ENGLISH 787 : Literature USA: from the American Renaissance to the Jazz Age

Arts

2024 Semester One (1243) (30 POINTS)

Course Prescription

Examines a selection of classic texts and major issues in the literature of the United States from the American Renaissance of the 1840s and 1850s through to the Jazz Age of the 1920s and 1930s.

Course Overview

Examines a selection of classic texts and major issues in the literature of the United States from the American Renaissance of the 1840s and 50s through to the Jazz Age of the 1920s and 30s. Texts and emphases may vary from year to year, but our primary concern is the relation between literature and some of the larger historical processes and problems of the period. A cross-cultural frontier becomes a settled landscape; a ‘new world’ becomes a new world order; a post-colonial literature engages the traditions of Europe; utopian hopes are contradicted by slavery and its legacies; emancipated women challenge the dominance of men; the big city offers new opportunities for self-fashioning and cultural invention. The theoretical orientation of the course is broadly new historicist and is responsive to recent developments in settler colonial studies, gender theory, ecocriticism and environmental history.
This course promotes advanced reading, critical, and writing skills through the study of a carefully chosen set of thematically interlocking texts. 

Timetable:
1. Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter
2. Hawthorne, The Blithedale Romance
3. Melville, Moby-Dick
4. Melville, Moby-Dick
5. Melville, Moby-Dick
6. Poe, Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym
7. Thoreau, Walden
8. Twain, Huckleberry Finn
9. Cather, The Professor’s House
10. Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
11. Faulkner, As I Lay Dying
12. Conclusion


Assessment Summary:
1. Presentations, equivalent of a total of 2,000 words. 20%
2. Essay abstract and annotated bibliography: equivalent of 1,000 words. 10%
3. First submission of essay: 6,000 words. 50%.
4. Second submission of essay: 6,000 words. 20%.
Notes on assessment.
1. Presentations. Over the course of the semester, each student presents two or three in-class ‘discussion starters’ and one or two ‘oral reports’. For the discussion starter, the student selects a relatively short passage from the week’s reading and devises several questions (or finds ‘intertexts’ such as paintings or newspaper reports) as prompts for close-reading and discussion. For the oral report, the student reads an assigned work of criticism and presents an outline of key and suggestive ideas for discussion. The in-class presentations are revised for assessment as a portfolio of powerpoint slides or mini-essays. No more than one in-class presentation should overlap with the texts chosen for the major essay.
2-4. Students complete a major essay, treating at least two of the texts on the course. These linked assessment tasks model the aims and processes of the professional peer review process for scholarly publication: from a researched abstract (see 2 above), to a final draft/first submission (see 3 above), to a revised final submission responding to copy-editing and readers’ comments (see 4 above). The latter has no specific word count, but is expected to be the equivalent of 2,000 words of new writing. The learning outcomes depend on students completing their first submission to a high standard—setting the marks for this phase at 50% is intended to discourage students from handing in ‘rough’ work.

Course Requirements

No pre-requisites or restrictions

Capabilities Developed in this Course

Capability 1: People and Place
Capability 2: Sustainability
Capability 3: Knowledge and Practice
Capability 4: Critical Thinking
Capability 5: Solution Seeking
Capability 6: Communication
Capability 7: Collaboration
Capability 8: Ethics and Professionalism
Graduate Profile: Master of Arts

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, students will be able to:
  1. Develops a broad-ranging and high-level understanding of major authors and issues in nineteenth and early twentieth-century American Literature. (Capability 3 and 4)
  2. Develops reading and writing skills to an appropriate graduate level, and models the processes that lead to professional publication. (Capability 4, 5, 6 and 8)
  3. Develops a transferable theoretical understanding of new historicist, settler-colonial, ecocritical and gender-related criticism. (Capability 1, 2, 3 and 4)
  4. Be able to undertake comparative work in other settler colonial literatures, such as New Zealand, Australian, Canadian and South African. (Capability 1, 3 and 5)
  5. Prepare and present ideas and content for in-class discussion (Capability 6 and 7)

Assessments

Assessment Type Percentage Classification
Coursework 100% Individual Coursework

Workload Expectations

This course is a standard 30 point course and students are expected to spend 10 hours per week involved in each 15 point course that they are enrolled in.

