Introduction

Abstract

That is why I am unable to choose a single symbolic act to represent this most recent stage of the movement; our direction is so clearly paradoxical that no one can say just where we are now, let alone prophesy where we may be headed.Gene Wise ith this fourth edition of aspeers, we once again follow our ambition to showcase young scholars' work beyond the graduate classroom and to offer a sphere for interdisciplinary discussion, debate, and exchange across national borders. As we believe that outstanding graduate scholarship hardly receives the appropriate amount of recognition for its contribution to the developments in American studies, we want to give voice to emerging scholars-not because their work can "prophesy where we may be headed" (Wise 317), but because it can give us a sense of where young scholars want to go. WIn addition to our goal to present the diversity of the upcoming generation of American studies, this issue also aims at highlighting a core theme of the discipline: the dynamic relationship of nature and technology. We 'revisit' this topic with new perspectives resulting from the discipline's various turns in a topical section consisting of two academic contributions, a selection of artwork, and our Professorial Voice. With a second part of academic contributions, we try to give a snapshot of graduate American studies in Europe that is not exclusively grouped around a certain topic but rather is intended to mirror the field's diversity. On the following pages we would like to introduce our readers to the topical spotlight of Nature and Technology, Revisited, and to the entire scope of academic and creative contributions as well as to the Professorial Voice.Ever since the emergence of American studies as a discipline, the notions of nature and technology and their influence on US culture have been discussed. aspeers: emerging voices in american studiesEspecially early American studies, most notably the Myth and Symbol school, based their discussion of American national identity on investigations of how nature, technology, and science figured within American culture. Leo Marx's The Machine in the Garden, which exemplifies the Myth and Symbol school's interest in this particular dynamic, is one of the important pieces of writing in American studies reflecting on the impact of technological advancement in the 'American Garden.' Reinterpreting the United States in the Atomic Age through the use and analysis of widely known and canonized pieces of American literature (Meikle 148), Marx argues that the authors of these canonized texts had "addressed the social impact of the machine in terms that remained vital for the final decades of the twentieth century" (Meikle 156). However, what is important for contemporary studies about The Machine in the Garden is not simply its specific reading of the role of the machine for the 'American Pastoral,' but that it was the starting point for later explorations of cultural dynamics. A concept that proved particularly productive in this sense is that of the 'subl...