AJPV_ALMS American Literature: In Different Voices

Faculty of Education
Autumn 2011
Extent and Intensity
0/2/0. 3 credit(s). Type of Completion: k (colloquium).
Teacher(s)
Mgr. Pavla Buchtová (seminar tutor)
Guaranteed by
PhDr. Irena Přibylová, Ph.D.
Department of English Language and Literature – Faculty of Education
Contact Person: Jana Popelková
Timetable of Seminar Groups
AJPV_ALMS/01: Wed 12:30–14:10 učebna 56, P. Buchtová
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
The capacity limit for the course is 25 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/25, only registered: 0/25, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/25
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
This survey course examines American literature from the beginning of the twentieth century to present, covering two important literary movements, modernism and postmodernism. The course is designed to introduce students to the ideas and pleasures literature offers us, and encourages students to think about the texts and discuss them in the class. Students are also asked to keep a journal of their thoughts and responses to themes and ideas expressed in the texts.
At the end of this course, students should be able to describe at least two different varieties of literary modernism and discuss how black and white modernist experiments may have influenced each other; appreciate the diversity of modernist authors; see connections between the art and literature of the modern era; discuss several different schools of poetry; describe postmodernism, discuss its causes and origins, and discuss ways in which the twentieth-century fiction and poetry respond to the postmodern condition; explain how minority writers (women, ethnic, racial and sexual minorities) have used postmodern narrative techniques to define their identities
Syllabus
  • 1. Modernist poetry (Ezra Pound, W. C. Williams, e. e. cummings, Wallece Stevens, T. S. Eliot)
  • 2. Modernist fiction (Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway)
  • 3. Harlem Renaissance (Langston Hughes, Claude McCay, Zora Neale Hurston, blues lyrics)
  • 4. Southern literature (William Faulkner, Flannery OConnor)
  • 5. Drama (Edward Albee)
  • 6. Jewish authors (I. B. Singer, Woody Allen, Art Spiegelman)
  • 7. Postmodern literature I (Donald Barthelme, John Barth)
  • 8. Postmodern literature II (Kathy Acker, Joyce Carol Oates)
  • 9. Afro-American literature (Lucille Clifton, June Jordan, Alice Walker)
  • 10. Ethnic literature (Sandra Cisneros, Amy Tan, Sherman Alexie, Dian Million, Ofelia Zepeda)
  • 11. Contemporary poetry (Frank OHara, Allen Ginsberg, Sylvia Plath, Laurie Anderson)
Literature
  • The Columbia history of the American novel. Edited by Emory Elliott - Cathy N. Davidson. New York: Columbia University, 1991, xviii, 905. ISBN 0-231-07360-7. info
  • The Heath anthology of American literature. Edited by Paul Lauter. Lexington, Mass.: D.C. Heath, 1990, xxxix, 261. ISBN 0-669-12065-0. info
  • Columbia literary history of the United States. Edited by Emory Elliott. New York: Columbia University Press, 1988, xxviii, 12. ISBN 0-231-05812-8. info
Teaching methods
discussion-based seminars
group work
Assessment methods
1) Response papers (1 for each seminar), focusing on one text from the assigned reading
2) final credit test (a multiple choice test which includes 25 questions covering the studied topics, each correct answer is evaluated as 4 points; the pass mark is 60 points)
Language of instruction
English
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
Study Materials
The course is taught annually.
General note: literární seminář.
Information on the extent and intensity of the course: 2 hodiny.
The course is also listed under the following terms Autumn 2012, Autumn 2013, Autumn 2014, Autumn 2015, Autumn 2016, Autumn 2017, Autumn 2018, Autumn 2019.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Autumn 2011, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/ped/autumn2011/AJPV_ALMS