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The thirties in America were a time of personal and national struggle to come to terms with the consequences of the financial and economic crisis and a time of recalibration in regard to the self-definition and self-description of the United States. Starting from the premise that national traditions are continuously (re-)invented (Eric Hobsbawn) and that communities in a self-reflective and emphatic sense are imagined (Benedict Anderson), we will explore diverse sources (texts, songs, photographs, murals, movies, etc.) in order to study the competing imaginations of what constitutes at this particular time the "national identity" of the United States. Students will form small research groups and offer their findings to the seminar at large. Apart from trying to get a more informed and more detailed feeling for the time of the Depression and its cultural representations, we will continuously discuss how the idea of the nation is constructed. Please read McElvaine's book (see below) on the Great Depression prior to the class in the semester break!
Please sign yourself up for this class in the virtual classroom in Moodle! The key is "Roosevelt" (Course at PhilFak II/Anglistik-Amerikanistik). No registration through Agnes!
Readings:
• Rolf Eickelpasch/Claudia Rademacher: "Nationale Identität als Konstruktion" (text in moodle)
• Eric Hobsbawm: "Inventing Traditions" (text in moodle)
• Benedict Anderson: excerpts from Imagined Communities (texts in moodle)
• Erika Doss: "No way like the American way" (text in moodle)
• As an introduction to the time: Robert S. McElvaine, The Great Depression. America, 1929-1941. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2009.
Course Requirements:
Participation in a research group within the seminar and presentation of the results. Term paper (ca. 15 pages) in this seminar or the second seminar of module as a MAP. |
