HENA01154U Engelsk - Valgfag 4: Themes in American Literature

Kursusbeskrivelsen dækker både Valgfag 4, emne og Valgfag 4, sprogfærdighed, idet begge er integreret i et undervisningsforløb. Den studerende vælger ét blandt de udbudte kurser inden for de tre geografisk bestemte områder amerikanske studier, postkoloniale studier, britisk litteratur, historie og samfundsforhold eller sprogvidenskab.


From Sister Carrie to Carrie Bradshaw: The Many ‘New Women’ of Twentieth-Century US Literature.

This course explores literature about, and sometimes by, revolutionary female voices. From the ruthlessly ambitious Sister Carrie making her way in the urban entertainment industry of the early 20^th Century to the self-starter and consumer extraordinaire Carrie Bradshaw, and from the radical feminist Valerie Solanas to the polished and pragmatic Hillary Clinton, this course examines different moments of newness in the past century. We will examine these books with attention to genre and contemporary politics, and discuss era-specific subversion and potentially universal trends in female assertiveness.  Readings will include Theodore Dreiser: Sister Carrie (1900), Candace Bushnell: Sex and the City (1996), and some of the following (final list will be provided on the first day of class at the latest) Nella Larsen: Passing (1929), Helen Gurley Brown: Sex and the Single Girl (1962), Valerie Solanas: SCUM Manifesto (1967), Alix Kates Shulman: Memoires of an Ex-Prom Queen: A Novel (1972), Hillary Clinton: Living History (2003), Bethenny Frankel: A Place of Yes (2011), and Justin Vivian Bond: Tango: My Childhood, Backwards, and in High Heels (2011).