Course for international guest/part time students
- Faculty
- Faculty of Humanities
- Organization
- BTK Department of American Studies
- Code
- BBI-AME17-312E.30
- Title
- Elective seminar in American Literature: Contemporary American Literature
- Usual semester
- Spring
- ECTS
- 5
- Language
- Learning outcomes
- Course Description: Contemporary American Literature focuses on giving students a detailed overview of American fiction stories from the 1945-Present. Specific attention will be paid to the genre of American Gothic and Horror and how American societal fears appear in literature in the form of horror, suspense, and supernatural tales. This class will also examine women authors.
- Course content
- Lecture 1 Class Introduction and Introduction to American Lit. Lecture 2 The Fathers of the American Gothic Genre +“The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe +“Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne Lecture 3 Early Female Authors and Regionalism +“Desiree’s Baby” by Kate Chopin +“The Wind in the Rose Bush” by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman Lecture 4 Female Gothic +“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman +“Afterward” by Edith Wharton Lecture 5 Southern Gothic +“A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor +“A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty Lecture 6 Midterm Exam Lecture 7 Folklore and Horror + “Black Death” by Zora Neale Hurston + “Woman Hollering Creek” by Sandra Cisneros Lecture 8 Domestic Horror +” Where Are You Going Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates +”The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson Lecture 9 Contemporary Horror and the Canon +“The Lake” by Tananarive Due +Bree Newsom’s “Wake”—watched in class Break No Class Lecture 10 No Class Reading Day Lecture 11 Temporalities and Ghosts +“The Haunting of Hill House” by Shirley Jackson (pg. 1-182) Lecture 12 Capstone Essay *Must be written in class Lecture 13 Final Exam
- Assessment method
- Expectations: Students will take both a midterm and final exam in this course. All students will also write a final essay on our capstone novel. Additional participation assignments will include: journaling, discussions, and group activities. When covering Hill House students will participate in group discussions and you will need to bring 2 questions to class about that day’s readings. Your questions can be about anything you found interesting or would like to explore in more depth. If you fail to bring your questions, you will have points deducted from your participation grade. Evaluation: In-class Participation/Attendance: 10% Unit 1 Exam: 30% Unit 2 Exam: 30% Capstone Essay: 30%
- Bibliography
- Lecture 1 Class Introduction and Introduction to American Lit. Lecture 2 The Fathers of the American Gothic Genre +“The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe +“Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne Lecture 3 Early Female Authors and Regionalism +“Desiree’s Baby” by Kate Chopin +“The Wind in the Rose Bush” by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman Lecture 4 Female Gothic +“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman +“Afterward” by Edith Wharton Lecture 5 Southern Gothic +“A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor +“A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty Lecture 6 Midterm Exam Lecture 7 Folklore and Horror + “Black Death” by Zora Neale Hurston + “Woman Hollering Creek” by Sandra Cisneros Lecture 8 Domestic Horror +” Where Are You Going Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates +”The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson Lecture 9 Contemporary Horror and the Canon +“The Lake” by Tananarive Due +Bree Newsom’s “Wake”—watched in class Break No Class Lecture 10 No Class Reading Day Lecture 11 Temporalities and Ghosts +“The Haunting of Hill House” by Shirley Jackson (pg. 1-182) Lecture 12 Capstone Essay *Must be written in class Lecture 13 Final Exam