American Literature to the End of the 19th Century - OB2301013
Title: Americká literatura do konce 19. st.
Guaranteed by: Katedra anglického jazyka a literatury (41-KAJL)
Faculty: Faculty of Education
Actual: from 2015
Semester: winter
E-Credits: 2
Examination process: winter s.:
Hours per week, examination: winter s.:1/1, C [HT]
Capacity: unknown / unknown (unknown)
Min. number of students: unlimited
4EU+: no
Virtual mobility / capacity: no
State of the course: taught
Language: English
Teaching methods: full-time
Additional information: http://dl1.cuni.cz/course/view.php?id=2325
Note: course can be enrolled in outside the study plan
enabled for web enrollment
priority enrollment if the course is part of the study plan
Guarantor: doc. PhDr. Josef Grmela, CSc.
Mgr. Jakub Ženíšek, Ph.D.
Pre-requisite : OB2301012
Is pre-requisite for: OSOZ2A, OSOZ2AA, OB2301014, OSOZ2B, OSOZ2BB
Is interchangeable with: OPBA2A114A
Opinion survey results   Examination dates   WS schedule   Noticeboard    E-learning course
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.
Last update: ZENISEK/PEDF.CUNI.CZ (04.10.2015)
Course completion requirements -

Requirements: 80% attendance (2 unexplained absences are permissible);
Either a short handwritten essay (350 - 600 words), written against the clock at the end of the term, or a longer typewritten essay (1300 words) on one of the assigned topics.

Last update: Ženíšek Jakub, Mgr., Ph.D. (21.12.2018)
Literature -

Primary recommended sources:

  1. Ruland, R., Bradbury, M. From Puritanism to Postmodernism, New York: Viking Penguin, 1991. ISBN-13: 978-0140144352.
  2. Procházka, M., Quinn, J., Ulmanová, H., Roraback, E. Lectures on American Literature. Praha, 2002. ISBN 9788024619965.
  3. High, Peter, An Outline of American Literature, London: Longman, 2007.
  4. Van Spanckeren, K. Outline of American Literature – revised edition. US Information Agency, 1994.
  5. Lauter, P., Yarborough, R., Cheung, K., Molesworth, C.  The Heath Anthology of American literature, Early Nineteenth Century: 1800 - 1865, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2005. ISBN-13: 9780618532988.
  6. Lauter, P., Yarborough, R., Alberti, J., Brady, M. The Heath Anthology of American literature: Volume A: the Beginnings to 1900, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2008. ISBN: 0-618-54250-7.

Secondary bibliography:

  1. Bercovitch, S. (ed.). The Cambridge History of American Literature. Cambridge, 1994.
  2. Bradbury, M.:. The Modern American Novel, Oxford: O.U.P, 1992.
  3. Elliott, E. et al, (Eds.) Columbia Literary History of the United States, Columbia University Press, 1988-2001.
  4. Hendin, J. (ed.). A Concise Companion to Postwar American Culture and Literature. Londýn, 2004.
  5. Minter, D. A Cultural History of the American Novel,Cambridge:CambridgeUniversity Press, 1996.
  6. Procházka, Martin a Stříbrný, Zdeněk. Slovník spisovatelů [literatur v angličtině]. Nakladatelství Libri: Praha, 2003.
  7. Roth, J., (Ed) American Diversity, American Identity,New York: Henry Holt, 1995.
  8. Starling, M. W. The Slave Narrative: Its Place in American History. Washington, DC: Howard University Press, 1988.
Last update: Ženíšek Jakub, Mgr., Ph.D. (28.10.2019)
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

Last update: Ženíšek Jakub, Mgr., Ph.D. (21.12.2018)
Learning resources

To access the reading assignments for seminars, pls. go to:

https://dl1.cuni.cz/course/view.php?id=2325

 

enrolment key: frank

 

To access the backup course materials for lectures, pls. go to:

https://dl1.cuni.cz/course/view.php?id=2324

 

enrolment key: frank

 

If you are asked to sign in with your login and password, use the same login and password you use to enroll in SIS

Last update: Ženíšek Jakub, Mgr., Ph.D. (28.10.2019)