American literature

This course is an in-depth study of the development of American letters. It begins with the study of the literature of American Modernism, and ends with the critical addressing the characteristics of contemporary American writings.

The course presents an overview of American literature depicting the most significant periods, figures and currents of the 20th and the 21st centuries. The classes help students understand the particularity of contemporary American literature amongst other national literary traditions, place the significant works of American authors is a larger historical and cultural context.

Content distribution:

- Modernist poetry and fiction

- the writers of the ‘Lost Generation’

- American drama in the 20th Century

- literature of the American South

- the twentieth-century black writers and ‘Post-Race’ America

- Jewish life in American letters

- contemporary indigenous American writing

- women’s fiction writers in American letters

- modern American poets and lyricists

- post-modernism; contemporary American drama and fiction

Required readings:

Selection of texts and materials developed by the teachers, made available on the Moodle platform

Optional readings:

Levine, R. S. (ed.) 2016. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Nineth Edition. Volumes C, D, E. New York: W.W. Norton and Company.

Bradbury, M., Ruland, R. 1991. From Puritanism to Postmodernism. New York: Penguin Books.

High, P.B. 1986. An Outline of American Literature. Harlow: Person Education Limited.

Salska, A. (ed.) 2003. Historia Literatury Amerykańskiej. Tom 1 i 2. Kraków: Universitas.

Assessment methods:

- active participation in class – K1, U2, U3

- classroom and online assignments on assigned readings - W1, U1, U2

- an online group project: U1, U2, U3

- final examination - W1, U1, U2, U3, K1

Assessment criteria:

fail – 0-59 %

satisfactory – 60-69 %

satisfactory plus – 70-75 %

good – 76-85 %

good plus – 86-90 %

very good – 91-100 %

The students are evaluated in accordance with the university regulations, and they must attend all course meetings. Informed participation in class discussions – based on completion of the assigned reading and supportive collaboration with classmates – is also required. Each class absence has to be excused in the first week after the lesson missed. The final grade percentage will be reduced for every unexcused absence or an assignment that a student has failed to complete.

Instructors are authorized to refuse credit when the student’s absenteeism rate is around 50% even if the absences have had valid reasons.

Timely completion of assigned tasks is obligatory. In the case of assignments submitted after the deadline or re-submitted, the grade is lowered.

A grade average of at least 60% must be achieved to pass the course. The students who have failed to obtain the total average grade of at least of 60% are allowed one retake, which is administered in the retake examination session.

NOTE: all the above principles apply to all kinds of classes: traditional classroom and all forms of remote teaching. In case of online teaching, the tests may likewise be administered remotely in a form facilitating the verification of the achievement of learning outcomes.

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In 2021/2022 spring term, the class may be also conducted remotely with the use of remote teaching and testing methods, primarily through the Moodle platform and MS Teams, pending decisions of the university authorities.

Moodle: https://moodle.umk.pl/course/view.php?id=2901 and on Teams

Click on "Tutorial 45 hours -> more information" for additional notes about the 2021/2022 cycle.

As above

As above

As above

In 2022/2023 summer term, the class may be also conducted remotely with the use of remote teaching and testing methods, primarily through the Moodle platform and MS Teams, pending decisions of the university authorities or the instructors’ instruction.

Moodle course: https://moodle.umk.pl/course/view.php?id=4723

As above

As above

As above

In 2023/2024 summer term, the class may be also conducted remotely with the use of remote teaching and testing methods, primarily through the Moodle platform and MS Teams, pending decisions of the university authorities or the instructors’ instruction.

Moodle course: https://moodle.umk.pl/course/view.php?id=5373