Information Package
baskent.edu.tr

Program of American Culture and Literature (English)

ACL342

MODERN AMERICAN FICTION

Course Code
ACL342
Semester
Sixth Term (Spring)
Theory+Practice
3 + 0
ECTS
5
Course TypeCompulsory Course
Course LevelBachelor's Degree
Year of Study3
SemesterSixth Term (Spring)
ECTS5
Name of Lecturer(s)
Learning Outcomes

At the end of this course, the students;

  1. Acquire theoretical and critical knowledge on modern American fiction.
  2. Analyze and discusses the contribution that each novelist of the period made to American fiction.
  3. Become fully familiar with the social, cultural, political, intellectual, historical, and literary context of modern American fiction.
  4. Are able to conduct further research on modern American fiction.
  5. Have historical and literary knowledge on American life and society as reflected in modern American fiction.
Mode of DeliveryFace to face
PrerequisitesNo
Recommended Optional Programme Components
Course DescriptionThis course offers a study of selected American novels with emphasis on literary modernism and twentieth century aesthetics, and discusses major historical, social and cultural developments and the main philosophical and ideological perspectives that emerged in this period. The aim of the course is to examine the ways in which modern American writers dealt with the fundamental issues of their time and how they reflected, by employing a variety of literary forms and styles, their concerns and anxieties about the social upheavals they had witnessed.
Course Contents
WEEK TOPICS
1st Week Genel giriş: Erken koloni döneminde America: Yerleşimler ve Koloniler, Püriten New England?da toplum ve yaşam: Kültür, din, siyaset ve edebiyat.
2nd Week Püriten dönemi şiiri: Anne Bradstreet (1612?-1672): "The Prologue," "Contemplations" ve "To My Dear and Loving Husband;",Michael Wigglesworth: "The Day of Doom" (1662); Edward Taylor: "Preparatory Meditations" (c. 1682 and after).
3rd Week (Devam)
4th Week Erken dönem Amerikan kadın şairlerden örnek şiirlerin incelenmesi: Jane Colman Turell (1708-1735): "To My Muse", Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784): "On Being Brought from Africa to America", Sarah Wentworth Morton (1759-1846); "The African Chief"
5th Week (Devam)
6th Week Erken dönem Amerikan romantik şiiri: Philip Freneau (1752-1832): "The Indian Burying Ground.", Lydia Howard Huntley Sigourney (1791-1865): "Indian Names.",William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878): "To A Waterfowl."
7th Week (Devam)
8th Week ARA SINAV
9th Week Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) ve transcendentalism: "Brahma" şiirinin incelenmesi; Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807- 1882): "The Day Is Done";
10th Week Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) ve Gotik romantizmi: "The Raven" ve "Annabel Lee" şiirlerinin incelenmesi;
11th Week Erken dönem Amerikan şiirinde Amerikan kimliği, Amerikan milliyetçiliği, Amerikan ideolojisi: Walt Whitman (1819-1892): "One?s Self I Sing" ve "Song of Myself" (Bölüm 1 ve 2)
12th Week (Devam)
13th Week Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) ve öznellik: Örnek olarak, 39, 122, 194, 260, 269, 409, 519, and 764 numaralı şiirlerinin incelenmesi.
14th Week (Devam)
15th Week Genel değerlendirme
Recommended or Required ReadingBendixen, Alfred, ed. A Companion to the American Novel. Wiley, 2012.
Müller, Timo, ed. Handbook of the American Novel of the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries. De Gruyter, 2017.
Young, Thomas Daniel, Modern American Fiction: Form and Function. Louisiana State UP, 1989.
Wagner-Martin, Linda. The Modern American Novel, 1914-1945: A Critical History. Twayne Publishers, 1990.
Yates, Norris W. ?What Makes the Modern American Novel Modern?? Jahrbuch für Amerikastudien, Bd. 11 (1966), pp. 59-68.
