North American Literature and Culture in the 20th and 21st Centuries - MA Seminar 1 3301-KAS1MIE
The seminar will discuss on North American literature and culture in the 20th and 21st century. Although the seminar will focus on the USA, it will also discuss some Canadian authors (Margaret Atwood, Douglas Coupland, Miriam Toews) writing in English.
The seminar will cover the development of literature in the 20th and 21st century, the appearance of new literary genres and return of previously existing ones to popularity. The period the seminar is interested in will be discussed by decade, emphasizing the developments that characterized them along with the impact they had on literature and culture.
The seminar will also provide students with the methodological and theoretical tools needed to successfully write an MA thesis (discussing, inter alia, narratology poststructuralism, postmodernism, post-Marxist theories, theories concerning race and alterity, feminism).
The selection of authors to be discussed will be done in collaboration with students taking into consideration their research interests. Suggested authors include: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dorothy Parker, Dashiel Hammett, Thomas Pynchon, Philip Roth, Don DeLillo, Cormac McCarthy, Flannery O’Connor, Walter Abish, John Barth, Octavia E. Butler, Saul Bellow, Kurt Vonnegut, Ursula K. Le Guin, William Gibson, Tom Wolfe, Colson Whitehead, Elizabeth Strout, Jennifer Egan, Dave Eggers, Paul Beatty, Philipp Meyer, Than Viet Nguyen, Jenny Offill, Tommy Orange, Imbolo Mbue, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi, Celeste Ng, R.F. Kuang.
Type of course
Mode
Course coordinators
Learning outcomes
Knowledge
Students will be able to:
• Identify and characterize on an advanced level the place and status of literary and culture studies within the humanities;
• Describe on an advanced level the current trends in literary and cultural studies research within English studies;
• Characterize on an advanced level the principles of research design in literary and culture studies with special focus on the application of methods and tools in formulating research problems;
• Characterize on an advanced level the principles of research design in literary and culture studies with special focus on the application of methods and tools in formulating research problems;
• Identify the notions and principles pertinent to intellectual property and copyright.
Abilities
Students will be able to:
• Apply advanced terminology and notions pertinent to literary studies and cultural studies;
• Apply advanced research methodology within literary and culture studies and English studies, respecting ethical norms and copyright law;
• Apply knowledge obtained during the course of studies to account for and solve a problem, thereby completing a research task related to the discipline literary studies and/or culture and religion studies;
• Apply knowledge obtained during the course of studies to account for and solve a problem, thereby completing a research task related to literary studies and/or culture and religion studies in the context of 20th/21st century North America;
• Analyze literary and cultural phenomena and draw generalizations on their basis in the context of societal, historical and economic factors on an advanced level;
• Discern alternative methodological paradigms within a discipline;
• Find information in various sources and critically assess its usefulness for research related to the topic of the MA project;
• Present knowledge in a coherent, precise and linguistically correct manner in English on level C2 according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, ensuring an appropriate register and form.
Social competences
Students will be ready to:
• Apply knowledge and skills obtained during the course of studies to fulfill societal obligations and undertake actions benefitting the social environment;
• Apply knowledge and skills obtained during the course of studies to undertake lifelong learning, as well as personal and professional development;
• Take responsibility for performing one’s professional duties, with due respect for the work of others, obey and develop the ethical norms in professional and academic settings related to the disciplines included on the curriculum of English studies.
Education at language level B2+.
Assessment criteria
- attendance
- participation in discussions
- presentations
- other
3 absences are allowed.
Bibliography
Felski, Rita. Limits of Critique. U of Chicago P, 2015.
Halberstam, David. The Fifties. Ballantine Books, 1994.
Klosterman, Chuck. The Nineties. Penguin, 2022.
Klosterman, Chuck. Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto. Faber and Faber, 2008.
Leitch, Vincent B. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Norton, 2001.
Kutulas, Judy. After Aquarius Dawned. How the Revolutions of the Sixties Became Popular Culture of the Seventies.
Kyvig, David E. Daily life in the United States 1920-1940. Ivan Dee, 2002.
Marwick, Arthur. The Sixties. OUP, 1998.
Patterson, James T. Grand Expectations. OUP, 1997.
Rossinow, Doug C. The Reagan Era: A History of the 1980s. Columbia UP 2015.
Selected works chosen from the ouvres of singificant American and canadian authors (novels and short stories). Some suggested authors include:
F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dorothy Parker, Dashiel Hammett, Thomas Pynchon, Philip Roth, Don DeLillo, Cormac McCarthy, Flannery O’Connor, Walter Abish, John Barth, Octavia E. Butler, Saul Bellow, Kurt Vonnegut, Ursula K. Le Guin, William Gibson, Tom Wolfe, Colson Whitehead, Elizabeth Strout, Jennifer Egan, Dave Eggers, Paul Beatty, Philipp Meyer, Than Viet Nguyen, Jenny Offill, Tommy Orange, Imbolo Mbue, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi, Celeste Ng, R.F. Kuang, Margaret Atwood, Miriam Toews, Douglas Coupland.
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: