Freedom Dreams in20th Century American Literature
BA 2: AN23001BA / AN3301OMA
T 6:00-7:40pm, Room 106
Climbing Poettree, S.T.I.T.C.H.E.D
Dorottya K. Mozes
Email: ,
Office Hours: T 3:00-4.00 andW 4:00-5:00and by appointment
Office Location: Room 116/1
Spring 2017
Course Description
This seminar is designed to help students prepare for their end-of-term examination in 20th century American literature. However, instead of the usual survey format, the course material is organized around a theme: freedom dreams. What if we conceive of the literary text as an act of dreaming? How do American writers imagine freedom? How radical are their critiques of American society, and how inclusive are their utopias? Our writers are concerned with constituting an American identity, but are also struggling to envision dreams of inclusion and belonging –adjusting, modifying, and developingtheir vision of a new society as the century wears on. We’ll look at novels, short stories, and poetry, and consider the changing form of these genres in the age of modernism and postmodernism. We’ll also consider the ways in which the black radical tradition has been marginalized.
Coursework:
1. Class participation (24%)
Active participation means more than just coming to class. It means doing the reading/viewing assignments carefully, annotating your readings (write comments and questions down on the page, circle phrases or words that interest you), and contributing to class discussion. Always bring your texts to class with you.
You will occasionally free-write in class. Free-writing will count toward your participation grade.
2. Class attendance (6%)
This course has a strict attendance policy. More than three absences result in a failing grade.Full attendance is mandatory and will be factored into your final grade. Because the success of this class depends so much on the people within it, I expect you to attend all class meetings and to be on time. Excessive lateness will lower your class participation grade. Unexcused absences will lower your final grade. Except for sickness and emergencies, it is necessary that you see me well in advance of any absence to plan accordingly. Be aware that you are responsible for any assignments due in your absence. If you miss a class, you are expected to write a short response paper (2-3 pages) about the text discussed in class.
3. End-term test (30%)
The course will conclude with an end-term test intended to measure the students’ comprehension and mastery of the material covered through the semester.
4. Final paper (40%)
Students will compose a (5-7 page) critical paper formatted according to MLA guidelines. Paper should be submitted electronically via email.Since a good thesis is one of the tokens of a good essay, you are required to consult with me, either in my office hours or via email, regarding the topic of your essay.
Grade Breakdown:
Class Participation (24%)
Research Presentation (10%)
Class Attendance (6%)
End-term Test (30%)
Final Paper (40%)
Course Requirements and Expectations:
Attendance/Lateness Policy—
Academic Integrity—
Knowingly presenting someone else’s work as your own constitutes plagiarism. Plagiarism is one of the most serious offenses in academia because it undermines the community of integrity that supports a scholarly community. As such, the penalties for plagiarism are harsh.Students who plagiarize will fail the course. Institute policy is that the cover sheet of your essay must contain your name, the title of the essay, the name and code of the course, the date of submission, and the following statement:Hereby, I certify that the essay conforms to international copyright and plagiarism rules and regulations. You must sign this statement.
Laptop/Phone Usage—Social networking, web browsing, texting, or checking email is not permitted during class time. Failure to adhere to this policy will result in a class participation grade of ZERO.
Formatting Guidelines—
Written work should be typed in MS Word. Style requirements are double-spaced essays, with Times New Roman size twelve font with 1 inch margins. I expect you to edit and proofread all written work. Drafts that contain excessive typos, misspellings, or grammar mistakes will be returned to the author for correction before I offer comments. Please give each piece of writing an original title, use page numbers on multi-page assignments, and include your name, assignment, and the due date in a header on the first page. Save the assignment using the following format: last name – due date.doc (e.g. Mozes – 8.26.17.doc).Sources must be cited within all of your written work with MLA-style in-text citations. Your end-term exam and final paper will include a properly formatted list ofWorks Cited, following MLA conventions.
Paper Submission—Final papers will be submitted electronically. Late papers will not be accepted. Print and proofread before uploading.
Required texts—
All readings are available at the Institute library. Novels must be checked out from the library the week before they are due for discussion and returned after they have been discussed.
READING & DISCUSSION SCHEDULE
February 21, Week 1 – Introduction
Robin D. G. Kelley, selection fromFreedom Dreams(2002)
February 28, Week 2 –Into the color line
Ernest J. Gaines, “The Sky is Grey” (1963)
NEA Big Read: Meet Ernest Gaines
March 7, Week 3 –Black modernism: Harlem Renaissance
Zora Neale Hurston, “The Gilded Six Bits” (1933)
March 14, Week 4 – Jazz June: the black radical imagination
Gwendolyn Brooks, “We Real Cool” (1959)
March 21, Week 5 –On the road to freedom
Jack Kerouac, On the Road (1957)
March 28, Week 6–With dreams, with drugs
Allen Ginsberg, “Howl” (1955)
William Burroughs & Antony Balch“The Cut Ups” (1966)
William Burroughs & Antony Balch “Towers Open Fire”
April 4, Week 7 –When the plantation wakes
William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury (1929)
April 11, Week 8 –Consultation Week
April 18, Week 9 –Keeping it surreal
Donald Barthelme, The Dead Father (1975)
April 25, Week 10 –Magical borderland
Rudolfo Anaya, Bless Me, Ultima (1972)
May 2, Week 11 – The house Mama dreamed up
Sandra Cisneros, The House on Mango Street (1984)
May 9, Week 12 – Afrofuturism
Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon (1977)
May 16, Week 13 – E n d - t e r m t e s t
May 23, Week 14 – Evaluation and Assessment
*Instructor reserves right to amend syllabus as needed.
