32114

WiSe 16/17: Cultural Formations of American Capitalism

Simon Schleusener

Kommentar

This seminar will explore the cultural conditions and manifestations of American capitalism by engaging with texts and films from different historical periods, ranging from Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography to David Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis. More specifically, we will contextualize and examine the way in which these works articulate particular cultural attitudes toward the economic foundations of American society. We will further analyze how these attitudes can be related to various models of subjectivity (such as the homo economicus) and common mythological patterns (such as the “rags-to-riches” motif). Besides reading literary texts by writers like Horatio Alger, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Ayn Rand, we will also engage with popular movies like Oliver Stone’s Wall Street (1987) or David Fincher’s The Social Network (2010). Moreover, we will read texts by authors such as Max Weber, Richard Sennett, and Gilles Deleuze, examining and “testing” a number of theoretical concepts related to the contact zone between culture and the economy. Schließen

8 Termine

Regelmäßige Termine der Lehrveranstaltung

Fr, 14:00 - 18:00 8 Termine

Fr, 16.12.2016 14:00 - 18:00

Dozenten:
Dr. Simon Schleusener