Examen de licență

1. Comment on the following excerpt from an interdisciplinary perspective. Make reference to at least two disciplines from the field of American Studies. (up to 1.5 pages – 5 points)

“American exceptionalism has been said to refer to clusters of absent (feudal hierarchies, class conflicts, socialist labor party, trade unionism, and divisive ideological passions) and present (a predominant middle class, tolerance for diversity, upward mobility, hospitality toward immigrants, a shared constitutional faith, and liberal individualism) elements that putatively set America apart from other national cultures. While descriptions of these particulars may have differed, the more or less agreed upon archive concerned with what made America exceptional would include the following phrases: America is a moral exception (the “City on the Hill”); America is a nation with a “Manifest Destiny”; America is the “Nation of Nations”; America is an “Invincible Nation.” These conceptual metaphors do not supply definitions of America, but they do give directions for finding the meanings that are intended to corroborate the belief in American exceptionality. All of which leads to the conclusion that American exceptionalism operates less like a collection of discrete, potentially falsifiable descriptions of American society than as a fantasy through which U.S. citizens bring these contradictory political and cultural descriptions into correlation with one another through the desires that make them meaningful” (Donald E. Pease, The New American Exceptionalism, 2009).

2. Choose one of the following topics. Comment upon it from the perspective of one of the courses indicated below. (up to 1.5 pages – 4 points)

• Representations/ cultural manifestations of American identity

• American policies and institutions: history and/or foreign relations

• American society and models of communication

List of courses to choose from:

American Literature Survey: 19^th Century, American Literature Survey: 1900-1945; American Literature Survey: 1945-present; Ethnic Literatures; Ethno-Racial Identities; Introduction to Mass-media; Language and Society; Introduction to Cultural Anthropology; Native American Studies; Popular Culture; American Drama; American Life and Institutions; U.S. History (up to 1898); U.S. History (1865-1918); U.S. Constitution; Political Doctrines; Transatlantic Relations; Law and Literature; American Utopias; Visual Arts and U.S. Society; Film Studies; American Poetry. 

Assessment criteria:

Question 1 (5 points in total)

– information and argumentation – 1.5 points

– reference to concrete examples – 1 points

– precise response to the topic – 1 point

– coherence and accuracy in the English language – 1.5 points

Topic 2 (4 points in total)

– discussion on the chosen theme – 1 point

– information and argumentation – 1. 5 points

– coherence and accuracy in the English language – 1.5 points

1 point by default