Module overview
This module studies writing and visual representation in the early years of the republic of the United States. Focusing on the period from shortly before the American Revolution to the early years of the nineteenth century, this module will introduce students to debates about, and the experience of, the United States of America.
Aims and Objectives
Learning Outcomes
Knowledge and Understanding
Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
- the role of gender in the construction of early American identities
- the creation and development of the United States, from British colony to independent republic
- the key critical approaches, both historically-specific and trans-historical, that have been applied to the study of early US literature
- the relation between race, nation, slavery and liberty in this early period of US history
- the construction and experience of landscape
- the distinctions between a range of literary, visual and historical sources
- the role of literature and the arts in this process
Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- use electronic sources and a variety of library holdings effectively
- draw upon the different kinds of understanding generated by a range of literary and non-literary texts
- analyse the pressures and influences which shaped the construction of the American republic
- contrast different historical, political and theoretical models employed by eighteenth-century and modern writers when engaging with the American Revolution and the new nation
- make use of contemporary critical writing to inform your thinking about the issues raised in the module.
- read a variety of texts in an historically relevant way
Transferable and Generic Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- develop analysis and discussion based on a range of sources, both published and electronic
- employ research skills and initiative in identifying additional relevant source material.
Syllabus
Focusing on the period from shortly before the American Revolution to the early years of the nineteenth century, this module will introduce students to debates about, and the experience of, the United States of America. It aims to combine conventional ‘literary’ texts, including poetry and fiction, with the wide range of American writing in the early Republic, from letters and diaries, to travel writing, scientific and philosophical treatises, and political rhetoric, but also with visual images including portraiture, landscape and historical painting, cartoons and political satire.
Learning and Teaching
Teaching and learning methods
- Lectures
- Tutor-led seminars
- Small group work within seminars
- Individual research opportunities
- One to one tuition around assessment and feedback
| Type | Hours |
|---|---|
| Preparation for scheduled sessions | 120 |
| Completion of assessment task | 88 |
| Wider reading or practice | 24 |
| Follow-up work | 24 |
| Lecture | 22 |
| Seminar | 22 |
| Total study time | 300 |
Resources & Reading list
Textbooks
Tennenhouse, Leonard (2007). The importance of feeling English: American literature and the British diaspora, 1750-1850. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Andrews, William L. et al (ed.) (1991). Journeys in New Worlds: Early American Women's Narratives. Univ. of Wisconsin Press.
Hewitt ,Elizabeth (2004). Correspondence and American literature, 1770-1865. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Shields, David S. (1990). Oracles of Empire: Poetry, Politics, and Commerce in British America, 1690-1750. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Carla Mulford, ed (2001). Early American Writings. Oxford.
Eberwein, Jane Donahue (ed.) (1986). Early American Poetry: Selections from Bradstreet, Taylor, Dwight, Frenea & Bryant. Univ. of Wisconsin Press.
Schweitzer, Ivy (2006). Perfecting friendship : politics and affiliation in early American literature. University of North Carolina Press.
Warner, Michael (1992). The Letters of the Republic: Publication and the Public Sphere in Eighteenth-Century America. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP.
Wood , Gordon S. (2009). Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815. Oxford: OUP.
Dorothy Z. Baker (2007). America's Gothic Fiction : The Legacy of Magnalia Christi Americana. Ohio State University Press.
Warner, William (2013). Protocols of Liberty: Communication Innovation and the American Revolution. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Lawson-Peebles, Robert (1988). Landscape and written expression in revolutionary America : the world turned upside down. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Samuels, Shirley (1996). Romances of the Republic : Women, the Family, and Violence in the literature of the early American nation. New York: Oxford University Press.
Armstrong, Nancy, and Leonard Tennenhouse (1992). The Imaginary Puritan : Literature, Intellectual Labor, and the Origins of Personal Life. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Paul Giles (2001). Transatlantic Insurrections: British Culture and the Formation of American Literature, 1760-1860. Philadelphia: Universiry of Pennsylvania Press.
Assessment
Summative
This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Critical Analysis | 30% |
| Essay | 70% |
Referral
This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Resubmit assessments | 100% |
Repeat
An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Assessment tasks | 100% |
Repeat Information
Repeat type: Internal & External