Teaching Guides Query



Academic Year: 2017/18

416 - Degree in English

27826 - American Literature I


Teaching Plan Information

Academic Year:
2017/18
Subject:
27826 - American Literature I
Faculty / School:
103 - Facultad de Filosofía y Letras
Degree:
416 - Degree in English
ECTS:
6.0
Year:
2
Semester:
Second semester
Subject Type:
Compulsory
Module:
---

5.1. Methodological overview

The learning process that has been designed for this course is based on the following:

 

All class activities will be complemented by group or individual tutorials that form part of the face-to-face teaching and that can also be carried out by e-mail or via Moodle. The learning process is based on the student's active participation and encourages the accurate planning of their autonomous work, which includes the writing of an optional individual essay. The learning process fosters the development of the student's analytical skills and critical thinking, reasoning and argumentation, and involves the reading of the compulsory texts in the light of the recommended bibliography and the in-class teaching.

English will be the language used in all class activities, tutorials, essays, and exams, and the literary texts shall be read in their original version.

5.2. Learning tasks

1. Guided activities

-Theory sessions (1.2 credits / 30 hours)

Theory sessions (which include, for each unit, the study of the historical and cultural context, the main features of the period's literary production, the introduction to authors and texts, and the explanation of relevant critical and methodological approaches) consist of the teacher's presentation of such contents, and will be based on PowerPoint presentations and other materials available in Moodle. Student participation will be encouraged in these sessions by means of relevant questioning and prior knowledge-activating strategies.

-Practical sessions and group seminars (1.2 credits / 30 hours)

Practical sessions consist of the critical analysis of the compulsory literary texts. Previous reading on the part of students is essential for the development of these sessions, which will include guided commentaries with the whole class, small group discussion, or the writing of brief individual or group analyses to be presented orally. Debates, questions, brainstorming or role play for character analysis will also be used in order to activate theoretical and practical knowledge, reinforce basic concepts and develop synthesizing, analyzing, interpreting, relating, and expressing skills as well as attitudes such as cooperation and valuation of the work of others.

2. Supervised activities

-Individual and group tutorials (0.1 credits / 2.5 hours)

Tutorial attendance (alternatively, e-mail consultations or participation on the Moodle platform) is compulsory for the guided writing of essays, and optional for the rest of issues concerning the course.

3. Autonomous activities

- Compulsory readings, use of secondary sources and Moodle materials (2.8 credits / 70 hours)

The students' independent activities include revising the concepts studied in class, as well as reading and analyzing the compulsory texts, reading secondary sources, and visiting the Moodle page.

- Elaboration of an individual essay (0.6 credits / 15 hours), optional.

By the 8th week of the semester, students who choose the essay option will decide on a topic —a list of possible topics will be provided at the beginning of the course— that will be agreed upon with the teacher. No essay proposals will be accepted after that date. Students will work on the development of a working hypothesis that will be presented to the teacher by the 13th week, together with the essay outline and the selected bibliography. The completed essay will replace Part II of the global exam and will be handed in during the exam.

The essay, which replaces the practical part of the course assessment, will count up to 40% of the final grade. Students who hand in the essay do not have to take Part I of the exam. A minimum of 4 out of 10 points in each of the parts —to be compensated by the other part— is required. Students who have obtained a grade of 5 out of 10 or higher in the essay but fail the final exam will be able to keep the essay grade for the September sitting. However, no new essays can be tutorised or handed in for the September exam.

For more information, students will have to carefully read the guide for the elaboration of essays available in Moodle.

4. Assessment

- Global exam (0.1 credits / 2.5 hours)

The exam will take place on the day assigned by the Faculty. Students will have 2.5 hours at the most. The type of exam is described in the Assessment section of this guide. 

