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American Studies module descriptions

Classic US Texts || American History: 1877 - present || Modern American Writing || Ethnicity and Diversity in American Life || American Film and Visual Culture || Ethnicity and Diversity in American Literature: 1950 - 2000

Year one

Semester one

Classic US Texts

This module is intended to introduce students to the distinctive characteristics of American literature by a detailed study of texts written and published in the nineteenth century. The module involves analysis of individual works of American literature that have been designated ‘classic texts’ by critics over the last fifty years, including well-known works by Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Harriet Beecher Stowe and Mark Twain.

Content

Students will study the following works:

• Washington Irving, ‘Rip Van Winkle’ (1820) and ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’ (1820)
• Edgar Allan Poe, selected short stories
• Walt Whitman, ‘Song of Myself’ (1855)
• Emily Dickinson, selected poetry
• Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter (1850)
• Frederick Douglass, Narrative of Frederick Douglass (1845)
• Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)
• Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884)

Learning and Teaching

The module involves weekly one-hour lectures and weekly one-hour seminars.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the module students will be able to:

• Identify and examine the main themes and techniques of nineteenth-century American texts, relating them to their literary, cultural and historical contexts
• Respond to nineteenth-century American texts in an informed and independent way
• Articulate their observations and arguments about the texts in speech and writing coherently and articulately

Assessment

The module will be assessed by:

1) An essay of not more than 2000 words to be submitted in the American Studies box (Floor 15) and electronically via Blackboard

2) A 2-hour examination (linked to AM1005: Modern American Writing) to be taken in the assessment period at the end of Semester 2 in 2011 (40%)

3) A group project (linked to AM1005: Modern American Writing) (20%). 

Lectures

Week 1 Introduction to Module (NE)

Week 2 Washington Irving, ‘Rip Van Winkle’, ‘The Legend of Sleepy      Hollow’ (MH)

Week 3 Edgar Allan Poe, ‘Ligeia’, ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’, ‘The Masque of the Red Death’, ‘The Purloined Letter’, ‘The Philosophy of Composition’ (NE)

Week 4 Walt Whitman, ‘Song of Myself’ (NE)

Week 5 Emily Dickinson, Poems (SG)

Week 6 Assignment of Group Projects (for AM1002 & AM1005) (NE)

Week 7 Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter I (PM)

Week 8 Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter II (NE)

Week 9 Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (CM)

Week 10  Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin (MH)

Week 11 Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (NE)

The module is taught by lectures and seminars. Students taking AM1005 in Semester two will do a group work project across both modules.

Semester two

American History: 1877 - present

  • Convenor: Dr Eleanor Thompson
  • Credits: 20
  • Course code: AM1004

To survey the history of the United States since 1877, introducing the key events, issues and themes to provide a framework for further study in American history and culture.

Content

Although organised chronologically the course will include a number of linking themes including the development of the Imperial Presidency; the USA and the World; the tension between rural life and values and the urban destiny of the United States; the roles of race, class and gender in American life; and the role of ideology in American life and politics.

Learning and teaching

Twenty lectures outline the historical narrative and key issues of historiographical debates which are then discussed in six seminars.

Learning outcomes

By the end of this module students will be familiar with the key periods of US history since 1877, and events and themes within those periods.  They will be able to engage the major historical questions arising from this period, orally in class presentations and discussion, and with the help of research in essays and in the final examination.

Assessment

1) Two Hour Exam: 80% - Two questions to be answered in two hours - questions may link two or more lectures/themes.
2) Assessed Essay: 20% - Word Limit: 2,000.
One Seminar Presentation is also required to aid development of oral communication skills.  This presentation is unassessed, in the sense that it does not contribute to the overall mark, but it must be completed and passed in order to pass the course.

Reading list

A full reading list for current students, broken down by period, is available on Blackboard.  Suggestions for general background reading include:
BOYER, Paul et al.  The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People
DIVINE, Robert et al. America: Past and Present
FONER, Eric. Give Me Liberty
HOFSTADTER, Richard. The American Political Tradition
TINDALL, George & SHI, David. America: A Narrative History
ZINN, Howard.  A People’s History of the United States

