Undergraduate Course: American Innocence (ENLI10286)
Course Outline
| School | School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | In this course we will study essays, poetry, and novels written by American authors, paying attention to the works formal properties while also attending to how these literary texts portray America's promises of freedom and happiness, its mythology of new world innocence versus old world corruption, while also holding in view the violence, racial conflicts, and regional clashes that have marked US history. In short, we will explore the interlinked mythologies of innocence, wilderness, and individual freedom while also attending to their shadowy underside--as all these literary works, on some level, do. Innocence, experience, freedom, bondage, the tension between the individual and the community, we will keep coming back to these ideas, the debates surrounding them, and their evolving meanings. This course will prepare students for all year 4 courses, while providing an especially useful foundation for The American Novel, Black American Fiction, 21st Century Fictions, and a dissertation on American literary texts. |
| Course description |
WEEK 1: Introduction
WEEK 2: Ralph Waldo Emerson, 'Nature' & 'The American Scholar'; Margaret Fuller's 'Woman in the Nineteenth Century' (excerpt)
WEEK 3: Walt Whitman, 'Song of Myself' & 'Crossing Brooklyn Ferry'; Langston Hughes, 'The Negro Speaks of Rivers', 'Mother to Son', 'I, too'; 'The Weary Blues'; 'Democracy'
WEEK 4: Emily Dickinson, 'I taste a liquor never brewed' (207), 'Make Me a Picture of the Sun' (239), 'Wild Nights' (269), 'She sweeps with many colored brooms' (318), 'Of Bronze and Blaze' (319), 'I felt a funeral' (340), 'Perhaps I asked too large' (358), 'I like to see it lap the miles' (383), 'Two Butterflies Went Out at Noon' (571), 'I Started Early - Took my Dog' (656), 'What Soft Cherubic Creatures' (675), 'I felt a cleaving' (867), 'They put us far apart' (708), 'My Life Had stood - a loaded gun' (764), 'What Mystery Pervades a well' (1433), 'Split the lark' (598), 'Presentiment is that long shadow' (487).
WEEK 5: In class close reading assessment (1 hour)
WEEK 6: READING WEEK
WEEK 7: Nathaniel Hawthorne, 'The Scarlet Letter'
WEEK 8: Henry James 'The Portrait of a Lady'
WEEK 9: Edith Wharton, 'The Age of Innocence'
WEEK 10: Willa Cather, 'O Pioneers!'
WEEK 9: Louise Erdrich, 'Tracks'
WEEK 10: Kathleen Collins, 'Whatever Happened to Interracial Love?'; James Baldwin, 'The Fire Next Time' & Kim McLarin's 'On Innocence'
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Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | A MINIMUM of 4 college/university level literature courses at grade B or above (should include no more than one introductory level literature course). Related courses such as civilisation or other interdisciplinary classes, Freshman Year Seminars or composition/creative writing classes/workshops are not considered for admission to this course. Applicants should also note that, as with other popular courses, meeting the minimum does NOT guarantee admission. In making admissions decisions preference will be given to students who achieve above the minimum requirement with the typical visiting student admitted to this course having 4 literature classes at grade A.
** as numbers are limited, visiting students should contact the Visiting Student Office directly for admission to this course ** |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate familiarity with themes, issues, and relevant critical debates in a range of American literary writing
- Locate and situate how formal elements operate in a range of literary texts and analyse comparatively how these formal elements contribute to generating meaning(s)
- Students will have been encouraged to develop critical thinking skills and a self-critical writing process
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Reading List
WEEK 1: Introduction (Readings: de Crevecoeur, Letters from an American Farmer; #3 & #9, 1782; Frederick Douglass, 'Fourth of July Oration', 1852; and listen to David Runciman's podcast on de Tocqueville)
WEEK 2: Ralph Waldo Emerson, 'Nature' (1836) and 'Circles' (1841)
WEEK 3: Walt Whitman, 'Song of Myself' (1855); and 'Crossing Brooklyn Ferry' (1855)
WEEK 4: Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter (1850)
WEEK 5: Emily Dickinson, poems (pub. 1890 & 1891): 'I taste a liquor never brewed' (207), 'Make Me a Picture of the Sun' (239), 'Wild Nights' (269), 'She sweeps with many colored brooms' (318), 'Of Bronze and Blaze' (319), 'I felt a funeral' (340), 'Perhaps I asked too large' (358), 'I like to see it lap the miles' (383), 'Two Butterflies Went Out at Noon' (571), 'I Started Early' Took my Dog' (656), 'What Soft Cherubic Creatures' (675), 'I felt a cleaving' (867), 'They put us far apart' (708), 'My Life Had stood' a loaded gun' (764), 'What Mystery Pervades a well' (1433), 'Split the lark' (598), 'Presentiment is that long shadow'(487).
WEEK 6: Henry James, 'Daisy Miller: A Study' (1878)
WEEK 7: Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence (1919)
WEEK 8: Willa Cather, O Pioneers! (1913)
WEEK 9: Kathleen Collins, 'Whatever Happened to Interracial Love' and James Baldwin, 'The Fire Next Time' (1962)
WEEK 10: Louise Erdrich, Tracks (1988)
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Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Allyson Stack
Tel: (0131 6)50 4290
Email: allyson.stack@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mrs Lina Gordyshevskaya
Tel:
Email: pgordysh@ed.ac.uk |
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