Literatura
Norteamericana 2
Constante González Groba
GUÍA DOCENTE E MATERIAL DIDÁCTICO
2019/2020
FACULTADE DE FILOLOXÍA
DEPARTAMENTO DE FILOLOXÍA INGLESA E ALEMÁ
FACULTADE DE FILOLOXÍA. DEPARTAMENTO DE FILOLOXÍA INGLESA E ALEMÁ
AUTOR: Constante González Groba Edición electrónica. 2018
ADVERTENCIA LEGAL: Reservados todos os dereitos. Queda prohibida a duplicación total ou parcial desta obra, en calquera forma ou por calquera medio (electrónico, mecánico, gravación, fotocopia ou outros) sen consentimento expreso por escrito dos autores.
Índice:
1. Datos descriptivos de la asignatura 2. Sentido de la asignatura en el perfil 3. Objetivos de la asignatura
4. Contenidos de la asignatura, con bibliografía básica 5. Indicaciones metodológicas y atribución de carga ECTs 6. Indicaciones sobre la evaluación
7. Modelo de preguntas del examen
1. Asignatura: Literatura Norteamericana 2 Código: G5061424
Tipo de Asignatura: Asignatura Obligatoria
Nº Créditos: 6
Horas ECTS
Clase Expositiva: 32.00
Clase Interactiva Seminario: 16.00 Horas de Titorías: 3.00
Total: 51.0
Cuatrimestre: 1º
Prerrequisitos:
Dominio del inglés escrito, leído y hablado. Las lecturas obligatorias serán en inglés y las clases se impartirán en dicho idioma. Los exámenes y los trabajos serán en inglés.
Conocimientos del vocabulario crítico-literario y de la cultura e historia de la literatura anglosajona.
Tutorías:
en el despacho 410En principio, las tutorías son opcionales y el profesor recibirá a los alumnos en horario de tutorías tanto individualmente como en grupo. Se recomienda que los alumnos hagan uso de su derecho a ser atendidos en tutorías para aclarar posibles problemas o dudas que surjan en relación con el seguimiento del desarrollo de la asignatura.
Con motivo de la entrega de ensayos y la presentación de actividades obligatorias se programarán tutorías obligatorias cada cierto tiempo. Para ello se colocarán unas listas en la puerta del despacho del profesor para que los alumnos puedan apuntarse.
E-mail del profesor: constante.gonzalez@usc.es
2. Sentido de la asignatura en el perfil
La asignatura Literatura Norteamericana 2 se encuadra en el bloque de las materias correspondientes a las literaturas en lengua inglesa y, más concretamente, en el bloque de asignaturas destinadas al estudio de los orígenes, las características y el desarrollo histórico de la literatura de los Estados Unidos.
3. Objetivos de la asignatura
1. Situar las obras de lectura en sus respectivos contextos históricos, culturales y literarios.
2. Lectura atenta y análisis pormenorizado de cada una de las obras, teniendo en cuenta tanto las características estético-formales como la relación con los contextos.
3. Fomentar la lectura crítica y razonada por parte del alumno, que habrá de proporcionar sus propias interpretaciones bien informadas y razonadas.
4. Alcanzar una visión bien fundamentada de la evolución de la llamada “tradición literaria estadounidense” a lo largo del siglo XX.
4. Contenidos de la asignatura, con bibliografía
La asignatura se concibe como un estudio detallado de una serie de obras representativas, más que como una historia literaria que proporcione una visión panorámica general. Las obras constituirán la piedra angular de la clase, ya que el objetivo principal será el fomento de la capacidad de leer crítica y analíticamente. Cada obra, sin embargo, se encuadrará en su contexto y en su estudio tendremos en cuenta el autor, la época, el contexto regional, étnico, etc. El estudio de cada obra constará de una introducción en la que se tratará el lugar del autor en el conjunto de la literatura estadounidense, así como sus contribuciones más notorias a la evolución de las formas y temas de dicha literatura.
