American Literature and Culture I

Recommended Prerequisites

Students are expected to be proficient in English for a good command of the primary and critical bibliography and also to have a basic knowledge of the history and culture of the USA.

Teaching Methods

Seminar sessions will combine lectures and discussion of texts and other materials proposed for each session, as well as oral presentations by students. Individual oral presentation(s) will reinforce the students' analytical, argumentative, and dialogue skills, as well as give them practice in public speaking.The final essay will be on a topic previously agreed with the instructor and should reveal the student's capacity to select relevant bibliography, as well as competence to organize and present ideas with a considerable level of sophistication and critical acumen.

Learning Outcomes

This seminar will enable students to:

• develop a critical awareness of the role of the USA in the past and in the contemporary world;
• become familiar with the most recent theoretical debates and, specifically, the theories of American Studies;
• deepen their critical perspective on the selected texts and the topic(s) addressed;
• reinforce the ability to conduct rigorous and autonomous research in the field.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

This seminar will be based on the exploration of a specific topic, or range of topics, with a special emphasis on the 19th and 20th centuries. Topics to be addressed: nation and myth, memory and history, colony and empire, immigration and citizenship, politics and power, power and language, centers and margins, public and private, multiculturalism and ethnicity, literature and politics. These topics obviously raise large theoretical questions, which this seminar will explore through contemporary theoretical debates and the most relevant theories of American Studies.

The syllabus may change in different editions of the course.

Head Lecturer(s)

Maria José Florentino Mendes Canelo

Assessment Methods

Continuous Assessment
In-class participation and oral presentations: 40.0%
Synthesis work: 60.0%

Bibliography

Burgett, B. & Hendler, G. (Eds.) (2007) Keywords for American Cultural Studies. NY and London: NYU.

Caldeira, I., Canelo, M. J. & Ramalho, M. I. (Eds.) (2012). America Where? 20th-Century Transatlantic Perspectives. Amsterdam: Peter Lang.

Campbell, N. & Kean A. (Eds) (1997). American Cultural Studies: An Introduction to American Culture. London: Routledge.

Castronovo, R. & Gilman, S. (Eds.) (2009). States of Emergency. The Object of American Studies. Chapel Hill: The U of North Carolina P.

Gilroy, P. (1993). The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness, London: Verso.

Kaplan, A. & Pease, D. (Eds.) (1993). Cultures of United States Imperialism. Durham, N.C.: Duke UP.

Maddox, L. (Ed.) (1999). Locating American Studies. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP.

Pease, D. (2009). The New American Exceptionalism. Minneapolis: U Minnesota P.

Philip, M. N. (1997), Genealogy of Resistance and Other Essays. Toronto: Mercury P.

Saldívar, J. D. (1997). Border Matters. Oakland, CA: U California P.