Renninger, Sophie
Dissertation topic:
"Room Tours: A Material History of the U.S. American Home." (working title)
Contact address at the University of Würzburg:
Chair of American English and American Literature and Culture
Am Hubland
97074 Würzburg
First supervisor: Prof. Dr MaryAnn Snyder-Körber
Second supervisor:
Class in the Graduate School: "Philosophy, Languages, Arts"
Doctorate in the Graduate School from WS 2021/2022.
Abstract:
Homeownership has become an integral part of the modern American dream. After WWII the demand for homes marked an all-time high and highly look-alike residential neighbourhoods mushroomed across the United States. The home is known to be a stage for the diversified practices of life, such as hygiene, sleep, play, or work, compartmentalising life along the lines of a floorplan and assigning each room a central practical purpose and use.
Proceeding from the standardised floorplans of suburban housing, my Ph.D. project seeks to explore the US-American single-family home in a larger historical, cultural and socio-economic development, while also focusing on the phenomenological properties of mundane, perhaps ignored, everyday objects as symptomatic of a standardized way of American life. My project is rooted in the visual arts and material history and utilizes representations of selected interiors to question the validity of a standardised home- and lifestyle. It is the aim of this thesis to offer alternative ideas, object lessons, and readings of contemporary artworks that renegotiate the meaning of living in the U.S.A today.
