...Course Number and Title: American Literature 1 Number of Credits: 3 Instructor Name: Sos Bagramyan Email Address: sbagramyan@aua.am Telephone Number: 51 27 69 Office Location: Paramaz Avedisian Building, 132W Office Hours: Tuesday and Thursday, 8am-9am Term/Year: Spring 2015 ENGL 120 – American Literature 1 This survey course introduces students to American literature from the beginning of European contact to the present, focusing on major authors and different literary genres. It examines the historical influences on the evolution of this body of literature and the construction of a distinct and complex American identity. Through close reading, class discussion and their own research and writing, students will explore how themes such as gender, race, class, spirituality, economics, and the environment play a role in the formation and evolution of the American experience Three hours of instructor-led class time per week. Required Materials: All readings are located in PDF format on our course’s Moodle page. Academic Integrity: All graded assignments must completed individually. Plagiarism is a serious offense, and any attempt to pass off another person's ideas and writings as your own will result in severe disciplinary measures, possibly expulsion from the university. This also applies to your Informal Responses, which should reflect your own understanding of the material and not simply repeat what I or your classmates have already said. Students are required...
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...ENGLISH-AMERICAN LITERATURE by Zhang Lanlan June, 2007 Xiaogan University Abstract As the sutra of the Christianity, the Bible has a great influence on both English and American literature and offers an eternal theme of their literary creation .English and American writers use stories of the Bible by three main methods. First, they quote person's names or stories of the Bible as the characters' names or plots of the creations from the Bible directly. Sometimes they make some changes on the original stories. Sometimes they quote stories directly from the Bible as the writing materials. Second, they make use of symbolic meaning of the Bible by some technical such as simile, metaphor and symbolism, so that the stories could exert a great influence on contrasting with the new products. Third, they merge the plots of the Bible to give connotative efforts to the readers. Exploring the methods helps us know the western culture and consciousness, have a good appreciation and study for the English-American literature. key words: English-American literature ; the Bible; methods 《圣经》在英美文学作品中的影响 摘要 作为基督教的经典，《圣经》对英美文化影响深远，为英美文化创作提供了永恒的母题。英美作家化用《圣经》故事的主要方法有：直接引用《圣经》中的人名作为作品的人物名称，或直接引用《圣经》故事或对原型故事进行变形或处理，作为创作素材；通过比喻，隐喻或象征等手法，把《圣经》故事的寓意融汇到作品情节中或人物性格里，使这些故事发挥有力的陪衬作用；使作品中的人物，故事和情节与《圣经》故事大体对应，让《圣经》能穿越时空的限制，从而发挥隐含的参照作用。 探讨英美作家化用《圣经》的方法，有助于我们了解英美文化的思想意识，更好的学习，欣赏乃至研究英美文学作品。 关键词：英美文学；《圣经》；方式 Contents 1.Introduction………………………………………………………………...
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...Mircea Alexandra Diana French-English The 3rd year Issues of Identity in 19th century American Literature The issue of identity was first approached and applied in the American literature in the 19th century. It consists in constructing and coming to grips with the authors’ identity. They were trying to describe and to analyze the hidden problems, sufferings and realm of the soul and, of course, of the unconscious. The popular question which started to be used by that time was “Who am I?”, but it gradually passed to the collective “Who we are?” We should know that, since the American tradition didn’t have any obvious roots, they borrowed very much from the immigrants and, in time, the wilderness of the ancient world has gone. Since the American writers didn’t have any settled tradition, they started to explore within the human soul and mind, which came to invent new style. While the English writers explore the raising of a poor man on the economic and social scale, the American ones reveal the absence of the tradition. This is the case of writers like Richard Wright, or Sarah O. Jewett who deeply analyzed the characters’ reaction in a critical period of their life. For instance, in “The Man Who Was Almost a Man”, Wright presents the coming to age of a young black boy. As we all know, Wright is a black writer, so we could say that this coming of age of this particular black boy...
