Andrew J Friedenthal

From Natty Bumpo to the Virginian to John McClane, American myth and literature is saturated with larger-than-life heroic figures who right wrongs and fight for justice in a way that the political and legal system cannot or will not.  In the 1930’s, faced with a crippling depression and the rumbling of wars overseas, this figure evolved, in early American comic books, into the modern superhero, as embodied by such figures as Superman and Batman.  This course will examine the reasons behind, and repercussions of, the American love affair with the superhero, focusing on the 20th century, in which the genre of the superhero came to be most explicitly defined and explored.  Along the way, we will explore how and why the superhero holds such a fascination to readers and audiences, looking at various superheroes in specific contexts in order to understand what that hero embodies for a particular public. By the end of the course, students will be able to: identify what defines the superhero as a “genre”; place the superhero within the larger heroic monomyth explored by Joseph Campbell; understand the context of the (largely Jewish and immigrant) early American comic book industry in which the superhero developed; compare and contrast the use of superheroes in both “high” and “low” culture; analyze the ways in which a given superhero reflects American culture at a particular time; and think critically about superhero comic books, movies, television, and literature as texts, as commodities, and as historical artifacts                 

Requirements

Response papers (x5) - 25%

Reading quizzes (x5) - 15%

Consumer identity profile paper - 10%

Ad analysis paper - 20%

Final research paper - 30%

Possible Texts

Lizabeth Cohen, A Consumer's Republic

Thomas Frank, The Conquest of Cool

Naomi Klein, No Logo

William Leach, Land of Desire

Judith Levine, Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping

Roland Marchand, Advertising the American Dream

William Rathje and Cullen Murphy, Rubbish!

Elizabeth Royte, Garbage Land: On the Secret Trail of Trash

Juliet Schor, Born to Buy

Juliann Sivulka, Soap, Sex, and Cigarettes

Susan Strasser, Waste and Want

Robert Weems, Desegregating the DollarWaste Land (film)

Flag(s): Writing

This course serves as an introduction to the interdisciplinary field of American Studies.  As such, rather than explicitly reviewing the facts and dates of American history, we will be focusing on how and why it is important to study the broader changes in American culture over the past several hundred years.  In order to do so, we will examine the history of American popular/mass culture, and the ways in which that culture has evolved over time and been a crucial component of American identity.  Although the majority of the class will focus on the 20th century, we will begin with a look at colonial and Native American cultures before examining how successive waves of immigration and social change altered and influenced the burgeoning nation’s popular amusements, in particular focusing on theatrical movements such as minstrelsy and vaudeville.  It is in the decades following World War II, however, that popular culture came to increasingly define American identity, and we will spend a good chunk of this class looking at the various forms this has taken, including film, television, suburban sprawl, shopping and consumer culture, theme parks, car culture, pop/rock/hip-hop music, comic books, video games, and the internet.  By the end of the course, students should develop a greater awareness of how their own conceptions of themselves and their culture are greatly shaped by the forms of entertainment they consume, and have the ability to analyze the varying (and often contradictory) messages and influence of those forms.

Requirements

In-Class Exam 1                               20%

In-Class Exam 2                               20%

Final Take-Home Exam                      40%

Participation/Attendance/Quizzes       20%

Possible Texts

Roy Rosenzweig, Eight Hours For What We Will

John F. Kasson, Amusing The Million

Susan J. Davis, Where The Girls Are

Course reader, with multiple excerpts and articles

Partially fulfills legislative requirement in American History. 

Flag(s): Cultural Diversity

From the famous Puritan jeremiads through to Jersey Shore, America, like all societies, has been filled with a wide variety of performances.  This survey course will combine two interdisciplinary fields – American Studies and Performance Studies – in order to examine the history and impact of “performance” in American life since the days of Native American shamans.  We will thus be mixing together history, sociology, ethnography, anthropology, theatre/dance studies, film studies, cultural studies, and a variety of other disciplines in our quest to understand how various Americans have performed their identities over the past several centuries.  Essentially, we will be asking, “What does it mean to put performances, of various types, at the center of American history?” 

Requirements

Response Paper 1                          10%

Response Paper 2                          15%

Final Research Paper and/or Performance 40%

4 Performance Reports                    20%

Participation                                        15%

Possible Texts

Richard Schechner, Performance Studies: An Introduction

Erving Goffman, The Presentation of Self In Everyday Life

Tony Kushner, Angels In America

Course reader (including exceprts from Henry Bial, ed., The Performance Studies Reader; William Leach, Land of Desire; and various others)

Flag(s): Writing

From the famous Puritan jeremiads through to Jersey Shore, America, like all societies, has been filled with a wide variety of performances.  This survey course will combine two interdisciplinary fields – American Studies and Performance Studies – in order to examine the history and impact of “performance” in American life since the days of Native American shamans.  We will thus be mixing together history, sociology, ethnography, anthropology, theatre/dance studies, film studies, cultural studies, and a variety of other disciplines in our quest to understand how various Americans have performed their identities over the past several centuries.  Essentially, we will be asking, “What does it mean to put performances, of various types, at the center of American history?” 

Requirements

Response Paper 1                          10%

Response Paper 2                          15%

Final Research Paper and/or Performance 40%

4 Performance Reports                    20%

Participation                                   15%

Possible Texts

Richard Schechner, Performance Studies: An Introduction

Erving Goffman, The Presentation of Self In Everyday Life

Tony Kushner, Angels In America

Course reader (including exceprts from Henry Bial, ed., The Performance Studies Reader; William Leach, Land of Desire; and various others)

Flag(s): Writing