Introduction

A variety of theoretical approaches to the study of culture have emphasized the significance of the creation, maintenance, and transgression of boundaries to identities-be they social, cultural, national, personal. The essays collected in this book explore the creation of identities in American culture through analysis of the boundaries within and across which American identity is negotiated. The essays collected in this book address a variety of issues in the construction of American identities, but all touch on the establishment, maintenance, transgression, and play of physical, social and symbolic boundaries in these processes. Jeff Ferrell's exploration of hip-hop graffiti undergrounds analyses graffiti artists' attacks on the physical and social boundaries in the city, which he concludes represent challenges by the subculture to the dominant culture and to local power structures. The boundaries demarcating gender identity have been the focus of a great deal of debate in America in the twentieth century.