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Midterm essay. Write a short, analytical, academic essay discussing one of the primary texts covered this semester [800 -1000 words in total].
a. The essay must debate ONE topic/theme/question [e.g. “the theme of resilience in Douglass’s The Narrative”, “the role of irony in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”] and must have a clear thesis statement, hypothesis [“Bartleby the Scrivener reflects the effects of modernity on an individual”].
b. The structure of the essay must be as follows: Introduction [cca 150 words], Discussion [500-600 words], Conclusion [cca 150 words]
C. AT LEAST 2 academic sources must be used and referenced in the essay. Internet sources such as Sparknotes, Cliffnotes, LitCharts, Shmoop ARE NOT academic sources. Go to EBSCO or JSTOR to search for appropriate sources.
d. Papers must be typed and using proper referencing [MLA or APA style]. ¨
Any kind of plagiarism will result in deducting 50% from your final test score or in failing the whole course.RECOMMENDED LITERATURE
Quinn, J. et all. Lectures on American Literature. Karolinum, Praha, 2011.
Baym, N. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. W.W.Norton, New York, 2003.
Ruland R. & Bradbury, M. From Puritanism to Postmodernism: A History of American Literature.
New York, 1991.Here is the literature we discussed this semester that you can choose a topic from:
WEEK 1 [Sept 23]
Lecture: Introduction, Native American oral literature
Seminar: creation stories, trickster stories, “how and why” stories
WEEK 2 [Sept 30]
Lecture: Puritans
Seminar: John Smith: The General History of Virginia, New England and the Summer Islands
Cotton Mather: “The Wonders of the Invisible World”
William Bradford: Of Plymouth Plantation [The Pequot War, The Horrible Case of
Bestiality]
Anne Bradstreet: selected poems [“The Prologue”, “The Author to Her Book”, “Before the
Birth of One of Her Children”, “To My Dear and Loving Husband”]
WEEK 3 [Oct 7]
Lecture: Enlightenment, Revolution
Seminar: Declaration of Independence
Benjamin Franklin: Autobiography
Thomas Paine: “Common Sense” [pp.67-68, 84-91, 99-101]
WEEK 4 [Oct 14]
Lecture: Romanticism
Seminar: Washington Irving: “Rip van Winkle”
Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Scarlet Letter [pp. 72-148]
WEEK 5 [Oct 21]
Lecture: E. A. Poe, American Gothic
Seminar: E. A. Poe: Philosophy of Composition, “Fall of the House of Usher”, “Raven”, “Annabel
Lee”
WEEK 6 [Oct 28]
Lecture: Melville
Seminar: Herman Melville: “Bartleby the Scrivener”
Herman Melville: Moby-Dick [pp. 22-86, 335-352]
WEEK 7 [Nov 4]
Lecture: Transcendentalism
Seminar: R.W.Emerson: Nature
H.D.Thoreau: “Civil Disobedience”
WEEK 8 [Nov 11]
Lecture: Whitman and Dickinson
Seminar: W. Whitman: “Song of Myself”
Emily Dickinson: “A Bird Came down the Walk”, “Because I Could Not Stop for Death”, “I
Started Early – Took My Dog”, “A Narrow Fellow in the Grass”, “This Is My Letter to the World”,
“Faith Is a Fine Invention”
WEEK 9 [Nov 18]
Lecture: Slavery and African American literature
Seminar: F. Douglass: “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave,
Written by Himself”
Phillis Wheatley: “Ode to Neptune”,”On Being Brought from Africa to America”
WEEK 10 [Nov 25]
Lecture: Women’s literature
Seminar: C. Perkins Gilman: The Yellow Wall-Paper
Kate Chopin: The Awakening
WEEK 11 [Dec 2]
Lecture: Realism and Naturalism I
Seminar: Mark Twain, Henry James
S. Crane: The Red Badge of Courage [pp. 1-43]
WEEK 12 [Dec 9]
Lecture: Realism and Naturalism II
Seminar: Jack London: “To Build a Fire”
Jewett, Dreiser
Writer’s choice
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