Bachelor of Arts in North American Studies

AMERICAN STUDIES is a division of the English Department ("Seminar für Englische Philologie") at Georg-August-Universität Göttingen. Since the winter term 2006/07 we have been offering the bachelor degree program in American Studies.
Our discipline is called AMERICAN STUDIES ("Nordamerikastudien") - instead of, say, "American Literature" - because it integrates the study of American literature within the study of American culture at large. This is to say, we investigate a specific historical formation that spans from the first colonial encounters between European and Native (North) American populations in the 16th century to the distinct societies of the United States and (to a lesser degree in our teaching program) Canada in the 21st century. Within these geo-historical limits, our major focus is still on literature - not because American literature happens to be one of the English literatures, but because literature is among the most important forms of cultural reproduction and transformation in colonial British America and in the United States. However, other kinds of symbolic expression and their histories are part of our discipline as well, such as American religion, American politics, American sports, American popular culture, American film, American legal culture, etc. At Göttingen, we are trying to include all these fields within our research and teaching program, even though our resources are limited and our personnel but few.

AMERICAN STUDIES is not an easy field to study. You must do more than read literature - you must read literature in order to analyze a differentiated culture in its manifold historical evolutions. If you are interested in doing so, we offer you a coherently structured program of courses, designed to lead you to a state of professional know-how and thematic expertise. For this purpose, individual courses are organized around a core curriculum, in which each course builds up on the level of knowledge defined in the preceding course. Therefore, if you decide to major in American Studies, you will not be taking disconnected courses, but you will be studying a distinct discipline. This is the foundation and prerequisite for all interdisciplinary work you will hopefully engage in at Göttingen University.
Disciplines closely related to American Studies are: "Anglistische Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaft," "Mittlere und Neuere Geschichte," "Romanistik," "Kulturanthropologie," "Komparatistik," "Gender Studies," "Soziologie," and "Politikwissenschaft". Be aware, however, that American Studies approaches things from a perspective that is genuine to the field ("Erkenntnisinteresse"), i.e. from a perspective that is different from the individual perspectives of other scholarly disciplines. For example, when we investigate how American culture interacts with other cultures, we are primarily interested in the results of this intercultural exchange for and within American culture. Thus, our major focus is on the historical, regional, social, ethnic, and aesthetic differentiations that produce and reproduce, in constant exchange with the rest of the world, the intricate historical formation we ordinarily call "America." No matter, therefore, where your specialized interests cross over into other disciplines - and no matter which other subject you combine American studies with, we trust that our students, at the end of their studies, will also have become what most people only think they are: true experts on American culture.
In sum, we offer interdisciplinary opportunities on the basis of specific scholarly competences and skills, always hoping to advance your professional skills as well. In this respect, the following features of our program are designed to lay a broad foundation for further studies on the MA level and/or to further your career chances in various professional fields (e.g., journalism, the media, politics, transatlantic spheres of activity, etc.):

• All courses in the American Studies Program are conducted in English. In the beginning, this may seem like an additional burden, but it's the only way to truly learn the language. After all, this is probably why you enrolled in the English Department in the first place: in order to learn how to read, speak, and write English properly. Therefore: Don't take the easy way out, but dare to challenge yourself! It will pay in the end.
• We fully support you with all applications to study in the United States. We are in the process of building up departmental exchange programs with American universities, specifically designed for our students. Without funding, however, this is something not easily done, and it might take a while until we have the first exchange programs under way. Up until then, we are happy to support your applications to DAAD, Fulbright, or the University of California study program at Göttingen University. Furthermore, the lectors of the English Department will offer advice and guidance for students who wish to study in an English-speaking country or apply for posts as assistant teachers.
• We offer courses with a high level of teaching commitment. All instructors of the American Studies Program will regularly meet for team sessions in order to coordinate their teaching standards. Our instructors will be well-prepared for each session. They will introduce you to the best and latest research about a given topic, and they will challenge you to do your best work. They will not spend entire sessions playing videotapes or sitting through hour-long student presentations without comment or discussion. They will not cancel individual sessions for no good reason. If you should nevertheless feel that a particular course is a waste of your time - let us know, and we will try to offer a better course the next time round. (You can contact us directly and personally or via the Fachgruppe, if you would like to remain anonymous.)
• We offer regular office hours for any questions you might have and any assistance you might need. In the "Vorlesungsfreie Zeit," office hours will be scheduled regularly and precisely - there will be no "nach Vereinbarung" (except as an additional option) in our announcements. We will check our email regularly, so that you can reach us even when you're abroad. Our main office will really be open when it is announced to be open. As far as possible, we will practice an "open door policy." And if our doors happen to be closed - you can always knock.

