COURSE DESCRIPTION AND CONTEXTUALIZATION



American Literature II is a fourth-year course in the English Studies degree and it is intended to provide students with a general survey of contemporary American literature (20th and 21st centuries), focusing on some of its most representative texts, including both canonical and non-canonical authors. The course will examine the interaction between contemporary American literary texts and their historical and cultural context.

COMPETENCES





Within the English Studies degree, this subject belongs to the English Literature module (M04). This course focuses on four of the competences of the module:



CM01. – To understand the English language and to use it properly through the reading of different literary texts.

CM02.- To analyze literature written in English exploring the interaction of the literary texts with the cultural and historical context in English-speaking countries.

CM03.- To understand, analyze and interpret critically literature in English, using adequate text analysis techniques and to transmit and discuss it in groups and individually

CM04.- To understand the role of literature in the genesis of personal and collective ideas related to fields of general interest, such as history, social relations or gender.



Final achievement of the module competences above entails the fulfillment of the degree competences:



G004.- To understand, analyze and interpret English literature and to be able to evaluate critically texts and documents in English.

G007.- To be able to relate the specific knowledge of the degree with other areas and disciplines and to transmit that knowledge in further studies in order to favor conciliatory and tolerant attitudes towards multilingual and multicultural diversity.

G008.- To be able to work autonomously and in teams making use of the techniques and tools acquired.

G009- To be able to transmit the knowledge acquired in different academic contexts to be used in diverse professional contexts.



LEARNING OUTCOMES



1) In this course students can recognize the dominant literary movements and genres in American literature during the 20th and 21st centuries, establishing a proper connection between literary texts and their historical and cultural context.

2) By the end of the course students are expected to identify and explain the main themes, characters and stylistic devices of the compulsory readings texts.

3) Students are able to employ properly critical reading strategies, including the use of the required literary terms.

4) By the end of the course students are able to discuss critically the main achievements of representative contemporary American texts.

CONTENTS



AMERICAN LITERATURE II



1) Introduction: Historical and Cultural Background.

2) U.S. Literature Before World War I: Realism and Naturalism.

3) U.S. Literature Between the Wars: Modernisms.

4) Postwar U.S. Literature: Postmodernism

5) The Age of Diversity

TEACHING AND LEARNING STRATEGIES



1. Theoretical lectures: 40 hours (classroom activities) and 60 hours (out-of-classroom activities). Theoretical lectures will provide students with a general survey of 20th century and 21st century American literature, exploring its main currents, genres. authors, and texts. These lectures will offer a basic introduction to the historical and cultural background of the different texts to be analyzed during the term.

2. Practical lectures: 20 hours (classroom activities) and 30 hours (out-of-classroom activities) Seminars and practical lectures will be used to discuss the texts included on the compulsory reading list. Students are expected to play an active role during these lectures, discussing the main themes, characters, and formal features of the different texts. Students will have to offer their individual/group readings of these texts taking into account different critical stances.

3. Total number of required hours: 150



*Tutorials will help students to check the progress of their assignments, in particular, of their essay writing. Office hours will be particularly useful for individual/group guidance, a deeper understanding of course material, and the development of critical inquiry through active questioning.

• Ebaluazio Jarraituaren Sistema
• Azken Ebaluazioaren Sistema
• Kalifikazioko tresnak eta ehunekoak:
  • Garatu beharreko proba idatzia (%): 50
  • Praktikak egitea (ariketak, kasuak edo buruketak) (%): 25
  • Lanen, irakurketen... aurkezpena (%): 25

ASSESSMENT (ORDINARY):



The final grade for this course will be based on the following criteria:



- Class participation: 25 %. This class aims for excellent discussion. Participation will be evaluated as follows: 2.5= excellent contributions to class discussions, 2 = good contributions, 1 = respectful listening and occasional contributions. Class participation will be employed to assess the following competences: CM01, CM02, CM03, CM04, G004, G007, G008, G009.

- Written essay/review: 25 %. Students are asked to write a group essay (with a maximum of 4 students per group) on one of the texts included in the second part of the syllabus (texts published after 1950). The essays (no longer than 6,000 words, MLA style) should not be conceived as traditional research papers. Instead, the papers should reflect their own thinking on the works they have read and be your reaction and analysis. Students are asked to choose the topics and the texts to be discussed in their paper by OCTOBER 30 (the topics will be assigned on a “first come, first served” basis). Oral presentations of the papers (15-20 minutes) will start in mid-November and the written version of the paper should be handed in to the professor by DECEMBER 11.

*Alternatively, students may write an individual mid-term review of an American literary text published in the 20th century or in the present century and not included in the compulsory reading list for this year. The review should be short (about 1,500 words) and follow MLA format. The deadline for this review is DECEMBER 11.

The written essay/review will be used to assess the following competences: CM01, CM02, CM03, CM05, G004, G008, G009.

- Written examination: 50 %. The mid-term exam will consist of two different parts. In Part I, students will be given a topic to discuss it, analysing its wider implications and providing examples from the compulsory reading texts. In Part II, students will have to analyze a passage from one of the texts included on the compulsory reading list. They should discuss its literary context, topics, characters, style, structure, language and/or any other relevant issues. The exam will be employed to assess the following competences: CM01, CM02, CM03, CM05, G004, G009.



