230577 Critical and Creative Thinking: The Essay in/and American Cultures (S) (SoSe 2021)

The objective of the class is to explore the genre of the essay as self-reflexive, creative and critical expression. Essays in American culture(s) represent an important medium to express critical reflections on cultural, literary, social and political developments in the 19th, 20th and 21st century. Students will read and interpret selected essays by authors and thinkers like Emerson, Fuller, Dewey, Kallen, Bourne, Locke, Hughes, Hurston, Baldwin, Sontag, Hall, Coates, Danticat among others. The essays will provide food for thought and reflection, as we discuss crisis, change, contact zones and identity politics in an extended U.S. cultural context. Students will be required to engage with the selected essays in written and oral form.The structure of the class may change if we are confronted with another pure online format in the summer semester 2021.