In this seminar, we will re-assess the foundational mythology of the United States, ten years after the publication of The Myths That Made America in 2014. In this open-access book, seven core myths are discussed: 1. Columbus and the Myth of Discovery, 2. Pocahontas and the Myth of Transatlantic Love, 3. The Pilgrims and Puritans and the Myth of the Promised Land, 4. American Independence and the Myth of the Founding Fathers, 5. The Myth of the Melting Pot, 6. The Myth of the American West, 7. The Myth of the Self-Made Man. In what way are these myths relevant today? What has changed in their public perception and discussion? Which new narratives have become popular that should also be examined in the classroom?

In addition to discussing some new material on the canonical American myths, we will examine alternative narratives of American beginnings that have recently been ‘re-discovered’, among them the history of the lost colony as an unsuccessful attempt to establish a permanent English settlement in North America, the story of 1619 as the year in which the first ship with Africans onboard landed on the coast of Virginia, prefiguring the history of enslavement and abolition, as well as the record of the first Asian Americans in what today is Louisiana. What can these stories of fresh and compromised beginnings (and of failure) teach us about America, past and present?

Since this seminar will take place shortly after the U.S. Presidential Elections, we will also include material from political rhetoric and political communication to reflect on the myth-making in the present moment.

Schedule:
09:00    Part I:
    1. What is a Myth?
    2. The Myths That Made America Revisited: New Examples from Popular and Political Culture
    3. Debating Origins Versus Beginnings
10:30    Coffee break
11:00    Part II:
    4. The Lost Colony of Roanoke
    5. 1619: A New Origin Story for America?
    6. The Enigma of the Manila Men and the First Asian American Settlement, ca. 1763
13:00    Open Discussion
14:00    End

Registration fee: €10

Please register via our registration form (below) or online via FIBS.
FIBS: Stiftung Bayerisches Amerikahaus gGmbH

Photo: ©Taylor Brandon / unsplash.com