For this course, you can expect 3 hours of seminar discussion, 10 hours of reading and thinking about the content and 7 hours of work on assignments.

Delivery Mode

Campus Experience

Attendance is expected at scheduled activities  to receive credit for components of the course.
 Learning activities including seminars will not be available as recordings.
The course will not include live online events.
The activities for the course are scheduled as a standard weekly block delivery.

Learning Resources

Course materials are made available in a learning and collaboration tool called Canvas which also includes reading lists and lecture recordings (where available).

Please remember that the recording of any class on a personal device requires the permission of the instructor.

Required texts: 
Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter
Hawthorne, The Blithedale Romance
Melville, Moby-Dick
 Poe, Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym
Thoreau, Walden
Twain, Huckleberry Finn
Cather, The Professor’s House
Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
Faulkner, As I Lay Dying

Student Feedback

At the end of every semester students will be invited to give feedback on the course and teaching through a tool called SET or Qualtrics. The lecturers and course co-ordinators will consider all feedback and respond with summaries and actions.

Your feedback helps teachers to improve the course and its delivery for future students.

Class Representatives in each class can take feedback to the department and faculty staff-student consultative committees.

No new content in week 12

Academic Integrity

The University of Auckland will not tolerate cheating, or assisting others to cheat, and views cheating in coursework as a serious academic offence. The work that a student submits for grading must be the student's own work, reflecting their learning. Where work from other sources is used, it must be properly acknowledged and referenced. This requirement also applies to sources on the internet. A student's assessed work may be reviewed for potential plagiarism or other forms of academic misconduct, using computerised detection mechanisms.

Class Representatives

Class representatives are students tasked with representing student issues to departments, faculties, and the wider university. If you have a complaint about this course, please contact your class rep who will know how to raise it in the right channels. See your departmental noticeboard for contact details for your class reps.

Inclusive Learning

All students are asked to discuss any impairment related requirements privately, face to face and/or in written form with the course coordinator, lecturer or tutor.

Student Disability Services also provides support for students with a wide range of impairments, both visible and invisible, to succeed and excel at the University. For more information and contact details, please visit the Student Disability Services’ website http://disability.auckland.ac.nz

Well-being always comes first
We all go through tough times during the semester, or see our friends struggling. There is lots of help out there - for more information, look at this Canvas page https://canvas.auckland.ac.nz/courses/33894, which has links to various support services in the University and the wider community.

Special Circumstances

If your ability to complete assessed coursework is affected by illness or other personal circumstances outside of your control, contact a member of teaching staff as soon as possible before the assessment is due.

If your personal circumstances significantly affect your performance, or preparation, for an exam or eligible written test, refer to the University’s aegrotat or compassionate consideration page https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/students/academic-information/exams-and-final-results/during-exams/aegrotat-and-compassionate-consideration.html.

This should be done as soon as possible and no later than seven days after the affected test or exam date.

Learning Continuity

In the event of an unexpected disruption, we undertake to maintain the continuity and standard of teaching and learning in all your courses throughout the year. If there are unexpected disruptions the University has contingency plans to ensure that access to your course continues and course assessment continues to meet the principles of the University’s assessment policy. Some adjustments may need to be made in emergencies. You will be kept fully informed by your course co-ordinator/director, and if disruption occurs you should refer to the university website for information about how to proceed.

Student Charter and Responsibilities

The Student Charter assumes and acknowledges that students are active participants in the learning process and that they have responsibilities to the institution and the international community of scholars. The University expects that students will act at all times in a way that demonstrates respect for the rights of other students and staff so that the learning environment is both safe and productive. For further information visit Student Charter https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/students/forms-policies-and-guidelines/student-policies-and-guidelines/student-charter.html.

Disclaimer

Elements of this outline may be subject to change. The latest information about the course will be available for enrolled students in Canvas.

In this course students may be asked to submit coursework assessments digitally. The University reserves the right to conduct scheduled tests and examinations for this course online or through the use of computers or other electronic devices. Where tests or examinations are conducted online remote invigilation arrangements may be used. In exceptional circumstances changes to elements of this course may be necessary at short notice. Students enrolled in this course will be informed of any such changes and the reasons for them, as soon as possible, through Canvas.

Published on 26/10/2023 08:27 a.m.