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In a culture strongly shaped by the belief in the American Dream, poverty has always had a peculiar place. For if the pursuit of happiness
is part of the inalienable rights granted to the citizens, this individual freedom might come at a cost: distributive justice has never
dominated the political imaginary as it frequently did in Europe, and the Welfare State Europeans once took for granted never fully
materialized in the U.S. This does not mean that poverty has simply been relegated to the private realm – there are multiple ways in which
poverty has been represented, different socio-historical contexts in which it has been publicly debated. This seminar will address some of
the most important of these contexts and chronicle the shifts in the cultural representation of poverty across the media. We will discuss the
many facets of poverty from a range of theoretical perspectives, e.g. gender, race, region.
Reading: A reader with material will be provided at the beginning of the class.
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