AMERICAN LITERATURE 1
AN 23000BA/ AN 3300OMA
BA II, OMA III
Time and place:Thursday, 14-16, Room S111;
Friday, 12-14, Room 55
Instructor:Dr. Szathmári Judit (Office: 108/1; )
Office hours: Wednesday 14-15, Thursday 11-12, or by appointment
DESCRIPTION AND GOALS:
The seminar is designed to familiarize students with representative literary texts and authors from the “classic” period of American literature. Discussions and presentations will focus on poetry, fiction, short fiction, the tale, as well as some examples of literary criticism. Works by Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), Herman Melville (1819-1891), Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864), Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) and Walt Whitman (1819-1892) will be analyzed during the semester.
ATTENDANCE AND GRADING POLICY:
Students are expected to come to sessions prepared for in-class discussions. Students must bring an electronic or printed copy of the assigned readings to class. In accordance with university regulations,missing more than three sessions will result in a failing grade.
Final grades will be based on:
-informed class attendance and contributions to discussions: (20%) (no make-up option)
-unannounced text recognition tests (30%) NOTE: failing to achieve 60% on the TRTs will result in a failing grade (Make-up option is offered at the time of the end-term test.)
-end-term test: (30%) (no make-up option)
-presentation: (20%) (no make-up option).
0-60% = fail (1); 61-70% = satisfactory (2); 71-80% = average (3); 81-90% = good (4); 91-100% = excellent (5).
TEXT RECOGNITION TESTS:
TRTs are unannounced quizzes on the readings. You must be able to identify short and relevant quotes from the assigned texts (author’s name, exact title, brief context).
ORAL PRESENTATION: 5-minute (NET) presentations to highlight the significance of topics assigned by the instructor. Topics are related to weekly assigned readings. In preparing for their talks,students are required to consult Portraits and Landmarks by Zsolt Virágos. NOTE: The end-term test will include questions pertaining to the presentations, therefore students must prepare a handout AND/OR ppt to serve as a guideline and assistance to fellow students. The content of your talk, the lay-out of the handout AND/ OR ppt, your performance, and presentation skills will also count toward the final evaluation. Should students be unable to attend the class their presentation is scheduled for, they MUST inform the instructor the day before the session otherwise NO MAKE-UP OPTION will be offered.
ACADEMIC DISHONESTY AND PLAGIARISM (FAILURE TO ACKNOWLEDGE SOURCES) WILL ABSOLUTELY NOT BE TOLERATED AND WILL RESULT IN A FAILING GRADE.
READINGS
There is no single textbook available for this course. The syllabus includes a list of primary and secondary sources.
The three texts listed below are not anthologized. Any unabridged edition is acceptable.
(1) Henry David Thoreau, Walden, or Life in the Woods (1854)
(2) Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter (1850)
(3) Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884)
Baym, Nina, et. al. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. New York: Norton, 1989.
Bollobás, Enikő. Az amerikai irodalom története. Budapest: Osiris, 2005.
Elliot,Emory, et.al. Columbia Literary History of the United States. New York: Columbia U
P, 1988.
Virágos, Zsolt. Portraits and Landmarks. The American Literary Culture in the 19th Century.
Debrecen: U of Debrecen IEAS, 2010.
W / DATE / ASSIGNMENT / Presentation1 / Sept. 14/15 / ORIENTATION / --
2 / Sept. 21/22 / Edgar Allan Poe, “The Raven,” “The Philosophy of Composition,” “Annabell Lee” / Poe’s general significance and contribution to literary criticism
3 / Sept.28/29 / Edgar Allan Poe, “The Purloined Letter,” “The Fall of the House of Usher” / Poe’s stories of crime, stories of peril, sensationalist stories
4 / Oct. 5/6 / Ralph Valdo Emerson, “Self-Reliance” “Concord Hymn” / New England Transcendentalism
5 / Oct. 12/13 / Henry David Thoreau, Walden; Or, Life In The Woods / Thoreau’s tropes
6 / Oct. 19/20 / Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself” (1, 6, 11, 21, 52), “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” / Preface to Leaves of Grass
7 / Oct. 26/27 / Emily Dickinson, poems (“Wild Nights, Wild Nights,” “The Soul Selects Her Own Society,” “Hope is a Thing with Feathers,” “Because I Could Not Stop for Death,” “After a Great Pain a Formal Feeling Comes,” “My Life Had Stood a Loaded Gun,” “Narrow Fellow”) / Dickinson’s themes
8 / Nov. 2/3 / READING WEEK
NO CLASS
9 / Nov. 9/10 / Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Young Goodman Brown,” “Rappaccini’s Daughter,” “The Birthmark” / Hawthorne’s tales
10 / Nov. 16/17 / Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter / New England Puritanism
11 / Nov. 23/24 / Kate Chopin, “The Story of an Hour,” “The Storm”; Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper” / The defiant “mob of scribbling women”
12 / Nov. 30
Dec. 1 / Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn / “Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses”
13 / Dec. 7/8 / In-class test
14 / Dec. 14/15 / Assessment