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The 19th-century Italian aristocrat, better known as as La Castiglione, was an iconic model, muse, mistress, narcissist, and queen of drama. Daphne Guinness, eat your heart out.

Rob Kroes: If You've Seen One, You've Seen the Mall. Europeans and American Mass Culture. University of Illinois Press, 193 blz. ƒ 36,-

Rob Kroes: If You've Seen One, You've Seen the Mall. Europeans and American Mass Culture.

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Henk van Renssen over "Americana" door Joost Zwagerman

De Amerikaanse droom in Americana: het streven naar totale vrijheid, het allerhoogste, de kosmos, weg uit het burgerleven, et cetera. Of naar binnen gekeerd: het streven naar een totaal verdwijnen, onzichtbaarheid, verstilling, pure onschuld, de vlucht in de suburb, et cetera. Alles absoluut, zoals alleen Amerikanen dat kunnen (en pubers). En dan de desillusie: de val, de ontmaskering, de lusten die in de weg zitten, de plichten van het gewone leven, ‘sad light on lonely houses’, de aftakeling, drugs, moord, zelfmoord, et cetera. Drama dus, en tragiek, de condition humaine.

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Recensies - Fabricating the Absolute Fake

Jaap Kooijman

A brilliant, thoroughly enjoyable work of cultural critique, Fabricating the Absolute Fake takes seemingly exhausted concepts like "Americanization" and turns them on their head. Refusing simple binaries between the fake and the authentic, or between cultural imperialism and native resistance, Kooijman demonstrates just how flexible the signifiers of Americanness can be when they circulate globally. Anna McCarthy, Cinema Studies, New York University

Most daring and persuasive is Kooijman's ability to move between and connectthe most delicious pop and the most searing political events (9/11, the murder of Pim Fortuyn),never evading the seriousness of entertainment nor the spectacle of politics. A book that is a pleasure for what it conveys of its subject and for its intellectual rigor, managing to be at once subtle and straightforward, complex and lucid. Richard Dyer, Film Studies, King's College London

This book will be an eye opener for its readers. Fabricating the Absolute Fake shows that pop culture is more than ephemeral entertainment. When looked at with Kooijman's cosmopolitan eye, pop culture can be seen as a continuing ritual in celebration of national identities, America 's identity for sure, but also, intriguingly, a Dutch or even European sense of self. Rob Kroes, American Studies, University of Amsterdam

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