Crisis:AM Disasters:Film Fic

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

This course explores the place of crisis narratives in American culture. As a nation founded upon revolution, the United States has organized key political debates and historical narratives around the structure of crisis. Representations of crisis reflect our most common anxieties and our most powerful coping mechanisms. A crisis can be global in scope or highly personal, inevitable or easily avoided, ongoing or sudden. We will explore a variety of crisis narratives—from terrorist attacks to global pandemics to financial collapses—and ask what these portrayals of crisis and its aftermath tell us about our national identities, our political values, and our hopes for humanity’s future. Certain forms of destruction, such as forest fires, clear the way for new growth, so perhaps crisis can be a good thing. We will explore diverse crisis narratives in fiction, film, poetry, historical narrative, and other genres. Secondary readings in American studies and related fields will provide historical context and model key methods for interpreting crisis narratives. Student responses will include essays and a new media composition about the politics of crisis and the variety of strategies for representing it.