Chapter 1

  • Using W. Truettner (ed.) The West as America as a source of images, consider the ‘dream’ of America conveyed in the Columbus paintings, particularly those by Emanuel Leutze ( e.g. Columbus Before The Queen, 1843) and Peter Rothermel (Columbus Before The Queen, 1841; What sense of the ‘New World’ is created here and how? Look at the figures in the painting and their relationships – what do they suggest of the connotations of Columbus’s role?  See the West as America site for various materials associated with this exhibition, including reviews, discussions, and essays.
  • Discuss the concept of ideology in relation to these paintings: ‘Ideology... is the embracing factor of our investigation... Ideologies, like myths, are based on a historical agenda that can be made to reveal itself. When viewed through a new perspective, images often yield this agenda—one taken for granted and therefore never acknowledged by nineteenth-century viewers.’ (West as America)
  • Using a presidential inaugural address or other major speech, analyse its use of rhetoric and in particular the different ways it draws upon certain ‘mythic’ percep­tions of America. What images does it use? What references to the dream, to the future, to the people? Helpful examples may be found at PresidentialRhetoric.com.
  • Some have argued that hybridity represents the best hope for America as a diverse culture. Discuss the arguments for and against this position, using a range of examples. Use Chapter 2 as well.
  • How has any Hollywood film explored the concept of ‘new beginnings’ and what ideological implications emerge as a result? (Such diverse films as Trading Places, Sleepless in Seattle, Grand Canyon, or Crashcould be used.)
  • How does Sayles’s film Lone Starexamine relations between history, power and identity?
  • Examine how landscape has been used as a powerful aspect of the American ‘national narrative’ using a range of appropriate sources.