American Literature and Culture

Recommended Prerequisites

Student is expected to be proficient in English (B2 minimum) for a good command of the primary and critical bibliography.

Teaching Methods

Seminar sessions will combine lectures and discussion of texts and other materials proposed for each session, as well as oral presentations by students. Individual oral presentation(s) will reinforce the students' analytical, argumentative, and dialogue skills, as well as give him/her practice in public speaking. The final essay will be on a topic previously agreed with the teacher and should reveal the student's capacity to select relevant bibliography, as well as the skills to organize and present ideas with a considerable level of sophistication and critical acumen.

Learning Outcomes

This seminar will enable the doctoral students to:

- Reinforce their critical awareness of the role of the USA in the past and in the contemporary world.

- Master the most recent theoretical debates - theories in American Studies in particular.

- Deepen their critical perspective on the selected texts.

- Reinforce their ability to conduct rigorous and autonomous research in the field.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

The seminar aims primarily at familiarising the doctoral student with the most relevant contemporary debates and theories in American Studies, in order to assemble theoretical and critical reflections that will bring him/her to an understanding of «the most powerful nation on the planet» both in its internal contradictions and in the complex international relations it has established. An analytical focus on matters of U.S. literature or culture with an emphasis on the XIX-XXI centuries will later be defined, with a view to applying the theoretical and critical reflections previously put together. According to each edition and respective instructor a variety of materials may be selected from literature, film, photography, painting, and essays. 

Assessment Methods

Assessment
In-class participation and oral presentations: 40.0%
Synthesis work: 60.0%

Bibliography

Burgett, B., & G. Hendler (2020). Keywords for American Cultural Studies. NYUP: NY.

Castronovo, R., & et al. (2009) (Eds.). States of emergency. The object of American Studies. North Carolina: U of North Carolina P.

Churchwell, S. (2018). Behold America. A history of America first and the American dream. Bloomsbury.

Fletcher, A. (2004). A new theory of American literature. Democracy, the environment, and the future of imagination. Harvard UP.

Kessler-Harris, A. (2001). The pursuit of equity. Women, men, and the quest for economic citizenship. Oxford UP.

Layne, C., & et al. (2007). American Empire. A debate. Routledge.

Lepore, l. (2019). This America. The case for the nation. Liveright.

Leyda, J. (2016). American mobilities. Geographies of class, race, and gender in US culture. Transcript Verlag.

Miller, D. (2018). This radical land. A natural history of American Dissent. U Chicago P.

Morrison, T. (2019). Mouth full of blood. Essays, speeches, meditations. NY: Penguin.