General information
Course name | Seminar: Exploring the Cold War in American Culture |
Subtitle | Aufbaumodul: Kulturwissenschaft I; Aufbaumodul Kulturwissenschaft 2: Kultur und Gesellschaft der Gegenwart; Aufbaumodul Kulturwissenschaft Großbritannien/USA 2 (1. Teil) |
Semester | SS 2018 |
Current number of participants | 8 |
Home institute | Amerikanistik / Literaturwissenschaft |
Courses type | Seminar in category Offizielle Lehrveranstaltungen |
First date | Tuesday, 03.04.2018 10:15 - 11:45, Room: (Adam-Kuckhoff-Str. 35, SR 2) |
Pre-requisites | Students who have successfully passed their Basismodul Einführung in das Studium der angloameri¬kanischen Kulturwissenschaft (ANG.02620.02) are welcome to this class that focuses on American culture during the Cold War (1945-1991). Anybody taking it will have to be prepared to study the historical and political confrontation between the USSR and the USA on a global scale. Only then will we be able to grasp American culture in the postwar decades as it was characterized by global political confrontations producing a climate of angst and polarity. |
Learning organisation |
After a historical and political survey of the Cold War at the beginning of the seminar students are expected to actively cooperate in "exploring" the Cold War in American culture. We will use two textbooks: Allan Todd's History for the IB Diploma: The Cold War (2nd. ed., 2015) for the historical background and Stephen J. Whitfield's The Culture of the Cold War (2nd ed., 1996) for emphasis on the culture of the cold war. Students will be asked to select one topic in American culture that they are especially interested in (literature, theater, press, TV, movies, academia etc.) and analyse how the Cold War emanated into these cultural arenas. In order for students to pick up skills necessary in academia, we will spend some time on how to do research and presentations as well as on how to write papers. The university library (OPAC, MLA-IB and other databases) will be a topic as will be the Internet as a research tool (JStor, Google Scholar etc.). In addition, there will be an introduction to CITAVI and how to use that bibliographical tool. The MLA style sheet (7th ed., 2009) is our model for all written work. (Please, do NOT use MLA 8th ed., 2016.) How to write essays the way American colleges expect them to be written will also be discussed. |
Performance record |
Requirements Students are requested to listen to the BBC series "Cold War Stories: Stories from the Big Freeze" that was produced and aired in 2016 and 2017. Podcasts of this program can be downloaded at BBC's Radio 4 programme at <www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08xrrnl/episodes/downloads>. These ca. eight hours of narrative history of the Cold War will be very helpful in understanding what climate the Cold War created in Europe and beyond. Make sure you will have listened to the whole program by 24 April 2018. Students are expected not to miss more than three sessions and participate actively in discussions. Also, they must present in class (15-20 mins. plus 5-10 mins. discussion) on a topic to be arranged with the lecturer. Each student must present a handout (Thesenpapier) that is sent to the lecturer a week before the presentation is due. A copy of the reviewed handout must be available to all students on the day of presentation. Reading assignments (secondary literature) will be given on a weekly basis. Studying in groups is encouraged. At the end of the semester students will have to write an essay/Hausarbeit (ca. 12-14 pages) preferably on the topic they have started to explore in their presentations. The essays are due at the end of September 2018. |
Studiengänge (für) |
ANG.05272.03 - Aufbaumodul: Kulturwissenschaft I ANG.03588.02 -Aufbaumodul Kulturwissenschaft 2: Kultur und Gesellschaft der Gegenwart ANG.04770.02 - Aufbaumodul Kulturwissenschaft Großbritannien/USA 2 (1. Teil) |
SWS | 2 |
ECTS points | 5 |