AJ15000 American Literature: Beginnings to 1865

Faculty of Arts
Autumn 2010
Extent and Intensity
0/2/0. 2 credit(s) (plus 2 credits for an exam). Recommended Type of Completion: zk (examination). Other types of completion: z (credit).
Teacher(s)
doc. PhDr. Tomáš Pospíšil, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
Jeffrey Alan Vanderziel, B.A.
Department of English and American Studies – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Tomáš Hanzálek
Timetable of Seminar Groups
AJ15000/A: Tue 11:40–13:15 G31, T. Pospíšil
AJ15000/B: Tue 13:20–14:55 G31, T. Pospíšil
Prerequisites (in Czech)
( AJ09999 Qualifying Examination || AJ01002 Practical English II ) && AJ04003 Intro. to Literary Studies II
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 40 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/40, only registered: 0/40, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/40
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
This is a survey course covering American literature from the beginnings to 1865 and putting special emphasis on such aspects as the Romantic period (Irving, Poe), Transcendentalism (Emerson, Thoreau), and the prose writers and poets of the "American Renaissance" (Hawthorne, Melville, Whitman). Readings for seminars will be from an anthology of American literature (Norton or American Tradition in Literature).
Syllabus
  • week 1
  • Introduction to the course.
  • week 2
  • John Winthrop - A Model for Christian Charity, II. 39 William Bradford - First Thanksgiving 69, Thomas Morton of Merrymount 69 Thomas Morton - From New English Canaan 22 Ann Bradstreet - In Memory of My Dear Grandchild...111; Meditations nos. 1, 40, 67, 71 pages 116-118
  • week 3
  • Roger Williams - A Letter to the Town of Providence 91 Jonathan Edwards - Sinners in the Hands.... 331 - 336 Benjamin Franklin - The Way to Wealth 361; The Autobiography 461-9; Letter to Ezra Stiles 406 De Crevecoeur - What is an American? 558
  • week 4
  • Thomas Jefferson - The Declaration of Independence 638 Thomas Paine - The American Crisis 624 James Madison – The Federalist No.10 670 Phillis Wheatley - On Being Brought from Africa 729
  • week 5
  • Washington Irving - Rip Van Winkle 810
  • week 6
  • Edgar Allan Poe - The Fall of the House of Usher 1386; The Purloined Letter 1425; The Raven 1369; The Philosophy of Composition 1459 William Cullen Bryant - The Yellow Violet 891
  • week 7
  • Ralph Waldo Emerson - Self-Reliance 956, The American Scholar 931
  • week 8
  • Henry David Thoreau – Walden: Economy 1635-1643, 1645-1654; Where I Lived, and What I Lived for 1677–1687; recommended: Resistance to Civil Government 1620 Solitude 1702–1708; Conclusion 1800–1808
  • week 9
  • Walt Whitman – Song of Myself, esp. 1 - 24, 52 1974; Crossing Brooklyn Ferry 2032 recommended: Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking AT 1725, N 2036
  • week 10
  • Nathaniel Hawthorne – The Scarlet Letter 1187
  • week 11
  • Herman Melville – Benito Cereno 2224 recommended: Billy Budd. Sailor 2300, Bartleby the Scrivener 2164 Nathaniel Hawthorne
  • week 12
  • Emily Dickinson – Poems numbered 67, 130, 216, 258, 280, 328, 341, 435, 501, 640, 712, 1400, 1670
  • week 13
  • Harriet Beecher Stowe - The Mother's Struggle 1533 Frederick Douglass - Narrative.... Chapters I and X 1881, 1907-14 Spirituals: elf
  • week 14
  • course summary
Literature
  • The Norton anthology of American literature. Edited by Nina Baym. 6th ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2003, s. 1071-19. ISBN 0393979008. info
Teaching methods
This course lasts one term, and ends with a written exam. There will be one seminar per week. Students missing more than two seminars per semester automatically fail the course. Please come to the seminars having read the works assigned, and prepared to discuss them. The standard of your preparation will be occasionally tested by means of short in-class quizzes. You may also be asked to write brief responses to the texts and submit them in ELF prior to the lesson. Please note that this schedule is subject to change dependent on the specific needs of the group.
Assessment methods
Assessment: attendance, presentation, written exam.
Language of instruction
English
Further Comments
Study Materials
The course is taught annually.
Teacher's information
http://www.phil.muni.cz/elf/course/category.php?id=4
The course is also listed under the following terms Autumn 1999, Autumn 2000, Autumn 2001, Autumn 2002, Autumn 2003, Autumn 2004, Autumn 2005, Autumn 2006, Autumn 2007, Autumn 2008, Autumn 2012, Autumn 2014, Autumn 2016, Autumn 2018, Autumn 2020.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Autumn 2010, recent)
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