LFU:online

Institut für Amerikastudien Institut für Amerikastudien

Mag. Dr. Claudia Schwarz Mag. Dr. Claudia Schwarz

610008

Great Americans Who Never Lived

PS 2

wöch.

keine Angabe

Englisch

The aim of this course is to investigate how characters of fiction, movies, cartoons, toys, advertisements, and history have shaped American culture and society.

Characters of fiction (e.g. Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, The Great Gatsby, Moby Dick, Uncle Tom, Dick Tracy, Hester Prynne, The Wizard of Oz), movies (e.g. Charles Foster Kane, James Bond, Luke Skywalker), cartoons (e.g. Superman, Mickey Mouse, Homer Simpson), toys (e.g. Barbie), advertisements (e.g. The Marlboro Man), and history (e.g. Uncle Sam) have shaped American culture and society. From an interdisciplinary point of view, we will examine the cultural phenomenon of personification by working on the examples mentioned above. One of the questions we will look into is how cultural figures and stereotypes, heroes and heroines, role models and guiding figures are established within American culture. As a theoretical foundation we will work with and apply cultural theories in connection with elements of sociology, literature, history, anthropology, psychology, and film.

Lecture inputs, student presentations, class discussions, workshops

Participation, assignments (reading and writing), research paper

Course material and selected primary and secondary sources will be posted on e-campus

Students must have passed the "Introduction to American Literature and Culture" to attend this course
Beginn: 8.10.2007