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Academic Year/course: 2017/18

416 - Degree in English

27831 - American Literature II


Syllabus Information

Academic Year:
2017/18
Subject:
27831 - American Literature II
Faculty / School:
103 - Facultad de Filosofía y Letras
Degree:
416 - Degree in English
ECTS:
6.0
Year:
3
Semester:
First 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

5.2.1. 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.

5.2.2. 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.

5.2.3. Autonomous activities

- Compulsory readings, use of secondary sources and Moodle materials (2.8 credits / 70 hours; or 3.4 credits / 85 hours for the students who do not write up the optional essay)

The students’ autonomous 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 the optional essay (0.6 credits / 15 hours), optional.

By the 8th week of the semester, students will decide on a topic that will be agreed upon with the teacher. They 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 be handed in by the day of the exam.

5.2.4. 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

(27831) American Literature II

I. AMERICAN ROMANTICISM (1829-1865)

1. Historical and cultural introduction to the period (1829-1865).

2. Edgar Allan Poe: his theory of writing and the notion of "unity of effect". Revision of Gothic devices, psychoanalytic procedures, and the origins of detective fiction.

3. Nathaniel Hawthorne: Romance vs. novel. Puritan roots and psychological insight.

4. Herman Melville: exoticism and metaphysical speculation. Symbolic writing and the pervasiveness of evil.

5. The poetry of Walt Whitman: originality; formal and thematic freedom. The poet as kosmos and prophet.

Compulsory readings:

E. A. Poe's "The Philosophy of Composition", "The Fall of the House of Usher", "The Black Cat".

 N. Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter.

H. Melville's "Loomings", "Moby Dick", "The Whiteness of the Whale" (Chapters 1, 41 and 42 from Moby Dick).

W. Whitman's "Song of Myself".

Films:

The Fall of the House of Usher (Jean Epstein & Luis Buñuel, 1928).

Moby Dick (John Huston, 1956)

II. THE RISE OF AMERICAN REALISM AND NATURALISM (1865-1914)

1. Historical and cultural introduction to the period (1865-1914).

2. The poetry of Emily Dickinson: modernity, introspection, and stylistic compression.

3. Mark Twain: vernacular language and frontier humor; the South and the controversy over race.

4. Women's Writing and First-Wave Feminism: Kate Chopin, Charlotte Perkins-Gilman and Edith Wharton.

Compulsory readings:

E. Dickinson's "Because I could not stop for Death", "Further in Summer than the Birds", "I felt a Funeral in my Brain", "Wild Nights".

M. Twain's Huckleberry Finn.

C. P. Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper".

K. Chopin's "The Story of an Hour".

Films:

The Age of Innocence (Martin Scorsese, 1993)

 

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. Three to four weeks will be necessary for the presentation and discussion of each unit.

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 detailed draft and the bibliography: week 13.

- Deadline for submitting the 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.

