Universität Wien

123426 SE Literary & Cultural Studies Seminar / BA Paper / MA American/North American Lit./Studies (2015W)

Literary Massachusetts

11.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 12 - Anglistik
Continuous assessment of course work

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 20 participants
Language: English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

  • Thursday 15.10. 14:00 - 16:00 Raum 1 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-05
  • Thursday 22.10. 14:00 - 16:00 Raum 1 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-05
  • Thursday 29.10. 14:00 - 16:00 Raum 1 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-05
  • Thursday 05.11. 14:00 - 16:00 Raum 1 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-05
  • Thursday 12.11. 14:00 - 16:00 Raum 1 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-05
  • Thursday 19.11. 14:00 - 16:00 Raum 1 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-05
  • Thursday 26.11. 14:00 - 16:00 Raum 1 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-05
  • Thursday 03.12. 14:00 - 16:00 Raum 1 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-05
  • Thursday 10.12. 14:00 - 16:00 Raum 1 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-05
  • Thursday 17.12. 14:00 - 16:00 Raum 1 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-05
  • Thursday 07.01. 14:00 - 16:00 Raum 1 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-05
  • Thursday 14.01. 14:00 - 16:00 Raum 1 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-05
  • Thursday 21.01. 14:00 - 16:00 Raum 1 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-05
  • Thursday 28.01. 14:00 - 16:00 Raum 1 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-05

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

Nonconformism, Individualism, Transcendentalism . . . Boston, Harvard, Salem, Concord:
isms and places that are pivotal in U.S. history and cultural geography. Massachusetts, the paradigmatic "New England" colony (1620ff.) and U.S. state (since 1788), where "Puritans" planned their "City upon a Hill", where the American War of Independence started (with a farmer's shot that was "heard round the world"), where literature flourished in the first half of the 19th century into what became known as the "American Renaissance".
In the first weeks of this course we will discuss early "non-fictional" (?) texts (or text excerpts) by William Bradford, John Winthrop, and Cotton Mather - setting the stage for our analyses of "Literary Massachusetts" highlights: representative poems by Anne Bradstreet, Emily Dickinson and Robert Lowell, essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau and Margaret Fuller, tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne as well as his Boston romance The Scarlet Letter, and Arthur Miller's witch-hunt drama The Crucible.

Assessment and permitted materials

- academic term paper
- presentation of research projects
- class participation
- reading assignments

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

The seminar will concentrate on the students' theoretical and practical analysis of texts from four centuries in a variety of formats; while the focus is on literary criticism (and the production of an academic essay), Cultural Studies aspects will also be included.

Examination topics

- student presentations
- individual research
- interactive discussions in class

Reading list

Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter (available at Facultas am Campus)
Arthur Miller, The Crucible (available at Facultas am Campus)
all other texts (or text excerpts) will be posted on Moodle

Association in the course directory

Studium: UF 344, BA 612, MA 844;
Code/Modul: UF 4.2.4-322, BA09.2, 10.2, MA5, MA6, MA7;
Lehrinhalt: 12-0406

Last modified: Mo 07.09.2020 15:33