J. Phay / 2014 HCI/IHE LIT/2014
IHE LITERATURE: BSP
SEMESTRAL ASSIGNMENT
Name: __________________________________ Class: _____ ( ) Date: _________________
Exploring American Literature
Objectives:
 Expose students to important American texts beyond the classroom
 Foster collaboration among students but also
 Practice independent thinking by critiquing a work of literature
 Apply literary terms to analyse a text
Tasks:
 Group presentation (although this will be individually scored)
 Researching the life and work of an American author; see below for a list of suggested authors
 Note that this list is by no means exhaustive or set in stone: they simply represent the seminal
American texts I know well, so that I can more effectively help you should you require guidance; nevertheless, if you’d like to work on another text not on this list, come and talk to me before T1W9 and we can discuss why this text might work!
 Individual research paper (1000 - 1200 words)
 A literary critique of one novel or one play or at least two short stories or at least three poems by selected author
Deadline:
 Presentations: T2W1
 Essays: T2W9
List of Suggested Authors and Works:
 F. Scott Fitzgerald – The Great Gatsby or short stories
 Charlotte Perkins Gilman – Herland or short stories (especially The Yellow Wall-paper)
 Short stories or poems by Edgar Allan Poe
 Mark Twain – A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
 Kate Chopin – The Awakening or short stories
 Nathaniel Hawthorne – The Scarlet Letter
 Poems by Walt Whitman
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J. Phay / 2014 HCI/IHE LIT/2014
 Poems by Emily Dickinson
 Henry James – The Turn of the Screw
 Edith Wharton – Ethan Frome or Summer or The Age of Innocence
 Ray Bradbury – Fahrenheit 451
 Raymond Chandler – The Big Sleep or any of the other Philip Marlow novels; also short stories
 Dashiell Hammett – short stories or The Thin Man
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