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SoSe 19: American Culture After World War II

Frank Kelleter

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Having emerged as a world power from World War II, the United States faced numerous problems of cultural self-definition in the second half of the 20th century. The Cold War produced not only an ideology of international leadership but also new anxieties about America’s social identity and the nation’s changed position in the world. Topics discussed in this lecture course include the advent of a postindustrial economic order, the decline of New Deal liberalism, postmodernist aesthetics, the New Hollywood, and the emergence of the New Left and the New Right. In the early 21st century, many of these developments have been radicalized under conditions of military hegemony, globalized capitalism, corporate anti-statism, neoliberal governance, and catastrophic ecological transformations. Altogether, the lecture course focuses on select phases and moments of cultural production between 1945 and 2019, when American poems, novels, films and television shows often defined the global state of art in their respective fields. We will concentrate on literary sources, sociological writings, political documents, cinema, television, and other cultural fields. ----- The lecture course serves as “Vorlesung” of Culture-Module C (Kulturgeschichte einzelner Medien und ästhetischer Darstellungsformen) in the M.A. program. Registration: All participants must be registered via Blackboard and Campus Management before the first session. If you cannot register online or cannot attend the first session, please contact Prof. Kelleter before the beginning of the term. Requirements: See Syllabus and Course Description (on Blackboard). First session: April 9. close