American Literature until the End of the 19th Century - OPBA4A032A
Title: Americká literatura do konce 19. století
Guaranteed by: Katedra anglického jazyka a literatury (41-KAJL)
Faculty: Faculty of Education
Actual: from 2024
Semester: winter
E-Credits: 4
Examination process: winter s.:
Hours per week, examination: winter s.:1/1, C+Ex [HT]
Extent per academic year: 0 [hours]
Capacity: 125 / 119 (unknown)
Min. number of students: unlimited
4EU+: no
Virtual mobility / capacity: no
Key competences: critical thinking
State of the course: taught
Language: English
Teaching methods: full-time
Note: course can be enrolled in outside the study plan
enabled for web enrollment
priority enrollment if the course is part of the study plan
Guarantor: Mgr. Jakub Ženíšek, Ph.D.
Teacher(s): Mgr. Jakub Ženíšek, Ph.D.
Pre-requisite : OPBA4A022A
Is pre-requisite for: OPBA4A043A, OPBA4A053B, OPBA4A046A, OPBA4A055B, OPBA4A054B
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Annotation -
This course aims to give the students a general outline of the most significant events in American literature, focusing largely, but not exclusively, on canonical authors. These seminars complement lectures which reside in presenting a particular literary movement, including its social and cultural background. These are then followed by a close reading session which focuses on the selected seminar texts (short stories, plays, novels/extracts etc.).
Last update: Ženíšek Jakub, Mgr., Ph.D. (10.09.2022)
Aim of the course -

The learner gains an overview of the context of pivotal works of American literature, from the historical background of early settlement, through the struggle for political and cultural independence from Britain, to the Reconstruction period after the Civil War.

The learner develops his/her competence in communicative skills (paraphrasing English text, understanding English text in its original form or after minimal editing)

The learner acquires a wider (tertiary) vocabulary and phraseology.

Last update: Ženíšek Jakub, Mgr., Ph.D. (21.09.2024)
Descriptors -

Self-study of literature 7 hours

Work with study materials 35 hours

Seminar papers 5 hours

Preparation for credit 10 hours

Exam preparation 25 hours

Last update: Ženíšek Jakub, Mgr., Ph.D. (22.09.2024)
Course completion requirements -

Requirements: 80% attendance (2 unexplained absences are permissible); oral exam (30-45 minutes total)

Exam procedure:
1) The student picks one of the 7 topics and has 15 minutes to assemble his or her thoughts and jot down notes on a piece of paper which s/he can then use during the verbal presentation.
2) The student gives a short verbal presentation on the topic of his or her choice (5-15 minutes) and responds to follow-up questions. The teacher should not interrupt the student's presentation for the first two minutes.
3) The teacher selects one or more random items from the student´s reading list (6 or more items from the syllabus) and will ask several follow-up questions. NOTE: Students whose class participation has been consistently very good do not need to submit the reading list. These students will be notified by e-mail before the exam period starts.
4) The teacher announces the grade.

Last update: Ženíšek Jakub, Mgr., Ph.D. (22.09.2024)
Literature -

Recommended literature:

  1. Ruland, R., Bradbury, M. From Puritanism to Postmodernism, New York: Viking Penguin, 1991. ISBN-13: 978-0140144352.
  2. Procházka, M., Quinn, J., Ulmanová, H., Roraback, E. Lectures on American Literature. Praha, 2002. ISBN 9788024619965.
  3. High, Peter, An Outline of American Literature, London: Longman, 2007.
  4. Van Spanckeren, K. Outline of American Literature – revised edition. US Information Agency, 1994.
  5. Lauter, P., Yarborough, R., Cheung, K., Molesworth, C.  The Heath Anthology of American literature, Early Nineteenth Century: 1800 - 1865, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2005. ISBN-13: 9780618532988.
  6. Lauter, P., Yarborough, R., Alberti, J., Brady, M. The Heath Anthology of American literature: Volume A: the Beginnings to 1900, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2008. ISBN: 0-618-54250-7.

