chris Rock, Jon Stewart, and all the other
patriotic clowns who have kept us sane in crazy times
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ConTenTS
Acknowledgments ix
Preface: Love, Hate, and the nation-State xi
1. on narcissism and exceptionalism 1
2. Variations on an Anti-American Theme 63
3. Discrepant Histories of Citizenship 133
4. Political Sense, Cultural nonsense 179
5. Contemporary Politics and the Crisis of Democracy 229
6. none Dare Call It Patriotism 293
notes 335
Index 355
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Acknowledgments
We are grateful to a number of people who contributed to this
project in various ways: James H. Stam for his finely tuned
and philosophically informed reading of the manuscript; Dana Polan
for his witty and knowledgeable commentary; and Jessica Scarlata for
her useful suggestions and shrewd analysis of popular culture. Chris
Dunn and Richard Porton were also kind enough to read the manu-
script, offering insightful and constructive feedback. Patrick erouart
was especially generous in sharing his knowledge of French colonial-
ism and its aftermath, while Daniel Levy, in so many conversations,
was thoughtful, sending invaluable materials on Franco-American rela-
tions. We are also grateful to Tony Kushner, Alissa Solomon, Moncef
Cheikhrouhou, Mark Cohen, evelyn Alsultany, Shaista Husain, Yigal
nizri, Zillah eisenstein, and Yvette Raby. We are immensely apprecia-
tive of our impeccable and resourceful research assistants Alice Black
and Karim Tartoussieh. Finally, we are grateful to all the friends and
colleagues—too numerous to mention here—who make new York Uni-
versity an intellectually exciting place to be. It is much easier to keep in
touch with intellectual currents in various parts of the world through
the fine work being done by diverse programs and centers, including
La Maison Française, the Institute of French Studies, Center for Latin
American and Caribbean Studies, Hagop Kevorkian Center for near
eastern Studies, Africa House, Center for european and Mediterra-
nean Studies, Center for Media, Culture and History, Center for Art
and Public Policy, The Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Poli-
tics, The King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center, Center for the Study of
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