Seminar: 3.02.150 S The Post-Apocalyptic American City - Details

Seminar: 3.02.150 S The Post-Apocalyptic American City - Details

General information

Course name Seminar: 3.02.150 S The Post-Apocalyptic American City
Subtitle
Course number 3.02.150
Semester WiSe26/27
Current number of participants 1
maximum number of participants 36
Home institute Institute of English and American Studies
Courses type Seminar in category Teaching
Next date Wednesday, 14.10.26, 14:00 - 16:00 o'clock A01 0-010 b
Type/Form
Lehrsprache englisch
ECTS points 6

Rooms and times

A01 0-010 b

  • Wednesday, 14:00 - 16:00, Weekly (from 14.10.26)

Module assignments

Comment/Description

John Winthrop, Puritan leader and first governor of Massachusetts, famously described the British colony in the New World as a "city upon a hill." Winthrop's city established "a model of the American national imagination" (Bercovitch) and epitomized an exceptionalist narrative that imagined "the eyes of all people [...] upon" the Puritans. American cities have since often been associated with the future; however, this future has not always been defined by technological superiority and wealth, with actualizing the seemingly unlimited potentials of the New World. Indeed, post-apocalyptic American cities seem to permeate the popular imagination just as much as optimistic portrayals of American cities.

In this seminar, we will discuss representations of various post-apocalyptic American cities. While introductory lectures will trace these representations to the early days of the American national project, our focus will be on cultural artifacts produced since the early twentieth century. We will (largely) progress chronologically through various media.

Likely texts:
Jack London, The Scarlet Plague (novella, 1912)
W.E.B. Du Bois, "The Comet" (short story, 1920)
Quiet, Please! (radio program, select episodes, 1947-1949)
Dimension X (radio program, select episodes, 1950-1951)
Richard Matheson, I Am Legend (novel, 1954) + I Am Legend (movie, 2007)
The World, the Flesh, and the Devil (movie, 1959)
On the Beach (movie, 1959)
Judge Dredd (select comics from the late 1970s and 2012 movie)
The Walking Dead (select comics and pilot episode of original TV series)
Colson Whitehead, Zone One (novel, 2011)
The Last of Us (videogame, 2013)
Jeff Vandermeer, Borne (novel, 2017)
Blade Runner 2049 (movie, 2017)

Admission settings

The course is part of admission "ang612-615 Aufbau Lit/Cult".
The following rules apply for the admission:
  • A defined number of seats will be assigned to these courses.
    The seats in these courses will be assigned at 18.09.2026, 08:00.
  • The enrolment is possible from 14.09.2026, 06:00 to 31.12.2026, 23:59.
  • This setting is active from 14.09.2026 06:00 to 18.09.2026 08:15.
    Enrolment is allowed for up to 1 courses of the admission set.
  • This setting is active from 14.09.2026 06:00 to 31.12.2026 23:59.
    At least one of these conditions must be fulfilled for enrolment:
    • Degree is Anpassungslehrgang
    • Field of study is Anglistik
    • Field of study is Gender Studies
    • Field of study is English Studies
    • Degree is Erw.fach Gymnasium
    • Field of study is Englisch
Assignment of courses: