Introduction to American Studies

Fakultet for humaniora, samfunnsvitenskap og lærerutdanning

This course may be taken as an individual course.

The course provides an introduction to American literature and culture. It represents a historical, highly selective survey course of American literature from colonial times to the present, with primary emphasis on texts from the Romantic Age to the present. Texts from the various periods are analyzed closely and discussed in their socio-cultural contexts. The coursed thus attempts to integrate the study of literature and culture. The major genres of literature are represented in the course, and it provides students with the basic methods and tools of textual analysis, designed to make them more proficient in close reading.

Introductory knowledge and comprehension

• of the history of American literature and culture
• of different literary genres of American writing
• of methods and concepts for the study of literary and cultural texts
• of a variety of samples of fiction, poetry, and drama

Proficiency:

• to strengthen your ability to explain your ideas in a succinct, coherent manner and support them with close reading of texts
• acquisition of advanced skills for the close reading of texts

Language of instruction and examination is English.

4 hours of teaching for 13 weeks. Quality assurance: The subject undergoes an end evaluation every third year.

Coursework requirement:

One obligatory essay of four pages. This essay must be approved by the instructor. Students who do not hand in their essay and get it approved, are barred from sitting for the final exam in the course.

Coursework requirements are evaluated as approved/not approved.

Assessment method:

A 6-hour school exam. Performance in the course will be assessed with the grades A-F. Grades are A-E for passed and F for failed. A re-examination is offered in the event of an F-grade. The deadline to register for re-examination is January 15th for the autumn semester and August 15th for the spring semester.

Skriftlig eksamen: 08.12.2010

The date for the exam can be changed. The final date will be announced at your faculty early in May and early in November.

Skriftlig eksamen

ENG-1120 Liberty, Equality and Power: American Culture in Text and Film 10

General reading:

The Shorter Norton Anthology of American Literature, 7th Edition
Alice Walker (1982) The Color Purple
Barack Obama (1995) Dreams From My Father

Website:
America.gov

Recommended Reading:
Philip Jenkins (1997) A History of the United States
Cokie Roberts (2004) Founding Mothers: the Women Who Raised Our Nation

Specific readings (in the order in which they are assigned)
Barack Obama (2009) ´Inaugural Presidential Address´ (available online)
Martin Luther King (1963) ´I have a dream speech´ (available online)
George Washington (1789) ´First Inaugural Address´ (available online)
Walt Whitman (1860) ´Facing West from California´s Shores´ (shorter Norton)
Various ´Stories of the Beginnings of the World´ (shorter Norton)
Margaret Baynard Smith (1830s) ´Roman Sketches: Arria, or the Heroism of Affection´ The Ladies´ Magazine and Literary Gazette, 5/7 (Google books, but good to find another source)
Margaret Baynard Smith (1830s) ´Roman Sketches: Pætus Thrasea, or the Closing Scene of a Good Man´s Life´ The Ladies´ Magazine and Literary Gazette, 5/8 (Google books, but good to find another source)
Mercy Otis Warren (1774) ´To the Hon. J. Winthrop, Esq´ (online)
Robert Lowell (1948) ´Falling Asleep Over the Aeneid´ (online)
Bob Dylan (2001) ´Lonesome Day Blues´ (lyrics online)
Christopher Columbus (1493, 1503) From "Letters" (shorter Norton)
From William Bradford, "Of Plymouth Plantation"(published 1856) (shorter Norton)
Joy Harjo (2008) "Rabbit is Up To Tricks" from Winding Through the Milky Way http://www.joyharjo.com/Music.html
Cotton Mather (1692,1693) ´A People of God in the Devil´s Territories´ (shorter Norton)
Cotton Mather (1692, 1693) ´The Trial of Martha Carrier´ (shorter Norton)
Thomas Jefferson (1776), The Declaration of Independence (available online at America.gov), Excerpts from, and commentary on The U.S. Constitution (1787) (available online at America.gov).
Letters between Abigail Adams and John Adams (1774-76) (shorter Norton)

´The Declaration of Sentiments´ (1848)(online at America.gov)

David Walker (1829) From Walker´s Appeal in Four Articles (shorter Norton)

Sojourner Truth, ´Speech to the Women´s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio, 1851´ (shorter Norton).

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1836) ´Nature´ (shorter Norton Anthology.

Henry David Thoreau (1854) ´Walden, or Life in the Woods´ (chapters 1, 2, 5, 17 and conclusion: shorter Norton Anthology).

(For dates of most poems from Whitman to Plath below, see shorter Norton)

Walt Whitman ´One´s-Self I Sing´ and ´Crossing Brooklyn Ferry´.

Emily Dickinson ´These are the days when the Birds come back -´; ´A Bird came down the Walk -´; ´This is my letter to the World´; ´I heard a Fly buzz - when I died -´; and ´I started Early - Took my Dog´.

Robert Frost ´The Pasture´; ´Mending Wall´; ´After Apple-Picking´; ´The Road Not Taken´; and ´Nothing Gold Can Stay´

Adrienne Rich ´A Valediction Forbidding Mourning´

Gary Snyder ´Milton by Firelight´ (supply); ´Riprap´; ´Beneath My Hand and Eye the Distant Hills. Your Body´; ´Ripples on the Surface´ (supply)

Sylvia Plath ´Blackberrying´

William Carlos Williams (1923) ´The Red Wheelbarrow´, ´To Elsie´ (shorter Norton)

T. S. Eliot (1922) The Wasteland (shorter Norton)

Frederick Jackson Turner (1893) "The Significance of the Frontier" (Supply. Also available at UB in Breidlid et al, American Culture 376-77)
Sherman Alexie (1993) "Because My Father Always Said He Was the Only Indian Who Saw Jimi Hendrix Play "The Star-Spangled Banner" at Woodstock (available online and at UB in Alexie, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven 24-36)

Film clips: Sherman Alexie (1998) Smoke Signals
Arthur Miller (1949) Death of a Salesman (shorter Norton)