American Transnationalism: Perspectives from the Sheldon Museum of Art

This series uses traditional and transnational approaches to explore the aesthetic and cultural lineages that root American art in the history and critical reception of European and world art.  Transnationalism reframes traditional perceptions of national cultural identity in terms of productive exchanges, appropriations, and confrontations, inviting us to rethink the concept of borders in multiple ways.  Rather than delineate, contain, or exclude cultural influences, borders become seams of interface linking national cultures. Rather than protect national distinction, which feeds exceptionalism, borders can identify the international fronts across which aesthetic and cultural influences reach to contribute to any national culture. The books in this series challenge disciplinary borders and genre distinctions, while illustrating the transformation of cultural developments within national boundaries.