The Myths That Made America: An Introduction to American Studies

ISBN-13: 9783837614855 / Angielski / Miękka / 2014 / 300 str.

Heike Paul

Opis

This essential introduction to American Studies examines the core foundational myths which the nation is based upon and which still determine discussions of US-American identities today. These myths include the myth of discovery, the Pocahontas myth, the myth of the Promised Land, the myth of the founding fathers, the frontier myth, the myth of the American Dream, and the myth of the melting pot. The chapters provide an extended analysis of each of these myths, using examples from popular culture, literature, memorial culture, school books, and every-day life. Including visual material as well as study questions, this book will be of interest to any student of American Studies and will foster an understanding of America as an imagined community by analyzing the foundational role of myths in the process of nation building.

Recenzje

»[Die Analyse ermöglicht] in ihrer Gesamtheit faszinierende Impressionen von Mentalitäten und Idealen, Vorurteilen und Abgrenzungen der US-amerikanischen Gesellschaft des 19. und 20.Jahrhunderts.« Peter Andreas, Historische Zeitschrift, 301 (2015) Besprochen in: Archiv für Sozialgeschichte, 23.07.2015, Horst Dippel https://lights-camera-history.com, 12,12,2020, Paige Lurie

O autorze

Heike Paul (Prof. Dr.) is chair of American studies at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg and director of the Bavarian American Academy in Munich. She is project leader of the Global Sentimentality Project and spokesperson of the research training group on »The Sentimental« at FAU. In 2018, she received the Leibniz Prize of the German Research Foundation.