Reference no: EM133413603

Question: Shine a Light on "America": In "Whose Story (and Country) Is This?," Rebecca Solnit writes, "Who gets to be the subject of the story is an immensely political question" (17). In "Nuestra America" José Martí writes, "Fortifications built of ideas are more valuable than those built of stone." American Studies as an inter-discipline invites inquiry into the idea of "America": about whose story it is to tell and who are the subjects of the story. We began our course with Najee Dorsey's image of the writer/public intellectual James Baldwin "shining a light" on the U.S. flag. Baldwin writes in the "Discovery of What It Means to be an American" of how distance helped him understand his native country better. He writes, "Once I was able to accept my role-as distinguished, I must say, from my 'place'-in the extraordinary drama which is America, I was released from the illusion that I hated America" (138).

Using this quotation and image of James Baldwin, how can the definition and understanding of America be related to the foundational idea of Dissent and Disobedience.