Our courses offer students an opportunity to study American authors and cultural topics drawn from a broad historical range, with an emphasis on interdisciplinary examinations of U.S. literature and culture. Seminars and lectures are devoted to various aspects of the cultural, social, and intellectual life in the multicultural United States. Course topics include, but are not limited to, the following areas of academic research:
- American literature and the arts (music, painting, etc.)
- American values and attitudes
- construction of national identity and collective memory through myths and rituals
- the role of popular culture and mass media in the present-day American society
- broadly understood visual culture and its impact on American arts and letters
- American film studies
One of our objectives is also a theoretical reflection on the many complex factors and forces shaping, defining, and redefining different aspects of life in today’s U.S.. To further facilitate such an in-depth discussion, the Department of North American Literature and Culture cordially invites students to join our special interest student study group United Students Society supervised by dr Krzysztof Majer, which holds monthly meetings hosted by the faculty members of the Department or the students themselves to discuss American Studies topics.