Introduction to North American Literature

Code:

FLUP0089

Acronym:

ILINAM

Instance: 2006/2007 - 2S

Active?	Yes
Responsible unit:	Department of Anglo-American Studies
Institution Responsible:	Faculty of Arts

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
EFI	11	Official Study Plan - LEFI	1	2,5	5	-
EIA	30	Official Study Plan - LEIA	1	2,5	5	-
EPI	59	Official Study Plan - LEPI	1	2,5	5	-
		Official Study Plan - LEPI	1	2,5	5	-
		Plano oficial - 4º ao 5º ano	1	2,5	5	-

Objectives

This programme aims to introduce students to North American Literarture by looking at some of the most representative American authors from different periods. This will be done through a combination of theoretical and practical classes.

Program

Starting from the so-called “invation” of America this programme will attempt to demonstrate how the emergence and consolidation of a new society and a new culture have been reflected in the literary production of the United States of America.

I Theoretical Component:

1. The historical, cultural and ideological dimension of America viewed as “invention”: reality and myth; the construction of the American national identity.
1.1. Puritanism in colonial America.
1.2. The emergence of an “enlightened” America and the revolutionary discourse.


2. 19th-century American Literature
2.1. “American Renaissance”: the particularities of Romanticism within the American context; Transcendentalism and Literature; the puritan memory.
2.2. The advent of Realism.

3. 20th-century American Literature
3.1.How literature changed in the 20th-century.
3.2. American Modernism.
3.3. “The Period between the two World Wars”
3.4. The South and the Southern Literary Renaissance.


II Practical Component


The following texts will be studied in practical classes:

Maria Irene R.S. Santos, “’The City upon a Hill’: Destino e Missão na
Literatura Americana.
John Winthrop, “A Modell of Christian Charity”
Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography (excertos).
Ralph W. Emerson, “Nature”.
Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself”.
Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Young Goodman Brown”.
Mark Twain, “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”.
F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby.
Eudora Welty, “Why I Live at the P.O.”

Main Bibliography

Maria Irene R.S. Santos, “’The City upon a Hill’: Destino e Missão na
Literatura Americana.
John Winthrop, “A Modell of Christian Charity”
Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography (excertos).
Ralph W. Emerson, “Nature”.
Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself”.
Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Young Goodman Brown”.
Mark Twain, “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”.
F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby.
Eudora Welty, “Why I Live at the P.O.”

Complementary Bibliography

Through the course specificcritical bibliography will be indicated. However the following book should be acquired all students:
Richard Ruland and Malcom Bradbury. From Puritanism to Postmodernism: A History of American Literature. London and New York: Routledge, 1991.

Teaching methods and learning activities

A theoretical framework for the selected texts will be presented by looking at the history of American Literature. In the practical classes students will analyse the texts in some detail.

Software

Not applicable.

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation with final exam

Eligibility for exams

Not applicable.

Calculation formula of final grade

The final mark is result of the final exam.

Examinations or Special Assignments

Not applicable.

Special assessment (TE, DA, ...)

Only through another final exam.

Classification improvement

Not applicable.

Observations

Language of instruction: Portuguese.