Literatures and Cultures of North America in an International Perspective

Course Structure

1. [\'American Studies: Theories & Practices (5 EC)The course "American Studies: Theories & Practices" focuses on historical and methodological developments in relation to the discipline of American Studies in Europe as well as in the United States. You will gain insight into the continually shifting themes and scope of American Studies research by studying works by both American and European scholars. What are the underlying premises that have guided work in American Studies over the course of the 20th and 21st century?\', \'Contemporary North American Fiction (10 EC)In this course we will analyze and discuss the most important developments in contemporary (post-World War Two) American and Canadian fiction, including the emergence of postmodernism in the 1960s and after, the rise of the literatures of cultural minorities in the US and Canada, the canon wars, and the ways in which contemporary authors have sought to represent and give expression to the construction of cultural memory, before and after 9/11.\', \'Transatlantic Transfer and Cultural Mobility: Europeans and "America" (10 EC)In this course, we will explore moments of intercultural confrontations and analyze processes of democratization, cultural appropriation, cultural transfer, and cultural mobility (in the sense of Stephen Greenblatt) from the Early Republic to the digital age of globalization. We will investigate Euro-American patterns of Americanization of modern culture by addressing the ambiguous, multivalent functions of popular media. You will engage in theoretical reflections on cultural reception, transmission, and mobility (e.g. the Afro-Americanization of popular music and the re-import of \“rock\” via the British Invasion, the European émigré impact on American film noir, or audio-visual processes of re-mediations in Apple advertisement campaigns).\']