HISTORY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE

Lecturer: mgr BARBARA BRAID

COLLEGIUM BALTICUM

2010/2011

The course is designed for the second year intramural students

COURSE DESCRIPTION:
The purpose of the course is to provide students with the basic overview of the history of the American
literature. It will cover the literature produced in North America (the USA), from the Puritan tradition to the
present. It is also the aim of the course to master the skill of reading, analysing and criticising the works of
literature.

COURSE OBJECTIVES:
By the end of the course, the students will be expected to:

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posses the knowledge of the essential elements of the course: characteristics of the literary periods,
philosophical and cultural background of the periods, certain authors and their literary works;

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present the proficiency in the analytical and critical reading of the literature,

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be able to recognise and pinpoint the characteristic elements of a given epoch in literary examples.

STRUCTURE OF THE COURSE:
The course is structured chronologically, from the Puritan period to the contemporary times, as to provide
students with the basic information about the development of American literature. The classes will be
constructed as seminars devoted to critical analysis of the most important literary works.

CLASS ACTIVITIES AND PROCEDURES:
The course is structured chronologically, from the Puritan period to the contemporary times, as to provide
students with the basic information about the development of American literature. The class will include a
critical analysis of a text or texts in a form of a discussion.
The students are required to:

•

attend the classes (only 2 absences, including a sick leave, in a semester are permissible);

•

read the assigned texts in advance and be able to discuss them;

•

take active participation in discussions about the assigned texts;

•

take a class test on the texts discussed, after each new set of texts are covered (10 in a semester).

In case of 5 or more class tests failed, the student will be given an additional test covering the whole
semester, but which can only be marked ‘ndst’ or ‘dst.’

RESOURCES:
Allen, Derek R. (et. al.) Words, Words, Words. A History and Anthology of Literatures in English. Volumes 1-3.
Milan: La Spiga Languages, 2003.
Gray, Richard, 2004. A History of American Literature. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2004.
Kopcewicz, A. and Marta Sienicka. Historia literatury amerykańskiej w zarysie. (2 tomy) Warszawa: PWN, 1983.
Budrecki, Lech. Piętnaście szkiców o nowej prozie amerykańskiej. Warszawa: Czytelnik, 1983.
Childs, Peter and Roger Fowler. The Routledge Dictionary of Literary Terms. London: Routledge, 2006.
Elektorowicz, Leszek, Zwierciadło w okruchach. Warszawa: PIW, 1966.
Sachs, Viola. Idee przewodnie literatury amerykańskiej. Warszawa: Wiedza Powszechna, 1992.
Salska, Agnieszka. Historia literatury amerykańskiej XX wieku. (2 tomy) Kraków: Universitas, 2003.
Glenco Literature. The Reader’s Choice. American Literature. Columbus, OH: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2002.

COURSE OUTLINE:

The titles in bold represent longer texts (dramas or novels)

1.

The Puritans: William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation (fragments); Ann Bradstreet, Upon the

Burning of Our House, July 1666; Jonathan Edwards, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

(fragment).

2.

The Enlightenment: Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography (fragments); J. Hector St. John de

Crèvecœur, Letters from an American Farmer (fragment); Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of

Independence

3.

Early national literature and Transcendentalism: Washington Irving, Rip Van Winkle; Ralph

Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance (fragment); Henry David Thoreau, Walden (fragment).

4.

The American Renaissance (Romanticism): Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven and The Fall of the

House of Usher.

5.

The American Renaissance (Romanticism): Nathaniel Hawthorne, Young Goodman Brown and

The Birthmark.

6.

The American Romantic poetry: Emily Dickinson, I heard a Fly buzz, The Bustle in the House,

Because I could not stop for Death, There is a certain Slant of Light, This is my letter to the world.

7.

Realism: Henry James, The Turn of the Screw.

8.

Naturalism: Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage.

9.

Modernist poetry: T. S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock; Ezra Pound, In the Station of

the Metro, Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken.

10.

The Roaring Twenties: Francis Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby.

11.

The Great Depression: John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men.

12.

American contemporary drama: Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire.

13.

American contemporary novel: J D Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye.

14.

American contemporary poetry: Sylvia Plath, Daddy and Lady Lazarus; Allen Ginsberg,

Supermarket in California.

15.

SEMESTER TEST