| Lerninhalte |
In a way, the history of the United States is a history of refugees and runaways, its original European immigrant population having arrived at its shores in search of a better life in both economic and political terms. Americans continued to move westward, ideologically furnished with the narratives of improvement through settlement and Manifest Destiny. They soon learned that America was no Golden Land for everyone – least of all for women and non-white males, slaves, Indigenous people, and those without property. In this class we will look at the transcultural literary imprint of this history of people running away from 'civilization'. These are stories about white men seeking Polynesian adventure; slaves in search of freedom; women preferring life among the "Indians"; a Mexican-American outlaw; and a poor white "trash" child in search of a life outside of "sivilization." From these fictional adventures we learn that running away is very much part of the American cultural DNA, and the love of freedom very much the result of transcultural encounters.
Students are required to purchase a Reader and the following texts:
- Herman Melville (1846). Typee, or A Peep at Polynesian Life. Repr. Ed. John Bryant. Penguin, 1996. ISBN-13: 978-0140434880
- Catharine Maria Sedgwick (1827). Hope Leslie; or, Early Times in the Massachusetts. Repr. Ed. Carolyn Karcher. Penguin, 1998. ISBN-13:978-0140436761
- John Rollin Ridge (1854). The Life and Adventures of Joaquín Murieta. Repr. Ed. Diana Gabaldon, 2018. Penguin. ISBN-10: 9780143132653
- Mark Twain (1884). The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Repr. Ed. Peter Coveney, 2003. Penguin. ISBN-10: 0141439645
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