AFR 279 - Empire and American Culture

What is the culture of U.S. imperialism? How has U.S. empire utilized cultural production–literature, film, visual arts, music, etc.– to affirm and naturalize its global power? How have opponents of U.S. empire utilized cultural objects to contest U.S. imperialism? What do cultural studies methods that foreground empire look like? This course highlights empire, in its historical and contemporary iterations, as a central feature of American culture. More specifically, this course explores tropes of U.S. empire across a range of genres and surveys scholarly texts and methods that center empire in their close readings of cultural objects. In so doing, the course examines culture as a site of political struggle and demonstrates the value of cultural studies approaches to the study of empire.

Satisfies English major and minor requirement.
Satisfies Africana Studies major and minor requirement
Satisfies Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric requirement.
Satisfies Justice, Equality, and Community requirement.