Most of all, we expect that you take your studies seriously. This includes:

• We expect you to work on your English, especially if you feel that you are not able to follow lectures and discussions or to prepare reading assignments. Good command of English, both in speech and writing, is the most essential prerequisite for attending courses in the American Studies Program, because all of our courses are held in English. Outside of our program, enroll whenever possible in classes where English is spoken or ask that courses you are interested in will be held in English. Instructors refusing to hold their courses in English will sometimes claim that they do so in order to heighten the standard of scholarly discussions in the course. Check for yourself if this is the case.
• We expect you to be curious. If you come across an expression or a concept you don't understand - look it up! Do independent research! This does not mean that you should refrain from asking questions in the classroom. But you will learn most from classroom discussions - and be able to challenge your instructor on critical points - when you have prepared your reading assignments with a curious mind.
• We expect you to read a lot. The collected syllabi of the lecture series and of the course "Introduction to American Cultural History" will make up your individual Reading List for American Studies at Göttingen University. Needless to say, you can - and should - make up a personalized reading list, by substituting individual texts for other texts from the same period. But the syllabi of the lecture series and of the course "Introduction to American Cultural History" should be your first point of orientation. Even so, we expect you to go beyond the Required Reading List. Compare our Reading List with other Reading Lists of American Literature and discover favorite texts of your own!
• We expect that you learn how to read texts critically, how to historically contextualize them, and how to work with research literature. You will be taught how to do so in our proseminars. The proseminars will also train you in making the best use of libraries and other resources of information.
• We expect that you take seriously the requirements of each course you attend. "Required" reading really means required reading. If you're asked to research specific terms or problems for a session, you are indeed supposed to do research - not to simply download information from the internet.
• We expect that you attend your courses regularly. Our general attendance policy in American Studies is: If you miss more than two classes altogether, you will be taken off the participants' list. If you have to miss class, please excuse yourself (if possible in advance). If you miss a session, it is your responsibility to contact other participants to find out what was discussed and what preparations are required for the next session. If you decide to drop a course, please don't just stay away, but tell your instructor.
• We expect that you arrive on time for your classes. This goes for individual sessions as well as for courses in general. Unless otherwise indicated, classes start in the first week of the semester. In most courses it is mandatory to attend the first session.
• We expect you to keep up with current events in American life and culture by reading newspapers and maybe even semi-academic journals such as The New York Review of Books. One of the best ways to keep up with recent developments in American (and international) academia is to regularly check the website http://aldaily.com . (For further links to websites relevant to American Studies, click here.) You may also find it useful to watch American movies (in English!).
• We expect you to do a substantial amount of independent reading and independent research ("Selbststudium"). Be aware that the major part of your work as a student does not consist of showing up in class and taking notes. The major part of your work as a student is done outside of class, by yourself or with others, at home or in the library, reading and researching, after and before your classes. Thus, studying at a university is quite different from learning at school. Every year, you are given five months of "Vorlesungsfreie Zeit" - these are not "Ferien," but it's a time specifically set aside for "Selbststudium."
• We expect you to challenge yourself. In your study schedule, in your course selection, in your papers: try not to take the line of least resistance! If you feel that your instructor is not well prepared or doesn't ask you to do your best work - don't take this as a welcome opportunity to get an easy "Schein," but demand a better course!
• We expect you to study abroad. Apply to exchange programs in order to spend an academic year at an American university! (Au-pair-jobs or holiday trips are helpful, but not enough.) Be aware that applications usually start about a year before you plan to depart.
• We expect you to make the best use of what we offer . We expect you to tell us what else we should offer. We expect you to complain if you find that we don't do what we promised to do.

