Empire of Liberty: American Literature, 1776 to Present

Module title	Empire of Liberty: American Literature, 1776 to Present
Module code	EAS2112
Academic year	2019/0
Credits	30
Module staff	Professor Sinead Moynihan (Lecturer)

Duration: Term	1	2	3
Duration: Weeks	11

Number students taking module (anticipated)	85

Module description

This module introduces some of the major texts and issues involved in the literature of the United States over the past two hundred and fifty years. You will study a broad range of texts - including poetry, the novel, the short story, drama and autobiography - as well as the intersections of the literature of the United States with broader literary and contextual issues, such as literary nationalism and the emergence of modernism.

You will learn how the dynamic and turbulent social and historic development of the US during this time is reflected through literature, considering contexts such as the constitution of the democratic state, the problematic history of ethnic and race relations, the nature of urban and rural space, the changing gender politics of US society, and how transnational models of culture have affected our understanding of the US literary canon.

Module aims - intentions of the module

To consider major artistic forms and styles such as the American gothic, poetry, the tale and the short story, the emergence of modernism, the autobiography, and the American novel, and the module will conclude by assessing American fiction in the contemporary era. You will also be encouraged to attend events supporting the course, which may include reading groups and screenings.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

1. Demonstrate an informed appreciation of specific American authors and texts
2. Demonstrate an informed appreciation of the literary history of the United States, and how this relates to systems of global and transnational dialogue and cultural exchange
3. Demonstrate an informed appreciation of the relation between American literature and important related historical and intellectual developments
4. Demonstrate an understanding of the development of specific literary genres, forms, and themes in American literature

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

5. Demonstrate an ability to analyse the literature of a different national culture and historical period, and to relate its concerns - and its forms and modes of expression - to its historical context
6. Demonstrate an ability to interrelate texts and discourses specific to their own discipline with issues in the wider context of cultural and intellectual history
7. Demonstrate an ability to understand and analyse relevant theoretical ideas, and to apply these ideas to literary texts

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

8. Through seminar work and group presentations, demonstrate communication skills, and an ability to work both individually and in groups
9. Through essay-writing, demonstrate appropriate research and bibliographic skills, a capacity to construct a coherent, substantiated argument and a capacity to write clear and correct prose
10. Through research for seminars and essays, demonstrate proficiency in information retrieval and analysis
11. Through research, seminar discussion, and essay writing demonstrate a capacity to question assumptions, to distinguish between fact and opinion, and to critically reflect on their own learning process
12. Through sitting their final examination, demonstrate proficiency in the use of memory and in the development, organisation, and expression of ideas under pressure of time

Syllabus plan

Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:

A New Literature for a New Land? Washington Irving, “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (1819); Thomas Jefferson, "Declaration of Independence"
Republic of Letters: Short fiction by Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville
Slave Narratives by Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs
Writing the American Self: Poems by Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson; Ralph Waldo Emerson, "The Poet"
The American Artist: Henry James, Roderick Hudson (1879)
Race, Nation, Region: Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884)
Modernist Poetry: Marianne Moore, Observations (1924)
The Vanishing American?: Willa Cather, The Professor’s House (1925)
Cities and Suburbs: Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun (1957); John Cheever, ‘The Five-Forty-Eight’ (1954) and ‘The Death of Justina’ (1960).
Native American Voices: Louise Erdrich, Tracks (1984)
Transatlanticism beyond the American Century: Joseph O’ Neill, Netherland (2008)

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	Guided independent study	Placement / study abroad
39	261	0

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Category	Hours of study time	Description
Scheduled learning and teaching	27.5	11 x 2.5-hour seminars
Scheduled learning and teaching	11	11 x 1-hour lectures
Guided independent study	27.5	Study group preparation and meetings
Guided independent study	70	Seminar preparation (individual)
Guided independent study	164	Reading, research and essay preparation

Formative assessment

Form of assessment	Size of the assessment (eg length / duration)	ILOs assessed	Feedback method
Group presentation in week 3, 4 or 5 (as assigned by seminar tutor) presenting a reading of a course text informed by a minimum of 2 secondary readings	10 minutes	1-11	Oral feedback via tutorial

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Coursework	Written exams	Practical exams
45	45	10

Details of summative assessment

Form of assessment	% of credit	Size of the assessment (eg length / duration)	ILOs assessed	Feedback method
Essay	45	2000 words	1-7, 9-11	Written feedback plus tutorial follow-up
Examination	45	2 hours	1-7, 9-11	Written feedback plus tutorial follow-up
Seminar participation	10	Continuous	1-8, 11	Oral feedback with opportunity for office hours follow-up

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Original form of assessment	Form of re-assessment	ILOs re-assessed	Timescale for re-assessment
Essay	Essay	1-7, 9-11	Referral/Deferral period
Examination	Examination	1-7, 9-11	Referral/Deferral period

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Willa Cather, The Professor’s House. Any edition – Virago preferred
Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave and Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girls. Ed. Kwame Anthony Appiah. (Modern Library Classics, 2004)
Louise Erdrich, Tracks (1988). (Flamingo, 2009)
Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun. Any edition – Methuen preferred
Henry James, Roderick Hudson. Any edition – Penguin preferred.
Herman Melville, Bartleby the Scrivenerand Benito Cereno – Dover Thrift Edition
Claudia Rankine, Citizen: An American Lyric – any edition
Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Any edition – Norton Critical Edition preferred.
Marianne Moore, Observations (1924) – Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2016

Other primary texts will be available on ELE.

Selected secondary texts:

Hugh Brogan, The Penguin History of the United States, Penguin, 2001
Malcolm Bradbury and Richard Ruland, From Puritanism to Postmodernism: A History of American Literature (Penguin, 1991)
Peter N. Carroll and David W. Noble, The Free and the Unfree (Penguin, 1988)
Emory Elliot (ed.), Columbia Literary History of the United States (Columbia UP, 1988)
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Figures in Black: Words, Signs, and the "Racial" Self (Oxford UP, 1987)
Richard Gray, A History of American Literature (Blackwell, 2004)

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

ELE – https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=6225

Key words search

American Literature, Nineteenth-Century, Twentieth-Century, Modernism, Postmodernism

Credit value	30
Module ECTS	15
Module pre-requisites	None
Module co-requisites	None
NQF level (module)	5
Available as distance learning?	No
Origin date	01/10/2011
Last revision date	06/06/2019