description & set texts
This is a seminar to highlight major works of American literature from the first quarter of the19th century to the turn of the century. The aim of the course is to teach basic techniques of reading and interpreting literary texts as well as situating them in their distinct context in American culture.
This seminar also seeks to develop and integrate traditional and (post)modern techniques of acquiring and processing information from printed and electronic texts and information from the Internet.
Syllabus
Week 1: Registration Week (no classes)
Week 2: Introduction
Week 3: Constructing American Identity 1: Washington Irving
Texts to read:
Washington Irving, “Rip Van Winkle” (Heath 1) or
http://www.online-literature.com/irving/geoffrey_crayon/4/ and
http://www.bartleby.com/310/2/
Netting America: Ch 3(A): A.5, A.5.4 + Recommended Websites; Ch 3(B): B.0, B.1, B.1.1
Assignment: WB1 U1
Week 4: Constructing American Identity 2: Edgar Allan Poe
Texts to read: Edgar Allan Poe, “The City in the Sea,” “Dreamland,” “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Heath 1 or
The Fall of the house of Usher also at
http://www.americanliterature.com/Poe/TheFallofTheHouseofUsher/TheFallofTheHouseofUsher.html
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/932
http://www.bartleby.com/195/10.html
Netting: Ch 3(B): B.1.3 (Poe)
Assignment: WB1 U2
Week 5: American Renaissance 1: Nathaniel Hawthorne
Texts to read: Nathaniel Hawthorne, "Rappaccini's Daughter" , “The May-Pole of Merry Mount” (Norton 1),
Netting: Ch 1(A): A.5, esp A.5.2 (Puritans), A.5.3.1 (Social Str), A.5.3.4 (Gender and Family)
A6. 1 (First Great Awakening); Ch 3(B): B.3 (Am Renaissance), B.3.3 (Hawthorne)
Assignment: WB1 Unit 3
Week 6: Amistad (video)
Week 7: Discussion of Amistad
Texts to read: Netting: Ch 3(A): A.2, A.2.1, A.2.2, A.6, A.6.1, A.6.2, A.6.3, Ch 3(B): B.2.1 (Douglass)
Assignment: WB1 Unit 4
Week 8: American Renaissance 2: Hermann Melville
Texts to read: Melville, Benito Cereno
Netting: Ch 3(A): A.5.3 (Am Transcendentalism); Ch 3(B): B.3 (Am Renaissance), B.3.4 (Melville)
Assignment: WB1 U 5
Week 9: Fall Break
Week 10: Midterm exam
Week 11: Women’s Voices: Margaret Fuller
Texts to read: Fuller, The Great Lawsuit (extract), “Declaration of Sentiments” at
http://www.nps.gov/archive/wori/declaration.htm
Netting: Ch 3(A): A.3.3 (Changes in Gender Dynamics), A.5.1 (Ed. Reform), A.5.3 (Am Transcendentalism)
Ch 3(B): B.2 (Democratic Vistas), B.2.3 (Fuller)
Assignment: WB1 U6
Week 12: The Last Puritans: Henry Adams
Texts to read
Netting:
Assignment: WB1 U7
Week 13 The Age of Innocence (video)
Week 14 Discussion of video and Edith Wharton’s novel, The Age of Innocence
Texts to read: The Age of Innocence (novel):
http://www.bartleby.com/1005/
or
http://emotionalliteracyeducation.com/classic_books_online/agino10.htm
Netting: Ch 4(B): B.3 (White Women’s Lit)
Assignment: WB1 U8
Week 15 Final Exam
requirements & assessment
Textbook: NETTING AMERICA: INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN CULTURE
AND LITERATURE
Electronic textbook for BA students, ed. Eva Federmayer; written by Irén Annus, Éva Federmayer, and Judith Sollosy
Available for SzTE users at
http://cwebng.bibl.u-szeged.hu/america/É
ELTE users please go to
http://eltebtk.aspnet.hu/default.aspx, click ‘Gépeskönyv,’ find ANGLISZTIKA, then Introduction to American Culture and Literature. To enter use your ETR username and password. When the page opens (Telepítési útmutató), click MEGTEKINTÉSE. The Table of Contents is easy to use and so are the chapters and sub-chapters inside.
Should any trouble occur in locating the site, just google Netting America Federmayer and you will immediately find the textbook at your disposal.
Should any trouble occur in locating the site, just google Netting America Federmayer and you will immediately find the textbook at your disposal.
Requirements (mendatory for all students): active participation (group work and/or individual assignments might be included), written homework in Workbook 1 for each class, midterm exam, final exam. Please note that there is no other day but the last class period assigned for the final (written) exam, so you must come to write it if you want to have a final grade.
The assessment of your work will equally depend on your oral and written performance. Make sure that you always come prepared to class with the assigned texts on hand and the homework done in your WB units for each period. Please be prepared to submit your written homework in the Workbook at any time.
Make sure that you come to class on time and leave the classroom only when the class is over. If you are not in class 15 minutes after it has begun, you are automatically assumed to be absent. More than three absences (for whatever reason) automatically make your course incomplete.