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Titel
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04 The American Dream (EKSAMEN)
In this course we've worked with American identity and the history of America with a focus on the values and beliefs inherent in the American dream. We have read about the European settlers and where the vision/idea of American came from and how it developed.
We have zoomed in on the experience of being black in America and the fight of the black community and the civil rights movement for being included in society and obtaining the rights laid out in the American constitution. We've watched Raoul Peck's "I'm not your Negro" for in inside view into the division between black and white in America.
In relation to the elections, we have also worked with the American political system and how Americaness is experienced and interpreted by the poor white Americans, and the beliefs and values of the American hillbilly.
Keywords: idealism, constitutional rights, self-reliance, can-do-spirit, the selfmade man, the frontier spirit, slavery, emancipation, segregation, civil-rights movement, AAVE, melting-pot/salad bowl, cultural diversity/multiculturalism, systemic racism.
Texts from the compendium:
Holm, Mette (2016): Being American : identity, politics and contemporary society. 1.udgave. Gyldendal, s.8-12, 14-19
Datesman et al. (2005): American Ways: An Introduction to American Culture.. Pearson. s. 166-173
Erlich-Møller og Thomsen (2016), Black Voices. Gyldendal. s. 74-77, 81-83, 119-128
Zhao, Harry (2021), "AAVE and Language Colonialism" (online article, hentet 23/11-2021)
Primary texts:
Emma Lazarus (1883), "The New Colossus"
Walt Whitman (1867), "I Hear America Singing"
Langston Hughes, "Let America be America Again" (1936)
Martin Luther King, "I Have a Dream" (1963)
Barack Obama, excerpt from "A more perfect Union" (speech) (2008)
W. Kamau Bell, "On Being a Black Male, Six Feet Four Inches Tall, in America in 2014" from Vanity Fair (2014)
Tom McAfee "This is My Living Room" (1966)
J.D Vance, introduction to "A Hillbilly Elegy" (2016)
Film:
"Scrub Me Mamma with a Boogie Beat" (1941), cartoon, found at www.youtube.com
Raul Peck (2016), "I'm not your Negro".
Debra Granik, "Winter's Bone "(2011)
Other resources:
TED-talk, J.D Vance (2016)
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