Event Detail

November 5th and the Fate of American Optimism

November 5th and the Fate of American Optimism

with Dr. Aaron Nyerges, United States Studies Centre, University of Sydney

Tuesday, 22 October 2024 | 6:00 c.t.-8:00 pm | Rabinstraße 8 | 53111 Bonn | Room 7

Dr. Nyerges lecture places the contest of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump in a broader historical dialectic of hope and fear, the primary affects animating US politics since Henry Luce announced “the American Century.” With attention to the role of legacy and social media in the presentation of this year’s presidential race, he will demonstrate how symbols of fate and futurity converge on the polls in November. Using Lauren Berlant’s framework of “cruel optimism,” the lecture asks us to consider what the question of who wins, and how they win, means for the sentimental underpinnings of the nation’s self-conception.

Dr. Aaron Nyerges is a Senior Lecturer of American Studies at the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, where he served as Academic Director from 2021-2024. His work engages with literature, geography, and the history of media technologies. His first book, American Modernism and the Cartographic Imagination, is forthcoming with Cambridge University Press.

This event is part of the lecture series "Current Issues in the North American and Cultural Studies" of the North American Studies Program of the University of Bonn.

 

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