PdF:A2BK_AM20 American Literature - Course Information
A2BK_AM20 American Literature of the 20th Century
Faculty of EducationAutumn 2008
- Extent and Intensity
- 0/0/24. 5 credit(s). Type of Completion: k (colloquium).
- Teacher(s)
- Mgr. Pavla Buchtová (seminar tutor)
- Guaranteed by
- Mgr. Lucie Podroužková, Ph.D.
Department of English Language and Literature – Faculty of Education
Contact Person: Jana Popelková - Prerequisites (in Czech)
- A2BP_SOZK Complex Exam || A2BK_SOZK Complex Exam
- Course Enrolment Limitations
- The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.
- fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
- Teacher Training in Foreign Languages - English Language (programme PdF, B-SPE)
- 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
- Assessment methods
- discussion-based seminars
Course requirements:
1) 80% attendance (if you miss more than two classes, then you have to work on reading journals for each class missed)
2) Read the material assigned in the syllabus (it will be checked by in-class quizzes)
3) At least five contributions to mood-link forums
4) Occasional mood-link tasks (reading journals, essays)
5) Final credit test - Language of instruction
- English
- Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
- The course is taught annually.
The course is taught: every week.
Information on the extent and intensity of the course: 24 hodin.
- Enrolment Statistics (Autumn 2008, recent)
- Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/ped/autumn2008/A2BK_AM20