History of American literature

elective

Philology

Specialization: English and Chinese Studies

1st cycle

The objectives of the course include the following:

1: Conveying the essential knowledge about the history of American literature from the Colonial Period (1620) to the present

2: Conveying the essential knowledge about the most important phenomena, representatives, genres, trends, movements and innovations in the American literary tradition.

3: Developing skills needed for a critical analysis of literary and cultural texts

4: Developing skills for the use of relevant methodologies of literary studies in an analysis of literary texts

5: Developing skills needed for reading, understanding and application of literary criticism

6: Developing skills related to independent thinking, presentation and formulation of ideas

7: Developing skills for critical discussion of literary texts

8: Developing interpersonal skills related to communication, collaboration and group work

9: Developing attitudes of respect, tolerance and openness towards different worldviews, cultures and traditions.

Year 1

Communication with students, selected tasks in preparation for class discussion and exam, some homework assignements, as well as elements of class discussion can be also conducted with the aid of the e-learning platform.

Advanced knowledge of English

Course materials such as handouts, syllabus, requirements are provided by the teacher, either in printed or electronic form. The assigned reading is available at the Faculty of English Library (including the main anthologies of American literature, such as Norton Anthology of American Literature in two volumes and Bradley Anthology The American Tradition in Literature, also in two volumes), most of the source texts are available online at open access websites such as Gutenberg Project, Bartleby,com, some materials, tasks, assignements and handouts will be accessible via Moodle site of the course.

Discussion of assigned texts, content quizes, multimedial presentations, discussion in groups and pairs, class debate, discussion using the e-learning forum

The number of hours (according to the program) with the teacher: 30 hours of conversations

Independent work: 60 hours

Sum: 90 hours

ETCS: 3

History of American Literature is a historically-grounde one-semester course designed to survey the main trends and ideas in American literature from the Colonial Period to the beginning of our century. The syllabus is structured chronologically to facilitate a better understanding of both the inner tensions and the continuity of American literary tradition. The reading list covers the most representative literary figures of a given period or movement and is meant to introduce students to the variety of aesthetic practices, genres, themes and works which make up for the formal, thematic and ethnic richness of American literature and culture. The course is also meant to prepare students for further professional and interpersonal development by encouraging their own literary pursuits and interests and making them sensitive to other cultures and traditions. Students will also learn reading, interpretive and critical strategies useful in further research and in teaching.

History of American Literature is a historically-grounded one-semester course designed to survey the main trends and ideas in American literature from the Colonial Period to the beginning of our century. The syllabus is structured chronologically to facilitate a better understanding of both the inner tensions and the continuity of American literary tradition. The reading list covers the most representative literary figures of a given period or movement and is meant to introduce students to the variety of aesthetic practices, genres, themes and works which make up for the formal, thematic and ethnic richness of American literature and culture. The course is also meant to prepare students for further professional development by encouraging their own literary pursuits and interests and making them sensitive to the cultural value of American literary history. Students will also learn reading, interpretive and critical strategies useful in further research and in teaching. The discussions, class debates and group work will also help them develop various social and interpersonal skills such as respect for cultural difference, including other people's opinions, views and cultural as well as ethnic backgrounds. The students will also develop discussion and presentation skills, independent thinking and formulation of ideas and openness to other cultures and ideas.

The syllabus of the course covers the following content:

History of American literature: temporal and spatial framework; survey of thematics, fundamentals of American culture

The Colonial Period:1620 –1740: Puritan Literature and culture

The American Enlightenment and the War of Independence (1740-1776): Benjamin Franklin and Jonathan Edwards: autobiography

Early Romantic Literature (1820-1850) the shaping of the American national tradition: the rise of the novel and short story (the historical romance of James Fenimore Cooper and Washington Irving's short story)

The American Renaissance: the American Transcendentalism (1835-1861): Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau (essays)

The American Renaissance:the American Gothic: Edgar Allan Poe

The American Renaissance: Dark Romanticism: Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville

The American Renaissance: The Poetry of Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson

Slave Narrative, domestic novel and political prose of the pre-Civil War period: Frederick Douglass

The Post-Civil War Period (1865-1900): realism and naturalism in fiction: Mark Twain, Stephen Crane and Henry James

Modernism in American poetry (1900-1939): Robert Frost, Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot, W.C. Williams, Gertrude Stein, Wallace Stevens, Langston Hughes and Marianne Moore

Modernism in American fiction: William Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway

Poetry of the Beat Generation and the Confessional Poets: Allen Ginsberg, Sylvia Plath

Postmodernist fiction: Kurt Vonnegut

Contemporary novel: Tony Morrison, Louise Erdrich, Sandra Cisneros

Peter Conn. The Cambridge Illustrated History of American Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University

Press, 1989.

