Seminar paper from the year 2003 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1 (A), Dresden Technical University (American Studies), 6 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: It is an undeniable fact that the United States is a country with a huge impact on the world. Based on its economic power and military strength, America is one of the leaders of mankind, thus not only does it influence the political scene but the culture of foreign countries as well. Throughout the Western hemisphere "the American way of eating" has especially become a symbol for hip and trendy food. American-style cooking represents the food of youth culture. Moreover, it is the food of people who are fond of America, who might want to preserve their vacation memories, or taste the "American dream." American food is fast and easy to prepare, full of sweet calories, and it has a uniform taste. Furthermore, it is considered unhealthy and often unjustly referred to as "trash food." These prejudices are part of the picture most Europeans have when it comes to food from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.
Seminar paper from the year 2002 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 1,7 (A-), Dresden Technical University (American Studies), 8 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: About fifty years ago a little town in Wisconsin, Plainfield, was shaken by discovering a fiftyone- year old mass murderer living among them. Ed Gein, who had not only killed, but also disassembled his victims, was to become the role model as an archetypical character in the American horror literature. It was Bloch's curiosity about the dark side of Puritan America, about America's psychology cult, especially about Freudian theories4 and the ever strong worship of a mother picture that transformed Ed Gein into Norman Bates, a bogeyman with an Oedipus fixation on "mother," into a transvestite with a love for taxidermy. At the time when Bloch wrote Psycho Hitchcock already had been a renowned film director. However, this constant success had put Hitchcock on his guard against the "trap of self-plagiarism." In search for the unexpected, Psycho was his chance to further develop his style of suspense by entering a new field of the Gothic horror. Hitchcock's trust in the story proved him right, because as the book seemed to be a winner, the film achieved a groundbreaking success until today.
Essay from the year 2002 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 1 (A), Dresden Technical University (American Studies), course: Hollywood Detectives, language: English, abstract: When on 16th of August in 1968 Umberto Eco encountered a book by some Abbé Vallet he had found the plot for his first novel, which was to become a bestseller. Thus the novel, when published in 1980, had an immense impact on the reader, who could choose from a large apparatus of secondary literature immediately after the appearance of the Eco’s novel. Although it seems that the novel is far to rich for any classification – it can be read as a detective novel as well as a philosophical paper, or as a historical novel as well as a work on semiotics – Eco probably has started a new genre, which has become a real boom. In almost any bookstore of today we are able to choose from murder mysteries a là Conan Doyle that take place in ancient Egypt or classic Rome, in the dark Medievals or in industrial 19th century. The genre of the historic crime novel not only includes the typical traits of a historic plot with appropriate settings within the time scheme of the era, but also the genius of an almost non failing detective figure that is accompanied by a student, or assistant who has to be taught the merits of logical thinking and abduction, thus abduction is central in the methods of Baskerville, who then becomes related to Holmes, the most famous fictional detective. Another quite obvious “proof” for classification might be the title “Name of the Rose,” which conveys the impression of a historic title. The film even plays with this, when it names itself as a palimpsest of Eco’s novel.
Seminar paper from the year 2002 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1,7 (A-), Dresden Technical University (American Studies), 28 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: Although the Wilhelmian Reich seemed to be relatively stable, political forces and events finally led to the catastrophe of the first World War with its devastating consequences for Europe and especially for Germany, which not only lost part of its territory, but also its political and economical power through the Treaty of Versailles. This state of affairs left an unstable country, in which the public mind increasingly began to look overseas towards an America that showed a solution for most of its economic, social, or political problems. It is true, of course, that Germans had felt the American influence before. However, the peak of this America-boom, whether American friendly or Anti-American, was reached in the Weimar Republic, where a fierce debate on an ambiguous America picture took place. While European countries mainly stumbled from one bloody conflict to another, America further developed its technology and at the same time its main sociological ideas. Inventors and scientists strived to set up working systems that could make work and life more efficient. Electrification was the charming word of the day, and when Samuel Insull took over Edison′s Commonwealth Edison of Chicago, one of the most powerful and complex systems, both economically and technologically, was set up. This is probably the place where Henry Ford picked up his ideas, and using the Principles of Scientific Management by Frederick Winslow Taylor, he founded another powerful economic system, which soon should become a symbol for modernism all over the world: the Ford Company. There also was a strong cultural notion in the influence that America had on European countries. Although America and its systems were usually referred to as mass systems, sometimes even as soulle
