From Puritans’ investment in North American colonies as a religious utopia to the current political climate of nostalgia for a bygone era of assumed American greatness, from Afrofuturism to retro-aesthetics, from feminist utopias to queer nostalgia, idealized visions of past and future have been and continue to be central to US American identity, politics, and culture.
To make sense of their continued prominence as well as their shifting politics, this seminar will first introduce the seemingly disparate temporal projections of utopia and nostalgia via theoretical discussions and historical contextualization. The second half of the seminar will be dedicated to the analysis of specific 21st-century examples of nostalgia and utopia.
Overall, this seminar is designed to 1) familiarize students with two key terms of American Studies, 2) support students in their independent research on concepts of utopia and nostalgia, and 3) foster critical engagement with and informed discussion of various aspects of US American culture, from film and art to religion and political campaigns.
This class will be taught in a blended format, combining asynchronous assignments with in-classroom meetings. All reading will be made available via moodle.
- Dozent/in: Elisa Herrmann
- Dozent/in: Katrin Horn