"Pioneers! O Pioneers!” Frontier Imaginations in American Literature

In this seminar, we will investigate what shaped and continues to shape cultural imaginations of the Frontier in North America. Why is the imagination of the Frontier so closely linked to ideas of wilderness and what constitutes a stereotypical pioneer? What gets misrepresented and left out of those imaginations? How has the idea of the Frontier changed and developed over time and how – if so – is it relevant for contemporary culture and literary? What does it imply to speak of something or someplace as “the last Frontier”? And, most important of all, how can we critically engage with these ideas in American Cultural and Literary Studies?

Starting in the late 19^th century, we will cover a wide range of textual and visual examples from both settler colonial and Indigenous viewpoints. Looking at different means and modes of narration and interpretation, we will identify patterns and divergences. Furthermore, we will explore how we can link these ideas together and relate them to contemporary issues of migration, climate crises and even “space cowboys.” As the seminar progresses, we will hence trace how pioneers and the Frontier are no longer only associated with wilderness, but also with questions of energy supplies, global shipping routes and, increasingly, technological revolutions, ideas of space exploration and terraforming.