Year: Second
Part of the year: Half Year 2
Module Leader: Stephanie Palmer
Assessments:
Keywords:
American, African American, Native American, Latino/a American, women’s writing, cityscape, literary naturalism, the pastoral, ecocriticism, the frontier, symbolic geography
Description:
American Topics: Landscapes and Cityscapes engages in the focused analysis of the relationship between North American literature and the landscape. The module examines how land and urbanisation have shaped American literature and how American literature has helped to construct images of the land and cities. We will discuss issues like literary naturalism and the modern, urban phenomenon, largely but not exclusively African American, of ‘passing’. The set texts move between nineteenth century and modern or contemporary texts that are organised not around chronology but particular themes.
Although taking ENGL 11712 (American Literature: Writing Self and Nation) at Level 1 is not a prerequisite for this module, students who did take it will see that this module allows them to build, in more detailed ways, upon the overview they developed there.
The module furthers the U.N.’s sustainability development goals 5 (gender equality), 10 (reduced inequality), and 15 (life on land).
Through reading and activities, students will gain a tangible sense of how literary writing relates to the natural world. The focus on cityscapes and writings by African Americans and Native Americans enables us consider what difference class, gender, and race make to a person’s experience of nature. Thus, the module combines the humanities concept of ‘intersectional oppressions’ with a cross-disciplinary focus on sustainable development. Students will consider the difficulty of inspiring readers to protect the nonhuman environment and welcome human diversity at the same time. Students will address the ways that reading, writing, and analysing literature can sustain both human and nonhuman life. In this sense, the module is an example of the ‘environmental humanities.’
For the project, students will have a choice of writing a creative piece, working with an organisation to foster wider participation in nature recreation, or reflecting on the relationship between literature and nature.
Prerequisites: N/A
Useful Information:
American Literature; Nineteenth-Century Literature; Modern and Contemporary Literature; ecocriticism
Set Texts:
Please source your own copies of these texts unless otherwise indicated.
Henry David Thoreau, Walden (1854) [nonfiction prose]
Kate Chopin, The Awakening (1899) [novel]
Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon (1977) [novel]
Jack Schaefer, Shane (1949) [novel]
Willa Cather, A Lost Lady (1923) [novel]
Sherman Alexie, short stories and poems from The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven and The Business of Fancydancing (1990s) – will probably be provided
Stephen Crane, ‘Maggie: a Girl of the Streets’ (1893) [short story]
Langston Hughes, poems – on internet
Nella Larsen, Passing (1929) [novel]
There might be slight modifications of this reading during the summer of 2017; please consult the module leader if you have questions about a specific title.
Teaching methods/structure:
Independent reading and directed learning, lecture workshops, seminars, independent research. Students should be prepared to share their ideas about module issues and texts in small groups or via mobile technology in workshops; seminars may involve large-group discussion, small-group tasks, or in-class writing.
Please view the module specification for the learning outcomes for this module.
Contact details for further queries (module leader):
Stephanie Palmer
Email: stephanie.palmer@ntu.ac.uk