Course title:
Literary Seminar (MA Level): The History and Paradigms of American Studies 2 (A, 19/20)
Instructor: Dr. Jelena Šesnić, Dr. Sven Cvek
ECTS credits: 6
Status: elective (obligatory for American Studies majors in the 2nd semester)
Enrollment requirements: enrollment in the 2nd and/or 4th semester
Spring 2021
Office: B-018
Phone: 01- 4092060

Syllabus
Course description: This course is a companion course to the History and Paradigms of American Studies1 which investigates the origins of the discipline of American Studies. Since the 1970s, however, the discipline has undertaken to interrogate some of its main premises based on the changing conceptions of U.S. society and the nation-state. Even though the revisionist interventions began to be felt already in the 1970s, we will posit as a starting point of our inquiry a methodological break observable in the 1980s as “ideology” becomes a necessary accompaniment of any AS inquiry. The next historical break—the end of the Cold War in 1989—indicates another momentous shift as we follow the developments thereafter. These will demonstrate the efforts by so-called New Americanists to devise contesting models of American culture, while the emphases in their agendas may differ, as our readings will show. In the process of revising American Studies various theories have been made use of ranging from New Historicism to poststructuralism, to ethnic/ race, feminist and gender studies to Marxism and cultural studies to transnational perspectives. In the last part of the course the foregoing theories will be tested on an array of texts. The course is obligatory for AS majors.

Course requirements: Regular attendance, participation in class discussions, mid-term and final test (continuous assessment, mandatory), presentation in class, written assignments and a final seminar paper. Grade break-down: tests—40 %, seminar paper—40 %; the rest—20 %.

Syllabus (alterations possible):
In the summer semester 2020/21 the instructor will be Sven Cvek.