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...1. Literature of the 17th century. John Milton. “Paradise Lost”. John Bunyan. “Pilgrim’s Progress”. The peculiarities of the English literature of the 17th century are determined by the events of the Engl. Bourgeois Revolution, which took place in 1640-60. King Charles I was beheaded in 1649& General Oliver Cromwell became the leader of the new government. In 1660, shortly after Cro-ll’s death, the dynasty of the Stuarts was restored. The establishment of new social&eco-ic relations, the change from feudal to bourgeois ownership, escalating class-struggle, liberation movement and contradictions of the bourgeois society found their reflection in lit-re. The main representatives of this period is: John Milton: was born in London&educated at Christ’s College. He lived a pure life believing that he had a great purpose to complete. At college he was known as the The Lady of Christ’s. he Got master’s degree at Cambridge. It’s convenient to consider his works in 3 divisions. At first he wrote his short poems at Horton. (The Passion, Song on May Morning, L’Allegro). Then he wrote mainly prose. His 3 greatest poems belong to his last group. At the age of 23 he had still done little in life&he admits this in one of his sonnets. (On his 23d B-day) In his another sonnet he wrote on his own blindness. (On his Blindness) Milton wrote diff. kinds of works. His prose works were mainly concerned with church, affairs, divorce & freedom. The English civil war between Charles...
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...belongs to Ernest Hemingway’s collection. In a 1958 interview, Hemingway expressed his literary concern in a way that shows how his art both depends on and radically departs from conventional “realism”: “From things that have happened and from things as they exist and from all the things that you know and all those that you cannot know, you make something through your invention that is not a representation but a whole new thing truer than any thing true and alive. (The Harper American Literature, 1156) In “A Cat in the Rain,” Hemingway demonstrates his ability to portray real women with problems and to respond to their unhappiness with real sympathy. “A Cat in the Rain” is, on the surface, a simple tale of an American couple in Italy. Ernest Hemingway’s “A Cat in the Rain” However, the reader soon realizes that this uncomplicated story illuminates much deeper meanings. This seemingly mundane plot becomes symbolic and purposeful under the reader’s gaze. There were only two Americans stopping at the hotel. They did not know any of the people they passed on the stairs on their way to and from their room. Their room was on the second floor facing the sea. It also faced the public garden and war monument. There were big palms and green benches in the public garden. In the good weather there was always an artist with his easel. Artists liked the way the palms grew and the bright colors of the hotel facing the sea. Italians came from a long way off to look...
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...NORTH AMERICAN FICTION BRIEF INTRODUCTION: Before starting our study of American Fiction we must understand what American Literature is in itself and which pieces of writing we can include within this label. It is believed that when a piece is written in North America, more precisely in the USA, it would automatically be given this epithet. But it should be taken into account that this idea is quite broad and doesn’t reflect the real essence of the term. However, there is also another definition that gathers this essence: American Literature is the one that represents the Americanism, the singularity of the USA philosophy and culture. This way, instead of focusing on who the author is, it is focused on the content of the writing. In that which concerns Fiction, the following documents are the ones considered as narrative: Speeches Letters Short Stories Essays Political Documents Sermons Novels Diaries 1 FIRST LITERARY EXPRESSIONS The first documents in which the idea of Americanism is very present are the Sermons. They respond to the strict Protestantism settled in the New Continent after the arrival of the Pilgrim Fathers and Puritans in the Mayflower (1620) and the Arabella (1630). They established a theocratic community whose main and only point of reference was the Bible. That is why the idea of the ‘city upon a hill’ is still very present in American mentality. As we all know...
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...Go Down, Moses".In William Faulkner.Ed. Dean Morgan Schmitter .New York: McGrow-Hill Book Company,1973.Pp.136-146. • Berland,Alwayn.Light in August:A Study in Black and White.New Yourk:Twayne Publishers 1992. • Blair, Walter. etal. American Literature: A Brief History.Glocose:Scott,Foresman And Company,1964. • Blanks,June."The Women of Absalom,Absalom!". URL: http://athena.english.vt.edu/~exlibris/essays02/Blanks2.htm. Retrieved: 22 Nov. 2004. • Bleikasten,Andre. "Light in August:The Closed Society and Its Subjects".In New Essays on Light in August.Ed.Michael Millgate. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,1987.Pp.81-102. • Brooks, Cleanth. William Faulkner:First Encounter.New Haven and London:Yale University Press,1983. • ____________.William Faulkner :Toward Yoknapatawpha And Beyond. New Haven and London: Yale University Press,1978. • Brown,Sterling ."A Century of Negro Portraiture in American Literature".In Black and White In American Culture.Eds.Jules Chametzky and Sidney Kaplan. Massachusetts: The University of Massachusetts Press,1969.Pp,333-359. • _____________. The Negro In American Fiction.Washington,New York: Kennikat Press,1968....