5.3. Syllabus

(27826) American Literature I

1. The colonial period

Basic contents:

Introduction to the historical period 1492-1765

Native Americans and the oral tradition

Exploration literature

Puritanism: colonial poetry and captivity narratives

Readings:

"The Iroquois Creation Story"

The Winnebago Trickster Cycle

General History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles, by John Smith

Of Plymouth Plantation, by William Bradford

"The Prologue," "To My Dear and Loving Husband," by Anne Bradstreet

A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, by Mary Rowlandson

2. The American Revolution and the beginnings of democracy

Basic contents:

Introduction to the historical period 1765-1829

The Enlightenment and Revolutionary Literature

The origins of fiction

Readings:

"Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America," The Autobiography [Part Two], by Benjamin Franklin

"Rip Van Winkle," by Washington Irving

The Last of the Mohicans, by James Fenimore Cooper

3. The origins of American Romanticism

Basic contents:

Introduction to the historical period 1829-1865

Transcendentalism

Literature and reform: women, natives, slaves

Readings:

Nature, by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Walden, by Henry David Thoreau

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, by Frederick Douglass

Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe

5.4. Course planning and calendar

Face-to-face teaching and schedule for essays

Theoretical and practical sessions (critical analysis of the compulsory literary texts) will take place in two weekly sessions, following the official schedule.

Group and individual tutorials will follow the schedule provided by the teacher, taking into account the students' class hours.

Students can write up an optional individual essay guided by the teacher taking into account the following key dates:

- Deadline for notifying the choice of subject: week 8.

- Deadline for submitting the outline and the bibliography: week 13.

- Submission of essays: during the first final exam.

The first final exam includes the submission of the optional essay and will take place on the official date assigned by the University.

 

Theory/practical sessions and essay writing schedule:

 

 

Week

 

Unit

 

Theory sessions

 

Practical sessions

 

Key dates

 

 

 

1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I

Course introduction: overview of American literature

Introduction to the historical period: 1492-1765

Native Americans and the oral tradition (I)

 

 

 

 

2

Native Americans and the oral tradition (II)

"The Iroquois Creation

Story"

The Winnebago

Trickster Cycle

 

 

3

Exploration literature

General History of

Virginia

Of Plymouth Plantation

 

 

4

Puritans: colonial poetry and captivity narratives (I)

"The Prologue"

"To My Dear and Loving Husband"

 

 

 

5

Puritans: colonial poetry and captivity narratives (II)

"A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson"

 

 

 

6

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

II

Introduction to the historical period: 1765-1829

The Enlightenment and the literature of the Revolution (I)

"Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America"

 

 

 

7

 

 

The Enlightenment and the literature of the Revolution (II)

 

The Autobiography

 

 

 

8

 

The origins of fiction (I)

 

"Rip Van Winkle"

Deadline: essay topic choice

 

9

 

The origins of fiction (II)

"Rip Van Winkle"

The Last of the Mohicans

 

 

10

The origins of fiction (III)

The Last of the Mohicans

 

 

11

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

III

Introduction to the historical period: 1829-1865

Transcendentalism (I)

 

Nature

 

 

12

Transcendentalism (II)

Nature

Walden

 

 

13

 

Transcendentalism (III)

 

Walden

Deadline: essay outline and bibliography

 

14

Literature and reform: women, Natives, slaves (I)

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

 

 

15

 Literature and reform: women, Natives, slaves (II)

Conclusions

 

Uncle Tom's Cabin

 

5.5. Bibliography and recommended resources

The bibliography of the current academic year is kept updated and can be checked on the library's website (search for recommended bibliography on biblioteca.unizar.es)

