History of American Literature II. American Literature in the 20th Century Course description 2018 Teacher: PaedDr. Puskás Andrea, PhD. e-mail:
[email protected] [email protected] Office: 208 Form: 1 lecture + 1 seminar
Tentative Syllabus: Week 1 – 15 Feb Lecture: Introduction to the course, discussion of course syllabus Seminar: General Introduction to Modernism. American Modernism. Week 2 – 22 Feb Lecture: Modernist Poetry. Traditionalism, Imagism, Objectivism. A selection of modernist poetry Seminar: Henry James. The Beast in the Jungle. Week 3 – 1 March Lecture: ‘Making it new’ in Prose. Gertrude Stein. The Lost Generation. Ernest Hemingway Seminar: The short stories of Ernest Hemingway: Cat in the Rain. The End of Something. The Undefeated Week 4 – 8 March Lecture: American drama in the 20th Century. Eugene O’Neill, Arthur Miller. Tennessee Williams: A Streetcar Named Desire. Edward Albee: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Seminar: William Faulkner. The Sound and the Fury. Week 5 – 15 March Lecture: The Jazz Age. Seminar: F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby Week 6 – 22 March Lecture: The Beat Generation. Allen Ginsberg. Jack Kerouac: On the Road. Charles Bukowski. Ken Kesey Seminar: J. D. Salinger: The Catcher in the Rye. The short stories of J. D. Salinger: For Esmé with Love and Squalor Week 7 – 29 March Half-term test Week 8 – 5 April Lecture: The emergence of Postmodernism in American literature. Brian McHale, Susan Sontag, John Barth. Constructing the Self. Postmodern Consciousness and Identity. Thomas Pynchon. Seminar: Thomas Pynchon: The Crying of Lot 49 Week 9 – 12 April Lecture: The neo-pastoral and the hippie movement in American literature. Seminar: Richard Brautigan: In Watermelon Sugar. The poetry of R. Brautigan. Week 10 – 19 April Lecture: The employment of black humour in fiction. Kurt Vonnegut: Cat’s Cradle. Seminar: Woody Allen: The Kugelmass Episode. The Lunatic’s Tale Week 11 – 26 April Lecture: Community and Identity – Immigrant Writing. Vladimir Nabokov: Lolita. The short stories of Vladimir Nabokov. Spring in Fialta. Seminar: Defining new black identity: African American fiction and feminist fiction. Toni Morrison: Beloved. Alice Walker: Everyday Use
Week 12 – 3 May Lecture: American Jewish fiction. Saul Bellow. Bernard Malamud. Bernard Malamud: The Prison Seminar: Feminist fiction in American Literature Alice Munroe: Some Women. Amy Tan: Two Kinds Week 13 – 10 May Lecture: End-of-term test Seminar: Concluding thoughts Assessment based on: oral exam – it will be based on the information given at the lectures on 20th century American literature and your readings; you will receive the text version of the lectures by e-mail, though it is highly recommended to take notes during the lectures and seminars. The syllabus of the course (the order of lectures) might change due to holidays or other circumstances, it will be indicated by sending you an email). regular class attendance – no more than 2 absences – for these two you do not have to bring any doctor’s notes, however, if you miss more than 2 classes, each extra absence will mean -5% from the average of the half-term test and the end-of-term test; attendance of lectures is obligatory, too, similarly to the seminars, you can miss no more than 2 lectures, each extra absence will mean -5% from the average of the half-term test and the end-of-term test. And no, the first week does not count. a Portfolio – you have to prepare a file with all the materials you are given in class + you have to write an analysis of each literary work that you are obliged to read, namely: 1. Henry James. The Beast in the Jungle, 2. Ernest Hemingway: The End of Something 3. Ernest Hemingway: The Undefeated 4. Ernest Hemingway: Cat in the Rain 5. F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby 6. William Faulkner. The Sound and the Fury 7. Vladimir Nabokov. Spring in Fialta 8. J. D. Salinger: The Catcher in the Rye 9. J. D. Salinger: For Esmé with Love and Squalor 10. Alice Walker: Everyday Use 11. Richard Brautigan: In Watermelon Sugar 12. Thomas Pynchon: The Crying of Lot 49 13. Kurt Vonnegut: Cat’s Cradle 14. Woody Allen: The Kugelmass Episode 15. Woody Allen: The Lunatic’s Tale 16. Bernard Malamud: The Prison 17. Alice Munroe: Some Women 18. Amy Tan: Two Kinds Optimally, each author + literary work will go into a different file, so finally your portfolio will have 18 files. Basic criteria: please do read the text, not just the plot summary! In your written comment on the given work you are supposed to give a textual analysis, not the description of the plot. Prepare quotes from the text (at least 5) to support your ideas and interpret them. Make sure that you write down your own opinion and responses to the text and not just copy someone else’s from the Internet. I can only accept hand-written texts. You have to bring your Portfolio to the oral exam, without that I cannot give you a mark. This means that starting to work on your portfolio 1 week before the oral exam will not do you any good, since it is impossible to read so many books + write an analysis/commentary for each within a week. You have to work throughout the whole course. a 3-minute micro-test at the beginning of each seminar – it will consist of 2 or 3 questions based on the plot of the literary work that you had to read for the seminar. In the syllabus the concrete literary works for micro-testing are underlined. You will get points for each micro-test and for being able to go
for the oral exam, you need to get 50% from the overall micro-test points. If you fail to receive 50%, you will be given an Fx in AIS and you will need to retake the micro-tests in the form of one single test with several random questions from the compulsory reading list. 2 tests on theory – a half-term and an end-of-term test, including theory (lectures); your result must be at least 50% on average (from the two), otherwise you get an Fx in AIS; after this you have 2 exam dates for retaking the test + if succeeded, take the oral exam; if you have 50% or more, you can go for the oral exam automatically a presentation – each student has to give a presentation on a selected topic; if you fail to turn up on the day of the presentation without any prior notice, you will be given 2 absences. If you cannot present your topic due to some reason, you are asked to hand it in in a written form; otherwise you cannot go for the oral exam. The presentation has to be prepared in Power Point/prezi as well. The minimum number of slides: 10. You mustn’t read your presentation, please talk to the audience. active participation in class discussions during the lessons You have to watch the following films during the course: Midnight in Paris (2011) directed by Woody Allen Hemingway and Gellhorn (2012) directed by Philip Kaufman
Recommended literature: GRAY, Richard. 2004. A History of American Literature. Blackwell Publishing. BEACH, Christopher. 2003. The Cambridge Introduction to Twentieth-Century American Poetry. CUP. LEWIS, Pericles. 2007. The Cambridge Introduction to Modernism. CUP. NICOL, Bran. 2009. The Cambridge Introduction to Postmodern Fiction. CUP. KALAIDJIAN, Walter, ed. 2005. The Cambridge Companion to American Modernism. CUP. BRADBURY, Malcolm. 1992. The Modern American Novel. OUP. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Enjoy the course and most of all enjoy reading!