Lista de obras de lectura obligatoria:
Selección de poemas de Robert Frost, William Carlos Williams, Wallace Stevens (se proporcionarán fotocopias)
F. S. Fitzgerald. The Great Gatsby “Babylon Revisited”
E. Hemingway. A Farewell to Arms
“Hills like White Elephants”
“A Clean, Well-Lighted Place”
W. Faulkner. “Barn Burning”
“Dry September”
“Wash”
Zora Neale Hurston. Their Eyes Were Watching God Flannery O’Connor. “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”
“The Displaced Person”
“Greenleaf”
Carson McCullers. The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
J. D. Salinger. The Catcher in the Rye
Sandra Cisneros. The House on Mango Street Narrativa breve de la segunda mitad del siglo XX:
John Cheever, "The Swimmer"
Raymond Carver, "Cathedral"
Joyce Carol Oates, "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?"
Nota: tanto la poesía como los relatos se entregarán fotocopiados
EXPLICITACIÓN DE CONTENIDOS
I. Selection of modernist poetry: brief introduction to the period and to each of the authors. Study of selected poems.
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II. F. Scott Fitzgerald:
Introduction / Context: the 1920s; the “lost generation;” the author’s life and work The Great Gatsby:
- Reasons for its popularity - The title’s meaning
- Gatsby, America and the American Dream
- Two versions of the American Dream: idealistic and materialistic
- Commentary of passage from chapter 6: “I stayed late that night. . . . was uncommunicable forever.”
- The significance of cars and “bad drivers”
- Commentary of passage from chapter 6: “James Gatz- . . . dropped anchor in the shallows along shore.”
- Daisy Fay / Daisy Buchanan: the name’s meaning; Daisy as idealized romantic construction, as passive object of male desire; conflict between Gatsby’s romantic vision and Tom’s materialistic conception of Daisy.
- Nick Carraway: ambivalent attraction to and rejection of Gatsby; double role:
detached observer and retrospective narrator.
- Analysis of passage from the novel’s opening: anticipation of Nick’s attraction to Gatsby; the history of America and the contrast between the East and the West.
- Conclusion: Analysis of the novel’s final passage, containing Nick’s final vigil.
The impossibility of the dream versus its valid aspects.
“Babylon Revisited”: Analysis of construction, characters, and themes Bibliography:
Bloom, Harold, ed. Gatsby. New York: Chelsea, 1991.
Lehan, Richard. The Great Gatsby: The Limits of Wonder. Boston: Twayne, 1990.
Lockridge, Ernest, ed. Twentieth Century Interpretations of The Great Gatsby: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1968.
Parkinson, Kathleen. F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby. Penguin Critical Studies.
London: Penguin, 1987.
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III. E. Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms; “Hills Like White Elephants;” “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place”:
- Hemingway’s life, writing career, and conception of fiction - Hemingway and the Great War
- Hemingway and Modernism
- A Farewell to Arms as bildungsroman: the lessons that Henry learns
- Analysis of chapter 1 - The theme of identity - Loneliness, rootlessness
- Courage and heroism: Henry as anti-hero
- Catherine Barkley, a controversial female character. Two versions: the dream girl and passive sexual object vs. the courageous wise girl.
- Analysis of the stories “Hills Like White Elephants” and “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place”: The “iceberg principle,” existentialism, etc.
Bibliography:
Bloom, Harold, ed. Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms: Modern Critical Interpretations. New York: Chelsea House1987.
Donaldson, Scott, ed. New Essays on A Farewell to Arms. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1990.
Wagner-Martin, Linda. A Historical Guide to Ernest Hemingway. New York:
Cambridge UP, 2000.
--- IV. W. Faulkner, “Barn Burning”, “Dry September”, “Wash”:
- Faulkner’s place in the Southern Renaissance - Faulkner’s version of the “southern myth”
- Faulkner’s major contributions to American fiction
- Faulkner and the South: the burden of the past, the intersections race, gender and class.
- Close reading of the three assigned stories and the novel As I Lay Dying Bibliography:
Blanco Outón, Cristina. Introducción a la narrativa breve de William Faulkner.
Universidade de Santiago de Compostela. 1999.
Carothers, James B. William Faulkner’s Short Stories. Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1985.
Ferguson, James. Faulkner’s Short Fiction. Knoxville: The U of Tennessee P, 1985.
Weinstein, Philip M. The Cambridge Companion to William Faulkner. Cambridge:
Cambridge UP, 1995.
--- V. Zora Neale Hurston. Their Eyes Were Watching God:
- Z. N. Hurston in the context of the Harlem Renaissance - Z. N. Hurston and black culture
- The importance of space, both interior and exterior, in Their Eyes - The situation of the black woman. Gender and race.