 BB The Heath anthology of American literature / Paul Laute, general editor. . - 4ht ed. Boston : Houghton Mifflin, cop. 2002.
BB The Norton anthology of American literature. Volume A, Literature to 1820 / Nina Baym, general editor . - 6th ed. New York ; London : Norton, cop. 2003
BB The Norton anthology of American literature. Volume B, American literature 1820-1865 / Nina Baym, general editor. . - 6th ed. New York ; London : Norton, cop. 2003.
BC A companion to American literature and culture / edited by Paul Lauter Chichester ; Malden, MA : Wiley-Blackwell, 2010
BC A Historical guide to Ralph Waldo Emerson / edited by Joel Myerson New York ; London : Oxford University Press, 2000
BC A new literary history of America / edited by Greil Marcus and Werner Sollors. Cambridge, Mass. : Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2009
BC Aldridge, Alfred Owen. Early American literature : a comparatist approach / A. Owen Aldridge Princeton, N.J : Princeton University Press, cop. 1982
BC American colonial prose : John Smith to Thomas Jefferson / edited by Mary Ann Radzinowicz . - 1st Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1984
BC American literature in context / [general editor Arnold Goldman]. Vol.2, 1830-1865 / Brian Harding London ; New York : Methuen, 1982
BC American literature to 1900 / edited by Marcus Cunliffe . - Rev London : Sphere Reference, 1986, repr. 1987
BC Bataille, Gretchen M.. American Indian Women. Telling their lives / M. Gretchen Bataille and Kathleen Mullen Sands Univ. of Nebraska, 1986
BC Black history [recurso electrónico] : from civil war through today Woodland Hills, CA : St. Clair Vision, cop. 2007
BC Bowden, Mary Weatherspoon. Washington Irving / by Mary Weatherspoon Bowden Boston : Twayne, cop. 1981
BC Brooks, Cleanth. American Literature : The makers and the making / Cleanth Brooks, R. W. B. Lewis, Robert Penn Warren New York : St. Martin's Press, cop. 1973
BC Carroll, Peter N. The free and the unfree : a new history of the United States / Peter N. Carroll and David W. Noble. Harmondsworth ; New York : Penguin Books, 1988
BC Carton, Evan. The rhetoric of American romance : dialectic and identity in Emerson, Dickinson, Poe, and Hawthorne / Evan Carton Baltimore : John Hopkins University Press, cop. 1985
BC Chase, Richard Volney. The American novel and its tradition / Richard Chase . - 3rd print. Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986 print.
BC Columbia literary history of the United States / Emory Elliott, general editor ; associate editors Martha Banta ... [et al.] ; advisory editors, Houston A. Baker ... New York ; Guildford : Columbia University Press, 1988
BC Conn, Peter. Literatura norteamericana / Peter Conn ; traducción Carmen Franci . - 1a. ed. Madrid : Cambridge University Press, 1998
BC Corrente, Linda. Henry David Thoreau's Walden / by Linda Corrente Woodbury, New York [etc.] : Barron's Educational Series, 1984
BC Critical essays on Washington Irving / [ed. by] Ralph M. Aderman Boston, Mass. : Hall, cop. 1990
BC Cunliffe, Marcus. The literature of the United States / Marcus Cunliffe . - 4th ed. New York : Penguin Books, 1986
BC Dolle, Raymond F. Anne Bradstreet, a reference guide / Raymond F. Dolle Boston, Mass : G.K. Hall, 1990
BC Doren, Carl Van. Benjamin Franklin / Carl Van Doren New York : The Viking Press, 1968
BC Early American literature : a collection of critical essays / edited by Michael T. Gilmore Englewood Cliffs, N.J : Prentice-Hall, cop. 1980
BC Franklin, Wayne. The new world of James Fenimore Cooper / Wayne Franklin Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1982
BC Gibert Maceda, María Teresa. A study guide for American literature to 1900 / María Teresa Gibert Maceda Madrid : Editorial Centro de Estudios Ramón Areces, 2009
BC Gibert, Teresa. American literature to 1900 / Teresa Gibert . - 1ª ed. Madrid : Centro de estudios Ramón Areces, 2001-2002
BC Gray, Richard. A history of American literature / Richard Gray . 2nd ed. Chichester : Wiley-Blackwrell, 2012
BC Hagan, William Thomas. The Indian in American history / [by] William T. Hagan Washington : American Historical Association, [c1971]
BC Halleck, Reuben Post. History of American literature / by Reuben Post Halleck Kessinger Publishing, 2010
BC Hart, James David. The Oxford companion to American literature / by James D. Hart . - 3rd. ed. New York : Oxford University Press, 1956