Lectures

Introduction
Part One: 1877-1900 - The Gilded Age and Crisis of the 1890s
 1. To a Modern America – Part 1: Politics and Economics in the Gilded Age.
 2. To a Modern America – Part 2: Immigration and Urbanisation.
 3. The Shock of Modern America: The Crisis of the 1890s.
Part Two: 1900-1919 - The Progressive Era.
 4. Progress? Progressivism at Home.
 5. The Rise to Empire: Progressivism Abroad.
 6. Saving the World: The USA and the Great War.
Part Three: 1920-1941 - The Inter-War Years.
 7. All that Jazz: Myth and Reality in the 1920s.
 8. One Hundred Days that Saved America: The New Deal.
 9. FDR’s Backdoor to War: The Road to Pearl Harbor.
Part Four: 1941-1955 - The Rise to Global Power.
 10. The War at Home: The USA & World War Two.
 11. The Devil Without - Origins of the Cold War.
 12. The Devil Within - the Era of McCarthyism.
Part Five: 1955-1975 - The Ordeal of Liberalism.
 13. Black America 1945-1975: The Civil Rights Movement.
 14. The Feminine Mystique: Women in Post-war America
 15. The Limits of Power: The USA and the Vietnam War.
 16. The Rise and Fall of the Great Society: US Domestic Politics 1960-1974.
Part Six: 1975-2000 - New World Order
 17. Back to the Future: the Domestic Politics of the Reagan Era
 18. The Wounded Giant: USA and the World since Vietnam.
 19. New Domestic Disorder: Politics and Society in the post-Cold War Era

Modern American Writing

This module introduces students to modern American writing in fiction, poetry and drama. We begin with key texts of the late nineteenth century, consider the emergence of modernism and the contribution of African American writers, and close with American drama of the 1940s. The module combines detailed study of important literary texts positioned within their historical and cultural contexts to explore the ways in which American literature has represented the experience of living in a rapidly changing society. The texts we study illuminate issues central to twentieth-century America such as gender, sexuality and racial politics and explore themes like national identity and the impact of immigration; the relationship between past and present; the family; innocence and experience; aspiration and disillusion; consciousness and perception. The module aims to help students develop informed, coherent and cogently argued responses to modern American writing, both in seminar discussions and in written work.

Content

Students will study the following texts:
Henry James, Daisy Miller: A Study (1878); ‘The Art of Fiction’ (1884)
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, ‘The Yellow Wall-paper’ (1892)
Willa Cather, My Ántonia (1918)
F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925)
Nella Larsen, Quicksand (1928)
Poetry by Claude Mackay, Countee Cullen and Langston Hughes
Poetry by William Carlos Williams and Wallace Stevens
Eugene O’Neill, A Long Day’s Journey Into Night (1940)
Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire (1947)

Learning and teaching

Weekly lectures will provide historical and cultural context for the texts under discussion. Weekly seminars will give students the opportunity to focus on analysis of the texts, make comparisons between them and develop their understanding of the literature of the period.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module students will have developed
• the ability to discuss and analyse modern American literature in its different forms
• the ability to demonstrate an informed understanding of the historical and cultural contexts of modern American literature
• the ability to articulate coherent responses to and interpretations of modern literature in group work, essay and exam assessment

Assessment

The module has three components of assessment:
(1) a group project (20% of the module mark)
(2) a 2000-word essay (40% of the module mark)
(3) a 2-hour examination (40% of the module mark)
Students must not write in the exam on a text they have discussed in depth in their essay
Students must complete all three components to gain a grade for the module.

Reading list

All the texts for the module are in The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Volumes C, D & E (7th edition), apart from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald; we recommend the Penguin edition.

Books

General background
Richard Gray, A History of American Literature (2004)
The American Novel
*Malcolm Bradbury, The Modern American Novel (1995)
Brian Lee, American Fiction 1865-1940 (1987)
*David L. Minter, A Cultural History of the American Novel: Henry James to William Faulkner (1994)
American Poetry
Albert Gelpi, A Coherent Splendor: The American Poetic Renaissance 1910-1950 (1988)
*Richard Gray, American Poetry of the Twentieth Century (1990)
Helen Vendler, Part of Nature, Part of Us: Modern American Poets (1980)
American Drama
Thomas Adler, American Drama, 1940-1960: A Critical History (1994)
*Gerald Berkowitz, American Drama in the Twentieth Century (1992)
C.W.E. Bigsby, A Critical Introduction to Twentieth-Century American Drama (1984)
(*highly recommended)

Digital resources

Do use the Library's Digital Databases for your own research on authors and texts. You will find JSTOR Arts & Sciences, Project Muse, and Expanded Academic ASAP particularly useful.

