2010-11 academic year

English Literature Studies (20098)

Degree/study: Degree in Humanities 
Year: 3rd.
Term:1st
Number of ECTS credits: 5 credits
Hours of studi dedication:
Teaching language or languages: english
Teaching Staff: Miquel Berga

1. Presentation of the subject

Short stories in North-American Literature: from Poe to Carver.

A study and interpretation of the main periods, schools, work or authors that form the American tradition of short stories during the 19th and 20th centuries. The linguistic and thematic evolution and, specially, the evolution of narrative strategies are stressed. Apart from familiarising students with this tradition, the course proposes a close-reading of some twenty stories and creative exercises on rewriting and on textual intervention to achieve an appropriation of the most relevant texts.

2. Competences to be attained

General competences

Specific competences

Instrumental skills

  1. Vindicating, that is to say, defending or justifying, in writing and in speech, a certain position.
  2. Deductive reasoning skills, that is, reaching a conclusion based on premises.
  3. Generalising, or extracting a general rule from a limited amount of data or examples.
  4. Transmitting, in written and in speech, in a well-organised fashion, the acquired knowledge.
  5. Analysing and synthesising information from a variety of different sources.
  6. Organising and planning academic work.
  7. Using previous knowledge in any learning activity.
  8. Applying knowledge to practice.

Interpersonal skills

  1. Group work and meaning negotiation skills.
  2. Individual work skills.
  3. Integrating group work in the autonomous work.
  4. Communicating interpersonally, in small and large groups.

Systemic skills

  1. Creativity.
  2. Autonomous learning and continuous training skills.

•1.      Knowing, situating and interpreting relevant samples of brief narrative by the canonical authors in North-American Literature.

•2.      Analysing the evolution of language registers from Poe to Carver.

•3.      Contextualising the evolution of the American literary tradition in relation to the schools of a European-rooted literature, and understanding the change from a colonial literature to a national literature.

•4.      Knowing and analysing the evolution of narrative strategies by the most significant authors.

•5.      Creatively contributing to the reformulation of the studied stories.

•6.      Knowing and situating theoretical studies to formulate well-informed interpretations of the texts.

3. Contents

  1. Search for Form: Poe, Hawthorne, Melville.
  2. Regionalism & Realism: Twain, Harte, Gilman.
  3. A National Art Form: James, Henry, Landerson, Hemingway, Faulkner, Capote.
  4. The Contemporary Scene: Bowles, Cheever, Updike, Oates, Coover, Carver, Shepard, Cisneros...

*The full version with the sections 4. Assessment, 5. Bibliography and teaching resources, 6. Methodology, and 7. Planning of activities is available in the original version.

4. Assessment

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5. Bibliography and teaching resources

5.1. Basic bibliography

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5.2. Complementary bibliography

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5.3. Teaching resources

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6. Metodology

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7. Planning of activities

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