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...Huckleberry Finn: School Worthy Nigger. Does the word offend you? Normally the answer to that may be yes and perhaps rightfully so with the general disrespect it carries today. Now say you watched a civil war film. Would it offend you if a southern character in that movie said it? The likely answer is no: it’s in character, in context, and readily expected before it happens. Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn uses this word hundreds of times, and that single word has raised more opponents and uproars than most, if not all, other books on our country’s High-School level reading list. The book was published in 1884, but takes place before the civil war, which started in 1861. Since it was placed on the reading list the book has made an uproar, mostly over claims that it is a racist book to the core. The critics of the book, that is the ones causing such uproar over the novel, seem to have either only read to the third chapter or only understood up to the third chapter. The book is as racist and pro-slavery as Abraham Lincoln was, should be found about as offensive if given the proper understanding, and has earned itself a well-deserved place in our schools. The time in which this book takes place is of paramount importance to the arguments for and against it, but seems mostly ignored in that perspective. The book, as previously said, takes place shortly prior to the Civil War and in the southern states of our country at the time. This, if nothing...
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...BA English Literature and Community Engagement About your application For entry in October 2013, there will be two deadlines for applications. The initial deadline will be Monday 26 November 2012. Interviews for those who apply by this date will be held in December 2012. Assuming there are still places available after this date, we expect to have a second deadline for applications of Monday 1 July 2013, with interviews to be held later that month. These dates are designed to acknowledge that some applicants are also pursuing other options for further study, and may need to make decisions early in the academic cycle, while other mature students may prefer to complete a prior course of study in 2012/13, such as the English Department’s Reading English Literature course, before applying to the degree. You are advised to read the information in this pack carefully before completing your application. Please address any questions about the application process or the degree to Gareth Griffith on gareth.griffith@bristol.ac.uk Aims of the course: The undergraduate degree in English Literature and Community Engagement is offered part-time over six years and is taught one evening per week plus occasional Saturdays. It aims to develop a student’s interest in, and knowledge and understanding of, a full range of literature in English. The programme reflects the English Department’s wider commitment to maintaining a balance between established traditions of literary study and...
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...For my Lit Bit paper, this semester I have chosen to read A Farewell to Arms, a novel published in 1929 by legendary American author Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway, who is arguably one of the most famous authors in history, lived from July 21st, 1899 to July 2nd, 1961, and published many novels, short story collections, and nonfiction books during his lifetime. Along with A Farewell to Arms, Hemingway is most well-known for his works For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Old Man and the Sea, and The Sun also Rises. He got inspiration to write A Farewell to Arms after he served in the Italian Army in World War 1, and many of the things experienced by Frederic Henry, the main character, are taken straight from Hemingway’s past. It is written in a first person “stream of consciousness” style, along with Hemingway’s classic brief and journalistic approach to writing. The story itself takes place in the early 1900’s during World War 1, and centers around Frederic Henry, an American ambulance driver enlisted in the Italian Army. After he is injured by a mortar bomb, he begins a relationship with his nurse Catherine Barkley, and they (eventually) fall in love. Just before Henry must go back to front, Catherine reveals she is pregnant: Unfortunately, tragedy ensues. Henry is believed to be a traitor, and to avoid certain death, he must flee the military and head...
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...Melvin Aponte 1/30/18 Honors American Literature In “A Farewell to Arms”, the main protagonist Lt. Frederick Henry, an american, is working in the Italian army as a paramedic on the front lines. The story begins with Henry being introduced to a girl by the name of Catherine Barkley by his dear friend Rinaldi. Henry really doesn’t want anything serious with Catherine, although as time passes, their feelings for each other begin to grow. Soon, Henry is sent to the front lines and gets injured by a mortar shell explosion. He is sent to receive medical care in a hospital in Milan where, coincidentally, Catherine is also being sent to. During the summer that Henry is there recuperating, he and Catherine spend much more time together and begin to get even closer. During that summer, they fell so in love...
