History of American literature 1.N3.EP.38
Course objectives:
- to convey the knowledge of the ideological and aesthetic hallmarks of Puritan literature, the Enlightenment and Romanticism;
- to present major problems, currents and motifs characteristic of discussed periods of American literature;
- to place the cultural heritage of the United States of America in the broader context of the world’s heritage;
- to shed light on interconnections between the American literary and philosophical heritage and the world’s literary and philosophical heritage;
- to make students apply basic terminology used in literary studies and related discipline
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Course content (selected form the list):
Colonial literature: John Smith, William Bradford, Anne Bradstreet, Edward Taylor
Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (Excerpts),
Romanticism and Transcendentalism:
Henry David Thoreau, "Civil Disobedience," Walden; Or Life in the Woods
Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlett Letter, "Young Goodman Brown"
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, "Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street."
Literature, Slavery, and the Civil War period:
Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave
Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin
Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie, An American Tragedy
Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady19th-Century American Poetry:
Walt Whitman, "O Captain, my Captain!", "Oh Me! Oh Life!", "Song of Myself", "I Sing the Body Electric"
The Lost Generation:
Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms
F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, Tender is the Night
T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land
The Great Depression, the Postwar Novel, and the Beats:
John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men
J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
Jack Kerouac/Allen Ginsburg, On the Road / "Howl"
Ethnic American literature:
Ralph Ellison, The Invisible Man
Toni Morrison, Beloved, Playing in the Dark
The Postmodern Novel
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Methods of instruction/ forms of classroom activity:
presentation, discussion, reading of literary texts, analysis and interpretation of selected literary texts, written work, ICT tools/e-learning/MSTeams option if needed
Field of study
Student workload
Study level
Education profile
Type of course
The semester in which the subject is carried out
Mode
Course coordinators
Learning outcomes
Learning outcomes acc to PQR
Knowledge:
The student knows and understands:
1. the ideological and aesthetic hallmarks of such literary periods as Puritan literature, the Enlightenment and Romanticism (k_W11/ P6S_WG)
2. the theories, methodology and general and terminology of literature (k_W02/P6S_WG)
Skills
Student can:
3. present major problems, currents and motifs characteristic of discussed periods of American literature; (k_U01/P6S_UW)
4. analyse texts and do research using knowledge of literature (k_U06/P6S_UK)
5. apply basic terminology used in literary studies and related disciplines (k_U07/ P6S_UO)
Social competences
Student:
6. is able to shed light on mutual interconnections between the American literary and philosophical heritage as well as the world’s literary and philosophical heritage (k_K02/P6S_KK)
7. is ready to place the cultural heritage of the United States of America in the broader context of the world’s literary, philosophical and cultural heritage (k_K03/ P6S_KO)
Assessment criteria
Forms of evaluation of learning outcomes :
1. Written test – 55% of the final grade (outcomes: 1,2,4,5,6,7)
2. Presentation – 25 % of the final grade (outcomes: 3,5,6)
3. Active participation is classes - 20% of the final grade (outcomes 1,2,3,4,5,6,7)
Criteria of evaluation
Test marks are graded according to the following framework:
0 – 50 points / grade 2,0 (fail): 0–49%
51 – 60 points / grade 3,0 (average): 50–60%
61 – 70 points / grade 3,5 (plus average): 61–70%
71 – 80 points / grade 4,0 (good): 71–80%
81 – 90 points / grade 4,5 (plus good): 81–90%
91 – 100 points / grade 5,0 (very good): 91–100%
Presentations are graded according to the following three criteria:
1) analysis and interpretation and presentation of selected materials,
2) application of terminology used in literary studies
3) contextualization of American literature in world history
Bibliography
Reading list
High, Peter B. An Outline of American Literature. New York: Pearson, 1984.
Lewicki, Z. American Literature. American Literature Department, Institute of English, University of Warsaw/US Embassy, Warsaw, 2000.
VanSpanckeren, K. Outline of American Literature. Washington: US State Department, 1994.
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: