HENB01105U English - Elective 2, topic 5: American Literary History in the Contemporary World

Volume 2015/2016
Content

This course will survey a wide range of American writing, including poetry, prose, and non-fiction from the earliest discovery narratives of the continent to late-nineteenth century humor and Realism. In the course of the semester, students will gain a strong sense of American literary movements, popular genres, and recurrent thematic concerns. We will approach authors through a chronological survey (discovery to circa 1900), but will also read and discuss contemporary criticism of their work, and for each text develop a sense of its continued influence on American literary and popular culture, whether through graphic narratives, digital archives, or contemporary rewritings of the work.

Writers covered will include Benjamin Franklin (from Autobiography), Ralph Waldo Emerson (“Friendship,” “Self-Reliance” and other essays), Henry David Thoreau (Walden), Lydia Sigourney (selected poems), Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Hiawatha), Margaret Fuller (Summer on the Lakes and selected essays), Herman Melville (selected stories), Emily Dickinson (selected poems), and Mark Twain (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn).

  • Category
  • Hours
  • Lectures
  • 42
  • Preparation
  • 162,75
  • Total
  • 204,75
Credit
7,5 ECTS
Type of assessment
Other
Criteria for exam assesment