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Titel
11
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Divided States of America (E)
The Divided States of America
In this unit students explore different aspects of American identity which serves as a foundation for understanding the American election of 2024. We read “The New Colossus” and analyze the Statue of Liberty in order to explore the ideas of the US as nation of immigrants. We watch the trailer to The Pursuit of Happyness and read the opening of the Declaration of Independence in order to talk about different iterations of the American Dream, and we then explore Frederick Jackson Turner’s idea of the Frontier and use it as a basis for an analysis of Walt Whitman’s “I hear American Singing” and how it balances American nationhood and individualism. We then move on to a focus on the American election, where we focus on analyzing attack adds, focusing on the modes of persuasion, framing, values, and target audiences, before take a look at how an American election actually works. We then look at the election results and use them to zoom in on the outcome in key swing states, where we look at both voter turnout and important demographics that might have influenced the outcome, such as male Latinos voting Republican. The unit ends with a rhetorical analysis of Donald Trump’s victory speech.
The unit includes a visit from the American ambassador, which started with a focus on the effect of algorithms on the political public and concluded with diplomatic answers to critical questions from the students about the coming election, gun control, America’s continued ability to serve as a model for the free world and the resilience of American democracy.
Key concepts include: nation of immigrants, American dream, the frontier, city on a hill, manifest destiny, individualism, political rhetoric, the modes of persuasion, figures of sound, figures of repetition, framing, abortion, climate change, it’s the economy stupid, race, gender, class, Democrat, Republican, January 6th, the Capitol, the Senate, the House of Representatives, the Supreme Court, swing state, electorate, electoral college, first-past-the-post-voting, landslide
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