AMS 2021/HIS 2048 

AMERICAN PLACES I

Prof. Colin Morris 

Reid 412 (x5144)

morrisc@mville.edu

 

American Places I is an introduction to the interdisciplinary methods of American Studies at Manhattanville College.  It examines the meanings of particular places in the American landscape from the varying perspectives of history, literature, sociology, art history and film studies.  The course has no pre-requisites and is open to all students.

 

Part I: Salem: A City on a Hill

Paul S. Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft

Nathaniel Hawthorne: Young Goodman Brown (handout)

Film: The Crucible

 

Part II: The Deepest South

William McFeely, Sapelo’s People: Long Walk to Freedom

William Ferris, Local Color: A Sense of Place in Folk Art

Richard Wright, Down By the Riverside (handout)

Film: Mississippi Burning

 

Part II: City of Angels, City of Darkness

Mike Davis, City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles

Anna Deveare Smith: Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992

Film: Chinatown

 

Part IV: Nowhere in America

James Howard Kunstler, The Geography of Nowhere

Sam Shepard, Cruising Paradise

Film: The Stepford Wives

  

Course Requirements:

Writing Assignments: 50%

Final exam: 25%

In-class participation: 25%

 

Office: Reid 412

Phone: 323-5144

Email: morrisc@mville.edu

 

 

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