Introduction to North American Culture and Literature

Code:

LLC064

Acronym:

ICLNA

Instance: 2010/2011 - 2S

Active?	Yes
Responsible unit:	Department of Anglo-American Studies
Course/CS Responsible:	Bachelor in Languages, Literatures and Cultures

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
LA	2	Study Plan - Applied Languages: Business Relations	2	-	6	52	162
		Study Plan-Applied Languages: Translation	3	-	6	52	162
LLC	81	Joint Lauguage Plan -Englis/German	2	-	6	52	162
		Joint Language Plan - English/Spanish	2	-	6	52	162
		Joint Language Plan-Portuguese/English	2	-	6	52	162
		Single Language Plan-English	1	-	6	52	162
		English Studies Plan (Teaching) With German	2	-	6	52	162
		English Studies Plan (Teaching) with Spanish	2	-	6	52	162
		English Studies Plan (Teaching) With French	2	-	6	52	162
		Joint Language Plan -English/French	2	-	6	52	162

Teaching language

Portuguese

Objectives

This programme has two Main aims. On one hand to introduce students to basic knowledge in the areas of the history, the thought and the culture of the United States of America, and, on the other, to attempt to highlight and examine selected literary texts. These texts will be looked at within their ideological, socio-cultural and aesthetics contexts.

Program

Taking as a starting point the “invention” of America on the one hand and the utopian thought that accompained it, on the other, this programme will examine the appearance and (ideological) affirmation, at various moments in its history, of a new society and respective culture, as well as its relation with the literary production of the United States of America:

-The cultural and ideological dimension of America as “invention” and as utopia;
-Puritanism in colonial America;
-The emergence of an enlightened America and the revolutionary discourse;
-Cultural life in 19th Century America;
-Nathaniel Hawthorne and the American Renaissance;
-The Other Land” and the Civil War;
-The new modern, industrial nation-state;
-The appearance of Realism and the rupture with previous conventions, associated with a “genteel tradition”;
-The changes brought about in the first decades of the black community;
-American Modernism;
-The Period between the Two Wars;
-The South and the Southern Renaissance;

Mandatory literature

Avelar, Mário; Histórias da Literatura Americana (Prólogo)
Welty, Eudora; "Why I Live at the P.O."
Santos, Maria Irene Ramalho; "'The City upon a Hill': Destino na Literatura Americana"
Sargent, Lyman Tower; "Utopia Americana: Ambivalence Toward Utopianism"
Hawthorne, Nathaniel; Young Goodman Brown
Zafar, Rafia; "A New Negro" e "Black Manhattan"
Fitzgerald, F. Scott; The Great Gatsby
Twain, Mark; "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"
Avelar, Mário; Histórias da Literatura Americana (Prólogo)
Welty, Eudora; "Why I Live at the P.O."
Santos, Maria Irene Ramalho; "'The City upon a Hill': Destino na Literatura Americana"
Sargent, Lyman Tower; "Utopia Americana: Ambivalence Toward Utopianism"
Hawthorne, Nathaniel; Young Goodman Brown
Zafar, Rafia; "A New Negro" e "Black Manhattan"
Fitzgerald, F. Scott; The Great Gatsby
Twain, Mark; "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"

Complementary Bibliography

Bercovitch, Sacvan; The Puritan Origins of the American Self, Yale University Press, 1975
Gray, Richard; Writing the South: Ideas of an American Region, Cambridge University Press, 1989
Cash, Malcolm; The Mind of the South, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1962
Ruland, Richard et al; From Puritanism to Postmodernism: A History of an American Literature, Routledge, 1991
Bercovitch, Sacvan and Myra Jehen; Ideology and Classic American Literature, Cambridge University Press, 1987
Bercovitch, Sacvan; The Puritan Origins of the American Self, Yale University Press, 1975
Gray, Richard; Writing the South: Ideas of an American Region, Cambridge University Press, 1989
Cash, Malcolm; The Mind of the South, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1962
Ruland, Richard et al; From Puritanism to Postmodernism: A History of an American Literature, Routledge, 1991
Bercovitch, Sacvan and Myra Jehen; Ideology and Classic American Literature, Cambridge University Press, 1987

keywords

Social sciences > Cultural studies > American studies
Social sciences > Cultural studies > American studies
Humanities > Literature > American literature
Humanities > Literature > American literature

Evaluation Type

Evaluation with final exam

Assessment Components

Description	Type	Time (hours)	Weight (%)	End date
Attendance (estimated)	Participação presencial	56,00
	Exame	2,00		2011-07-15
	Trabalho escrito	31,00		2011-07-15
	Total:	-	0,00

Amount of time allocated to each course unit

Description	Type	Time (hours)	End date
	Estudo autónomo	73	2011-07-15
	Total:	73,00

Eligibility for exams

Theorical, Pratical and Tutorial Classes

Calculation formula of final grade

Attending 75% of classes, unless established otherwise by law.

Examinations or Special Assignments

Not applicable

Special assessment (TE, DA, ...)

Not applicable

Classification improvement

Not applicable