Bibliography:
Awkward, Michael, ed. New Essays on Their Eyes Were Watching God. Cambridge:
Cambridge UP, 1990.
Bloom, Harold, ed. Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God. Modern Critical Interpretations. New York: Chelsea House, 1987.
Lester, Neal A, ed. Understanding Zora Neal Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God. London: Greenwood Press, 1999.
Wall, Cheryl A. Women of the Harlem Renaissance. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1995.
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VI. Flannery O’Connor. “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”, “The Displaced Person”,
“Greenleaf”:
- Flannery O’Connor and the South
- Flannery O’Connor’s conception of fiction - The significance of religion
- The fusion of tragedy and comedy
- The conflict between the head and the heart - The sacramental view of nature
- From the modernist epiphany to O’Connor’s “moment of grace”
- Race, class and gender in O’Connor’s American South Bibliography:
Bloom, Harold, ed. Flannery O’Connor: Modern Critical Views. New York: Chelsea House, 1986.
Brinkmeyer, Robert. The Art and Vision of Flannery O’Connor. Baton Rouge:
Louisiana State UP, 1989.
Paulson, Suzanne M. Flannery O’Connor: A Study of the Short Fiction. Boston:
Twayne, 1988.
Wood, Ralph C. Flannery O’Connor and the Christ-Haunted South. Cambridge:
William B. Eerdmans , 2004.
--- VII. Carson McCullers. The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter - McCulllers and the South
- Recurrent themes: isolation, lack of communication, search for identity - The novel's structure and construction
- McCullers and race - McCullers and gender Bibliography:
Bloom, Harold, ed. Modern Critical Views: Carson McCullers. New York: Chelsea House, 1986.
Clark, Beverly Lyon, and M.J. Friedman, eds. Critical Essays on Carson McCullers.
New York: G. K. Hall, 1996.
Gleeson-White, Sarah. Strange Bodies: Gender and Identity in the Novels of Carson McCullers. Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama P, 2003.
Whitt, Jan, ed. Reflections in a Critical Eye: Essays on Carson McCullers. New York:
University Press of America, 2008.
--- VIII. J. D. Salinger. The Catcher in the Rye:
- The Catcher in the context of the American 1950s
- Study of literary antecedents. The American novel of adolescence - Formal and thematic innovations of The Catcher
- The theme of salvation; the Peter Pan symdrome
Bibliography:
Bloom, Harold, ed. Holden Caulfield (Major Literary Character series). New York:
Chelsea House, 1990.
Salzberg, Joel, ed. Critical Essays on Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: G. K.
Hall, 1990.
Salzman, Jack, ed. New Essays on The Catcher in the Rye. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1991.
--- IX. Sandra Cisneros. The House on Mango Street:
- The literature of ethnic minorities. Chicano literature and culture - Sandra Cisneros’s straddling of two cultures and nationalities - Interactions of space, cultural identity and individual identitiy - The female role in Chicano culture
- The House on Mango Street as Buildungsroman and Künstlerroman Bibliography:
Eysturoy, Annie O. Daughters of Self-Creation: The Contemporary Chicana Novel.
Albuquerque: U of New Mexico P, 1996.
Herrera-Sobek, María, and H. M. Viramontes, eds. Chicana Creativity and Criticism:
New Frontiers in American Literature. Albuquerque: U of New Mexico P, 1996.
X. Recent Developments in the Short Story:
Cheever's "The Swimmer": intertextuality; the urban wasteland; the alienated individual Carver's "Cathedral": new realism; minimalism; the influence of Chekhov
Oates's "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?": psychological realism or Gothic horror?, allegorical elements, suburban alienation.
5. Indicaciones metodológicas
Las clases expositivas proporcionarán el contexto histórico y cultural necesario para entender cada autor y cada obra y para encuadrarla en el período o movimiento al que corresponda. Se dará instrucción teórica sobre las aspiraciones estéticas y los principios éticos de los autores, así como las pautas imprescindibles para acercarse a cada una de las obras. El carácter más teórico de estas clases no excluirá el comentario ocasional de pasajes concretos de las obras del programa.
En las clases interactivas se hará “close reading” de poemas y de pasajes de narrativa.
