Back

Syllabus

Course Number 0626-1500-01
Course Name Introduction to American Culture
Academic Unit The Lester and Sally Entin Faculty of Humanities -
English
Lecturer Dr. Spencer MorrisonContact
Contact Email: spencer@tauex.tau.ac.il
Office HoursBy appointment
Mode of Instruction Lecture
Credit Hours 4
Semester 2022/1
Day Mon
Hours 16:00-18:00
Building
Room
Semester 2022/1
Day Thu
Hours 16:00-18:00
Building
Room
Fully online course Course is taught in English
Syllabus Not Found

Short Course Description

This course will introduce American culture through a variety of written and visual texts spanning the colonial era to the present. The course will emphasize how America is not just a juridical but an imaginative and narrative construct, asking how this construct arose from and transformed the pre-national and pre-colonial landscape. Among the broad issues we?ll explore are the relationship of the individual to the community; the imaginative function of the frontier in structuring American identity; the persistence of racial division across U.S. history; America?s fraught relationship to imperialism as both a post-colony and an imperial power; and the global dimensions of American culture. We will also consider the term ?America? as a signifier for both the U.S. nation-state and the entire hemisphere (?the Americas?), emphasizing the hemispheric relationships that helped determine national development. We will interpret U.S. novels, poems, speeches, autobiographies, essays, and films in acquainting ourselves with the country?s rich culture and history.



Full syllabus will be available to registered students only
Course Requirements

Take-home exam
Midterm take-home exam

Students may be required to submit additional assignments
Full requirements as stated in full syllabus

The specific prerequisites of the course,
according to the study program, appears on the program page of the handbook



tau logohourglass00:00