The National Imagination: Our Core Course
"The National Imagination" is the Department’s core course required for majors. It gives a good idea of the department's approaches to fundamental questions of language and national cultures. To get an extensive description of this course, and to read interviews with faculty and students, please click here.
The National Imagination course is taught each spring semester, with a team of three professors focusing on the "imagined communities" that we call national cultures. A variety of different faculty have taught this course and will continue to do so to give students the opportunity to look at as many different cultures as possible.
National languages and cultures promote the identity of particular communities. The National Imagination looks at those subjective expressions of culture--images, symbols, narratives--which lead people to feel that they are members of the communities we call nations.
Students are trained to examine the nature of the national imagination as an idea that has shaped modern cultures. The course looks at a variety of cultural texts and contexts, including literature and the arts, news, and film.