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Creating an awareness of different literary movements and key moments in American history by discussing exemplary works that use rivers or seas as settings and symbols.

Waterways, in particular the Atlantic Ocean and the great American rivers, have played a significant role in the creation of America as a nation ever since the first colonization attempts through Europeans. The Atlantic Ocean, as the great divide between America and Europe, enabled and encouraged the image of a paradisiac New World in the beginning, and the emancipation of America as an individual nation later. The great rivers, such as the Mississippi and the Missouri, represented natural boundaries and traveling routes that helped explore the vast North American continent and divide it into different cultural areas. This particularly close relationship between the American identity and such crucial waterways and -barriers is reflected in the works of some of the greatest American authors in which seas and rivers function as settings, allegories, or symbols, including Elizabeth Marsh, Edgar Allen Poe, Herman Melville, Mark Twain, Kate Chopin, Stephen Crane, Jack London and Ernest Hemingway.

The course is directly related to the exhibition "Piraten!" at Schloss Ambras Innsbruck in 2019, on the occasion of the 350th anniversary of the University of Innsbruck. As the course is held in the context of the Sparkling Science project SLAVES, it is particularly suitable for, but by no means restricted to, Lehramt students. Bachelor's theses written in this course's context are welcome.

Lecture inputs, weekly viewings/readings, student presentations, group discussions.

Active class participation, student presentations, writing assignments and/or term paper.

As far as possible, course materials and selected primary and secondary sources will be posted on OLAT.

for the Bachelor Program (612): positive completion of compulsory module 10, 
for the Teacher Training Program (Lehramtsstudium: 344): VO2: Introduction to American Literary Studies
for BA Lehramt (457): positive completion of compulsory module 13

For the Teacher Training Program (Lehramtsstudium: 344): PS2: American Literature.

Due to substantial differences in the allocation of ECTS-Credits in various curricula (teacher training program - BA/MA English and American Studies), the requirements for this course vary. Information will be provided by the instructor at the beginning of the course.