Introduction to American Studies: The Imagination of Disaster

In this course we will offer an introduction to the interdisciplinary study of American culture and identity. Integrating a range of sources and methods, we will examine myths, symbols, values, and social changes that have been used to create and contest ideas of "Americanness." Sources for the course will include movies, fiction, political and religious tracts, advertising, TV shows, music, biography, and architecture. This year, we will focus on the meaning and narration of disaster in American culture, stretching from Puritan fears of God's wrath to contemporary responses to 9/11 and the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Specific texts will include Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale; Susan Sontag, The Imagination of Disaster; Cormac McCarthy, The Road; and films such as Irwin Allen's The Towering Inferno and Roland Emmerich's The Day After Tomorrow. 3 hrs. lect./disc.