Addressing modernity : : social systems theory and U.S. cultures / / edited by Hannes Bergthaller and Carsten Schinko.

• TeilnehmendeR: Bergthaller, Hannes.; Schinko, Carsten.
• Place / Publishing House: Amsterdam ;, New York : : Rodopi,, 2011.
• Year of Publication: 2011
• Language: English
• Series: Postmodern Studies 45.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (365 pages)

Niklas Luhmann’s theory of social systems is one of the most ambitious attempts to create a coherent account of global modernity. Primarily interested in the fundamental structures of modern society, however, Luhmann himself paid relatively little attention to regional variations. The aim of this book is to seek out modernity in one particular location: The United States of America. Gathering essays from a group of cultural and literary scholars, sociologists, and philosophers, Addressing Modernity reassesses the claims of American exceptionalism by setting them in the context of Luhmann’s conception of modernity, and explores how social systems theory can generate new perspectives on what has often been described as the first thoroughly modern nation. As a study of American society and culture from a Luhmannian vantage point, the book is of interest to scholars from both American Studies and social systems theory in general.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material -- From National Cultures to the Semantics of Modern Society / Hannes Bergthaller and Carsten Schinko -- The Emergence of Literature as Art and the Refinement of Literary Perspective / Martin Klepper -- Reading the Waste Land: Textuality, Mediality, Modernity / Christoph Reinfandt -- Black Boxes and White Noise. Don DeLillo and the Reality of Literature / Edgar Landgraf -- Who is Afraid of Arnold Schwarzenegger? Absurd Democracy in the United States / Hans Georg Moeller -- The Semantics of Self-Denial: The New American Studies through the Lens of Luhmann’s Social Systems Theory / Michael Boyden -- Nation of Speculation: The Constitution of a Financial Public in 19th Century America / Urs Staeheli -- Institutionalised Individualism. Parsons and Luhmann on American Society / Gert Verschraegen -- Why Did Luhmann’s Social Systems Theory Find So Little Resonance in the United States of America? / Rodrigo Jokisch -- Drawing out the Reader: Tourism, Literature, Individuality / Ulrich Brinkmann -- Steps to an Ecology of Systems: Whole Earth and Systemic Holism / Bruce Clarke -- The System in the Garden: American Studies and Functional Differentiation / Andrew McMurry -- World-Systems Colliding: Thomas Pynchon and Niklas Luhmann / Joseph Tabbi -- Luhmann, Literature, and American Multiculturalism / Carsten Schinko.