Open only to students majoring or minoring in American Studies. A methodological survey of American culture emphasizing the origin, development, and influence of the ideas and assumptions that have shaped fundamental American values. Open only to students majoring or minoring in American Studies. An interdisciplinary approach to understanding a particular decade in American culture, employing the arts, humanities, and social sciences. The decade studied depends on the instructor.
Material includes films, novels, memoirs, reportage, and histories.
Duus Examination of the distinctively American literary genre of the hard-boiled detective novel and the many films that this genre has inspired, including a look at film noir. The relationship between the social and aesthetic functions of documentary in film, photography, journalism, biography, and the nonfiction novel. A cultural approach to the means by which socially dominant groups in American society have sought to control deviant behavior. Examination of social theory, social history, literature, and film. Use of historical narratives, literature, and film to treat such themes as heresy, madness, prostitution, adultery, criminality, political protest, and lesbianism.