Other secondary sources:

  1. Bercovitch, S. (ed.). The Cambridge History of American Literature. Cambridge, 1994.
  2. Bradbury, M.:. The Modern American Novel, Oxford: O.U.P, 1992.
  3. Elliott, E. et al, (Eds.) Columbia Literary History of the United States, Columbia University Press, 1988-2001.
  4. Hendin, J. (ed.). A Concise Companion to Postwar American Culture and Literature. Londýn, 2004.
  5. Minter, D. A Cultural History of the American Novel,Cambridge:CambridgeUniversity Press, 1996.
  6. Procházka, Martin a Stříbrný, Zdeněk. Slovník spisovatelů [literatur v angličtině]. Nakladatelství Libri: Praha, 2003.
  7. Roth, J., (Ed) American Diversity, American Identity,New York: Henry Holt, 1995.
  8. Starling, M. W. The Slave Narrative: Its Place in American History. Washington, DC: Howard University Press, 1988.
Last update: Ženíšek Jakub, Mgr., Ph.D. (22.09.2024)
Syllabus -

1.       Lecture: Colonial American Literature (online video lecture)

Introductory class

2.       Lecture: Enlightenment

Reading assignment – Benjamin Franklin: 2 pamphlets

3.       Lecture: Romantism I

Reading assignment – Washington Irving: The Legend of the Sleepy Hollow

4.       Lecture: Romantism II

E.A.Poe: The Black Cat, The Tell-Tale Heart

5.       Lecture: Romantism III

Reading assignment –  N. Hawthorne: Birthmark

6.       Lecture: Romantism IV – slave narratives

Reading assignment – The Narrative of Frederick Douglass

7.       Lecture: 19th century poetry (online video)

Reading assignment – Whitman, Dickinson

8.            Lecture: American Transcendentalism

Četba – H.D. Thoreau: Civil Disobedience

9.       Lecture: Transition between Romanticism and Realism

Četba – H. Melville: Bartleby the Scrivener

10.     Lecture: Realism/Naturalism I

Reading assignment –A. Bierce: An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

S. Crane: The Red Badge of Courage (excerpt)

11.     Lecture: Realism/Naturalism II – Local Color

Reading assignment –Kate Chopin: A Respectable Woman and 4 other stories

Optional reading assignment – C.P.Gilman: The Yellow Wallpaper

12.     Realismus/Naturalismus III – muckraking

Theodore Dreiser: Sister Carrie (excerpt), Theodore Dreiser: Typhoon

Last update: Ženíšek Jakub, Mgr., Ph.D. (10.09.2022)
Learning resources -

All the course materials and interactive activites are accessible from:

https://dl1.cuni.cz/course/view.php?id=2326

Last update: Ženíšek Jakub, Mgr., Ph.D. (10.09.2022)
Learning outcomes -

Teaching series No. 1 (literature of the colonial and revolutionary period)

The learner will characterize the development of 17th and 18th century Euro-American society and its literary and reflective history with reference to such phrases as "City upon a Hill," "Manifest Destiny," "cradle of democracy," and "melting pot." It will summarise the basic connotations of the term 'Enlightenment'.
The learner will describe the formation of distinctive cultural institutions and genre diversity resulting from the situation of a dynamic society on the North American continent.
The learner will actively use vocabulary and phraseology acquired from reading and analyzing assigned works, e.g., adjectives describing character traits (Benjamin Franklin).
The learner paraphrases arguments in favor of representative democracy as an alternative to monarchism (Thomas Paine).

Teaching series No. 2 (literature of the Romantic period)

The learner will briefly describe the fundamental ideological basis of Romanticism as a counterpoint to Enlightenment rationalism.
The learner will characterize the reform movements that were ideologically and temporally intertwined with Romanticism (movements to abolish the slave system, H. D. Thoreau's civil disobedience, early suffragettes, etc.).
The learner characterizes the genre ranges of literature in the first half of the 19th century and illustrates them with specific works.
The learner navigates assigned primary readings and responds briefly to supplemental questions about four shorter seminar texts (Irving, Poe, Hawthorne, Douglass). Using one or more of these texts, he or she briefly demonstrates how they have earned the appellation "literary romanticism."

Teaching unit 3 (19th aentury American poetry)

The learner distinguishes between traditional and free verse.
The learner paraphrases a key passage from Whitman's "Song of Myself."

Teaching series No. 4 (literary Realism and Naturalism)


The learner will describe the ideological basis of realism as a counterpart to romanticism and the historical context of this transition (civil war, regionalism, the effects of industrialization, etc.)
The learner will give examples of "writing from experience" in relation to literary realism (especially local color) and naturalism (especially muckraking). The learner will explain why some of Melville's work can be seen as a transitional platform between Romanticism and Realism.
The learner will have familiarized himself or herself with the assigned primary readings and respond to additional questions about seminar texts (Herman Melville, Ambrose Bierce, Stephen Crane, Kate Chopin) and complementary/optional texts (Theodore Dreiser, Charlotte Perkins Gilman) as appropriate. In one or more of these, s/he briefly demonstrates how they have earned the "literary realism" epithet.

Last update: Ženíšek Jakub, Mgr., Ph.D. (22.09.2024)