Mobility and migration are important aspects in North American literatures: from early exploration narratives, over (19th-century) tales of Westward expansion to current (im)migration stories. This seminar will look at different portrayals of characters on the road or on the move in literary texts. Starting in colonial times with excerpts from exploration narratives, we will move on to narratives of Westward expansion before we discuss C. Pam Zhang’s 2011 novel How Much of These Hills Is Gold. Students will be introduced to selected approaches / methods from critical regionalism and Border Studies to foster the critical engagement with our literary corpus to find out why mobility is so important for Americanness / American society / national identity and how mobility in a physical dimension is interconnected with other factors like social mobility or identity constructions. Our readings will be short stories or excerpts from longer texts plus C. Pam Zhang’s novel How Much of These Hills Is Gold,
Readings:
The shorter primary texts as well as a selection of secondary material will be made available.
You have to buy C. Pam Zhang’s novel: if possible in this edition: Zhang, C. Pam. How Much of These Hills Is Gold. Penguin, 2021. EAN: 9780525537212.
Requirements:
Active participation, including reading and writing assignments, participation in class discussion, a short presentation and a seminar paper. |
