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Teaching GuideTerm Faculty of Philology |
| Grao en Inglés: Estudos Lingüísticos e Literarios |
 Subjects |
| North American Literature through its Texts |
| Methodologies |
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| Identifying Data | 2018/19 | |||||||||||||
| Subject | North American Literature through its Texts | Code | 613G03047 | |||||||||||
| Study programme |
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| Descriptors | Cycle | Period | Year | Type | Credits | |||||||||
| Graduate | 2nd four-month period |
Fourth | Optional | 4.5 | ||||||||||
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| Methodologies | Description |
| Workbook | Required readings are presented chronologically to better understand the social context as well as the role African American Literature plays in mainstream American Literary discourse. Thanks to the detailed syllabus students will receive and have access to via Moodle, they will know ahead of time the readings assigned for each class session. Students are expected to read carefully and critically, and come to their own conclusions. They are also expected to come to class with the required reading assigned done. Instructor would highlight most relevant aspects so students might be informed before they actually start their own reading. Thus, instructor will provide a brief introduction which includes critical reception, form, and themes, among others. |
| Oral presentation | Class presentation is team work. Format required is power point presentation. Students choose topic from the list provided by instructor of works and texts we are NOT dealing with in class. Students should inform the instructor about the author/work of their choice. For the class presentation students need to include the following: brief author's bio and plot summary; critical reception (two reviews: one positive; one negative); an interview with writer (when and if possible); an article from a literary magazine or chapter of book, and any other visual material they think relevant (clips from film adaptations; clips from documentaries; articles from media, etc). Team is made of 4 students (max.) |
| Short answer questions | This is an "identify-quizz type" test. Students are expected to provide brief and to the point responses. From a list, students should identify an item, a recurrent expression, a metaphor, a proper name, a setting or a particular statement from the required readings. The idea is to go from the very particular to the more general. Students should comment on the reasons why they think that particular word or words are relevant to the whole text. |
| Guest lecture / keynote speech | This is NOT the traditional one-way boring lecture someone might expect. The purpose of this introductory talk is to familiarize students with the new required text and author, point out at main issues, comment on critical reception, and ask them to pay particular attention to certain passages, characters' reactions or narrative discourse used. Lecture always goes two ways. Students are more than welcome to interrupt and ask questions, or make comments. This lecture-type methodology is, in fact, more a dialogue between students and lecturer where students are NOT the "empty glass", and the instructor is NOT the "full jar". |
| Long answer / essay questions | At this stage, students should be able to write well organized, original, and critical short essays. This is NOT a class where you have to memorize dates and names. On the contrary, you are expected to read critically and write with a thesis statement in mind. Students, thus, are required to write a comparative essay about topics chosen by the instructor. You are given several options (up to four) to write about formal aspects of the text or about recurrent themes, critical approaches, or characterization. The use of evidence from the texts is a must, and this is the reason why students are allowed to use the books for this in-class test. Students will receive specific information on how to plan, organize, write, and edit comparative essay. Before the comparative essay, students will have the opportunity to work on and write a shorter essay (two to three pages long). This is a take-home assignment. |
| Workshop | A work-shop on how to do close reading always helps students to read creatively and critically. Following our methodology (from the more specific to the more general), students are provided a selecction of quotations from the text we are reading in class. With the help of the instructor, we first point out at the most basic literary aspects. We focus on narrative voice, point of view, language used, tone and style, or characterization and setting. We always try to find individual responses for the following questions: Do you think this quote is relevant to the whole text? Why? Why not? |
| Introductory activities | Throughout the first week, students will be given specific information about what is expected from them, the different methodologies used in class, and how to help them better organize their time when preparing for reading, quizzes, short essay, comparative essay or class presentations. It is also important to know what students expect from a subject--African American Literature--which is not usually included in the syllabus of Spanish Universities. I would recommend students to be alert to any news in the media, a film, an exhibition, a concert, or a lecture related to our subject, and I would encourage them to share that information with the class. |
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