Emory Elliott (ed.) Columbia Literary History of the United States. New York: Columbia University Press,

1988.

Andrzej Kopcewicz, Marta Sienicka. Historia literatury Stanów Zjednoczonych w zarysie. Vols. 1, 2.

Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1982.

Agnieszka Salska (ed.) Historia literatury amerykańskiej XX wieku. Vols. 1, 2. Kraków: Universitas, 2003.

Norton Anthology of American Literature. (Volume One and Two)

Bradley Sculley (et. al.) American Tradition in Literature (Volume One and Two)

Richard Ruland and Malcolm Bradbury. From Puritanism to Postmodernism: A History of American

Literature. Penguin Books. 1992.

Stachura, Paweł. 2010. An Outline History of American Literature. Poznań. Wydawnictwo Poznańskie.

Richard Gray. 2004. A History of American Literature. Malden, USA, Oxford, UK, Carlton, Australia.

Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Agata Preis-Smith. 2004. Kultura, tekst, ideologia. Dyskursy współczesnej amerykanistyki. Kraków:

Universitas.

F. O. Matthiessen. The American Renaissance. London: Oxford UP, 1941. (IFA Library Reference)

The Columbia Literary History of the United States, New York. 1990.

Emory Elliot at al. (ed.) The Columbia History of the American Novel and Poetry, New York: 1991 and

1993.

Parini, Jay (1948- ). (ed.) Millier, Brett Candlish. Red. The Columbia History of the American Poetry. 1993.

Sacvan Bercovitch (ed.), associate ed. Cyrus R. K. Patell. The Cambridge History of American literature.

Vol. 1, 1590-1820. Cambridge : Cambridge Univ. Press, 1994.

Pearce, Roy, Harvey. The Continuity of American Poetry. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 1961.

Bigsby, Christopher William Edgar. Modern American drama, 1945-1990. New York: Cambridge

University Press, 1994.

Bigsby, Christopher William Edgar. Modern American drama : 1945-2000. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press, 2000.

Upon successful completion of the module/course) the student has the following knowledge, competences and skills:

1: Student has the essential knowledge of the history of American literature and is able to recognize the main stages of its development in relation to the US history and broader cultural contexts

2. Student is able to analyse and interpret literary texts in historical and cultural contexts

3. Student can read and comprehend academic texts of criticism as well as critically engage with them

4. Student is able to employ critical terminology in an analysis of literary and cultural texts

5. Student offers his own interpreration of texts and is able to actively engage in a discussion of those texts

6. Student creatively uses literary resources in English and Polish

7. Student knows basic literary genres and terms related to American literature and is able to recognize and employ them

9. Student is able to draw independent conclusions and order discussion results

10. Student is able to undertake independent research and develop his/her own research skills

11. Student is tolerant, curious of the world, and open towards other cultures and traditions

12. Student has interpersonal skills related to collaboration and group work

Evaluation methods:

Formative: class or group discussion, verification of students' familiarity of the assigned texts (e.g. short content tests, monitoring of class discussions)

Summative: two end-of-term tests, final exam (6 open questions, to be selected out of 10, the questions will be based on the assigned material and should be answered in the form of coherent paragraphs)

Grading criteria:

excellent (bdb, 5.0): excellent knowledge, competences and interpersonal and social skills

very good (db+, 4,5): very good knowledge, competences and interpersonal and social skills

good (db, 4.0): good knowledge, competences and interpersonal and social skills

satisfactory (dst+; 3,5): satisfactory knowledge, competences and interpersonal and social skills

poor (3.0): poor knowledge, competences and interpersonal and social skills

unsatisfactory (fail) (ndst, 2.0): unsatisfactory knowledge, competences and interpersonal and social skills