32103
Vertiefungsseminar
SoSe 23: American Road Cultures After 1945
Maxime McKenna
Kommentar
The space of the road has loomed large in the American cultural imaginary since at least the period of westward expansion, when covered wagons rolling along dirt turnpikes symbolized white Americans’ supposed Manifest Destiny. After the Second World War, the United States underwent a period of automobilization that forever remade the American road, making it synonymous with traffic, smog, suburban development, and franchise businesses. In this class, we will examine the uneasy ways that the myth of the open road has persisted from the second half of the twentieth century to today. We will study foundational American road narratives as well as texts, films, visual media, and even popular songs that rewrite or otherwise contest the cultural significance of cars, driving, and highways. Sessions will address such topics as: the "existential road movie"; gender dynamics and automobility; race and the road in rock 'n' roll music; and the postapocalyptic road novel. Along the way, we will engage with relevant and interrelated methods in the study of American culture, such as theories of space, mobility studies, infrastructuralism, and ecocritique. Schließen
13 Termine
Regelmäßige Termine der Lehrveranstaltung
Do, 20.04.2023 14:00 - 16:00
Do, 27.04.2023 14:00 - 16:00
Do, 04.05.2023 14:00 - 16:00
Do, 11.05.2023 14:00 - 16:00
Do, 25.05.2023 14:00 - 16:00
Do, 01.06.2023 14:00 - 16:00
Do, 08.06.2023 14:00 - 16:00
Do, 15.06.2023 14:00 - 16:00
Do, 22.06.2023 14:00 - 16:00
Do, 29.06.2023 14:00 - 16:00
Do, 06.07.2023 14:00 - 16:00
Do, 13.07.2023 14:00 - 16:00
Do, 20.07.2023 14:00 - 16:00