In the course of your studies, you will be confronted with countless bibliographies of "secondary literature" for individual courses. (For example, you will be given a list of selected research literature for each of the six syllabi of the lecture series.) It is not necessary to buy all these books, because you can work with them in the library of the English Department or in the SUB (which is a good library for American Studies). You will have to buy primary literature for various classes, though. Always buy the editions recommended by your instructor. In particular, stay away from cheap editions (Wordsworth Classics and the like), because they are frequently unreliable. Whenever possible, the Norton Critical Editions-series is a good choice. Apart from this, you should own a small personal library of textbooks and reference works in American Studies ("Handbibliothek"). Here is a list of books you need and may want to purchase:

• You need a good dictionary of American English, such as, for example, the latest edition of Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary (Springfield: Merriam-Webster).
• For almost all of our courses, you need Joseph Gibaldi's MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. The latest edition is the seventh edition (New York: Modern Language Association, 2009).
• Good collections of primary literature are provided by the Norton Anthology of American Literature and the Heath Anthology of American Literature. At Göttingen, we use the Norton Anthology, because its scholarly apparatus and introductory essays are more reliable. The latest edition is: Nina Baym et al. (ed.), The Norton Anthology of American Literature, 8th ed. (New York: Norton, 2011). The anthology is heavily priced, but it will be used in many courses in our program, including the lecture series.
• As far as handbooks on American political, social, and cultural history are concerned, you can't do better than Paul Boyer et al. (ed.),The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People, 7th ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2011). This book is expensive, but it's a purchase that pays. You need The Enduring Vision for the course "Introduction to American Cultural History" and it will be used in many other courses in the American Studies Program as well. Do buy the one-volume complete edition - do not buy any abridged or concise versions!
• The shortest and most accessible history of American literature is: Richard Ruland, Malcolm Bradbury, From Puritanism to Postmodernism: A History of American Literature (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1991). Be aware, however, that this book offers a very basic - and sometimes rather uncritical and idealized - synopsis. It is recommended as a first orientation for beginning students.
• A more detailed and more critical account of American literature can be found in Hubert Zapf (ed.), Amerikanische Literaturgeschichte, 3rd ed. (Stuttgart: Metzler, 2010). This book will be used in many of our courses. It is essential reading for any participant of the lecture series and for anyone preparing his or her final exam.
• For information on individual authors, you may want to start with: Bernd Engler, Kurt Müller (ed.), Metzler Lexikon Amerikanische Autoren (Stuttgart: Metzler, 2000).
• You need a reliable handbook of literary terms. There are many such books, but one of the best is M.H. Abrams, A Glossary of Literary Terms, 10th ed. (Boston: Cengage, 2011). Equally recommendable are Hugh C. Holman, William Harmon, ed. A Handbook to Literature, 9th ed. (New York: Prentice Hall, 2002) and Chris Baldick, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms (Oxford: Oxford UP, second edition 2004). However, the most comprehensive handbook, which any serious student should own because it intelligently combines literary and cultural theory, is Ansgar Nünning, ed. Metzler Lexikon Literatur- und Kulturtheorie, 4th revised edition (Stuttgart: Metzler, 2008). Buy it and make constant use of it! There are valuable bibliographies at the end of each article.
• You will be introduced to numerous handbooks on narratology, poetics, and drama theory in our E-proseminar and proseminars. In the drama proseminar, we will probably refer you to Paul Goetsch, Bauformen des modernen englischen und amerikanischen Dramas (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1992) or Manfred Pfister, Das Drama: Theorie und Analyse (München: Fink, 1977). As far as poetry and (narrative) prose are concerned, we are still in the process of selecting introductory handbooks for our proseminars. A good introduction for beginning students, especially in the "E-Proseminare", is Ansgar Nünning, Vera Nünning, ed. UNI-Wissen: An Introduction to the Study of English and American Literature (Stuttgart: Klett, 2004).
• A very useful and (mostly) dependable introduction to cultural theory is provided by David Macey, ed. The Penguin Dictionary of Critical Theory (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2000). Equally useful is Andrew Edgar, Peter Sedgwick, Cultural Theory: The Key Concepts (London: Routledge, 2002). Both books perfectly complement each other and should be used side by side, with Macey being the more accessible one. For more extensive information, we also recommend Michael Payne, ed. A Dictionary of Cultural and Critical Theory (Malden: Blackwell, 1996). Apart from that, you want to use (once more and again and again) Ansgar Nünning, ed. Metzler Lexikon Literatur- und Kulturtheorie, 4th revised edition (Stuttgart: Metzler, 2008) as a vademecum not only for literary theory, but also for cultural theory (especially as far as cultural theory is
  relevant for literary scholars).
• In order to know what you do when you are doing what you do at a university, you may want to buy and read Helmut Seiffert's three-volumed Einführung in die Wissenschaftstheorie München: Beck, 1996).
• A so-called "Students' Handbook" on grammar, usage, and research strategies is a good thing to own. We recommend Muriel Harris (ed.), Prentice Hall Reference Guide to Grammar and Usage & Companion Website Access Code Card Pkg. (New York: Prentice Hall, 5th ed., 2002) or Frederick Crews (ed.), The Random House Handbook (New York: McGraw-Hill, 6th ed., 1991).
• For training your abilities in composing papers, you may want to buy, read, and use Edgar V. Roberts, Writing about Literature. The latest edition is the eleventh edition (New York: Prentice Hall, 2005.).
• Every serious student of American literature and culture should own and use a Bible - either the "King James Version" or the "Geneva Bible" - because American authors frequently made, and continue to make, Biblical allusions. The following books are particularly relevant to our field: Genesis, Exodus, Joshua, Job, Psalms, Ecclesiastes, Matthew, Luke, Acts, Romans, Revelation.

