ECTS credits ECTS credits: 6
ECTS Hours Rules/Memories Student's work ECTS: 99 Hours of tutorials: 3 Expository Class: 24 Interactive Classroom: 24 Total: 150
Use languages Spanish, Galician, English
Type: Ordinary Degree Subject RD 1393/2007 - 822/2021
Departments: English and German Philology
Areas: English Philology
Center Faculty of Philology
Call: First Semester
Teaching: With teaching
Enrolment: Enrollable
1. Place the literary works in their respective historical, cultural and literary contexts.
2. Close reading and analysis of each of the works, paying attention to formal and aesthetic aspects as well as to their relation to the contexts.
3. Competent and well thought-out readings. The students will be expected to provide original and coherently argued interpretations.
4. The aim is to arrive at a solidly based knowledge of the evolution of the American literary tradition in the 20th. century.
Analysis of formal, thematic and aesthetic aspects of the following texts, studied in the historical and literary contexts they were created in:
Lost Generation
F. S. Fitzgerald. "The Great Gatsby" "Echoes of the Jazz Age" "The Crack-Up"
E. Hemingway. "The Killers", "Hills like White Elephants"
Southern Renaissance
W. Faulkner. "Barn Burning", "A Rose for Emily"
Harlem Renaissance
Langston Hughes, "I, Too", "The Negro Speaks of Rivers", "Harlem"
Social realism
John Steinbeck, "The Grapes of Wrath"
Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
American drama
Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun
Arthur Miller, The Crucible
Toni Morrison, Beloved
Other optional texts
Flannery O’Connor. “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”
Art Spiegelman, Maus, a Survivor's Tale
Leslie Marmon Silko, "Yellow Woman"
Sandra Cisneros, Woman Hollering Creek (1964)
Nota
This syllabus might be moderately reduced if the teachers consider it, in order to improve the dynamics of the class
Note: copies of the poems and the short stories will be provided
BASIC:
The primary texts assigned for obligatory reading in the previous section
COMPLEMENTARY:
Bercovitch, Sacvan, ed. The Cambridge History of American Literature. Vol. VIII: Poetry and Criticism, 1940-1995. Cambridge UP, 1996
----------, ed. The Cambridge History of American Literature. Vol. VII: Prose Writing, 1940-1990. Cambridge UP, 1999
Breslin, James E. B. From Modern to Contemporary: American Poetry, 1945-1965. Chicago: The U of Chicago P, 1983
Chase, Richard. The American Novel and Its Tradition. The Johns Hopkins UP, 1975
Conn, Peter. Literature in America. Cambridge UP, 1989
Cunliffe, Marcus. The Literature of the United States. 4th ed. Penguin, 1986
Elliot, Emory, ed. The Columbia Literary History of the United States. Columbia UP, 1988
----------, ed. The Columbia History of the American Novel: New Views. Columbia UP, 1991
Fiedler, Leslie. Love and Death in the American Novel. Revised ed. Penguin, 1984
UP, 1988
Gelpi, Albert. A Coherent Splendor: The American Poetic Renaissance, 1910-1950. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1987
González, Constante, On Their Own Premises: Southern Women Writers and the Homeplace. València: Universitat de València, 2008
Gurpegui, J. A., ed. Historia crítica de la novela norteamericana. Salamanca: Almar. 2001
Hart, James D., and P. Leininger, eds. The Oxford Companion to American Literature. Oxford UP, 1995
Massa, Ann. American Literature in Context IV: 1900-1930. London: Methuen, 1982
Parini, Jay, ed. The Columbia History of American Poetry. New York: Columbia UP, 1994
Ruland, Richard and Malcolm Bradbury. From Puritanism to Postmodernism: A History of American Literature. Viking. 1992
Salzman, Jack, ed. The Cambridge Hadbook of American Literature. Cambridge UP, 1986
Walker, Marshall. The Literature of the United States of America. 2nd ed. Macmillan, 1988
CB1, CB2, CB3, CB4, CB5 (Basic)
CG3, CG5, CG6, CG7, CG8, CG9, CE5, CE6, CE7, CE8, CE9, CE10
The students will be expected to develop and use adequate critical capacities, to produce coherently argued interpretations.
Development of an adequate literary competence, which will be channelled orally through class participation and in written form through papers and exams.
The teacher will give instruction in the literary and cultural contexts, as well as in the aesthetic aspirations and ethical concerns of the authors. Guidelines to approach each of the individual works will also be provided.
The class will combine theoretical instruction with the practical approach: textual analysis, questions and debate.
In all classes, active participation in the debates will be taken into account.
The careful and critical reading of the works is essential BEFORE their explanation and discussion in class.
Assessment includes CONTINUOUS EVALUATION (50% of the final mark), and a FINAL EXAM (50% of the final mark)
IT IS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY TO SCORE A MINIMUM OF 2,5 POINTS (OUT OF 5/ 5 OUT OF 10) IN THE EXAM for the mark of the continuous evaluation to be taken into account. If you fail to score this minimum, you fail the subject.