Seminar paper from the year 2002 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1,7 (A-), Dresden Technical University (American Studies), language: English, abstract: Although the Wilhelmian Reich seemed to be relatively stable, political forces and events finally led to the catastrophe of the first World War with its devastating consequences for Europe and especially for Germany, which not only lost part of its territory, but also its political and economical power through the Treaty of Versailles. This state of affairs left an unstable country, in which the public mind increasingly began to look overseas towards an America that showed a solution for most of its economic, social, or political problems. It is true, of course, that Germans had felt the American influence before. However, the peak of this America-boom, whether American friendly or Anti-American, was reached in the Weimar Republic, where a fierce debate on an ambiguous America picture took place. While European countries mainly stumbled from one bloody conflict to another, America further developed its technology and at the same time its main sociological ideas. Inventors and scientists strived to set up working systems that could make work and life more efficient. Electrification was the charming word of the day, and when Samuel Insull took over Edison′s Commonwealth Edison of Chicago, one of the most powerful and complex systems, both economically and technologically, was set up. This is probably the place where Henry Ford picked up his ideas, and using the Principles of Scientific Management by Frederick Winslow Taylor, he founded another powerful economic system, which soon should become a symbol for modernism all over the world: the Ford Company. There also was a strong cultural notion in the influence that America had on European countries. Although America and its systems were usually referred to as mass systems, sometimes even as soulless systems without culture and heritage, the Weimar Republic also had been a place of new cultural developments that were taken from American developments and given a European style. This refers especially to the Bauhaus, to the L′Esprit Nouveau, to the movement of the Neue Sachlichkeit, which gained strong publicity through its new style in the public in the1920′s.
Seminar paper from the year 2002 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 1,7 (A-), Dresden Technical University (American Studies), language: English, abstract: About fifty years ago a little town in Wisconsin, Plainfield, was shaken by discovering a fiftyone- year old mass murderer living among them. Ed Gein, who had not only killed, but also disassembled his victims, was to become the role model as an archetypical character in the American horror literature. It was Bloch’s curiosity about the dark side of Puritan America, about America’s psychology cult, especially about Freudian theories4 and the ever strong worship of a mother picture that transformed Ed Gein into Norman Bates, a bogeyman with an Oedipus fixation on “mother,” into a transvestite with a love for taxidermy. At the time when Bloch wrote Psycho Hitchcock already had been a renowned film director. However, this constant success had put Hitchcock on his guard against the “trap of self-plagiarism.” In search for the unexpected, Psycho was his chance to further develop his style of suspense by entering a new field of the Gothic horror. Hitchcock’s trust in the story proved him right, because as the book seemed to be a winner, the film achieved a groundbreaking success until today.
Seminar paper from the year 2002 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1,7 (A-), Dresden Technical University (American Studies), language: English, abstract: Although the Wilhelmian Reich seemed to be relatively stable, political forces and events finally led to the catastrophe of the first World War with its devastating consequences for Europe and especially for Germany, which not only lost part of its territory, but also its political and economical power through the Treaty of Versailles. This state of affairs left an unstable country, in which the public mind increasingly began to look overseas towards an America that showed a solution for most of its economic, social, or political problems. It is true, of course, that Germans had felt the American influence before. However, the peak of this America-boom, whether American friendly or Anti-American, was reached in the Weimar Republic, where a fierce debate on an ambiguous America picture took place. While European countries mainly stumbled from one bloody conflict to another, America further developed its technology and at the same time its main sociological ideas. Inventors and scientists strived to set up working systems that could make work and life more efficient. Electrification was the charming word of the day, and when Samuel Insull took over Edison′s Commonwealth Edison of Chicago, one of the most powerful and complex systems, both economically and technologically, was set up. This is probably the place where Henry Ford picked up his ideas, and using the Principles of Scientific Management by Frederick Winslow Taylor, he founded another powerful economic system, which soon should become a symbol for modernism all over the world: the Ford Company. There also was a strong cultural notion in the influence that America had on European countries. Although America and its systems were usually referred to as mass systems, sometimes even as soulless systems without culture and heritage, the Weimar Republic also had been a place of new cultural developments that were taken from American developments and given a European style. This refers especially to the Bauhaus, to the L′Esprit Nouveau, to the movement of the Neue Sachlichkeit, which gained strong publicity through its new style in the public in the1920′s.
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