5.5. Bibliography and recommended resources

BB A companion to American literature and culture / edited by Paul Lauter . Chichester ; Malden, MA : Wiley-Blackwell, 2010
BB A new literary history of America / edited by Greil Marcus and Werner Sollors. Cambridge, Mass. : Belknap Press of Harvard University Press,2009
BB Bloom, Harold, ed. Nathaniel Hawthorne's the Scarlet Letter New York : Chelsea House Publications,2007
BB Herman Melville's Moby-Dick / edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom. New York : Chelsea House Publishers, 1986.
BB The Cambridge companion to Edgar Allan Poe / edited by Kevin J. Hayes. Cambridge ; Madrid : Cambridge University Press, 2007
BB The Cambridge history of American literature. Vol.2, 1820-1865 / general editor, Sacvan Bercovitch ; associated editor, Cyrus R.K. Patell. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2008
BC A Historical guide to Emily Dickinson / edited by Vivian R. Pollak. New York : Oxford University Press, 2004
BC A historical guide to Nathaniel Hawthorne / edited by Larry J. Reynolds. Oxford [etc.] : Oxford University Press, 2001.
BC A historical guide to Walt Whitman / edited by David S. Reynolds. New York : Oxford University Press, 2000.
BC American literature in context / [general editor Arnold Goldman]. Vol.2, 1830-1865 / Brian Harding London ; New York : Methuen, 1982
BC American literature, american culture / [compiled by] Gordon Hutner New York : Oxford University Press, 1999
BC Auerbach, Jonathan. The romance of failure: first-person fictions of Poe, Hawthorne, and James. New York : Oxford University Press, 1989
BC Barrish, Phillip. The Cambridge introduction to American literary realism Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2011
BC Beer, Janet. Kate Chopin, Edith Wharton and Charlotte Perkins Gilman : studies in short fiction / Janet Beer Basingstoke : Macmillan, 1997
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 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 Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow wall-paper :a sourcebook and critical edition / edited by Catherine J. Golden New York : Routledge, 2004.
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 Critical essays on Mark Twain, 1910-1980 / [edited by] Louis J. Budd. Boston, Mass : G.K. Hall, cop. 1983
BC Davey, Michael J. Herman Melville's Moby-Dick: A Routledge Study Guide and Sourcebook. New York : Routledge, 2004
BC Edgar Allan Poe / edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom. New York : Chelsea House Publishers,2006
BC Emily Dickinson / edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom New York : Chelsea House Publishers, 1985
BC Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. Charlotte Perkins Gilman's “The yellow wall-paper“ and the history of its publication and reception : a critical edition and documentary casebook / Julie Bates Dock, compiler and editor. University Park, Pa : Pennsylvania State University Press, cop. 1998
BC Gunn, Giles, ed. A Historical Guide to Herman Melville. Oxford : Oxford UP, 2005
BC Herman Melville / edited with an introduction by Harold Bloom New York : Chelsea House, 1986
BC Knapp, Bettina L. Emily Dickinson. New York : Continuum, 1989
BC Kummings, Donald D., ed. A Companion to Walt Whitman. New York : Wiley-Blackwell, 2009
BC Mark Twain / edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom. New York [etc.] : Chelsea House Publishers, 1986
BC Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn / edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom. New York : Chelsea House Publishers, 1986
BC New essays on Adventures of Huckleberry Finn / edited by Louis J. Budd . - 1st ed., repr. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1989
BC Poe : a collection of critical essays / edited by Robert Regan. Englewood Cliffs (New Jersey) : Prentice-Hall, 1967
BC Romancing the shadow : Poe and race / edited by J. Gerald Kennedy & Liliane Weissberg. Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2001.
BC The American face of Edgar Allan Poe / edited by Shawn Rosenheim and Stephen Rachman. Baltimore ; London : Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995.
BC The American intellectual tradition :a sourcebook / edited by David A. Hollinger and Charles Capper Oxford University Press, ; New York [etc.] :, 2001-
BC The Cambridge Companion to American realism and naturalism : Howells to London / edited by Donald Pizer . - 1st publ. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1995
BC The Cambridge Companion to Edith Wharton / edited by Millicent Bell . - 1st ed. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1995
BC The Cambridge companion to Emily Dickinson / edited by Wendy Martin Cambridge, U.K. ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2006
BC The Cambridge companion to feminist literary theory / edited by Ellen Rooney Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2006
BC The Cambridge Companion to Herman Melville / edited by Robert S. Levine Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1998
BC The Cambridge Companion to Mark Twain / edited by Forrest G. Robinson . Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1995
BC The Cambridge companion to modern American culture / edited by Christopher Bigsby Cambridge ; Madrid : Cambridge University Press, 2006
BC The Cambridge companion to Nathaniel Hawthorne / edited by Richard H. Millington Cambridge [etc.] : University of Cambridge, 2004
BC The Cambridge companion to nineteenth-century American poetry / edited by Kerry Larson. Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2011
BC The Cambridge Companion to Walt Whitman / edited by Ezra Greenspan . - 1st ed., reimp. Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, imp.1997
BC The Cambridge history of American literature. Vol.3. Prose writing : 1860-1920 / general editor, Sacvan Bercovitch Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, cop. 2005
BC The Cambridge history of American literature. Vol.4, Nineteenth Century poetry : 1800-1910 / general editor, Sacvan Bercovitch. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, cop. 2007
BC The Columbia history of the American novel / Emory Elliott, general editor Columbia : University press, 1990
BC The Emily Dickinson handbook / edited by Gudrun Grabher, Roland Hagenbüchle, Cristanne Miller Amherst : University of Massachusetts Press, 1998.
BC 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 The Norton anthology of American literature. Volume C, American literature 1865-1914 / Nina Baym, general editor. - 6th ed. New York ; London : Norton, cop. 2003.
BC The Oxford companion to women's writing in the United States / editors in chief, Cathy N. Davidson, Linda Wagner-Martin ; editors, Elizabeth Ammons ... [et al.] New York ; London : Oxford University Press, 1995
BC The Purloined Poe :Lacan, Derrida & psychoanalytic reading / edited by John P. Muller and William J. Richardson. Baltimore [etc.] : Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990
BC Tuttleton, James W. Vital Signs: Essays on American Literature and Criticism. Chicago : Ivan R. Dee, 1996
BC Twain, Mark. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn : a case study in critical controversy / edited by Gerald Graff and James Phelan Boston ; New York : St. Martin's Press, cop. 1995
BC Twain, Mark. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn : an authoritative text, backgrounds and sources, criticism / Samuel Langhorne Clemens ; edited by Thomas Cooley . - 3rd ed. New York : Norton, 1999
BC Twentieth century interpretations of Poe's tales : a collection of critical essays / Edited by William L. Howarth Englewood Cliffs, N.J : Prentice-Hall, [1971]
BC Walker, Marshall. The literature of the United States of America / Marshall Walker . - 1st ed., repr. London : Macmillan, 1985
BC Walt Whitman / edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom. New York [etc.] : Chelsea House Publishers, 1985
BC Walt Whitman's Song of myself : a sourcebook and critical edition / edited by Ezra Greenspan New York [etc] : Routledge, 2005
BC Wiesenthal, Chris. Figuring madness in Nineteenth-Century fiction. Houndmills : Macmillan, 1997
BC Ziff, Larzer, Mark Twain. New York : Oxford University Press, 2004