1
课程详述
COURSE SPECIFICATION
以下课程信息可能根据实际授课需要或在课程检讨之后产生变动。如对课程有任何疑问，请联
系授课教师。
The course information as follows may be subject to change, either during the session because of unforeseen
circumstances, or following review of the course at the end of the session. Queries about the course should be
directed to the course instructor.
1.
课程名称 Course Title
美国文化 (American Culture)
2.
授课院系
Originating Department
语言中心 Center for Language Education
3.
课程编号
Course Code
CLE024
4.
课程学分 Credit Value
2
5.
课程类别
Course Type
通识选修课程 General Education (GE) Elective Courses
6.
授课学期
Semester
夏季 Summer 或 秋季 Fall 或 春季 Spring
7.
授课语言
Teaching Language
英文 English
8.
授课教师、所属学系、联系方
式（如属团队授课，请列明其
他授课教师）
Instructor(s), Affiliation&
Contact
（For team teaching, please list
all instructors）
Pamela Mansutti
pamelam@sustech.edu.cn
9.
实验员/助教、所属学系、联系
方式
Tutor/TA(s), Contact
无 NA
10.
选课人数限额(可不填)
Maximum Enrolment
（Optional）
授课方式
Delivery Method
讲授
Lectures
习题/辅导/讨论
Tutorials
实验/实习
Lab/Practical
其它(请具体注明)
Other（Please specify）
总学时
Total
11.
学时数
Credit Hours
32
0
0
0
32
2
12.
先修课程、其它学习要求
Pre-requisites or Other
Academic Requirements
CLE030 EAP or CLE003 English for Academic Purposes III or GE2000
13.
后续课程、其它学习规划
Courses for which this course
is a pre-requisite
无（None）
14.
其它要求修读本课程的学系
Cross-listing Dept.
无（None）
教学大纲及教学日历 SYLLABUS
15.
教学目标 Course Objectives
American Culture is a cultural studies course for SUSTC undergraduates who aim to acquire a deeper international
perspective on Western Culture, particularly Anglo-American. This course will expose students to the most prominent US
scholars and writers from the 19th century to the present, and it will discuss concepts and ideas that represent the
foundations of American culture, such as independence, individualism, frontier, freedom, optimism, capitalism and many
others. The course will examine a variety of texts, from political essays to novellas, from Presidential speeches to short
stories, from documentaries to visual artifacts and economic reports, with the purpose of clarifying what these concepts
mean historically, why they are so important, and how they have evolved. At the same time, the course will also highlight
how notions of racism, war, and Exceptionalism among others characterize the most powerful country in the Western
world.
16.
预达学习成果 Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course, students will:
• become fluently conversant about major cultural themes in the West;
• gain a new conceptuality and better critical thinking skills;
• learn to evaluate a different cultural heritage;
• understand their own relationship to another civilization;
• discern foreign stereotypes from reality;
• appreciate traditions, myths, values, and ethics from another culture;
• study different methods of academic inquiry (for example, philosophical)
• integrate new knowledge into their own field of specialization
17.
课程内容及教学日历 （如授课语言以英文为主，则课程内容介绍可以用英文；如团队教学或模块教学，教学日历须注明
主讲人）
Course Contents (in Parts/Chapters/Sections/Weeks. Please notify name of instructor for course section(s), if
this is a team teaching or module course.)
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Course duration: 16 weeks
Tentative course contents:
1. Fundamentals of US cultural and political thought
2. Declaration of Independence and US Constitution
3. Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America
4. Selection of Walt Whitman’s Poems
5. Henry David Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience
6. The Frontier and the American Dream. Selected passages from F. J. Turner’s “T he Significance of the Frontier
in Americ an History”
7. Gatsby and the Roaring Twenties. Joshua Zeitz’s “F. Scott Fitzgerald and the Age of Excess”
8. The birth of Hollywood
9. Presidential Rhetoric. Speeches by Lincoln, Roosevelt, Johnson, and Reagan
10. Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement (1960)
11. Analysis of architectural projects by Frank Lloyd Wright and Robert Venturi
12. Andy Warhol, Postmodernist Art and Celebrity Culture
13. Science Fiction, Comics and Superheroes. Selected passages from Umberto Eco’s “The Myth of Superman”
14. US Wars and 9/11.Selection of Newspaper/Magazine Headlines and Articles
15. The economic crisis in the 21
st
century.
16. The Myth of the West. Sam Shepard’s True West
Methods of assessments:
Attendance and participation (10 + 10%)
Two critical responses at 10% each (20%)
Oral Presentation (20%)
Research Essay (20%)
Final Exam (20%)
18.
教材及其它参考资料 Textbook and Supplementary Readings
The main references for this course are the instructor’s slides and classroom lectures. A course pack will be provided.
Sources for classroom instruction may include:
During, Simon, ed. The Cultural Studies Reader. London: Routledge, 1993.
Nelson, Cary, et al, eds. Disciplinarity and Dissent in Cultural Studies. New York: Routledge, 1996.
Margolis, Joseph. Reinventing Pragmatism: American Philosophy at the End of the Twentieth Century. Cornell University
Press, 2002.
Potter, Vincent G. Doctrine and Experience: Essays in American Philosophy. Fordham University Press, 1988.
Schroeder, Paul, “Is the U.S. an Empire?” History News Network. February 3, 2003.
The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Multiethnic American Literature by Emmanuel S. Nelson, 2005.
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课程评估 ASSESSMENT
19.
评估形式
Type of
Assessment
评估时间
Time
占考试总成绩百分比
% of final
score
违纪处罚
Penalty
备注
Notes
出勤 Attendance
10%
课堂表现
Class
Performance
10%
小测验
Quiz
课程项目 Projects
20%
平时作业
Assignments
20%
期中考试
Mid-Term Test
20%
期末考试
Final Exam
期末报告
Final
Presentation
20%
其它（可根据需要
改写以上评估方
式）
Others (The
above may be
modified as
necessary)
20.
记分方式 GRADING SYSTEM
A. 十三级等级制 Letter Grading
B. 二级记分制（通过/不通过） Pass/Fail Grading
课程审批 REVIEW AND APPROVAL
21.
本课程设置已经过以下责任人/委员会审议通过
This Course has been approved by the following person or committee of authority
语言中心 Center for Language Education (CLE)
