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Outside the Imagined Community is concerned with the current discourse on Latin American immigration in the United States, as represented in four recent socio-political publications. It identifies the key burning issues within the debate and analyzes in how far the linkage of the discourse on immigration and that on national identity contributes to the constitution of the current image of Latino immigrants. The publication draws from Michel Foucault´s theory of discourse, which defines discourse as a regulated way of speaking that produces knowledge at a particular historical moment and is strongly related to issues of power. Outside the Imagined Community goes on to examine the metaphoric mappings underlying the current immigration discourse and by doing so shows the crucial role that socio-political publications play for the production of immigration-related knowledge and a perceived crisis in U.S.-American identity.

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Katharina Kurzmann studied English and American Studies at the University of Vienna. With her thesis "Outside the Imagined Community? The Discourse on Latin American Immigration in the United States" she won the Fulbright Prize in American Studies 2008.

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