LFU:online

Institut für Amerikastudien Institut für Amerikastudien

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

610011

Alienated Selves in American Literature and Film

PS 2

wöch.

keine Angabe

Englisch

Beyond the standard definitions of the "American character" as individualistic, self-reliant, optimistic, and success-oriented, there is also an undercurrent of alienation, escapism, and madness that has become a major theme in American literature. The proseminar starts out from general cultural, social, and psychological explications of this phenomenon (Erich Fromm, Norman O’Brown, R. D. Laing, Herbert Marcuse, Elaine Showalter) and then investigates specific aspects on the basis of selected literary texts and films.

Reading of the texts and viewing of the films; participation in class and group discussion, a 12-page paper in English, a 2-3 page handout, presentation of paper in class (20 minutes), two tutorial appointments with the course leader.

written and oral

Texts by E. A. Poe, Nathaniel Hawhorne, Herman Melville, Henry James, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Ernest Hemingway, Truman Capote, Joyce Carol Oates, Sylvia Plath. Films: _Frances_, _A Woman Under the Influence_.

Students must have passed the "Introduction to American Literature and Culture" to attend this course
Beginn: 10.10.2007