Unless you're very rich, do not buy all those books at once, but in the order in which they are listed. The following books you need not buy, but you should know where to find them in the library (SB or SUB) and how to work with them:

• Any serious student in the English Department will sooner or later find it necessary to work with The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) (London: Oxford UP, 2nd ed. 1989-1997), which is a dictionary on historical principles. For American English, the OED needs to be complemented by A Dictionary of American English on Historical Principles (DAE) (Chicago: U Chicago P, 1968), A Dictionary of Americanisms on Historical Principles (DA) (Chicago: U Chicago P, 1951), and Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE) (Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1985-91).
• When you are studying the eighteenth century, you can't do without Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language of 1755 (Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1968).
• One of the best, most respected, and most detailed grammars of English is: Randolph Quirk et al. (ed.), A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language (London: Longman, 1985).
• In our "Hauptseminare," you will not be able to survive without using the MLA International Bibliography for your final papers. Apart from that, always check the annotated bibliographies in American Literary Scholarship (annually) before engaging on a term paper for a "Hauptseminar."
• A good handbook on literary terminology, mainly concerning poetry, is Alex Preminger, T.V.F. Brogan, ed. The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1996).
• Somewhat outdated, but still useful are the four volumes of Philip P. Wiener's Dictionary of the History of Ideas (New York: Scribner, 1974).
• For quick reference about individual works of literature (from just any sphere of the world), there are 18 volumes of Kindlers Literatur Lexikon, edited by Heinz Ludwig Arnold (3rd edition, Stuttgart: Metzler, 2009). All entries on American Literature have been edited in our American Studies department; many articles were written by members of our faculty. But be aware that reading an entry in Kindler can never - never ever! – make up for reading the primary text in question.
• An indispensable biographical reference guide is provided by the 24 volumes of John A. Garraty, Mark A. Carnes (ed.), American National Biography (New York: Oxford UP, 1999). The first Supplement to ANB appeared in 2002, ed. by Paul Betz (New York: Oxford UP, 2002). Considerably older, but still useful are the 22 volumes of Allen Johnson (ed.), Dictionary of American Biography (New York: Scribner, 1928-44). Also see the multivolumed, very helpful, but strangely organized Dictionary of Literary Biography (DLB) (Detroit: Gale Group, latest editions).
• A detailed, though uneven and partly outdated account of American literary history is provided by Emory Elliott (ed.), Columbia Literary History of the United States (New York: Columbia UP, 1988). Read critically and remember to always consult more recent approaches as well!
• An even more detailed account of American literature is provided by the 8-volume Cambridge History of American Literature, edited by Sacvan Bercovitch (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1994-2005). These books should be constant companions for you when preparing individual courses, especially the lecture series. In other words: You should read the relevant volume(s) before (or while) you are attending a specific course.
• For eighteenth-century American culture and literature, as well as for methodological reflections on our field, see Frank Kelleter, Amerikanische Aufklärung: Sprachen der Rationalität im Zeitalter der Revolution (Paderborn: Schöningh, 2002).
• An extremely useful encyclopedia which reflects the latest research in many different areas of American Studies is The Oxford Companion to United States History, edited by Paul Boyer (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001). If you can afford it, you may even want to buy this book.
