Educational offer - University of Padova

Syllabus

Prerequisites:	Students should be able to read and discuss primary and secondary sources in English.
Target skills and knowledge:	The course is structured in three modules. In the first students will become familiar with the most important founding myths of the US. In the other two modules we will focus on contemporary debates around such issues as gender, race and ethnic minorities' redefinition of national identity as represented in a number of literary texts and films. They will acquire a good level of competence in the analysis of literary, filmic, and visual texts and they will be able to critically connect them to their historical context.
Examination methods:	Mid-term written exam (optional). Final oral exam in English.
Assessment criteria:	Evaluation will be based on the student's ability to critically discuss crucial aspects of US culture in their literary representations and from a historical point of view. Students should also be able to analyze texts from multiple points of view (form, meaning, context), referring to the critical essays included in the reading list.
Course unit contents:	What Is an American? Wasps and Other Minorities After a first introductory module, which will deal with central founding myths in the construction of American national identity, the course will focus on key issues for American culture such as gender, race and ethnic minorities' redefinition of national identity. We will reflect on the construction of US national identity from the American Revolution to the great immigratory waves of the late nineteenth century, to the 1960's Civil Rights Movements and the revisions/expansions of the notion of who/what is an American citizen triggered by the claiming for citizenship rights on the part of new subjects (women, African Americans, migrants). We will explore the increasing diversity of the United States after the Civil War, when a number of new subjects claimed their rights to political and cultural space. Literary texts as well as films, documentaries and popular culture will offer the students ground for the analysis and discussion of the currents redefinitions of American identity.
Planned learning activities and teaching methods:	Teaching will be mostly based on lectures, but you will be encouraged to participate in the critical reading of the texts, which means that you should come to class having read them, at least partially. The course schedule will be uploaded on Moodle before the beginning of the course. Guest speakers will offer lectures on selected topics.
Additional notes about suggested reading:	Much of the reading material will be available for downloading on my Moodle page, where you will also find the definitive program and course schedule when classes begin.
Textbooks (and optional supplementary readings)	Davis, Rebecca Harding; Olsen, Tillie, Life in the iron-mills and other stories. New York: The Feminist press, 1985. Poe, Edgar Allan, "The Oval Portrait" (short story). --: --, --. Hawthorne, Nathaniel, "The Birthmark" (short story). --: --, --. Alcott, Louisa May, "Behind a Mask, or A Woman's Power" (short story). --: --, --. Gilman, Charlotte Perkins, "The Yellow Wall-Paper", in The Yellow Wall-Pape and other stories. Oxford: Oxford University press, 1998. Hurston, Zora Neale, "Drenched in Light" (short story). --: --, --. Yezierska, Anzia, "How I Found America" (short story). --: --, --. West, Dorothy, "Mammy" (short story). --: --, --. Cisneros, Sandra, "Woman Hollering Creek" (short story). --: --, --. Burgett, Bruce and Glenn Hendler, Keywords for American Cultural Studies (2007). --: --, --. a selection of entries Paul, Heike, The myths that made America: an introduction to American studies. Bielefeld: Transcript, 2014. a selection of chapters