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This lecture will give an overview over American history from a cultural studies point of view. Guiding concerns will be main currents of thought (hopefully from a decolonizing perspective), the successive media revolutions, American myths and ideologies, changing ideas about the nation and the individual, the transformation of gender roles and conceptions, the crucial role of race/ethnicity, the influence of science, technology, and capitalism. The lecture will keep to the time-honored period markers in order to give students some orientation. Headings will be: 1492—the conquest of America; City upon a Hill—the Puritan experiment; The Age of Reason/Age of Revolutions; Sentimentalism and the Reform Age; American Renaissance and Westward Expansion; Slavery and Emancipation; The Age of Realism and Science; The Gilded Age, Naturalism and the Frontier Thesis; American Modernism; The Harlem Renaissance; Radical Visions—The Great Depression; Counterculture and Postmodernism; Postcolonialism/Transnationalism and post-9/11 America.
You do not need to sign up or register for this lecture!
Reading and Preparation:
- Brinkley, Alan. The Unfinished Nation. A Concise History of the American People. New York: McGraw-Hill, 8th edition, 2015. (You can also use an earlier edition!)
- The powerpoint presentations used in the lecture will be available for viewing and downloading on the e-learning platform Moodle (link in Agnes) before each lecture. The key is “Vineland” (without quotation marks). You will also find the syllabus and a bibliography in Moodle.
Course Requirements:
Definitions of 14 terms or concepts from the lecture (Klausur) as part of (BA Englisch) or entire (BA Amerikanistik) Module-examination |