• A very good example of American Studies in action - and an invitation to reflect on the history of our field - is Michael Kammen's comprehensive analysis of collective memory, national identity, and the constructedness of the past in Mystic Chords of Memory: The Transformation of Tradition in American Culture (New York: Knopf, 1991). This study gives you a good idea of the scholarly perspective ("Erkenntnisinteresse") from which Americanists tend to approach literature and other historical documents.
• Good outlines of US history, political culture, economy, religion, education etc. can be found in Willi Paul Adams et al. (ed.), Länderbericht USA (Bonn: BPB, 1990). If you're lucky, you can get the two volumes of this book for free at your Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung.
• For a most detailed account of American history, see the projected eleven volumes of C. Vann Woodward (ed.), The Oxford History of the United States (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1982- ). The following books have appeared so far: Volume 2 by Robert Middlekauff, The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789 (1982), Volume 6 by James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (1988), Volume 9 by David M. Kennedy, Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945 (1999), and Volume 10 by James T. Patterson, Grand Expectations: The United States, 1945-1974 (1996).
• The best books on early American history from a transatlantic perspective have been written in Göttingen. They are: Hermann Wellenreuther, Niedergang und Aufstieg: Geschichte Nordamerikas vom Beginn der Besiedlung bis zum Ausgang des 17. Jahrhunderts (Hamburg: LIT, 2000); Hermann Wellenreuther, Ausbildung und Neubildung: Die Geschichte Nordamerikas vom Ausgang des 17. Jahrhunderts bis zur Unabhängigkeitserklärung im Jahre 1776 (Hamburg: LIT, 2001); and Claudia Schnurmann's concise, very useful, and moderately priced account of early American economic history: Europa trifft Amerika: Atlantische Wirtschaft in der frühen Neuzeit, 1492-1783 (Frankfurt am Main: Fischer, 1998).
• For statistics, chronicles, and all sorts of information on US society, history, geography, etc. see The New York Times Almanac (Harmondsworth: Penguin, published annually). It doesn't hurt to have one recent edition in your personal "Handbibliothek."
• The latest and best (though somewhat uncritical) introduction to American art and painting is Robert Hughes, American Visions: The Epic History of Art in America (New York: Knopf, 1999).
• A good way to keep in touch with the latest developments in many fields of American academic and public life is to read The New York Review of Books (don't confuse with The New York Times Book Review - which, however, is a good choice, too). Also check out the Arts & Letters Daily Website, provided by The Chronicle of Higher Education, at http://aldaily.com. Further links to websites relevant to American Studies are listed below. Apart from that, a helpful book on recent developments in American academia is Thomas Bender, Carl E. Schorske (ed.), American Academic Culture in Transformation: Fifty Years, Four Disciplines (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1997).
• To keep up with current research in the early periods of American culture, the best academic journals are (in this order): William and Mary Quarterly, Early American Literature, and New England Quarterly. Make a habit of browsing through recent issues in the SUB!
• For current scholarship on later periods and for theory, check (among others) the journals American Literary History, American Literature, American Quarterly, Amerikastudien/American Studies, Contemporary Literature, Critical Inquiry, Modern Drama, Modern Fiction Studies, PMLA, Prospects, and Representations.
• An older but more comprehensive "Handlist of Useful Books and Articles" than this one is included in the now-outdated brochure "SALLI: Studying American Literature and Life," which can still be found in our departmental library.

