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Instructors: Dr. Damien Schlarb
Event type:
Lecture
Displayed in timetable as:
05.866.412
Hours per week:
2
Credits:
2,0
Language of instruction:
Englisch
Min. | Max. participants:
- | -
Requirements / organisational issues:
Credit Requirements
- final written exam (30 - 45 minutes)
- see final syllabus for active participation requirements and course format
Compulsory attendance:
Attendance is strongly encouraged but not mandatory.
Contents:
This lecture course surveys major works in American literary history from its indigenous and settler-colonial beginnings to the eve of the American Civil War in 1860. The course aims to familiarize students with major writers and aesthetic movements of this period. We will address the contexts that these writers work and live in, our focus will lie squarely on the literary works themselves as they lead us through the cultural epochs of Early and Modern America. The texts on offer here represent multiple literary and oral genres, such as folktales, didactic morality tales, sermons, letters, lyrical poetry, short narratives and stories, and novels. Each session, we will discuss notable works from this multifarious cultural tradition to form a sense of how literature as a communal endeavor shapes and maps America’s cultural becoming and vice versa.
Recommended reading list:
Please purchase a recent edition of the Norton Anthology of American Literature Vols. A and B 9th or 10th ed.
I will use the 9th edition for my lecture notes and slides. You may use older editions, but refer to the syllabus to ensure that they contain the texts we will cover. The anthology includes useful chapter introductions, secondary materials, and editorial footnotes that help students make sense of these linguistically and culturally dense texts.
Further readings and reading suggestions will be provided via Moodle.
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