Bradbury, Malcolm. The Modern American Novel. Oxford UP, 1983.
Dickstein, Morris. Leopards in the Temple: The Transformation of American Fiction, 1945-1970. Harvard UP, 2002.
Donald, Miles. The American Novel in the Twentieth Century. Barnes, 1978.
Gold, Herbert. Fiction of the Fifties: A Decade of American Writing. Doubleday, 1959.
Hendin, Josephine. A Concise Companion to Postwar American Literature and Culture. Blackwell, 2004.
Kershner, R. B. The Twentieth Century Novel: An Introduction. Bedford Books, 1971.
Podhoretz, Norman. Doings and Undoings: The Fifties and After in American Writing. Farrar-Straus, 1964.
Schaub, Thomas. American Fiction in the Cold War. Wisconsin UP, 1991.
Tanner, Tony. City of Words: American Fiction 1950-1970. Harper and Row, 1987.
Taylor, Welford Dunaway. Sherwood Anderson. F. Ungar Pub. Co., 1977.
Crowley, John W. ed. New Essays on Winesburg, Ohio. Cambridge University Press, 1990.
Spiegel, Alan. ?A Theory of the Grotesque in Southern Fiction.? The Georgia Review, Vol. 26, No. 4 (Winter 1972), pp. 426-437.
Wagner-Martin, Linda, ed. New Essays on The Sun Also Rises. Cambridge University Press, 1987.
Fenstermaker, John. `Hemingway's Modernism: Exploring Its Victorian Roots.? South Atlantic Review, Vol. 76, No. 3 (Summer 2011), pp. 77-92.
Callahan, John F. ?F. Scott Fitzgerald's Evolving American Dream: The "Pursuit of Happiness" in Gatsby, Tender Is the Night, and The Last Tycoon.? Twentieth Century Literature. Vol. 42, No. 3 (Autumn, 1996), pp. 374-395.
Carringer, Robert L. "Citizen Kane", "The Great Gatsby", and Some Conventions of American Narrative. Critical Inquiry, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Winter, 1975), pp. 307-325.
Fruscione, Joseph. ?Hemingway, Faulkner and the Clash of Reputations.? New England Review, Vol. 33, No. 1 (2012), pp. 62-79.
Friedman, Alan Warren. William Faulkner. F. Ungar Pub. Co., 1984.
Hoffman, Frederick John. William Faulkner. 2nd ed. Twayne Publishers, 1960.
French, Warren. John Steinbeck's Fiction Revisited. Twayne Publishers, 1994.
Levant, Howard. The Novels of John Steinbeck: A Critical Study. U of Missouri P, 1974.
Lisca, Peter. The Wide World of John Steinbeck. Rutgers University Press, 1958.
Grunwald, Henry Anatole. Salinger: A Critical and Personal Portrait. Harper, 1962.
Gwynn, Frederick L. The Fiction of J. D. Salinger. U of Pittsburgh P, 1979.
Hersey, John. Ralph Ellison: A Collection of Critical Essays. Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1974.
Watts, Gafio Jerry. Heroism and the Black Intellectual: Ralph Ellison, Politics, and Afro-American Intellectual Life. U of North Carolina P, 1994.
Johnson, Claudia Durst. Understanding To Kill A Mockingbird: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources and Historic Documents. Greenwood Press, 1994.
Bloom, Harold, ed. James Baldwin. Chelsea House, 2006.
McBride, Dwight A., ed. James Baldwin Now. New York UP, 1999.
Planned Learning Activities and Teaching Methods
  • Lecture
  • Discussion
Assessment Methods and Criteria
Quantity Percentage (%)
Mid-term 1 30
Quiz 2 20
Project 1 10
Attendance 1 10
Total(%) 70
Contribution of In-term Studies to Overall Grade(%) 70
Contribution of Final Examination to Overall Grade(%) 30
Total(%) 100
ECTS Allocated Based on Student Workload
Activities Quantity Duration (Hour) Total Workload (Hour)
Midterm exam 1 2 2
Preparation for Quiz
Individual or group work 14 4 56
Preparation for Final exam 1 12 12
Course hours 14 3 42
Preparation for Midterm exam 1 12 12
Laboratory (including preparation)
Final exam 1 2 2
Homework 1 12 12
Article Presentation 1 12 12
Total Work Load150
Total Work Load / 30 (h)5
ECTS Credit of the Course5
Language of InstructionEnglish
Work Placement(s)No

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