230406 Survey of US American Literature (S) (SoSe 2025)

This lecture course is designed to introduce students to major periods and authors of U.S. American literature. Students will apprehend to study literary texts in context. The lecture course will familiarize students with major literary and aesthetic developments in the history of U.S. American literature from the colonial period to the present: Puritan, Transcendalist, Realist, Modern, Postmodern, and Contemporary literature. The course will introduce students to authors like Anne Bradstreet, Edgar A. Poe, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Charlotte Gilman Perkins, Toni Morrison among others. A closer look at individual texts shall provide a clear understanding of literary content and technique as well as text-context relation. Students are required to participate regularly in the lectures and to read selected literary texts. In order to receive their credit points students will have to submit a journal including entries (3000 words) in which they will respond to questions related to each one the reading requirements. The course structure will consist of approximately a general introduction, seven lectures, a comprise lecture and three to four journal writing sessions.