Universidad de Jaén

UNIT 1. FORMATIVE PERIOD: 1620-1836.

1.1. Colonization and Immigration. The French and Indian War.The Revolution. The New Republic.

1.2. Colonial Literature: Literary models and methods imported from Great Britain. The Puritan theory of style.

1.3. Towards a national literature: the frontier.

1.3. Towards a national literature: the frontier.

1.4. The Enlightenment. Newspapers, almanacs and magazines.

1.5. The beginnings of Romanticism.

UNIT 2. A NATIONAL LITERATURE IN NEW ENGLAND: 1836-1900.

2.1. Democratization of Politics. The Civil War. Reconstruction. Westward Expansion. Overseas Imperialism.

2.2. Transcendentalism.

2.3. Poetry of the Self.

2.4. Slavery.

2.5. Realism, naturalism, regionalism, local color and utopianism as transition movements.

2.5.1. Professional Women Writers.

UNIT 3. MODERN AGE: 1900-1945.

3. 1.The City. Industrialization. Capitalism. IWW. Migration to Europe. The Depression. The New Deal. IIWW.

3.2. Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance.

3.3. A Lost Generation.

3.4. Jazz Age and the Red Decade: The Agit-prop Theater.

3.5. The Southem Literary Renaissance.

UNIT 4. AFTER WORLD WAR II: THE GLOBAL VILLAGE.

4. 1. The CoId War. The Liberation movements. Vietnam. The Watergate Fiasco. War in the Middle East.

4.2. From Black Mountain to the Poetry of the Deep Image.

4.3. Broadway.

4.4. Fictional genres: from neorealism to postmodernism.

4.5. Ethnic Literatures and the canon.

Set Readings:

1. William Bradford , Of Plymouth Plantation (compiled between 1630 and 1651, published in 1856). Book I, Chapter I ("The Separatist Interpretation of the Reformation in England, 1550-1607, excerpt), Book I, Chapter IV ("Showing the Reasons and Causes of Their Removal"); Book II, Chapter XI ("The Remainder of Anno 1620. The Mayflower Compact")
2. Anne Bradstreet, "The Author to her Book" (1678), Edward Taylor, "Huswifery" (1682-1725)
3. Mary Rowlandson, The Narrative of the Captivity and Restauration of Mrs Mary Rowlandson" (1682)
4. Thomas Jefferson, "The Declaration of Independence as Adopted by Congress (July 4, 1776)"
5. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur, "Letter III: What is an American?" in Letters from an American Farmer (A fragment)
6. Washington Irving, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (1820)
7. Edgar Allan Poe, "Ligeia" (1838)
8. Frederick Douglass, Chapers 1-4 from The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself (1845)
9. Herman Melville, "Bartleby, the Scrivener" (1853/1856)
10. Walt Whitman, "Song of Myself", sections 1-10. (1855)
11. Emily Dickinson, "This Was a Poet - It is That" (1862), "I Felt a Funeral in My Brain" (1896)
12. Henry James, "Daisy Miller: A Study" (1878)
13. Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884)
14. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, "The Yellow Wallpaper" (1892)
15. Ezra Pound, A selection of poems
16. Francis Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925)
17. William Faulkner, "A Rose for Emily" (1930)
18. Richard Wright, "The Man Who Was Almost A Man" (1939)
19. Carson McCullers, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1940)
20. Flannery O'Connor, "The Life You Save May Be Your Own" (1955)
21. Allen Ginsberg, "A Supermarket in California" (1956)
22. John Updike, "A&P" (1962)
23. Sylvia Plath, "Lady Lazarus" (1965)
24. Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye (1970)

Lectures will be devoted to the analysis of the social and historical background of the chosen authors and works. We will read several chapters from literary history books included in the bibliographical references and critical articles that will be digitalised and uploaded to the subject's website. Students's participation in class discussions with comments and questions  will be favoured. 

Practical sessions will focus on the reading and analysis of the selected works, which belong to different periods of American literature. Those texts are available in the library both in individual volumes and as part of anthologies. Students should read and analyse them before the session. 

Students with special educational needs should contact the Student Attention Service (Servicio de Atención y Ayudas al Estudiante) in order to receive the appropriate academic support

The final mark includes:

a) Active participation in class discussions and group work

b) Final exam, where the following aspects will be evaluated:

-Students' knowledge about  American literary history since the beginnings till the contemporary age (Short questions and essay-like questions)

-Identification of the most relevant works and authors.

-Literary comments on a selection of texts.

c) Identification and discussion of fragments from the five complete works students must read during the semester. Students will be given a number of fragments from these works, they must identify and discuss them. This activity will take place during a one-hour session at the beginning of May 2020.

The assessment procedure S1 develops competences CB4, E25 and G06. These competences lead to the learning outcome R22.

The assessment procedure S2 develops competences CB1, CB2, CB5, E12 and E23. These competences lead to learning outcomes R13 and R20.

The assessment procedure S3 develops competences CB3, G04 and G07. These competences lead to learning outcomes R04 and R07.