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...Tyler Landry Mrs. Potter American Studies, English July 22, 2015 The Great Gatsby Essay Just after the World War 1, in the US there had been huge changes that involved all aspects of American life, including a tendency towards materialism, changes in clothing, women getting the right to vote gangster life emerging, parties and dances, and most importantly the American Dream. Fitzgerald’s novel define that American dream changed by time; the first time for European living in America was American dream, and originally any discovery which gave them happiness was American dream, but in the ear of 20s mean for American dream has become perverted into desire for wealth by whatever means; thinking that money will bring happiness. The Great Gatsby, was published in this era; therefore; it gives us a vivid portrayal of that time by demonstrating symbols and character behavior the impossibility of American dream. The characters that Fitzgerald describes in his novel all tie in with many aspect of the 1920s lifestyle. The Jazz Age was a tendency toward materialism, and characters are described in the way that shows materialistic tendency. Callahan says “Critics from several different generations have noted how Fitzgerald used his conflicts to explore the origins and fate of the American dream and the related idea of the nation.” (Callahan). Fitzgerald describes Gatsby, the main character in the novel, as a dream achiever, who is looking for wealth and property even...
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...Excerpts from On Writing Well William Zinsser New York, Harper, 1998, Chapters 2 through 4 2. Simplicity Clutter is the disease of American writing. We are a society strangling in unnecessary words, circular constructions, pompous frills and meaningless jargon. Who can understand the viscous language of everyday American commerce and enterprise: the business letter, the interoffice memo, the corporation report, the notice from the bank explaining its latest "simplified" statement? What member of an insurance or medical plan can decipher the brochure that tells him what his costs and benefits are? What father or mother can put together a child's toy—on Christmas Eve or any other eve—from the instructions on the box? Our national tendency is to inflate and thereby sound important. The airline pilot who announces that he is presently anticipating experiencing considerable precipitation wouldn't dream of saying that it may rain. The sentence is too simple—there must be something wrong with it. But the secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components. Every word that serves no function, every long word that could be a short word, every adverb that carries the same meaning that's already in the verb, every passive construction that leaves the reader unsure of who is doing what—these are the thousand and one adulterants that weaken the strength of a sentence. And they usually occur, ironically, in proportion to education and rank. During the late 1960s...
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...Essay One: What is an American? Gregory Coryell American Literature I Dr. Joseph Walker January 19, 2011 What is an American? America has always been based on the precept that it was formed as a melting pot. This term means that different religions, cultures, traditions and countries were blended together to create the “New America.” Europeans from various areas have fled their countries for many reasons and settled on American soil, “the land of the free.” Religious persecution, war, famine, and the hope for economic prosperity have enticed individuals to pull up their tent poles in their native lands and move to a bold new world, known as America. This new world, America would be a starting point and a birth of a new civilization and a new breed of people who all share one common goal. What does it actually mean to be an American? There are many definitions that have existed and that have helped us understand and shape our interpretation of this term. This paper will compare and contrast two separate views of what the new American is and what it means to be called an American citizen. In William Bradford’s, “Of Plymouth Plantation,” he accounts for his journey to the new world by describing the intent of his voyage, his first impression of his surroundings, and the things and people he encounters. Our text verifies Bradford’s hopeful spirit and passion for his beliefs when Bradford uses the term, “Pilgrims” to describe the “community of believers who...
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...Ernest Miller Hemingway was born at 8 o'clock in the morning on July 21st 1899 in Oak Park, Illinois. In nearly 62 years of his lifetime, his literary reputation was unsurpassed. The Characters that he created were not only captive the literary critics but also the average men as well. It can be said that Ernest Hemingway was a greatest American Writer in the twentieth century. His experience as a soldier in Italy during World War 1 inspired him to write many of his later masterpieces. One of which is the story “In Another Country” in the book “Men Without Women”. “In Another Country” is a short story about wounded soldiers who are recuperating after being injured on the front line. The main theme of the story is about the isolation feeling that the American soldier, or the narrator, has to confront. The first thing I would like to mention is the isolation of the narrator in his emotion. The setting of the story is in a military hospital in Milan, Italy during World War 1. As an American soldier, the narrator always feels homesick at a certain when being out of his homeland. Moreover, at the first glance, the title of the story, In Another Country”, Ernest Hemingway implies that the narrator himself is just a tourist in a foreign country rather than a real soldier who really fights for justice. This is the reason why he feels that he is undeserved for the medals. By describing his visiting to The Cova Café, the narrator lets the reader capture his tourist characterization...
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