SubjectsSubjects(version: 945)
Course, academic year 2023/2024
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American Studies - OEBAA1744Z
Title: American Studies
Guaranteed by: Katedra anglického jazyka a literatury (41-KAJL)
Faculty: Faculty of Education
Actual: from 2021
Semester: summer
E-Credits: 4
Examination process: summer s.:
Hours per week, examination: summer s.:0/1, Ex [HT]
Capacity: unknown / unknown (unknown)
Min. number of students: unlimited
4EU+: no
Virtual mobility / capacity: no
State of the course: not taught
Language: English
Teaching methods: full-time
Teaching methods: full-time
Additional information: https://dl1.cuni.cz/course/view.php?id=2319
Note: enabled for web enrollment
priority enrollment if the course is part of the study plan
Guarantor: Mgr. Jakub Ženíšek, Ph.D.
Annotation -
Last update: Kateřina Esserová, DiS. (02.12.2019)
Course Profile: The course aims to span several selected topics related to American historical development, its ethnic and cultural diversity and institutions, while simultaneously boosting student topic-based 2nd language debating skills, using pre-selected wordstock. To access the course materials and seminar assignments, pls. go to: https://dl1.cuni.cz/course/view.php?id=2319 enrolment key: usa
Descriptors
Last update: PhDr. Tereza Topolovská, Ph.D. (08.02.2021)

All the course materials are available online from:

https://dl1.cuni.cz/course/view.php?id=2319

enrolment key: franklin

Online webinars are taught via Zoom at:

https://cuni-cz.zoom.us/j/96355115365

Literature -
Last update: Kateřina Esserová, DiS. (02.12.2019)

Primary literature: downloadable from Moodle

 

Recommended secondary literature

Dunbar-Ortiz, R. An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States. Beacon Press, 2014

Friedan, B. The Feminine Mystique. Norton, 2013

Hofstadter, R. The Idea of a Party System: The Rise of Legitimate Opposition in the United States 1780-1840. University of California Press, 1970

Smith, H. N. Virgin Land: The American West as Symbol and Myth. Harvard University Press, 1971

Wilkerson, I. The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration. Random House, 2010

Woodard, C. American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America. Viking, 2011

Zinn, H. The People´s History of the United States. Harper, 2005

Syllabus -
Last update: Kateřina Esserová, DiS. (02.12.2019)

American Studies

Course outline and syllabus

1. Home assignment

 – online quiz (Scorm)

Course introduction

 

2. Colonial America  and its Puritan legacy

Online video lecture (Jakub Ženíšek) + discussion topics

 

3. War of Independence and its contemporary reflections

Thomas Paine: Common Sense (excerpts) 

Charles Johnson: A Soldier for the Crown

 

4. The Founding Fathers and their mythologies

Robert Hughes – American Visions

Howard Zinn – an excerpt (.pdf + audio)

 

5. American Slavery and its Abolition - intro

Online video lecture (Jakub Ženíšek) 

 

6. American Slavery and its Abolition – close reading

Charles Johnson: Soulcatcher (documentary fiction)

H.B. Stowe: Uncle Tom´s Cabin (excerpts)

 

7.  Uniting American Mythologies

Manifest Destiny and beyond

R. Hughes: American Visions + Scorm quiz

 

8.  Anti-War Manifestos

Introductory lecture

Reading: Mark Twain, “The War Prayer”; Ambrose Bierce: Chicamauga (optional)

 

9.  US Civil Rights Movement

Reading and listening

M.L. King: I Have a Dream

Malcolm X: The Ballot or the Bullet

 

10. Competing ideologies

Religious Right vs Secular Left

Home assignment: A debate between Jon Stewart and Michael Huckabee

 

11. US Foreign policies

Home assignment: The World Policeman Debate

Pros and cons debate

 

12. The use of euphemism in US public discourse

 

13. Course recap

Course completion requirements -
Last update: Kateřina Esserová, DiS. (02.12.2019)

Requirements: 80% attendance (2 unexplained absences allowed)

The students are asked to take several online quizzes and a final in-class test (65% qualifies for a pass grade). Sample quiz is found in the final section in Moodle.

 
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