America from Abroad: Literature and Cinema

Catalog description

This course explores the portrayals of America, especially the United States, from authors and directors who are not American and who often have never even seen America. We will read short stories, novels, and graphic novels and watch films. What do these works from other parts of the world have to say about dreams, race, love, immigration, and space in America? We will discuss imaginary Americas in order to understand these important works within their contexts, to examine how foreign representations of America have contributed to our idea of America, and to consider what imagined Americas suggest about us here in North Carolina.