The mark of the continuous evaluation will be kept for the July exam, and the assessment will be the same for both May and July.
Those students who are re-taking the subject, or those who cannot attend classes because their schedule coincides partially or totally with that of another subject (proof must be provided, e.g. scanned copy of registration) may CHOOSE one of the following assessment systems:
a) JUST THE final EXAM: 100% of the final mark.
b) Standard assessment: CONTINUOUS EVALUATION (50% of the final mark), and a FINAL EXAM (50% of the final mark).
Additionally these students MUST communicate their decision to the coordinator of the subject before Thursday 28 of September. Otherwise, they will be assessed according to the standard system: 50% continuous evaluation + 50% final exam
For students who are officially EXEMPT from attending lectures, the exam will count as 100% of the final mark in both opportunities.
For cases of fraudulent conduct over exercises or tests, the provisions of the regulations for evaluating the academic performance of USC students and reviewing the qualification will be applied (article 16 of the "normativa de avaliación do rendemento académico dos estudantes"): "Fraudulent exams, tests or tasks required for the evaluation of a subject will imply a fail in the corresponding opportunity, regardless of the disciplinary process that may be opened against the offending student. Among others, plagiarised works or those obtained from sources accessible to the public without reworking or reinterpretation and without quotation to authors and sources will also be considered fraudulent". Therefore, the detection of the smallest sign of plagiarism (or "cut & paste" from the internet or any other AI tools) will be penalised with a zero in the subject and the established disciplinary measures will be taken.
3 hours a week of work in the classroom. Attendance is compulsory
At least 7 hours a week of individual work to read and prepare the assigned literary works
Since this is an ECTS subject, the student will need 150 hours (lectures and autonomous work included) to pass the subject.
Attentive and critical reading of the compulsory works is indispensable BEFORE the explanation and discussion in class.
Attendance is compulsory
Both in the exams and in the written papers, expressive clarity, expository consistency, analytical depth and originality will be valued, as well as in all written or oral activities, critical and summarising capability, good structure of essays or exams, and clarity in the explanation of theoretical concepts/ features of the texts.
Rather than the mere repetition of information learnt by heart, the teacher will value the handling of information and careful reading in the face of new case studies, as well as the application and interrelations of the ideas originated from the given information.
It is very important that students are attentive to the messages they receive from the lecturers in the Virtual Campus and in their corporate e-mail regarding indications about teaching, homework, deadlines etc.
A correct use of the English language will be essential
The accumulation of grammatical or orthographic errors will result in a penalty of up to three (3) point in the final mark
In accordance with article 9.2.a of the USC Student Statute and article 36 of the Organic Law of the University System, the use of electronic devices (mobile phones, tablets, computers, etc.) is not authorized in the lectures and seminars except when expressly authorized by the lecturers.
The USC has additional tutorial support service to help diversity (students with specific needs). https://www.usc.gal/gl/servizos/area/inclusion- participacion-social. E-mail: sepiu.santiago [at] usc.es (sepiu[dot]santiago[at]usc[dot]es).
Patricia Fra Lopez
Coordinador/a- Department
- English and German Philology
- Area
- English Philology
- Phone
- 881811879
- patricia.fra [at] usc.es
- Category
- Professor: University Lecturer
| Tuesday | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 10:00-11:00 | Grupo /CLIS_03 (P-Z) | English | D08 |
| 11:00-12:00 | Grupo /CLIS_01 (A-F) | English | D08 |
| 12:00-13:00 | Grupo /CLIS_02 (G-O) | English | D08 |
| Thursday | |||
| 09:00-10:00 | Grupo /CLE_01 | English | C12 |
| 10:00-11:00 | Grupo /CLE_01 | English | C12 |
| 01.20.2025 09:30-13:30 | Grupo /CLE_01 | C09 |
| 01.20.2025 09:30-13:30 | Grupo /CLIS_01 (A-F) | C09 |
| 01.20.2025 09:30-13:30 | Grupo /CLIS_02 (G-O) | C09 |
| 01.20.2025 09:30-13:30 | Grupo /CLIS_03 (P-Z) | C09 |
| 01.20.2025 09:30-13:30 | Grupo /CLIS_01 (A-F) | C10 |
| 01.20.2025 09:30-13:30 | Grupo /CLIS_02 (G-O) | C10 |
| 01.20.2025 09:30-13:30 | Grupo /CLIS_03 (P-Z) | C10 |
| 01.20.2025 09:30-13:30 | Grupo /CLE_01 | C10 |
| 06.18.2025 09:30-13:30 | Grupo /CLIS_01 (A-F) | C09 |
| 06.18.2025 09:30-13:30 | Grupo /CLIS_02 (G-O) | C09 |
| 06.18.2025 09:30-13:30 | Grupo /CLIS_03 (P-Z) | C09 |
| 06.18.2025 09:30-13:30 | Grupo /CLE_01 | C09 |