Americans Abroad: Misconceptions about the US in Latin America

Year 2006, Issue: 24, 83 - 92, 01.10.2006

Ricardo Miguez Veronica C. Hendrick

Abstract

An under-discussed aspect of teaching American culture abroad is the need to disabuse students of false impressions caused by the U.S. media. Professors of American culture, language, and literature often find this process difficult because of the global reach of American media in the form of television programming and film. The power of these American forms is compounded by the music of the nation, rapidly disseminated via the Internet and television programs. Although much American music is considered countercultural, it nonetheless reinforces the stereotypes in its attempt to debunk the myths of American culture and the easy middle-class lifestyle. American Studies professors grapple with these myths of America as they work with students across the globe.

References

• Berman, Ronald. America in the Sixties: An Intellectual History. New York: Free P, 1968.
• Cullen, Jim. The American Dream: A Short History of an Idea that Shaped a Nation. New York: Oxford UP, 2003.
• Foner, Eric. The Story of American Freedom. New York: Norton, 1998.
• “Inequality and the American Dream.” The Economist 17 June 2006: 13+.
• Lipset, Seymour Martin. American Exceptionalism: A Double-Edged Sword. New York: Norton, 1996.
• Moss, George Donelson. Moving On: The American People Since 1945. 3d ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, 2005.
• Miguez, Ricardo. New Perspectives on Anglophone Studies: An Anthology. New York and Rio de Janeiro: TGSC, 2002.
• Powers, Richard. “American Dreaming.” New York Times Magazine 7 May 2000: 67.
• “Pursuing Happiness.” The Economist. 1 July 2006: 32.
• Rifkin, Jeremy. The European Dream. New York: Penguin, 2004.
• Susman, Warren. Culture as History: The Transformation of American Society in the Twentieth Century. Washington: Smithsonian, 2003.