A Syllabus for: American Literature

A Syllabus for: American Literature
An M.A. Course in English Literature
N.Ghabeli

P The penultimate purpose for the present course is to provide you with a glimpse (!) into various phases of American literature, from its early formation to the contemporary (re)formations.
 [B1]: Blackwell Companion 1780-1865
 [B2]: Blackwell Companion 1865-1914
P [N]: Norton Anthology of American Literature


1st Week    Introduction

2nd Week    CONTEXT:    Colonial Period
                Essay: ● [B1] Michael Drexler and Ed White, “Literary Histories”
        FIGURE:    Phillis Wheatley
        TEXT:        “An Hymn to Humanity”, “On Imagination”

        CONTEXT:    New Republic
                Essay: ● [B1] J. Kennedy, “National Narrative and the Problem of American                     Nationhood”    
        FIGURE:    Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson
        TEXT:        T. Paine, The Rights of Man
                T. Jefferson, “Declaration of Independence”

3rd Week    CONTEXT:    Romanticism: The New York Group
                Essay: ● [B1] Paul Downes, “Fiction and Democracy”
         FIGURE:    Edgar Allen Poe
                
        TEXT:        The Raven

4th Week           CONTEXT:    Realism/ Naturalism

                        FIGURE:       Mark Twain,  

5th Week    CONTEXT:    Modernism/ Poetry
Essay: ● P. Rabinowitz, “Social Representations within American Modernism”
        
                           FIGURE:              Wallace Stevens, T.S. Eliot
        
                                  

6th Week            CONTEXT:      Modernism/ Poetry
                           
                           Figure:              Sylvia Plath, Marge Piercy  

                                    
7th Week    CONTEXT:    Modernism/ Fiction
Essay: ● Rita Barnard, “Modern American Fiction”
        FIGURE:    William Faulkner
                  
        TEXT:        “A Rose for Emily”

8th Week    CONTEXT:    Modernism/ Drama
Essay: ● Stephen Watt, “Modern American Drama”
        FIGURE:    Eugene O’Neil
                
                           TEXT:                The Iceman Cometh

9th Week    CONTEXT:    Postmodernism/ Poetry
                Entry: ● “Black Mountain School”, From The Companion to 20th C. Amr Poetry
        FIGURES:    Charles Olson, Robert Creeley, Robert Duncan, Denise Levertov
        TEXT:        Charles Olson, “I, Maximus of Gloucester to You” [N]

10th Week    CONTEXT:     Gender/ Race/ Fiction
 Essay: ● Derrick Bell, “The Sexual Diversion: The Black Man/Black Woman     Debate in Context”, From Black Men on Race, Gender and Sexuality
     
FIGURE:     Tony Morrison
 
        TEXT:        Beloved


11th Week    CONTEXT:    Diaspora/ Fiction
Chapter: ●     
        FIGURE:    Jhumpa Lahiri
Essay: ●         
        TEXT:        “This Blessed House”
 
12th Week    CONTEXT:    Postmodernism/Fiction
                Essay: ● Fredric Jameson, “Postmodernism and Consumer Society”
        FIGURE:    John Barth
Essays: ● John Barth, “The Literature of Exhaustion”, “The Literature of Replenishment”
        TEXT:        Paul Auster, from The New York Trilogy
                
13th Week    CONTEXT:    Native American Literature
                Chapter: ● Steven Otfinoski, “Overview”, From Native American Writers
                Entry: ● “Introduction”, From Encyclopedia of American Indian Literature
        FIGURE:    Sherman Alexie
                Essay: ● Ron McFarland, “Another Kind of Violence: Sherman Alexie’s        Poems”
        TEXT:        “All I Wanted to Do Was to Dance: For Diane”    


13th Week    CONTEXT:    Contemporary Southern/Western Literature
                Chapter: ● John Beck, “Introduction”, From Dirty Wars
        FIGURE:    Cormac McCarthy
    Chapter: ● Keneth Lincoln, “The Final Story: The Road”, From Cormac McCarthy: American Canticles         
        TEXT:        The Road (Movie)

14th Week    Catch-up    


NOTES

 The 3000-word term project should be the application of a theoretical concept on a contemporary American   text.

GRADING
Quiz: 3                        Term Project: 3        
Class Participation: 3                Final Exam: 11        

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