- Information on the use of resources and materials for the assessment tasks/exam



Exam: The use of mobile or electronic devices, notes, books is not allowed.

Home-assignments: the work submitted by the students must be their own work and must have been written completely by themselves. The students must identify and include the source of all facts, ideas, opinions and viewpoints of others, through in-text referencing and the relevant sources should all be included in the list of references at the end of their work. Direct quotations from books, journal articles, internet sources or any other source must be acknowledged and the sources cited must be identified in the list of references.





Withdrawal from Continuous or Mixed Assessment: All students have the right to be evaluated according to the final evaluation procedure independently of whether or not they have participated in the continuous or mixed assessment module. In order to do withdraw from the continuous assessment, they must write the instructor responsible for the course expressing their desire to do so. Students can withdraw within the first 9 weeks of the course, according to the academic calendar of their centre. The form that has to be filled in is available at the website of the faculty. http://www.ehu.eus/eu/web/letrak/idazkaritza

Withdrawal from an Exam Call: Withdrawal from a call will be assessed as “no grade reported” [no presentado/a], ez aurkeztua).

1. In the case of continuous or mixed assessment, not sitting the exam on the official date of the exam qualifies as an automatic withdrawal from the corresponding call.

2. In the case of final assessment, not sitting the exam on the official date of the exam qualifies as an automatic withdrawal from the corresponding call.

ASSESSMENT (EXTRAORDINARY)



- Written examination: 100 %. The exam will consist of two different parts. In Part I, students will be given a topic to discuss it, analysing its wider implications and providing examples from the compulsory reading texts (discussing means working around an essay title and reaching a conclusion, which does not need to be the one implied in the title). It should follow the outline of an essay: introduction, development of the central theme of the essay, and conclusion. In Part II, students will have to analyze a passage from one of the texts included on the compulsory reading list. They should discuss its literary context, topics, characters, style, structure, language and/or any other relevant issues. The exam will be employed to assess the following competences: CM01, CM02, CM03, CM05, G004, G009.



- Information on the use of resources and materials for the assessment exam:

the use of mobile or electronic devices, notes, books is not allowed.



- Withdrawal from an Exam Call: Withdrawal from a call will be assessed as “no grade reported” [no presentado/a], ez aurkeztua). Not sitting the exam on the official date of the exam qualifies as an automatic withdrawal from the corresponding call.





The new regulation about assessment can be found at the following link:

http://www.ehu.eus/es/web/estudiosdegrado-gradukoikasketak/ebaluaziorako-arautegia



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BIBLIOGRAPHY

1) REQUIRED TEXTS FOR 2023/2024:

- Edith Wharton: Ethan Frome (1911) * novella
- A selection of modernist poetry: Robert Frost: "The Road Not Taken" (1916), Wallace Stevens: “Anecdote of the Jar”(1923), William Carlos Williams: "The Red Wheelbarrow" (1923), H.D.: "Oread" (1914, 1924), Langston Hughes: "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" (1921, 1926) * NAAL
- Eugene O'Neill: The Hairy Ape (1922) * play
- F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby (1925) * novel
- Zora N. Hurston: "The Gilded Six-Bits" (1933) * short story (NAAL)
- John Steinbeck: Of Mice and Men (1937) *novel
- Tennessee Williams: The Glass Menagerie (1945)* play
- J. D. Salinger: The Catcher in the Rye (1951) * novel
- Arthur Miller: The Crucible (1953) * play
- Robert Laxalt: Sweet Promised Land (1957) * memoir
- Sylvia Plath: “Daddy” (1962)* poem
- John Barth: “Lost in the Funhouse” (1967) * short story
- Hunter S. Thompson: An excerpt from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1971) *non-fiction
- Sandra Cisneros: The House on Mango Street (1983)* novel
- Annie Proulx: "Brokeback Mountain" (1997) *short story

*Note: NAAL= Norton Anthology of American Literature, Vol.II.

Oinarrizko bibliografia

- Baym, Nina et al., eds. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 6th ed. Vol. II. New York: Norton, 2002.

- Childs, Peter & Roger Fowler. The Routledge Dictionary of Literary Terms. London: Routledge, 2006.

Gehiago sakontzeko bibliografia

- Bilton, Alan. An Introduction to Contemporary American Fiction. Edinburg: Edinburgh UP, 2002.
- Bordman, Gerald. The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. New York: Oxford UP, 1992.
- Bradbury, Malcolm. The Modern American Novel. New York: Oxford UP, 1992.
- Fredman, Stephen, ed. Twentieth-Century American Poetry. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005.
- Lee, A. Robert. Multicultural American Literature. Edinburg: Edinburg UP, 2003.
- Millard, Kenneth. Contemporary American Fiction. New York: Oxford UP, 2000.

Aldizkariak

- American Literature
- American Literary History
- Atlantis
- Revista de Estudios Norteamericanos
- Western American Literature

Web helbideak

- American Literature: Twentieth Century Texts and Resources (University of Virginia): http://www.xroads.virginia.edu
- Norton Websource to American Literature: http://www.norton.com/naal/
- Outline of American Literature: http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/oal/oaltoc.htm
- PAL: Perspectives in American Literature- A Research and Reference Guide: http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/TABLE.HTML
- Voices of the Shuttle: WebPage for Humanities Research (American Literature): http://humanitas.ucsb.edu/shuttle/english.html