English Philology
American Literature
Faculty of Philology, Department of English Philology
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Daina Miniotaitė
Room 209, Department of English Philology, Lithuanian
University of Educational Sciences, 39 Studentų St., Vilnius
LT-08106, Lithuania, tel. +370 5 2757258, e-mail:
d.miniotaite@leu.lt
English
Language of Instruction
The English Language B2 level according to CEFR1
Required Prerequisites
Suggested Academic Cycle Bachelor degree studies (from 3rd year of studies)
or Year of Studies
Spring
Semester
4
ECTS Credits
3
Contact Hours per Week
Compulsory
Compulsory/ Elective
Lectures, seminars
Methods of Teaching
Examination
Form of Assessment
Title of the Study Program
Title of the Module
Faculty, Department
Instructor
Address
Course Description
The aim of the course is to familiarize students with the development of American
literature, literary critical thought, and their cultural, social, and historical background, to
trace the formation of the philosophical, aesthetical, and literary thought in America. The
course focuses on the main literary trends and movements of the 19-20th c. American
literature – Romanticism, Realism, Modernism, the Beat literature, the Theatre of the Absurd,
the Nonfiction Novel, Postmodernism, literature of American ethnic minorities – and their
most outstanding representatives in fiction, drama, poetry, and literary criticism.
Topics of the course :
1. Romanticism in American literature. A history of Puritanism in N. Hawthorne’s
works. Transcendentalism (R.W. Emerson, H.D. Thoreau). W.Whitman’s poetry.
2. Realism (M. Twain, H. James).
3. Modernism. The modernists’ resistance to tradition (G. Stein). A critical revision of
the art and literature of the past (T.S. Eliot). Imagism and E. Pound.
4. The formation of the American national drama (E. O’Neill).
5. The American Theatre of the Absurd (E. Albee, S. Shepard).
6. The Beats in Literature (J. Kerouac, A. Ginsberg).
7. The Nonfiction Novel or the Novel of New Journalism (T. Capote).
8. The meaning(s) of postmodernism (J. Barth, D. Barthelme).
9. The literature of ethnic minorities. African-American literature (R. Ellison, T.
Morrison). Native American literature (L.M. Silko).
Readings
1. The Columbia History of the American Novel (1991) New York : Columbia
University Press.
2. Columbia Literary History of the United States (1988) New York : Columbia
University Press.
3. Miniotaitė D. (2007) Postmodern American Literature: Theory, Fiction, Drama.
Vilnius: VPU Publishing House.
4. Ruland, R., Bradbury M. (1991) From Puritanism to Postmodernism. A History of
American Literature. New York: Penguin Books.
5. Watson, S. (1995) The Birth of the Beat Generation: Visionaries, Rebels, and
Hipsters, 1944-1960). New York: Pantheon Books.
1
Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.