Module Identifier | AS30030 | ||||||||||||||
Module Title | THE USA SINCE 1968: FROM VIETNAM TO 9/11 | ||||||||||||||
Academic Year | 2007/2008 | ||||||||||||||
Co-ordinator | Dr Martin Padget | ||||||||||||||
Semester | Semester 1 | ||||||||||||||
Other staff | Mr Michael J Smith, Mr John Phiilp Wrighton | ||||||||||||||
Pre-Requisite | EN11020 , AS20020 , EN11120 | ||||||||||||||
Course delivery | Seminars / Tutorials | Two hour weekly seminar | |||||||||||||
Assessment |
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1. Critically analyse and evaluate a range of key historical developments in United States society since 1968 and their influence on the contemporary USA;
2. Demonstrate an ability to use critically and engage with the perspectives of history, politics, and literary and film studies to study key aspects of American culture in the late 20th century and early 21st century;
3.Review, summarize and critique contemporary debates about the definition of American culture in the late 20th century and early 21st century
4. Demonstrate developing skills in critical analysis using appropriate interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary resources
Section A
1. Introduction: Representing the Vietnam War
Required Reading/Viewing: Text extracts in seminar; clips from Apocalypse Now (Dir. Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)
2. The U.S. and Vietnam, 1945-1975
Required Reading/Viewing: Full Metal Jacket (Dir. Stanley Kubrick, 1987); Michael Herr, Dispatches (Picador 1979)
3. The Nature of the Conflict in Vietnam
Required Reading: Tim O'Brien, In the Lake of the Woods (Flamingo 1994)
Section B
4. Multiculturalism I
Required Reading: Helena Maria Viramontes, Under the Feet of Jesus (1996)
5. Multiculturalism II
Required Reading/Viewing: Spike Lee, Do the Right Thing (Dir. Spike Lee, 1989); Terry McMillan, Waiting to Exhale (1995)
Section C
6. Urbanism I: Blank Generations
Required Reading/Viewing: Douglas Coupland, Generation X (1991); American Psycho (Dir. Mary Harron, 2000)
7. Urbanism II: The American Pastoral
Required Reading/Viewing: American Beauty (Dir. Sam Mendes, 1999); Ann Beattie, Park City (1999)
Section D
8. 9/11
Required Reading: Chapters from Tim Dunne and Ken Booth, eds. Worlds in Collision (2002); Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2005)
9. 9/11
Required Reading/Viewing: United 93 (Dir. Paul Greengrass); Attention to various websites
10. Whither America in C21?
Conclusion and overview
Problem solving | This will be developed during the course of the seminars and in the assessment tasks | ||
Research skills | This will be developed during the course of the seminars and in the assessment tasks | ||
Communication | Students' writing in an academic context will be developed and assessed in the coursework and examination assignments. Oral skills will be developed in individual and group work in seminars, but not assessed | ||
Improving own Learning and Performance | This will be developed during the course of the seminars and in the assessment tasks | ||
Team work | This is built into the pedagogy of the module - all students will work in pairs and/or groups to comment on theories in relation to texts | ||
Information Technology | Students will be expected to present their work in word processed form (and will edit PC generated text); they will also be required to make use of computerized library resources | ||
Application of Number | n/a | ||
Personal Development and Career planning | This will be addressed in the module¿s emphasis on independent and group work, and its attempt to develop professional presentational skills | ||
Subject Specific Skills | Working with a multi- and interdisciplinary focus will be developed in seminars and in the assessed work |
This module is at CQFW Level 6