Prof. Dr. Carmen Birkle: American Autobiography

2009 Fall Term, Tuesday 10 a.m. - 12 p.m., lecture, held in English

Aims and Content:

In this lecture class, we will travel through the history of the United States and will explore some of the connections between the gendered formation of the human self, its identity, and its position in society, the world, and the universe, and the foundation, constitution, and development of the American nation. We will discuss issues of Puritan migration and settlement, the declaration of national independence, slavery, the Harlem Renaissance, the Civil Rights Movement, Native Americans, Asian immigration to the U.S., Jewish immigration, Caribbean immigration, modernism, postmodernism, the Women's Movement, and finally eco-criticism in the U.S. by taking as point of departure autobiographical writings (in various sub-genres such as captivity narratives, slave narratives, travelogues, essays, life stories, biomythographies, fictional autobiographies) of the respective times and contexts. We will thus explore the relationship between the individual and the collective, the self and the nation, and life writing and culture in the course of U.S. American history.

Bibliography:

A reader with all required readings will be available through the e-learning platform ILIAS at the beginning of the semester.