L’eccezionalismo californiano e le crepe del sogno: un’introduzione

This brief introduction presents the issue of Californian exceptionalism – how both the representation and the cultural history of the Golden State emphasize its uniqueness and its difference from anywhere else – and the concept of “Jeremiad”, which the editor borrows from Sacvan Bercovitch’s classic articulation.  Acknowledging and lamenting disaster and the apparent damnation of a people, Californian Jeremiad functions as an assertion and a reinforcement of a radical exceptionalism: there is nothing more American than California, or alternatively, this is not America at all. The introduction then provides an overview of a few classic works of literature from/about California highlighting the recurring dialogue between dreams and nightmares, utopia and dystopia, and finally claiming, with Mike Davis, that the “imagination of disaster” has long been at the heart of Californian culture.