Se expondrán trabajos y se contestarán preguntas previamente asignadas por escrito, además de otras actividades similares. De forma voluntaria, se podrán hacer trabajos
para exponer en clase y presentar más tarde por escrito (7 folios a doble espacio, con letra Times New Roman 12). En los trabajos se valorarán la originalidad del análisis, la coherencia y estructuración argumenatativa y la capacidad de comunicación.
Es indispensable la lectura atenta y crítica de las obras antes de su explicación y discusión en clase.
Tanto en los exámenes como en los trabajos se valorarán la claridad expresiva, la consistencia expositiva, la profundidad analítica y la originalidad.
Más que la repetición de información, se valorará el manejo de ésta ante nuevos casos y la aplicación y relación de ideas a partir de la información inicial.
ACTIVIDADES OBLIGATORIAS
Materia de 6 créditos ECTs (6 x 25 = 150 horas de carga de trabajo para el alumno). Dos horas de clase expositiva y una de clase interactiva por semana; 3 horas de tutoría por cada estudiante
en la totalidad del curso.
Trabajo presencial del alumno Horas Trabajo personal del alumno Horas
Clases expositivas 30 Estudio autónomo, individual o en grupo
20
Otras actividades programadas
0 Lecturas recomendadas, consulta de bibliografía en la biblioteca
50
Clases interactivas 15 Preparación de presentaciones orales
15 Pruebas de evaluación 2 Preparación de las pruebas de
evaluación
12 Tutorías programadas 3 Otras tareas propuestas por el
profesor
3
Total de horas de trabajo presencial del alumno
50 Total de horas de trabajo personal del alumno
100
6. Indicaciones sobre la evaluación
El examen computará un 90% de la calificación final.
La asistencia y participación activa en la clase computarán un 10%. No aprobarán los que no alcancen un mínimo de 4.5/10 en el examen.
Para los que hagan presentación + trabajo voluntarios, el examen computará un 70% y el trabajo un 20%.
Segunda oportunidad: regirán los mismos criterios y porcentajes.
Para los alumnos con dispensa el examen computará el 100%.
7. Modelos de preguntas del examen
1. Use the passage as a basis for a discussion of the conception of war and heroism expressed in the novel:
That was what you did. You died. You did not know what it was about. You never had time to learn. They threw you in and told you the rules and the first time they caught you off base they killed you. Or they killed you gratuitously like Aymo. Or gave you the syphilis like Rinaldi. But they killed you in the end. You could count on that. Stay around and they would kill you.
Once in camp I put a log on top of the fire and it was full of ants. As it commenced to burn, the ants swarmed out and went first toward the centre where the fire was; then turned back and ran toward the end. When there were enough on the end they fell off into the fire. Some got out, their bodies burnt and flattened, and went off not knowing where they were going.
But most of them went toward the fire and then back toward the end and swarmed on the cool end and finally fell off into the fire. I remember thinking at the time that it was the end of the world and a splendid chance to be a messiah and lift the log off the fire and throw it out where the ants could get off onto the ground. But I did not do anything but throw a tin cup of water on the log, so that I would have the cup empty to put whiskey in before I added water to it. I think the cup of water on the burning log only steamed the ants.
2. Comment on the passage and relate it to the connections between space, sexuality and personal identity in the novel:
So gradually, she pressed her teeth together and learned to hush. The spirit of the marriage left the bedroom and took to living in the parlor. It was there to shake hands whenever company came to visit, but it never went back inside the bedroom again. So she put something in there to represent the spirit like a Virgin Mary image in a church. The bed was no longer a daisy-field for her and Joe to play in. It was a place where she went and laid down when she was sleepy and tired.
She wasn’t petal-open anymore with him. She was twenty-four and seven years married when she knew. She found that out one day when he slapped her face in the kitchen. . . . She stood there until something fell off the shelf inside her. Then she went inside there to see what it was. It was her image of Jody tumbled down and shattered. But looking at it she saw that it never was the flesh and blood figure of her dreams. Just something she had grabbed up to drape her dreams over. In a way she turned her back upon the image where it lay and looked further. She had no more blossomy openings dusting pollen over her man, neither any glistening young fruit where the petals used to be. She found that she had a host of thoughts she had never expressed to him, and numerous emotions she had never let Jody know about. Things packed up and put away in parts of her heart where he could never find them. She was saving up feelings for some man she had never seen. She had an inside and an outside now, and suddenly she knew how not to mix them.
3. Compare the respective female protagonists of “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” and
“Greenleaf”
