Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book offers Transnational American Studies a concept that is “particularly well-suited to make Transnational American Studies explorations of national and transnational American narratives and their political, social, economic, and cultural implications interact with the concerns of Art History and Visual Culture Studies with iconographic conventions, traditions, and archives.” It explores how national politics traditionally produces a narrative structure as a “toolbox of memes” hammers the political stage, and “the new right populism on both sides of the Atlantic embraces incoherence and discontinuity to an extent that tests the boundaries of narrative as a symbolic form.” The book suggests that such reflecting on the US has Europe looking back at itself as well, hence rethinking “America” is a transnational project involving mutual projection.