Last not least, the following links help you to keep up with current developments in American and/or global academic life:

• For recent articles, discussions, controversies, reviews, links, etc. go to http://aldaily.com. This site, provided by The Chronicle of Higher Education, is updated daily.
• To keep up with current events in the United States, the best websites are by The New York Times and The Washington Post.
• For recent book reviews (mostly popular), check out the websites of The New York Review of Books and The New York Times Book Review. Be aware, however, that these publications address a general readership. For more expert current research, especially on American cultural history and literature, you still need to go to the printed journals listed above.
• For further web resources on American Studies, see the "New American Studies Web," which features helpful news and links at http://www.georgetown.edu/ crossroads/asw. Closer to home - and indispensable for any student in the English Department – is the SUB's "Anglistik Guide" which, despite its title, provides many important resources for "Amerikanistik" (American Studies) as well. It can be found at: http://anglistikguide.de.
• A good news and discussion group of American Studies is provided by the H-Amstdy Discussion Network. You can sign up at http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/~amstdy.

If you decide to specialize in American Studies, you will be offered a coherently structured program of courses. Our program is called a "structured" program, because each course you take builds up on the level of knowledge defined in the preceding course. In order to achieve this aim, our program of courses is organized around a core curriculum, which means that each semester, we offer you specific types of courses, some of which run parallel to courses in other divisions of the English Department, while others are unique to American Studies. A few central courses are offered in more or less unchanged form every semester. Constant cross-fertilization between different course types - such as the lecture series and the American Cultural Studies-curriculum - ensures that you are not simply taking isolated classes, collecting knowledge or half-knowledge in just a few disconnected fields, but that you are studying a distinct discipline. This is the foundation and prerequiste for all interdisciplinary projects you may wish to pursue within and without the American Studies Program at Göttingen University.
Our closest interdisciplinary partner, both thematically and institutionally, is the division "Neuere Englische Literatur" (Anglistik). This is no surprise, because American and British culture share a common language and a unique combination of attraction and repulsion concerning each other. Which is to say that for a long time (and partly even today) both cultures have tended to define themselves by way of counterdistinction and dissociation, remaining tied to one another by modelling themselves against each other. If you are interested in researching these - or similar - forms of cultural identity-formation, you need basic training in both disciplines (both "Amerikanistik" and "Anglistik," that is). The English Department at Göttingen is a good place to get this, because the divisions American Studies and "Neuere Englische Literatur" offer a similar set of courses.

Our course types are:

• E-Proseminar: Ordinarily, you take this Einführungsproseminar in your first semester. Successful participation in this introductory course is the prerequisite for taking proseminars in American Studies. In the E-Proseminar, you will be introduced to important handbooks and research tools, you will learn how to read literary texts analytically and critically, how to historically contextualize them (and why it is important to do so), how to make use of secondary literature, and how to abide by the rules of the MLA Handbook.
• Proseminare: Once you have passed the E-PS, you may take a proseminar. The major aim of our proseminars is to train your analytical abilities and to teach you how to do research. For this purpose, we have divided our proseminars into the categories of "Literary Studies" and "Media Studies". Within the literature-category, you will usually have the option to choose between three genre-related options: "Analysis of American Prose," "Analysis of American Poetry," and "Analysis of American Drama." Within the media-category, we will be offering courses that apply the concepts and terms introduced in our media theory lecture.
• Vorlesungen: A six-semester lecture series called "A Cultural History of American Studies" will provide you with a basic introduction to American literary history. The lecture series spans from the 16th to the 21st century, i.e. from the first colonial documents to authors such as Toni Morrison, Thomas Pynchon, Kathy Acker, and Bret Easton Ellis. The lecture series is structured as follows:
  
  
  
  
  • Exploration and Settlement, Invasion and Interculturality: American Literature and Culture from the Sixteenth Century to the Eve of the Revolution
  • Enlightenment and Nationalism: American Literature and Culture from the Revolution to the Jacksonian Era
  • Romanticism and Reform: U.S. Literature from the Jacksonian Era to the Civil War
  • Realism, Naturalism, Early Modernisms: U.S. Literature from the Civil War to the Armory Show
  • One Modernity, Many Modernisms: U.S. Literature from the Armory Show to the Second World War
  • Postmodernism, New Ethnic Literatures, Recent Developments: U.S. Literature from 1945 to the Present

