Course code and title: SFE10907 American Studies
 
ECTS credits: 15

Category: Mandatory as part of the one-year programme in English or the 60 ECTS English study within the bachelor programme Society, Language and Culture

Prerequisites: For the bachelor programme students must have taken the unit "Innføring i litteraturvitenskap for årsstudium i engelsk og tysk" (Introduction to literary studies for the 60 ECTS module in English or German)

Semester/duration: Spring semester (2nd semester of the above-mentioned programmes)

Objectives: Students are expected to acquire
- knowledge and understanding of US culture and social conditions from a historical perspective;
- knowledge of the themes, periods and artistic characteristics of American literature;
- analytical and critical skills in the encounters with literary and factual texts;
- skills in written and oral presentations and argumentation;
- skills in searching, evaluating and using secondary literature from the University College library and from BIBSYS and other databases, and in documenting use of secondary literature with a bibliography and footnotes;
- an interest in American literature and culture.

Content: The culture studies part of the course makes use of a chronological presentation of the development of national institutions, politics, social life and culture, and gives an overview of the most important events that triggered that development. The literature part gives an overview of the literary development from the establishment of the USA until today, with a main focus on the 19th and 20th centuries. Five novels are read in the course of the semester, as well as two dramas, four short stories and a selection of poetry. The texts and their sources are studied from the perspective of the period and social conditions they sprang out from, and will thus throw light on each other.

Organisation and forms of teaching: Lectures and group seminars. Active student participation is required for discussion and group assignments. The language of instruction is English.

Mandatory assignments:
Two written assignments are to be submitted and approved after feedback.

Assessment:
Term paper and written examination
Students shall hand in a term paper (4-5 pages) which shall make use of secondary sources that are  documented in footnotes and a bibliography. In addition there will be a written examination (4-hours). Permitted supplementary aids: and English-English dictionary. Grad scale A-F.

Course reading:
The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Shorter Fifth Ed. New York: Norton, 1999.
Literature marked by an asterisk (*) below can be found in the anthology.
Ro, S (1997), Literary America: An Introduction to the Literature of the United States. Oslo.

SECONDARY SOURCES:
Hawthorn, J, Studying the Novel
Griffith, K Jr, Writing Essays about Literature: A Guide and Style Sheet, 2nd ed.

NOVELS AND DRAMAS:
Twain, M, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Fitzgerald, F S, The Great Gatsby
Walker, A, The Color Purple
Auster, P, Leviathan
Cunningham, M, The Hours
Miller, H, Death of a Salesman
O'Neill, E, The Hairy Ape
 
PROSE AND SHORT STORIES
Hawthorne, N, "Young Goodman Brown"
Gilman, C P, "The Yellow Wallpaper"
Hemingway, E, "The Snow of Kilimanjaro"
Silko, L, "The Man to Send Rainclouds"

POETRY
Whitman, W, "Song of Myself" 1-6, 51-52

Dickinson, E,
"There's a certain Slant of light"
"A Bird came down the walk"
"A narrow Fellow in the Grass"

Frost, R,
"Birches",
"The Road Not Taken",
"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"

Williams, W C,
"Spring and All",
"The Red Wheelbarrow"

Eliot, T S,
"Journey of the Magi"

Hughes, L, "Mulatto"
Lowell, R, "For the Union Dead"
Brooks, G, "The white Troops Had Their Orders …"
Ginsberg, A, "A Supermarket in California"
Plath, S, "Daddy"

CULTURE STUDIES
Mauk, D & Oakland, J (2002), American Civilization, Third Edition. Routledge.
O'Callaghan, B (1996), An Illustrated History of the USA. Longman.
In Norton: the introduction and overview chapters.
 
Supplementary literature:
Beaucroft/Smale, The Making of America
Burner/Fox-Genovese/Bernhard, A College History of the US. Vol. 1 & 2.
Caroll/Noble, The Free and the Unfree
Degler, Out of Our Past
Gordon, American History
Jenkins, A History of the United States
Norton et al., A People and a Nation: A History of the United States
Sellers et al., A Synopsis of American History
Tindall/Shi, America: A Narrative History
Woods/Gatewood, America Reinterpreted, A Concise History With Readings. Vol. 1
Zinn, A People's History of the United States

Additionally, the reading of newspapers and journals

Course Lecturer: Robert Lewis Mikkelsen