Module Information
Course Delivery
| Delivery Type | Delivery length / details |
|---|---|
| Seminars / Tutorials | 10 x 2 hour seminars |
Assessment
| Assessment Type | Assessment length / details | Proportion |
|---|---|---|
| Semester Assessment | 1 single-essay (1 text from sessions 1-5) (2,500 words) 1 single-essay (1 text from sessions 6-10 and 1 other) (2,500 words) Continuous Assessment: | 100% |
| Supplementary Assessment | Resubmit any failed elements and/or make good any missing elements. Where this involves re-submission of work, a new topic must be selected. | 100% |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this module, studens should be able to:
1. demonstrate a broad knowledge of American literature in the 20th century and an understanding of the social and political contexts in which the set texts were written;
2. describe issues of gender, class, and/or race in relation to ethnic and regional experiences of America during the period, and examine their reprsentation in the set texts;
3. engage in coherent oral discussion of the texts;
4. read literary texts in an informed and critical manner;
5. write about the subject in a well-structured and argued manner.
6. engage in coherent oral discussion of the texts;
7. write about the subject in a well-structured and argued manner.
Brief description
The main objective of this module is to provide a general introduction to and overview of the literature of the United States of America in the twentieth century. This module emphasises the way in which prose fictions record and respond to the social, political, and economic crises of the century, including World War One and Two, the Great Depression, and the Cold War. Emphasis will also be placed on the differing themes and formal strategies that develop from the various ethnic and regional experiences of Americans during the century, and issues of gender, race, and class will be systematically examined through the study of both canonical and non-canonical authors.
Content
Week 2. World War One - `The Italian Front'
Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms
Week 3. `The Roaring Twenties'
F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Diamond as Big as the Ritz and Other Stories
Week 4. `The Great Depression'
William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying
Week 5. World War Two - `The American Dream'
Arthur Miller, All My Sons
Week 6. `Post-war American Identity'
Sloan Wilson, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit
Week 7. `Narrating War'
Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five
Week 8. `Paranoia and Cultural Chaos'
Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49
Week 9. `Hyphenated Americans'
Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood among Ghosts
Week 10. `Urban Consumer Culture'
Jay McInerney, Bright Lights, Big City
Aims
This module is a level 3 option module that is offered to both Year Two and Year Three students (Year Two students take the 20-credit form; Year Three take the 30-credit form). The difference between the two is determined by assessment, not by course content or delivery. It remains suitable for both English and American Studies students, but is intended primarily for American Studies students.
Module Skills
| Skills Type | Skills details |
|---|---|
| Application of Number | N/A |
| Communication | Written communication in the form of essays; Oral presentations in small groups; Oral communication in seminars. |
| Improving own Learning and Performance | Developing own research skills; Time Management. |
| Information Technology | Use of electronic resources and e-learning technologies (electronic databases and Blackboard); Power Point for group presentations; Production of written work using word-processing program. |
| Personal Development and Career planning | Critical self-reflection; Development of transferable communication and research skills. |
| Problem solving | Formulating and developing an argument. |
| Research skills | Independent research for presentations; Independent research for assisgnments. |
| Subject Specific Skills | Ability to "compare and contrast" between texts; Ability to comment on realtionship between society and literary forms. |
| Team work | Group work for oral presentations. |
Reading List
Should Be PurchasedFaulkner, William (1996) As I Lay Dying Vintage Primo search Fitzgerald, F. Scott (1996) The Diamond as Big as the Ritz and Other Stories Penguin Primo search Hemingway, Ernest (2004) A Farewell to Arms Arrow Books Primo search Kingston, Maxine Hong (1981) The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood among Ghosts Pan Primo search McInerney, Jay (1994) Bright Lights, Big City Penguin Primo search Miller, Arthur (1988, c1958) All My Sons (collected in Plays: One) Methuen Drama Primo search Pynchon, Thomas (1967) The Crying of Lot 49 Cape Primo search Vonnegut, Kurt (1991) Slaughterhouse-Five Vintage Primo search Wilson, Sloan (2005) The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit Penguin Primo search Recommended Background
Donaldson, Scott, ed. (1990) New Essays on A Farewell to Arms Cambridge University Press Primo search Ludwig, Sami (1996) Concrete Language: Intercultural Communication in Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior and Ishmael Reed's Mumbo Jumbo Peter Lang Primo search O'Donnell, Patrick, ed. (1991) New Essays on The Crying of Lot 49 Cambridge University Press Primo search Wong, Sau-ling Cynthia, ed. (1999) Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior: A Casebook Oxford University Press Primo search
Notes
This module is at CQFW Level 6