  
  
  Even though these are lecture courses and not seminars, participants are expected to closely study the texts on each semester's syllabus. You will find it very hard to follow individual lectures if you haven't prepared the reading assignments. In fact, you will probably not gain much from the lecture series and think it too taxing if you don't do the required work.
  If you are serious about studying American literature and culture, you should attend the entire series. In order to assist you in your preparation of individual texts a list of "Study Questions" will be handed out for each text discussed. These Study Questions tell you what aspects of a given text you should pay particular attention to and which problems are central in current research. Having a well-defined list of Required Readings readings and preparing it with the help of Study Questions makes your exams considerably more predictable and easier to prepare than otherwise.



• Complementing the Literary History-Lecture, we have in recent semesters introduced a second lecture course "Introducing Critical Theory". The format of this lecture is currently undergoing some revisions, as the media component of our program has been growing continually with the addition of new staff members specializing in this area.


• American Cultural Studies 1: "Introduction to American Cultural History" (Kulturwissenschaftliche Übung): Along with the lecture series, this is one of the most important courses in the American Studies Program. Every serious student of our field should attend it, because it teaches you "what every Americanist must know." More specifically, this course provides a basic introduction to American cultural history from the period of English settlement in the 17th century to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s. This course will be offered every semester. Please be aware that this is a very work-intensive - yet very profitable - course. Participants are expected to study in depth and detail primary texts collected in a course folder, to do independent research in the library (searching for and comparing definitions of selected key terms), and to prepare assigned sections in the textbook: Paul Boyer et al. (ed.), The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People (Lexington: Heath, latest edition).
• American Cultural Studies 2 (Kulturwissenschaftliche Übungen): Building up on the "Introduction to American Cultural History," we will offer at least one additional course "American Cultural Studies" each semester, in which you can learn about periods neglected in the "Introduction" or about topics such as American regional cultures, American religion, American politics, American sports, American popular culture, American film, American legal culture, etc. These courses will frequently be interdisciplinary in nature and students from other disciplines are welcome to join.
• Directed Reading Courses (DRCs) and Tutorials: The so-called Directed Reading Courses (DRCs) accompany each semester's lecture course. In every term, 3-4 of these supplementary courses will be offered.
  Additionally, we regularly offer tutorials in conjunction with our E-Proseminare and Proseminare. These tutorials are offered by advanced students of American Studies. Within these tutorials students will be able to get interactive help and counseling on their ongoing projects. Also, these tutorials teach you to 'learn the ropes' of scholarly research and writing.
• Hauptseminare: Towards the end of your Bachelor-program, you will be able to attend Hauptseminare. At least one such Hauptseminar will be offered every semester. The major difference between attending a Hauptseminar and attending a Proseminar (or other courses) is that the Hauptseminar focuses on specific problems of current research in American Studies. Thus, a Hauptseminar is never a "survey class" (as the lecture course is). Nor is it merely meant to advance your historical knowledge or to train your scholarly competences. Rather, the Hauptseminar builds up on these skills in order to provide a forum in which all participants engage in a coordinated act of original research - always situating their own approaches and interests in the context of scholarly discussions in secondary literature, including the most recent ones. In this manner, our Hauptseminare will frequently inspire you to come up with a topic for your bachelor thesis ("Abschlussarbeit"). However, you need not base the topic of your bachelor thesis on a Hauptseminar if you don't want to. You can always suggest a topic of your own choice. Additionally, we will be happy to propose topics related to our division's research projects.
• Examens- und Forschungskolloquien: Students about to graduate can test their Abschlussarbeiten in front of a competent audience in the colloquium. At least one such colloquium will be offered each semester.

All our courses are held in English. All papers and other written work must be submitted in English. In all courses, we expect you to do independent research. Remember that the major part of your work as a student does not consist of showing up in class and taking notes. The major part of your work as a student is done outside of class, reading and researching.