What connects the melancholy of The Last of Us with the poetry of Emily Dickinson? Why does The Handmaid’s Tale stir more emotion than many CNN headlines? What does Taylor Swift’s success have to do with the myth of the “self-made man”? Why do we keep coming back to Fight Club, even though no one really wants to throw punches anymore? Does Barbie say more about gender than many academic textbooks? How does Stephen King expose hidden fears, violence, and inequality in American society? In what ways does the poetic violence of Cormac McCarthy’s language resonate with our personal experience of borders? And why are queer reimaginings of the Wild West so controversial? At the Department of North American Literatures and Cultures, these are exactly the kinds of questions we explore – striving to better understand the complex, ambiguous, and ever-evolving identity of North America.

As a team that brings together the study of literature and culture, we focus on the diversity and plurality of American experiences — ethnic, class-based, gendered, and sexual. Studying with us means learning how literature, film, historical memory, and popular culture both shape and challenge American identity. Our research is closely tied to our teaching. That’s why our course offerings span a wide range of topics — from Native and African American cultures, women’s and queer literature, modernism and postmodernism, feminist art and genre fiction, to film and adaptation. We also offer regionally focused courses, such as on Southern literature or transnational visions of the Wild West. We’re interested in cultural contexts in the broadest sense: from history and cultural memory to consumerism, food studies, and mass culture. Our curriculum includes courses on off-canon topics that grow directly out of our ongoing research – including suburban horror, the cultural role of animals in U.S. culture, addiction and its representations, or the intersection of literature and medicine. We also engage with critical theory, narratology, philosophy of culture, and the practice of close reading and poetry analysis. Our approach is interdisciplinary and responsive to current trends in the humanities, allowing for a rich and multifaceted exploration of North American literature and culture.

Our faculty actively participate in international academic exchange through grants from the Fulbright Foundation, the Kościuszko Foundation, and programs run by the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA). Some also carry out research projects funded by major institutions such as the National Science Centre (NCN). Our students have the opportunity to take part in courses taught by American scholars affiliated with the Fulbright Foundation and by invited speakers as part of the American Studies Encounters lecture series.

American Studies Encounters blog