AMERICAN CULTURAL STUDIES MOD. 1

The course is part of the graduate degree in American, European, and Postcolonial Languages and Culture and Language Sciences. Its aim is to provide students advanced skill in and knowledge about the analysis of American culture through a multidisciplinary approach. Students are expected to develop autonomous critical skills and to be able to analyze and contextualize heterogeneous textual and visual cultural material, using a specific critical vocabulary.

This is an Advanced course in American cultural studies with the following learning goals:
a) development of students' critical skills by stimulating the elaboration of original ideas within a specific area of study
c) building students' analytical skills by adopting a multi- and interdisciplinary approach
d) development of independent and autonomous study through the possibility of personal research to be presented to the class.

Advanced knowledge of written and spoken English.
Ability to enrich the syllabus through individual research of material and independent study

This course focuses on a historical understanding of U.S. blackness, from the end of the 18th century and the institution of slavery till 21st century Black Lives Matter protests. Nowadays perceived as “the original sin” of the United States, slavery is at the basis of the division along the color line of American society, and intersects issues of economy, culture, and politics; despite being abolished in the 19th century, slavery has in fact produced meanings even in the 20th century, as Jim Crow laws and key Black intellectuals and artists have documented. The course will examine texts useful for addressing how black people have been stigmatized in the United States, the struggle for emancipation in the 19th century, and the battles for visibility and social, political, and cultural accessibility in the 20th and 21st centuries. The course will analyze different types of sources: scientific treatises, poems, novels and novellas, political speeches, films.

Primary sources
Jefferson, Thomas. 1785. Notes on the State of Virginia (extract)
Beecher Stowe, Harriet. 1852. Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Chapter 1.
Douglass, Frederick. 1852. “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?”
Melville, Herman. 1855. Benito Cereno.
DuBois, H.D. 1903. The Souls of Black Folk. Forethought and chapter 1.
Hughes, Langston. 1920s. Selected poems.
Ellison, Ralph. 1952. Invisible Man. Prologue.
Carmichael, Stokley. “Black Power Speech”
Stonebreakers, film.

a) Final oral exam of about 30 minutes. Students must be able to discuss a topic thoroughly. Every student is asked 3 questions (specific or broad) on 3 different topics, which the students must use to organize their critical discourse on the themes of the course. The questions may be the comment of a text, a precise date/title/etc., or a broad investigation of a topic. The exam is not thought of as a test but as a critical discussion, whose aim is the assessment of the learning goals (knowledge of the historical and critical frame and of the texts; comparative and analytical skills; independent thought; communicative skills).
Primary and secondary sources are mandatory.

b) Participation during classes is highly encouraged and will be evaluated positively. Attendance is not mandatory; however, your active participation to the discussions and conversations in class is a fundamental contribution to the seminar.

ON THE DAY OF THE EXAM, STUDENTS ARE REQUIRED TO HAVE ALL THE TEXTS ON THEM

oral

The minimum grade is 18, the maximum grade is 30 cum laude. Grades correspond to:
A. range 18-22: sufficient content knowledge; limited ability to discuss independently, limited knowledge of theoretical tools, limited knowledge of cultural-historical context and debates.
B. range 23-26: fair content knowledge; fair independent discussion skills, fair knowledge of theoretical tools, fair knowledge of cultural-historical context and debates.
C. range 27-29: good content knowledge; good independent discussion skills, good knowledge of theoretical tools, good knowledge of historical-cultural context and debates.
D. 30: very good content knowledge, independent discussion skills and very good knowledge of the theoretical tools; very good knowledge of the historical-cultural context and debates.
D. Honors/cum laude: awarded in case the knowledge of contents, the independent discussion skills, the knowledge of theoretical tools, of the cultural-historical context and of the debates are excellent and the student expands what is required by the course syllabus.

Seminar with class debates/discussions and active participation by students.

Please, check the announcements on the professor's page and on Moodle. Remember also to active and daily check your institutional mail (unive.it).

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Poverty and inequalities" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development