This class is an advanced survey course on major problems of American Literary and Cultural History. In the form of lectures and short interactive presentations we will review recent descriptions and current research questions for some of the main literary and cultural periods in American history: Re-Discovery: 1492 (Old and New Inhabitants); City upon a Hill (The Puritan Experiment); Reason and Revolutions (The Age of Reasons and American Revolutions between Philadelphia and Seneca Falls); In and beneath the American Renaissance (a canon for 1850 and its multicultural and multi-gendered basis); Post-bellum Realisms and Naturalisms; Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance; Postmodernism and the old/new Diversity. Reading:Short introductory texts to the various topics will be available on reserve. Students will have to read more in depth in their specialized fields. Course Requirements:Students will have to prepare a short presentation about a text/painting/film etc. of one of the period under survey. As a MAP students will write a Klausur about this class and the class "Theories of American Studies". Magister and Staatsexamen Students are asked to sign up for this class on a list across from rooms 2009/10. A maximum of 20 students (apart from the MA-students) will be admitted. |