Recommended reading for the examination
No single book will do. Your best bet is to attend the classes. Among IEAS library possessions—and in inadequate copies—we have items that cover only part of the period, or, full literary histories that carry chapters on post-1945 American literature. The same may apply to thematic, ethnic, and genre monographs. Here are a few basic suggestions, containing only comprehensive, period, genre, or gender titles—not all of them available in our library. Explore libraries and bibliographies for more.
Abádi-Nagy Zoltán. Válság és komikum: A hatvanas évek amerikai regénye. Budapest:Magvető, 1982.
---. Az amerikai minimalista próza. Budapest: Argumentum, 1994.
---. Mai amerikai regénykalauz, 1970-1990. Budapest: Intera, 1995.
Bercovitch, Sacvan, ed. The Cambridge History of American Literature. Vol. 7: Prose
Writing, 1940-1990 and vol. 8. Poetry and Criticism, 1940-1995. Ed. Cyrus R. K.
Patell. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1996.
Berkowitz, Gerald M. American Drama of the Twentieth Century. London: Longman,
1992.
Berney, K. A., ed. Contemporary Dramatists. 5th ed. London: St. James P, 1993
---. Contemporary American Dramatists. Templeton: St. James, 1994.
Bigsby, C. W. E. Modern American Drama, 1945-1990. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1992.
---. Contemporary American Playwrights. Cambridge, Cambridge U, 2000.
Bloom, Harold, ed. Contemporary Poets. New York: Chelsea House, 1986.
Bradbury, Malcolm, and Richard Ruland. From Puritanism to Postmodernism: A History of American Literature. New York: Penguin, 1991.
Bollobás, Enikő. Az amerikai irodalom története. Budapest: Osiris, 2005.
Brown, Susan Windisch. Contemporary Novelists. 6th ed. New York: St. James, 1996.
Cheyfitz, Eric, ed. The Columbia Guide to American Indian Literatures of the United
States Since 1945. New York: Columbia UP, 2006.
Elliott, Emory, gen. ed. Columbia Literary History of the United States. New York:
Columbia UP, 1988.
---. Columbia History of the American Novel. New York: Columbia UP, 1991.
Ford, Boris, ed. The New Pelican Guide to English Literature. Vol. 9. American
Literature. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1988.
Gray, Richard. American Poetry of the Twentieth Century. London: Longman, 1990.
---. A History of American Literature. London: Blackwell, 2004.
Hassan, Ihab. Radical Innocence: Studies in the Contemporary American Novel. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1961.
---. Contemporary American Literature, 1945-1972: An Introduction. New York: Ungar, 1973.
Heiney, Donald, and Lenthiel H. Downs. Recent American Literature after 1930. New
York: Barron’s, 1973.
Herman, William. Understanding Contemporary American Drama. Columbia, SC: U
of South Carolina P, 1987..
Hilfer, Tony. American Fiction since 1940. London: Longman, 1992.
Hoffman, Daniel, ed. Harvard Guide to Contemporary American Writing.Cambridge.
MA: Harvard UP, 1979.
Huerta, Jorge. Chicano Drama: Performance, Society and Myth. Cambridge Studies
in American Theatre and Drama 12. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2000.
Kamp, Jim, ed.. Reference Guide to American Literature. 3rd ed. Detroit: St. James
Press,1994.
Klein, Marcus. After Alienation: American Novels in Mid-Century. Cleveland:
Meridian, 1965.
Logsdon, Loren, and Charles W. Mayer, eds. Since Flannery O’Connor: Essays on
the Contemporary American Short Story. Macomb, ILL: Western Illinois U, 1987.
Országh, László and Virágos Zsolt. Az amerikai irodalom története. Budapest: Eötvös
József, 1997.
Parini, Jay. The Columbia History of American Poetry: From the Puritans to Our Time. New York: Columbia, 1993.
Rainwater, Catherine, and William J. Sheick, eds. Contemporary American Women
Writers. Lexington: U of Kentucky P, 1985.
Reynolds, Guy. Twentieth-Century American Women’s Fiction: A Critical Introduction.Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1999.
Riggs, Thomas, ed. Contemporary Poets. 6th ed. New York: St. James, 1996.
Rudman, Jack. American Literature: Civil War to the Present.
Ruland, Richard, and Malcolm Bradbury. From Puritanism to Postmodernism: A Historyof American Literature. New York: Penguin, 1991.
Tallack, Douglas. Twentieth-Century America: The Intellectual and Cultural
Context. London: Longman 1991.
Tanner, Tony. City of Words: American Fiction 1950-1970. New York: Harper, 1971.
Vadon Lehel. Masterpieces of American Drama: An Anthology and Introduction. I-II.
EKTF, 1994.
Virágos Zsolt. A négerség és az amerikai irodalom. Budapest: Akadémiai, 1975.
---. Cf. Országh.
Weaver, Gordon, ed. The American Short Story, 1945-1980: A Critical History. Hall:
Twayne, 1983.