Gwybodaeth Modiwlau

Module Identifier

WL31420

Module Title

American Literature in the 20th Century

Academic Year

2013/2014

Co-ordinator

Dr Martin Padget

Semester

Intended for use in future years

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

Week 1. Twentieth Century American Literature: an introduction

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

Content

Aims

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.

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 6