| Lerninhalte |
While con artists are not a solely American phenomenon, they have prospered, to the astonishment and often admiration, of the American public. Students will have encountered the con in old or recent Hollywood iterations, such as The Hustle (2019), or classics, such as The Great Gatsby (1925). These various revivals demonstrate that, quite similar to rags-to-riches stories, the con story is part of the very fabric of the country’s imagination.
This course draws on what students may know of contemporary or classic con artists in popular culture and literature, broadly defined. It seeks to deepen students’ understanding of U.S. history, culture and politics through the exploration of the “con artist,” real and imagined, in fictional texts, movies, television shows, documentaries, and news articles. We will start with a thorough revisiting of Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, which will serve as a touchstone for subsequent analyses of other American cons. In particular, we will look at how confidence men operate as charming storytellers that tap into the core of national allegories of self-making and social mobility, an image that is reified by cultural texts that portray the con artist as American culture hero.
Students will broaden their knowledge of legal, political, academic and popular vocabulary to talk about the complex social, economic, political and legal issues that are at the heart of the confidence game. This will help students navigate a broad array of culturally specific texts and nuances as well as enhance the precision of their own communication in English. Through class discussion, oral presentations, and written analyses of con artists, students will similarly hone their critical thinking and academic skills. |
LSF
– Lehre - Studium - Forschung