BC Hedges, William L. Washington Irving, an American study, 1802-1832 / by William L. Hedges Westport, Conn : Greenwood Press, 1980
BC Henry David Thoreau / edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom. New York : Bloom's Literary Criticism, cop. 2007
BC High, Peter B. An outline of American literature / Peter B. High . - 1st. ed. London : Longman, 1986
BC Historia crítica de la novela norteamericana / editor- coordinador José Antonio Gurpegui Palacios Salamanca : Almar, D.L. 2001
BC Introduction to American studies / [edited by] Malcolm Bradbury and Howard Temperley . - 3rd ed. New York : Longman, 1998
BC Jones, Gayl. Liberating voices : oral tradition in African American literature / Gayl Jones Cambridge [etc.] : Harvard University Press, 1991
BC King, Lovalerie. A student's guide to African American literature, 1760 to the present / Lovalerie King ; foreword by Trudier Harris -Lopez New York [etc.] : Peter Lang, cop. 2003
BC Krupat, Arnold. The voice in the margin : native American literature and the canon / Arnold Krupat Berkeley ; Oxford : University of California Press, 1989
BC Martín Gutiérrez, Félix. Literatura de los Estados Unidos : una lectura crítica / Félix Martín Gutiérrez Madrid : Alianza Editorial, cop. 2003
BC Martínez Falquina, Silvia. Indias y fronteras : el discurso en torno a la mujer étnica / Silvia Martínez Falquina Oviedo : KRK, D.L. 2004
BC Matthiessen, F. O.. American renaissance : art and expression in the age of Emerson and Whitman / F.O. Matthiessen London : Oxford University Press, 1979 repr.
BC New Essays on “ Uncle Tom's Cabin“ / edited by Eric J. Sundquist Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1986
BC New essays on The last of the Mohicans / edited by H. Daniel Peck. Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 199
BC New essays on Walden / edited by Robert F Sayre New York : Cambridge University Press, 1992
BC Nies, Judith. Native American history : a chronology of the vast achievements of a culture and their links to world events / Judith Nies. New York : Ballantine Books, 1996
BC On Emerson / edited by Edwin H. Cady and Louis J. Budd Durham [N.C.] : Duke University Press, 1988
BC Puritanos y liberales en la literatura norteamericana de los siglos XVII y XVIII / José Antonio Gurpegui (ed.) Alcalá de Henares : Universidad de Alcalá, 2000
BC Ralph Waldo Emerson / edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom. New York : Bloom's Literary Criticism, cop. 2008
BC Ringe, Donald A. James Fenimore Cooper / Donald A. Ringe . - Updated ed. New York : Twayne Publishers, cop. 1988
BC Rosenmeier, Rosamond. Anne Bradstreet revisited / Rosamond Rosenmeier Boston : Twayne Publishers, cop. 1991
BC Ruland, Richard. From Puritanism to Postmodernism : a history of American literature / Richard Ruland and Malcolm Bradbury New York : Penguin, 1992
BC Takaki, Ronald T.. A different mirror : a history of multicultural America / Ronald Takaki. New York : Back Bay Books/Little, Brown, and Co., 2008
BC The American transcendentalists : their prose and poetry / edited by Perry Miller Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 1981
BC The Black Columbiad : defining moments in African American literature and culture / edited by Werner Sollors, Maria Diedrich Cambridge, Mass. ; London : Harvard University Press, 1994
BC The Cambridge Companion to Henry David Thoreau / edited by Joel Myerson Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 199
BC The Cambridge Companion to Ralph Waldo Emerson / edited by Joel Porte and Saundra Morris Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 199
BC The Cambridge history of American literature. Vol.1, 1590-1820 / general editor, Sacvan Bercovitch ; associate editor, Cyrus Patell Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1994
BC The Columbia history of the American novel / Emory Elliott, general editor Columbia : University press, 1990
BC Vizenor, Gerald. Literatura india nativo-americana / Gerald Vizenor ; Traducción, Introducción y notas de Clara Isabel Polo Benito León : Universidad de León, 1996
BC Walker, Marshall. The literature of the United States of America / Marshall Walker . - 1a. ed. repr. London : Macmillan, 1985
BC Yannella, Donald. Ralph Waldo Emerson / by Donald Yannella Boston : Twayne Publishers, cop. 1982