ENG2506 – American Popular Culture
Course content
This seminar offers a productive and student-centered entry point to studying, understanding, and appreciating the American cultural mosaic through the (hi)stories that Americans have been telling themselves in an ongoing process of defining who they are—and, who they are not—vis-à-vis other cultural communities. It is through these narrative (hi)stories that we often make first contact not only with American identities, values, and mores, but also historical events and/or eras, ideological fault lines, and social (in)equalities.
This seminar aims at advancing students’ understanding of specific American eras, historical contexts, locales, themes, issues, and fault lines through popular cultural "texts", ranging from literary texts and music to film, television, and video games.
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Semester topic, Autumn 2025:
"Dreams and Schemes": Televised Histories of the 19th Century American West
A large portion of the geographic space commonly referred to as the Trans-Mississippi West has played a significant role in the self-affirming identity, ideology, and mythos of one nation state on the North American continent—the United States. Consequently, it is rather difficult to understand American culture and identity without critically appraising the history of American westward expansion as well as the mythological power it has held over the imagination and self-perception of the American people.
While firmly anchored in Western places, this course will introduce students to a different kind of history of westward expansion, which continues to engender grossly distorted/limited associations with people all over the globe. "Wild West" imagery as well as Manifest Destiny discourse hold considerable sway even though they represent but a relatively small albeit ideologically and racially privileged segment of the North American West’s history.
Starting with different theoretical conceptions of the Trans-Mississippi West, this seminar will access the history of westward expansion through polyvocal oral histories and popular culture renditions of the 19th century American West which serve to make porous cultural borders and provide access to experiences of the diverse peoples who have called this region their home.
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Learning Outcomes Autumn 2025:
Upon having a) regularly attended and actively co-created the seminar, b) contributed 1-2 obligatory in-class "performances", and c) successfully compiled the examination portfolio, students will have developed a synoptic and critical understanding of American westward expansion as a historical process whose effects continue to register in the present.
Students will be required to actively participate in the classroom as well as on Canvas. In the process, they will co-create the contents and conduct of the class within predefined parameters and along thematic throughlines over the course of the semester. There is little room for staying passive/silent in this seminar.
Learning outcome
Upon completing this course, you:
- will have developed a basic appreciation of the diversity and complexity that undergird the American historical experience;
- will know how to interact with specific segments of the American historical experience and their representation in different popular culture "texts" along intersectional lines;
- will have practiced interpersonal communication and presentation skills by way of serving as peer co-creators of the seminar;
- will have developed and refined their media literacy skills;
- will have developed basic reading/viewing/listening, conceptualizing, and writing skills to conduct self-directed research within a given topic;
- will be able to appropriately use primary as well as secondary sources for developing thesis/observation-driven work.
Admission to the course
Students who are admitted to study programmes at UiO must each semester register which courses and exams they wish to sign up for?in Studentweb.
If you are not already enrolled as a student at UiO, please see our information about?admission requirements and procedures.
Recommended previous knowledge
ENG1506 – American History and Society: An Introduction
Teaching
Seminars, 2 hours per week for 10 weeks. 20 hours in all.
In addition there will be up to 2 separate sessions for obligatory in-class performances and peer feedback and a non-obligatory preparatory meeting.?
Students will be required to contribute 1-2 obligatory in-class "performances" (e.g. explicator talks, guided readings/viewings, student-led text dissections, flipped classroom activities, peer-expert talks, or similar) which may be tackled individually, in pairs and/or in small groups. All students must attend the sessions for in-class performances.
Students are required to attend a minimum of 60% of the teaching, i.e., in this course they have to be present in 6 of 10 seminars. The requirement is absolute.
The obligatory activity?must be approved for you to sit the exam.?Fulfilled course requirements are only valid for the current semester.
The in-class "performances" are, in part, tied to written deliverables (e.g. bibliographic work, an annotated bibliography, a text-/artifact-based reflection paper, a video essay, a podcast episode, a written research guide, a companion handout/one sheet, etc.) which, taken together, constitute the examination portfolio.
The specific tasks/work packages that constitute the individual components of the examination portfolio will be specified in the course syllabus. The syllabus and course pragmatics will be clearly communicated and explained in the preparatory meeting.
The allowed absence limit will cover all absences, including illness. You will not be granted valid absences with documentation, even when the absence is due to something beyond your control.
If the course has in-person teaching, and you are signed up for an in-person seminar group, you are to attend the teaching in the location found in the schedule.
If the course has digital teaching, and you are signed up for a digital seminar group, you must attend via Zoom with your camera on.
In certain circumstances, i.e. serious/chronic illness, you could apply for special needs accomodations.
Fulfilled course requirements are only valid the semester you attend the course.
Examination
The exam form is a multi-part portfolio of approx. 12-14 pages (+/- 10%; note: a standard page consists of 2,300 characters). Any extant references and bibliography do not count toward the overall page count of the portfolio.
The specific topics/scope of the deliverables that make up the examination portfolio are to be developed by students themselves in consultation with the course lecturer. The course lecturer may also provide a range of pre-defined topic areas within which students will then develop and complete specific tasks.
Language of examination
The examination text is given in English, and you submit your response in English.
Grading scale
Grades are awarded on a scale from A to F, where A is the best grade and F?is a fail. Read more about?the grading system.
Resit an examination
A term paper, portfolio or equivalent that has been submitted for grading may not be resubmitted in revised form.
If you?withdraw from the exam?after the deadline, this will be counted as an examination attempt.
More about examinations at UiO
- Use of sources and citations
- How to use AI as a student
- Special exam arrangements due to individual needs
- Withdrawal from an exam
- Illness at exams / postponed exams
- Explanation of grades and appeals
- Resitting an exam
- Cheating/attempted cheating
You will find further guides and resources at the web page on examinations at UiO.