AMERICAN LITERATURE 1 MOD. 2

The course is part of the Master’s Degree programs in European, American and Postcolonial Language and Literature and in Language Sciences and aims at providing students with advanced knowledge and skills in the field of American literature (late 19th and early 20th century). Students will improve their skills in analyzing prose texts and in relating such texts to their historical and cultural contexts. The analytical skills students have learnt during the BA course will be further verified and developed, to include more specialized knowledge of literary history, critical theory and methodology. In addition, they will broaden their experience in working autonomously and in presenting the results of their own research.

The learning outcomes of the course are 1. development of knowledge and understanding of the key literary texts of late 19th- and early 20th-century realist literature; 2. the skill to apply this knowledge and understanding to other texts; 3. the development of advanced communication skills in English; 4. autonomous formulation of judgements in analyzing primary and secondary texts; 5. ability to work synergically with other students.

Advanced knowledge of oral and written English (≥ C1). Good knowledge of the history of American literature and of the key concepts of literary theory previously learned during the BA course in Languages, Civilisation and the Science of Language and/or through the reference books indicated below.

The course will examine canonical and non-canonical authors and texts representative of the novel of manners in the United States.

Henry James, Roderick Hudson (1875)
Edith Wharton, The Custom of the Country (1913)
Sinclair Lewis, Main Street (1920)
Jessie Redmon Fauset, There Is Confusion (1924)
Wallace Thurman, The Blacker the Berry (1929)

Further critical material will be available on Moodle.

The primary works above mentioned and critical readings available on the course's Moodle

1. Group presentations (30 minutes max.) on a text in the syllabus made in order to evaluate the ability to work synergically with other students; (20% of the final grade)
2. Short paper (3000 words max) in which students are required to show their skills in analyzing and contextualizing the texts in the syllabus in a critical and autonomous way. To be handed in at least one week before the exam (50% of the final grade)
3. Oral exam (30 minutes max.) in which students will be evaluated in their ability to analyze and contextualize literary texts in a critical and autonomous way. The level of English and communication skills will also be evaluated. (30% of the final grade for attending students; 50% for non attending students)

Lectures, seminars, and class discussion

English

written and oral