Special: Sending Shivers down my spine - Englischsprachige Literatur des Grauens

The last 40 years or so have been a wild and challenging time for the USA. While Germany was reunited and Europe grew closer again after the Fall of the Berlin Wall, the American society drifted further apart – the horrors of AIDS, the shock of September 11, 2001, the differences between the coastal states and the American Hinterland, and, last but not least, the dramatic changes every time a new president took over power - all of this has changed if not destroyed the “American Dream”.

And in the middle of all this, there are young (and not so young) writers trying to make sense of what is happening and explaining it to us – and they do so in fascinating, gripping, heart-warming, and sometimes shocking novels.

In this richly illustrated talk in easy English, we will meet some of the most interesting and well-known modern writers, from T.C. Boyle to Bret Easton Ellis, from Michael Cunningham to Jonathan Safran Foer – and maybe, their works can help us understand what is going on ‘across the pond’!