AST2015

Study abroad: New England and American culture

Not offered in 1999

E Barry and T Wood

8 points - Twelve lectures and twelve 2-hour seminars in an intensive 4-week mode - Mid-semester break - Boston, Massachusetts

Objectives On the successful completion of this subject, students should have acquired a broad understanding of the role played by New England in the historical, political, social and cultural life of the United States; a specific knowledge of some major cultural and historical events and people associated with New England; a consciousness of a sense of place, of landscape and urban development in the creation of a national culture; a 'hands-on' familiarity with such resources as the Widener, JFK and Schlesinger Libraries, the Boston Atheneum, the Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

Synopsis New England history and literature have a central role in American culture. Here, within a geographically small area, many of the nation's great events have been played out - from the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers at Plymouth Rock, through the Boston Tea Party and events up to the War of Independence, through the moral fervour of nineteenth-century social and intellectual movements, to the multicultural, high-tech image of modern Boston. Here, in what has been referred to as 'the flowering of New England' or the 'New England Renaissance', American literature came of age in the nineteenth century, with such towering figures as Hawthorne, Melville, Emerson, Thoreau, the Alcotts, Margaret Fuller, Longfellow, Emily Dickinson, Henry James and Edith Wharton. Students will be housed at one of the leading universities in Boston. Field trips to Salem, Concord, Plymouth, and Quincy as well as historical sites in downtown Boston will enhance an understanding of major cultural events. While there will be scope for students to pursue specialist disciplinary interests - taking advantage of Boston's extraordinary wealth of museums, libraries, galleries and archives relevant to American Studies - the subject will be essentially inter-disciplinary in focus, exploring how New England's cultural identity emerged from the first Puritan settlements through to its roles as the nation's conscience in the nineteenth century, and the ongoing impact of this on contemporary America.

Assessment Journal report (1000 words): 30% - Essay/field report (2000 words): 25% - Essay (2500 words): 45%

Recommended texts

A listing of required reading from a range of texts will be supplied to students on enrolment in the subject.

Back to the 1999 Arts Handbook