This class is an advanced survey course on major problems of American Literary and Cultural History with a focus on American Art. It is a companion course to Reading American Literature and Culture, which focuses on Literature, and Theories of American Studies, which focuses on theory. The objective is a repetition of the field combined with an exploration of US visual history. For these purposes we will discuss two essays/text in each session: one on the period in general and one on a specific work of art/visuality, which we will discuss in class. The "periods," which we will explore ("periods" always to be taken with a grain of salt!) are: 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. The main part of the meetings will concentrate on questions of visual history: we will study together one aspect of the visual history of the respective period in depth (a painting, a building, a photograph, a sculpture, a movie excerpt etc.) and we will explore its implications for the period. Students who need a more general introduction to American literary and cultural history are welcome to participate in the lecture “American Cultural History” for the BA students (Mo 16-18 in Emil-Fischer-Saal). Reading: · The texts for the class will be up-loaded onto the Moodle platform. Please register in Moodle – if you don't have a Humboldt-ID yet, register as a guest. · The visuals to be explored in class will also be accessible through Moodle. Course Requirements: Each student is expected to post one question about one of the periods or the particular visual work of art in focus on Moodle. As an exercise for the module exam students have to hand in a 4 page essay on one work of art of your choice by Christmas. As a Modul examination students will write a take-home exam with questions from this class and the class "Theories of American Studies". For this exam you are expected to prepare one work of art in depth. Please register for this class in the e-learning platform Moodle. The key is "VisAm". |
