Module Identifier EN11120  
Module Title AMERICAN LIT II: NEW IMMIGRATION TO MULTICULTURAL NATION  
Academic Year 2002/2003  
Co-ordinator Dr Matthew R Jarvis  
Semester Semester 2  
Other staff Mrs Carol M Marshall, Elizabeth A Jacobs, Julia H M Reid, Mr Michael J Smith  
Assessment Semester Exam   2 Hours Two essays on two seminar topics NOT already examined in the essays   34%  
  Semester Assessment   2 x 2000 word essays. One essay will ask for literary analysis based on one set of the seminar texts. The other will require students to investigate a particular topic, theme or issue in relation to the literature on the module.   66%  
  Supplementary Exam   2 Hours resubmit any failed elements and/or make good missing elements   34%  

Learning outcomes

At the end of the module student should be able to demonstrate:
- an analytical approach to the literary texts set for study and a critical attitude towards published scholarship on the subject of those texts
- an ability to analyse the forces at work in forming a literary canon and in calling it into question
- an ability to conduct elementary research and to develop writing skills through conducting different sorts of assignments
- an ability to develop small group work within seminars and to make individual and group presentations
- an ability to employ rhetorical skills of effective communication in written essays and in oral discussion

Brief description

This module introduces students to a range of twentieth century American literature, from the writings of late nineteenth-century immigrants to the multicultural voices of the late twentieth century. It focuses on the differences between the myths and realities of American experience and investigates the relationship between literature and society. Attention is paid to both genre and to the issues that have preoccupied many American writers. For students taking American Studies, it will develop the skills and knowledge required for the interdisciplinary study of American culture at Part II.

Content

Lectures

10 x 1.5 hour workshops will be accompanied by 5 x 1 hour lectures, which will be delivered once per fortnight. The purpose of these lectures will be to raise issues of a more general nature concerning the American literature of the twentieth century, and to guide students into thinking about co-texts and contexts, and to provide aid to students on methods and sources for their seminar research.

Lecture 1. The New Urban America

Lecture 2. The Impact and Aftermath of the Great Depression

Lecture 3. Suppression and Subversion

Lecture 4. Postmodernity in America

Lecture 5. American Multiculturalism

Seminar Timetable and Set Texts

1. Immigrant Voices: Willa Cather, O Pioneers!

2. The Jazz Age: F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

3. The New Negro Renaissance: A selection from Jean Toomer, Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, and Countee Cullen, in Heath Anthology

4. The Great Depression: Nathanael West, Miss Lonelyhearts

5. Cold War Culture and its Discontents: A selection from Allen Ginsberg, poems; Lawrence Ferlinghetti, poems; Gary Snyder, poems, in Heath Anthology

6. Emergent Feminist Voices: A selection from Tillie Olsen, 'Tell Me a Riddle'; Adrienne Rich, poems; Sylvia Plath, poems, in Heath Anthology

7. Civil Rights in the 1960s: A selection from Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X, in Heath Anthology

8. Postmodern Fictions: John Barth, 'Lost in the Funhouse', in Heath Anthology

9. Multicultural Voices: Gish Jen, Typical American

10. New Communities, New Identities: A selection from Joy Harjo, Wendy Rose, Roberta Hill Whiteman, Gary Soto, and Simon Ortiz, in Heath Anthology