- Inter-faculty Studies in Bioinformatics and Systems Biology
- Bachelor's degree, first cycle programme, Computer Science
- Bachelor's degree, first cycle programme, Mathematics
- Master's degree, second cycle programme, Bioinformatics and Systems Biology
- Master's degree, second cycle programme, Computer Science
- Master's degree, second cycle programme, Mathematics
American Exceptionalism and Its Critiques: Theology, Politics, Literature 4219-SB141-OG
The course, an Advanced Topics seminar, covers the genealogy and manifestations of Ameri-can exceptionalism from 1630 to 1865. Its starting point is an analysis of Puritan sermons from the 17th century and the period of the Great Awakening, election sermons from before the American Revolution, and selected documents of the Revolution itself. Besides, the list of texts analyzed includes fragments of Joel Barlow’s Vision of Columbus (1787) and shorter poems by Hartford Wits and Philip Freneau. The period of the Early Republic is represented also by Michel Guillaume de Crèvecoeur (Letters from the American Farmer, III; “Sketch of a Contrast between the Spanish and English Colonies”) and selected writings of the Boston Federalists (early Harvard Phi Beta Kappa Society addresses). John O’Sullivan’s “Manifest Destiny” article and its political and literary context are discussed in detail. Another issue tackled in the context of exceptionalism is slavery, with John C. Calhoun’s “Peculiar Institu-tion” speech and proslavery theological argument vs William Lloyd Garrison’s abolitionists texts. The course concludes with Emerson’s and Thoreau’s selected essays and Emerson’s journal entries related to the Civil War. The general idea is to demonstrate that US exception-alism has its roots in the Puritan rhetoric of mission that has been gradually secularized.
Type of course
Assessment criteria
Term paper (60%) and class participation (40%). Topics of term papers to choose from will be provided half way through the semester.
Bibliography
Secondary literature:
1. Sacvan Bercovitch, The Puritan Origins of the American Self
2. Sacvan Bercovitch, The American Jeremiad
3. Myra Jehlen, American Incarnation. The Individual, the Nation, and the Continent
5. God’s New Israel. Religious Interpretations of American Destiny, ed. Conrad Cherry
6. Chris Fresonke, West of Emerson. The Design of Manifest Destiny
7. Ernest Lee Tuveson, Redeemer Nation. The Idea of America’s Millenial Role
8. William Stanton, The Leopard’s Spots. Scientific Attitudes toward Race in America, 1815-1859
9. George Fredrickson, The Inner Civil War. Northern Intellectuals and the Crisis of the Union
10. James Brewert Stewart, Holy Warriors. The Abolitionists and American Slavery
11. Stephanie LeMenager, Manifest and Other Destinies. Territorial Fictions of the Nineteenth-Century United States
Additional information
Information on level of this course, year of study and semester when the course unit is delivered, types and amount of class hours - can be found in course structure diagrams of apropriate study programmes. This course is related to the following study programmes:
- Inter-faculty Studies in Bioinformatics and Systems Biology
- Bachelor's degree, first cycle programme, Computer Science
- Bachelor's degree, first cycle programme, Mathematics
- Master's degree, second cycle programme, Bioinformatics and Systems Biology
- Master's degree, second cycle programme, Computer Science
- Master's degree, second cycle programme, Mathematics
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: