ENG122 American Literature and Culture

ENG122 fall 2007

ENG122 American Literature and Culture

Fall semester 2007

Studenter på lærerutdanningen skal ha deler av dette pensumet (mer informasjon ved semesterstart).

Textbooks (available at Studia)

The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Packages 1 (Vols. A–B) and 2 (Vols. C–E), 7th ed. 2007.

Hansberry, Lorraine, A Raisin in the Sun. (You need the stage play edition, published by Signet-Random House. Do not buy the screenplay edition.)

Morrison, Toni. Sula. (Vintage ed.)

Tindall, George B., David E. Shi, and Thomas Lee Pearcy, The Essential America (Norton).

Study Guide: American Literature and Culture (Dept. of English, U. of Bergen, 2007).

We expect students to use a handbook of literary terms, where literary and critical terms that are used in the course are explained. We recommend that students buy one of these:

Murfin, Ross C., and Supriyia M. Ray, TheBedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms.

Abrams, M.H., A Glossary of Literary Terms.

The books and the Study Guide will be available at Studia at the beginning of the semester. In the Study Guide students will find information about the course, some texts from the list of required reading, notes and questions for texts discussed in seminars, and a Style Sheet (information about how to use and document sources in the paper assignments).

The TRUST program—an interactive electronic resource for reading poems from the list of required reading—can be accessed online (see Studentportalen).

Required Reading[1]

1. Primary Texts

* Novels and plays (i.e. longer texts) are marked with an asterisk (*). Unless a publisher is given, these longer texts are all included in The Norton Anthology.

I. Texts 17th and 18th Centuries (Colonial Period, Early Republic)

Winthrop, John, from “A Model of Christian Charity,” (excerpt; from “Thus stands the cause …”), Norton A: 157–58.

Crèvecoeur, J. Hector St. John de, from “Letter III: What Is an American” (excerpt; to “[…] religion and language”), Norton A: 596–601.

Jefferson, Thomas, from Notes on the State of Virginia (excerpt),Study Guide (also Norton A: 664–65).

Hamilton, Alexander, from “Report on Manufactures” (excerpt) Study Guide.

Franklin, Benjamin, from TheAutobiography [Part Two] (excerpt; from “I had been religiously…” to “Thus far written at Passy, 1784”), Norton A: 525–534.

II. Texts 19th Century, before 1865 (American Renaissance)

Poe, Edgar Allan, “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Norton B: 1553–65.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, “Each and All” and “Days,” Study Guide.

Thoreau, Henry David, “Resistance to Civil Government,” Norton B: 1857–72.

*Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself, Norton B: 2064–2129.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel, “Young Goodman Brown,” Norton B: 1289–98.

Whitman, Walt, “Song of Myself” (excerpts; 1881 version): poems 1, 2, 6, and 52, Norton B: 2210–11, 2213–14, 2254 (or Norton C: 30–31, 33–34, 74).

Melville, Herman, “Bartleby, the Scrivener,” Norton B: 2363–89.

Dickinson, Emily, No. 328: “A Bird came down the Walk—”; No. 465: “I heard a Fly buzz—when I died—”; and No. 632: “The Brain—is wider than the Sky—,” Norton B: 2571, 2579–80 (or Norton C: 84–85, 87–88).

III. Texts 1865–1914 (Period of Industrialization and Literary Realism)

Twain, Mark, “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” Norton C: 104–08.

James, Henry, “Daisy Miller,” Norton C: 391–429.

Crane, Stephen, “The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky,” Study Guide.

*Chopin, Kate, The Awakening, Norton C: 535–625.

Eastman, Charles Alexander/Ohiyesa, “Chapter VII: The Ghost Dance War,” from From the Deep Woods to Civilization, Norton C: 717–24.

DuBois, W.E.B., “1. Of Our Spiritual Strivings,” from The Souls of Black Folk, Norton C: 895–901.

IV. Texts 1914–1945 (Literary Modernism)

Cather, Willa, “Neighbour Rosicky,” Study Guide.

Frost, Robert, “Home Burial,” Norton D: 1395–98.

Williams, W.C., “Spring and All” and “The Red Wheelbarrow,” Norton D: 1466–67, 1469.

Hurston, Zora Neal, “How It Feels To Be Colored Me,” Norton D: 1710–13.

Faulkner, William, “Barn Burning,” Norton D: 1955–67.

Hemingway, Ernest, “The Snows of Kilimanjaro,” Norton D: 1983–99.

V. Texts 1945– (Approaching Our Own Time: Postmodernism and More)

*Miller, Arthur, Death of a Salesman, Norton E: 2327–92.

*Hansberry, Lorrain, A Raisin in the Sun (Vintage-Random House ed.).

Hughes, Langston, “Harlem: What happens to a dream deferred?” (epigraph in Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun; here the poem appears without a title).

O’Connor, Flannery, “Good Country People,” Norton E: 2529–43.

Ginsberg, Allen, “A Supermarket in California,” Norton E: 2584–85.

Plath, Sylvia, “Morning Song” and “Lady Lazarus,” Norton E: 2700–03.

Silko, Leslie Marmon, “Lullaby,” Norton E: 3083–90.

*Morrison, Toni, Sula (Vintage ed.).

Tan, Amy, “Two Kinds,” from TheJoy Luck Club, Norton E: 3155–63.

Cisneros, Sandra, “Woman Hollering Creek,” Norton E: 3164–71.

2. Cultural Studies and Literary History

2.1.The Norton Anthology of American Literature, vols. A–E (packages 1 and 2):

all introductions to literary periods
all introductions to the writers on the reading list

2.2.George B. Tindall, David E. Shi, and Thomas Lee Pearcy, The Essential America.

The required reading from this textbook is specified in a separate document. (In the course folder in “Studentportalen” you will find the same document in a format that can be used as an insert in your textbook).

[1]Required reading for students enrolled in the teacher training program consists of the assigned readings for the first 8 weeks of the course (see course schedule). Note that this also applies to the section “2. Cultural Studies and Literary History.”