Abstract:

A recent essay in Harper’s Magazine, written by Daniel T. Rodgers, begins with the statement “American exceptionalism is in the news once again,” 15 and then goes on to show why such grand narratives are no longer valid in a postmodern world. Rogers explains how exceptionalist narratives help to construct an imagined nation, transforming the limited, local contexts of everyday life into a singular, nationally bounded consciousness. Such narratives tend to generalize and mythologize situations so as to simplify reality and silence and marginalize parts of a nation’s past. And they are built on an exaggerated focus on the “other,” indicating not just uniqueness, a difference from the other, but a deviation from the rules that apply everywhere else but not in the exceptional nation. At any rate, grand narratives have broken down into a confusing amalgam of competing small narratives: “If there is no universal historical law, there can be no exceptions—no exceptional nations and no exceptional histories” 18 .

Keywords: