Syllabus
1. Lecture: Colonial American Literature (online video lecture) Introductory class
2. Lecture: Enlightenment Reading assignment – Benjamin Franklin: 2 pamphlets
3. Lecture: Romantism I Reading assignment – Washington Irving: The Legend of the Sleepy Hollow
4. Lecture: Romantism II E.A.Poe: The Black Cat, The Tell-Tale Heart
5. Lecture: Romantism III Reading assignment – N. Hawthorne: Birthmark
6. Lecture: Romantism IV – slave narratives Reading assignment – The Narrative of Frederick Douglass
7. Lecture: 19th century poetry (online video) Reading assignment – Whitman, Dickinson
8. Lecture: American Transcendentalism Četba – H.D. Thoreau: Civil Disobedience
9. Lecture: Transition between Romanticism and Realism Četba – H. Melville: Bartleby the Scrivener
10. Lecture: Realism/Naturalism I Reading assignment –A. Bierce: An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge S. Crane: The Red Badge of Courage (excerpt)
11. Lecture: Realism/Naturalism II – Local Color Reading assignment –Kate Chopin: A Respectable Woman and 4 other stories Optional reading assignment – C.P.Gilman: The Yellow Wallpaper
12. Realismus/Naturalismus III – muckraking Theodore Dreiser: Typhoon
Annotation
Course profile: This course aims to give the students a general outline of the most significant events in American literature, focusing largely, but not exclusively, on canonical authors. These seminars complement lectures which reside in presenting a particular literary movement, including its social and cultural background. These are then followed by a close reading session which focuses on the selected seminar texts (short stories, plays, novels/extracts etc.).
The lectures provide a theoretical context for an understanding of Romanticism, Realism and Naturalism; the seminars focus on an interpretation of most important works of the period.
Requirements: 80% attendance (2 unexplained absences are permissible);
Either a short handwritten essay (450 words), written against the clock at the end of the term, or a longer typewritten essay (1300 words) on one of the assigned topics.