Admission requirements
Students in English: Literature 1A and Literature 2, or equivalent. Minor students: none.
Description
We shall begin the course by tracing American literature to its seventeenth-century Puritan beginnings, focusing on the spiritual autobiography, a genre that greatly influenced some of the later works we will read, including Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography. The main focus of the course will be on the American Renaissance (1836-1861), however. In this era of Romantic revolution, the philosopher-poet Ralph Waldo Emerson became an important agent of cultural change and a major influence on many of his contemporaries, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, and even the more critical Herman Melville. With the publication of The Scarlet Letter (1850), Moby-Dick (1851), and Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), the literature of the new American republic came to rank with the classics of world literature for the first time, while Whitman and Emily Dickinson produced poems that, advanced beyond their own age, signaled the advent of modern poetry. The period also marked the beginning of an African American literary tradition, as Frederick Douglass and other fugitive slaves published autobiographical narratives that had a great impact on black writers in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. We shall study the above-mentioned works and authors not only in their literary-historical context, but also in the context of the political and social developments and debates about slavery, gender, and the role of the individual, all of which are still relevant today.
Course objectives
This course:
Provides a survey of early American literature from 1620 to 1865, focusing on the period between 1836-1860
Aims to give insight into the place of the literary works we’ll discuss in their historical context, in intellectual and literary movements (Puritanism, Enlightenment, Romanticism) and in political and social debates about slavery, gender and individualism.
It also helps students:
Develop critical and analytical skills, e.g. recognition of and insight into genre, narrative strategies, and rhetorical deices
Practise basic research skills (find, use, and document secondary sources according to MLA style), and
Develop and practise oral and written communication skills in English (discussion, essay, exams)
Timetable
Visit MyTimetable.
Mode of instruction
Seminar
Assessment method
Assessment
Written examination with closed questions and essay questions
Essay (1250 words)
Weighing
Written examination with closed questions and essay questions (50%)
Essay (1250 words) (50%)
The final mark for the course is established by determining the weighted average.
Attendance is compulsory. Missing more than three tutorials means that students will be excluded from the tutorials. Unauthorized absence also applies to being unprepared, not participating and/or not bringing the relevant course materials to class.
Resit
If the final mark is insufficient, students will have to resit the part(s) that was (were) insufficient: the essay and/or one combined resit exam covering the entire course. The sufficient parts cannot be retaken.
Inspection and feedback
How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organized.
Reading list
Norton Anthology of American Literature (NAAL), vol. A(ISBN 978-0-393-93571-4) & B(ISNB 978-0-393-26447-0) 9th ed.(2017) Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick, Norton Critical Edition, 3rd ed (2018). Stowe, Harriet Beecher. Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Penguin).
Note: Purchase of these books is required and the assigned texts have to be brought to class. Make sure you have the edition listed above!
Registration
Enrolment through uSis is mandatory.
General information about uSis is available on the website
Registration Studeren à la carte and Contractonderwijs
Registration Studeren à la carte
Registration Contractonderwijs
Contact
Please contact Student administration Arsenaal or the coordinator of studies for questions.
Remarks
This is the first of three survey courses in American literature (lit 3a, 4a, and 5a), which can also be taken individually and/or in combination with the introduction to American Studies “From Bradford to Obama.” This course is a required course for students taking the minor in American Studies.
Note: you will have to read two lengthy novels in addition to shorter texts. If you don't like to read, you should take another course.
Disclaimer: Please note that the course descriptions, in particular the assessment method, might be adjusted (timely) depending on the measures taken regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.