Lectures

Lectures are on Mondays at 12.00 noon in Ken Edwards Lecture Theatre 1
Week 1 Henry James, Daisy Miller: A Study (1878) [NE]
Week 2 Charlotte Perkins Gilman, ‘The Yellow Wall-paper’ (1892) [SG]
Week 3 Willa Cather, My Ántonia (1918) [SG]
Week 4 F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925) [CM]
Week 5 Nella Larsen, Quicksand (1928) [SG]
Week 6 Harlem Renaissance Poetry [SG]
Week 7 Modernist Poetry. [NE]
Week 8 Eugene O’Neill, A Long Day’s Journey Into Night (1940) [PM]
Week 9 Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) [PM]

Year two

Semester one

Ethnicity and Diversity in American Life

  • Convenor: Dr Eleanor Thompson
  • Credits: 20
  • Course code: AM2014

To gain a full understanding of modern America, it is essential to analyse the role that the diversity of its population has played in the nation's development. From slavery to Barack Obama‟s run for the presidency in 2008, the treatment of America's ethnic groups has played a conspicuous role in US history. This module will examine the ways in which ethnic identities are constructed, and pay close attention to African, Native, Hispanic and white Americans, analysing their place in a single 'American' identity, and the way in which they have struggled against oppression.

Content

Lectures are designed to familiarise students with the key events and themes of the history of ethnicity and diversity in the years following Emancipation, beginning with an analysis of usefulness of terms that are central to the course, such as “ethnicity” and “race.” Lectures will also trace important aspects in the developing history of African, Native, Hispanic, and Asian Americans, alongside some of the ways in which white Americans have sought to maintain a political, social and economic superiority over those non-white groups. Students will also be introduced to historiographical debates in lectures, and to the wide availability of source materials for studying ethnicity and diversity in the USA.

Seminars are designed to allow students a more in depth look at many of the themes introduced by the lectures, and allow for a closer look at relevant historiographical debates. In these seminars, students will work closely in small groups, and will be asked to prepare material beforehand. Primarily, this is because student participation is key to the success of seminars, which rely on informed discussion, reasoned argument and relevant questioning.

Description

In order to gain a full understanding of modern America, it is essential to analyse the role that the diversity of its population has played in the nation’s development. From slavery to voting irregularities in the 2000 Presidential election, the treatment of America’s ethnic groups has played a conspicuous role in US history. This course will examine the ways in which ethnic identities are constructed, before paying close attention to African, Native, Hispanic and White Americans, analysing their place in a single, “American” identity, and the ways in which they have attempted to struggle against oppression.

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this module students are expected:
• To demonstrate an understanding of the key themes and events in the history of ethnic groups in the post-Emancipation United States
• To demonstrate familiarity with, and an understanding of, the construction of ethnic identities in American life
• To show an awareness of the historiography of ethnic history and recognise that the subject is one of ongoing historical debate
• To have studied two aspects of ethnicity in some depth in preparation for two 2,000 word assessed essays
• To have developed their essay writing skills
• To have been given the opportunity to develop oral presentation skills in a small group environment

Contact Hours

2 lectures per week [total 18 lectures]
5 seminars

Assessment

Unseen Examination: 60%
Assessed Work:  40% [assessed essay 30%; assessed oral presentation 10%]

Module Outline

Week 1.
Lecture 1: Introduction

Week 2. 
Lecture 1: The Concepts, Complexities and Constructions of Race
Lecture 2: Ethnic Identities: Composite Parts and Complex Reactions

Week 3.
Lecture 1: Slavery: Arguments of the White South
Lecture 2: Jim Crow and the Imposition of Segregation

Week 4.
Lecture 1: Whiteness, the Melting Pot & the Construction of Ethnic Identity
Lecture 2: Immigration & Reaction: Nativism and “100% Americanism”
Seminar 1: Introduction & Organization

Week 5.
Lecture 1: The Depression & Black Unionisation
Lecture 2: Emerging Black Consciousness: Washington, DuBois & Garvey
Seminar: Preparation week – no seminar

Week 6.
Lecture 1: Asian Americans and World War II
Lecture 2: The Impact of War on Black America
Seminar 2: Segregation, Racism and Early African American Responses

Week 7.
Lecture 1: An Inclusive Coalition: the Civil Rights Movement
Lecture 2: “Black is Beautiful”: Exclusion, Separatism and Black Power
Seminar 3:  Nativism, Immigration and Oppression, c.1900 - 1945

Week 8.
Lecture 1: ‘To Decolonise the Mind’: Chicano Activism and Mexican Americans
Lecture 2: Native Americans: Ethnic Switching & the American Indian Movement
Seminar 4: Black Power & Cultural Nationalism

Week 9. 
Lecture 1: White Flight! Segregation & the Rise of New Conservatism
Lecture 2: The Bell Curve and the Return of Racial Science
Seminar 5: Native Americans and Hispanic Americans

Week 10.
Lecture 1: Affirmative Action: Restoring the Balance or Reverse Discrimination?
Lecture 2: Conclusion

American Film and Visual Culture

In this module we will examine American film from the silent comedies of Buster Keaton to the 'US Independents' of the twenty-first century. The focus will be on film and the American film industry, but we will also look at other forms of visual culture (including painting, photography and television) and the changing cultural context within which these were produced and received. Students will develop their knowledge of American film history as well as the skills necessary for the critical understanding of particular texts and their relationship to American cultural contexts.

Assessment
  • Two-hour Examination 50%
  • 2500-word essay 50%

Semester two

Ethnicity and Diversity in American Literature: 1950 - 2000

American and literary studies have been transformed in recent decades by a new emphasis on the work of writers from a variety of ethnic backgrounds and the different perspectives they offer on American culture. At the same time, contemporary writers from such backgrounds have started making a great literary and cultural impact both in the United States and abroad.

This module will focus on a range of ethnic writing published in the second half of the twentieth century, ranging from major work by Jewish American and African American writers to examples of Native, Asian and Hispanic literature. The module will concentrate on issues of alienation, integration and multicultural identity by exploring the ways in which writers have responded to their particular cultural circumstances. It will look at parallels and contrasts between different ethnic perspectives. The module covers various kinds of writing: novels, short stories and poems. A recurrent focus will be literary genre and style and in particular how African, Native, Hispanic and Asian American writers have adapted and/or challenged stylistic and generic conventions for their purposes.

The module aims to help students develop informed, coherent and cogently argued responses of their own to American literature, both in seminar discussions and in their written work. It also aims to foster team-working skills with students participating in a group work project.

Content

Students will study the following texts and authors:
Samuel Huntington, ‘The Crisis of National Identity’
Bill Clinton, ‘The Struggle for the Soul of the 21st Century’
Randolph Bourne, ‘Transnational America’
Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man [1952] (Penguin)
N. Scott Momaday, The Way to Rainy Mountain [1969] (Norton)
Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior [1977] (Picador)
Lorna Dee Cervantes and Alberto Rios (Norton)
Toni Morrison, Beloved [1987] (Virago)
Bharati Mukherjee, Jasmine [1989] (Virago)

Learning and teaching

Weekly lectures will provide historical and cultural context for the texts under discussion. Weekly seminars will give students the opportunity to focus on analysis of the texts, make comparisons between them and develop their understanding of the literature of the period.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module students will have developed
• the ability to discuss and analyse post-war and contemporary American literature in its different forms
• the ability to demonstrate an informed understanding of the historical and cultural contexts of post-war and contemporary American literature
• the ability to articulate coherent responses to and interpretations of post-war and contemporary literature in group work, essay and exam assessment
Assessment
The module has three components of assessment:
(1) a group project (20% of the module mark)
(2) a 2000-word essay (30% of the module mark)
(3) a 2-hour examination (50% of the module mark)
Students must not write in the exam on a text they have discussed in depth in their essay
Students must complete all three components to gain a grade for the module.

Reading list

Nina Baym et al (eds), The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Vol. E, 6th  or 7th edition
Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (Penguin)
Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior (Picador)
Toni Morrison, Beloved (Vintage)
Bharati Mukherjee, Jasmine (Virago)

Lectures

Week 1  Introduction: Cultural Identity and Ethnicity [PJ]
   Samuel Huntington, ‘The Crisis of National Identity’
   Bill Clinton, ‘The Struggle for the Soul of the 21st Century’
   Randolph Bourne, ‘Transnational America’
   Walter Benn Michaels, The Trouble with Diversity, ‘Introduction’
   (all will be available to you as a handout)
Week 2  Jewish American Fiction [PJ]
   Saul Bellow, ‘Looking for Mr. Green’ [1951] (handout)
   Bernard Malamud, ‘The Magic Barrel’ [1958] (Norton)
   Philip Roth, ‘Defender of the Faith’ [1959] (Norton) 
Week 3  African American Literature I [SG]
   Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man [1952] (Penguin)
Week 4  Native American Writing [MH]
   N. Scott Momaday, The Way to Rainy Mountain [1969] (Norton)
Week 5  Asian America I: Chinese American Writing SG
   Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior [1977] (Picador)
Week 6  ASSIGNMENT OF GROUP PROJECTS [PJ]
Week 7 Hispanic American Poetry NE
   Lorna Dee Cervantes and Alberto Rios (Norton)
Week 8 Asian America II: Indian American Writing [MH] 

 Bharati Mukherjee, Jasmine [1989] (Virago)

Week 9  African American Literature II [CM]
   Toni Morrison, Beloved [1987] (Picador)
Week 10  Exam Revision Lecture [PJ]

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