Transnationalism and the Realignment of State Power: Two Sides of One Coin
Transnationalism and the Realignment of State Power: Two Sides of One Coin

Summary/Abstract: The transnational turn in American Studies has focused almost exclusively on the emergence of new identities and solidarities that reach across national borders. Although a common description of transnational American Studies claims to examine the flows of ideas, goods, capital, and people(s) across states and national cultures, it is really ‘the people(s)’ that gets the largest share of attention. In this regard American Studies is related to similar trends in other disciplines. Yet in those disciplines the focus is generally more specific: An increasing amount of the literature on globalization in fields such as political philosophy, law, political science, and sociology approaches the issue of transnational identities and solidarities from the perspective of postnational citizenship. Because it is seldom addressed explicitly in American Studies, it is this question of citizenship in its institutional centrality for democracy on which I want to point my finger in these brief remarks.There are many good reasons for this attention to newly emergent forms of political and personal subjectivities, the most convincing being the simple fact that these developments are now more prevalent than ever before. And if cultural formations such as the ‘Black Atlantic’ today catch our eye, surely it makes sense to investigate their histories. There is, however, a problem with this approach of historicization. By constructing a continuous lineage of subaltern positions, the specific context in which today’s postand transnational identities—and the interest to study them—have taken shape is lost. The overlooked context I have in mind here concerns the relation between today’s transnational formations and the changing constellation of state power.

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