‘Liberty’ is amongst one of the most cited markers of US American cultural identity. In this course we will examine direct and indirect discourses of liberty, and its importance in past and contemporary political rhetoric and popular culture. This course will deal with three focal points: 1. Foundations of U.S. American Liberty, 2. Dystopian Liberties, 3. Contemporary Political and Digital Liberty.
Beginning with the American Revolution, we will examine works of the United States’ Founding Fathers and Transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau. Furthermore, we will consider the re-telling of America’s liberation in Lin Manuel Miranda’s 2015 Broadway hit Hamilton – An American Story, as well as its reception. In our second and third course units, we will read Margaret Atwood’s 1985 dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale and Dave Eggers’ 2013 SciFi thriller The Circle, relating them to contemporary political discourses.
Themes of this course include personal and political liberties in political nonfiction and popular fiction and evolving conceptions of liberty in digital surveillance cultures. Do the original ideals of the Founding Fathers remain relevant in the 21st century? Are the United States due for another American Revolution? How do political rhetoric and popular literature shape cultural ideas of personal and political liberty? This course will offer an opportunity of discuss these questions, and more.
Throughout the course, students will need to purchase Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (Vintage Books edition, Random House UK, available from €5,99 ISBN-13: 978-1784870966) and Dave Eggers’ The Circle (Vintage Books edition, Random House, available from €4,99 ISBN-13: 978-0804172295)- Dozent/in: Lisanna Wiele