131-103 American Nation

Credit Points

HECS Band

Coordinator

Prerequisites

Completion of a Major in American Studies.

Semester

Contact

Subject Description

The subject begins with a consideration of the classic post-WWII studies of American nation and identity in the works of scholars such as: Perry Miller, Leo Marx, Henry Nash Smith, David Potter, R W B Lewis. We examine critiques of that body of American Studies work, and then move on to consider recent writing on: the American nation and nationhood, through the lenses of multiculturalism, race, gender, class; the political nation and its future; and debates about whiteness and 'borderlands' in American culture. Students should complete the subject having encountered some classic sites of American national representation - for example, the national imagery produced by the New Deal agencies in the 1930s, Hollywood nationalism of different eras, contemporary political rhetoric, and with an ability to read these sites within and against the debates in American Studies.

Assessment

A research essay of 5000 words.