Lecture, four hours; discussion, one hour (when scheduled). Requisites: English Composition 3, English 4W or 4HW or 4WS. Exploration of question of what is meant by America, and hence what is meant by American culture and American studies. Addresses concepts of origins (real or imagined beginnings of cultural formations), identities (narratives of people and places), and media (creative process as manifest in aesthetic forms, artistic movements, and information systems). P/NP or letter grading.