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Institut für Amerikastudien Institut für Amerikastudien

Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Arno Heller Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Arno Heller

610008

Empire: Projection and Deconstruction of the Western Myth in Literature and Film

PS 2

3,5

wöch.

keine Angabe

Englisch

The course intends to trace the ongoing process of the ideological, mythic, and imaginary projection of the Western experience up to its contemporary "revisionist" deconstruction.

The Westward Expansion of the American Empire to the Pacific has triggered off a gigantic response in historiography, literature and popular culture. It reaches from the early exploration reports, personal journals, diaries and letters of pioneers, missionaries, settlers, and prospectors, as well as popular narratives, to the more recent critical interpretations of historians, artists, writers and filmmakers. In particular, the "revisionist" texts and films of the last two decades have investigated the strange blend of triumphant voices and an undercurrent of disillusionment and defeat and have arrived at a new, more complex understanding. The final goal of the course will be to find out how the US of today and their inner political and social divisions relate to their collective Western experience.

Reading texts and viewing films; participation in teamwork and class discusssion, an 12-page paper in English and a 2-3-page handout; presentation of the paper in class (ca. 20 minutes), also in cooperation with colleagues; two tutorial appointments with the course leader.

written and oral

The proseminar will have four work groups, each concentrating on one particular focal point: 1) the conquest of wild nature, 2) Native Americans, 3) frontier violence, and 4) the female experience. Specific primary and secondary texts and films will be provided. For preparatory reading the following text collection is recommended: Clyde A. Milner, _Major Problems in the History of the Amerian West_. Lexington: Heath, 1989.

Students must have passed the "Introduction to American Literature and Culture" to attend this course. Credit for PS American Literature / PS American Culture or Wahlpflichtfach.
Beginn: 11.3.2009