Lehrende/r: Dr. Bärbel Höttges
Veranstaltungsart: Seminar
Anzeige im Stundenplan: 05.866.313
Semesterwochenstunden: 2
Credits: 8,0
Unterrichtssprache: Englisch
Min. | Max. Teilnehmerzahl: - | 30
Anmeldegruppe: AS 313
Prioritätsschema: Senatsrichtlinie Zulassung gemäß Richtlinie über den Zugang zu teilnahmebeschränkten Lehrveranstaltungen vom 07. März 2007. Nähere Informationen hierzu entnehmen Sie bitte www.info.jogustine.uni-mainz.de/senatsrichtlinie
Voraussetzungen / Organisatorisches: All texts and our course syllabus are available on our course website (https://reader.uni-mainz.de/). Please read all texts in advance, i.e., prior to the session in which they are discussed. Please note that there will be several quizzes.
Inhalt: American Classics is what literature used to be all about. Written by white male authors, these texts have decisively shaped our conceptions of American literature, culture, and identity. In this class, we are going to have a look at some of these classics and discuss their merits, but we will also critically examine their blind spots. How do these authors contribute to and shape dominant concepts and traditions? What do they not see and describe? Who is left out and why? In order to answer these questions, we will read texts by William Bradford, Edward Taylor, Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Edgar Allan Poe. To counterbalance this predominately male and white view, we will also read texts by Anne Bradstreet, Emily Dickinson, Sarah Orne Jewett, Kate Chopin, Phillis Wheatley, and Olaudah Equiano to examine how those formerly excluded from the literary canon challenge and rewrite the concepts and standards created in "classic" American literature.
