Welcome to Barbara Jordan's ENH111-- LITERATURE & THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE Web Site
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This class is being offered for:
American (U.S.) citizens from all ethnic backgrounds and fluent English speaking immigrants who would like to meet students from other countries and discuss the “American Experience”
international and immigrant students who want to expand their understanding of America (USA) and the English language
Prerequisites: None | Difficulty level: Average |[ESL Level IV and above (077 or 107) recommended for non-native English speakers]
What kind of work will we be doing in class?
talking to each other about diverse aspects of American culture
reading novels, short stories, poetry, drama and essays by a variety of authors important to the literature and culture of the United States
discussing our opinions of the readings and the cultural topics they introduce in small groups and with the whole class
watching film versions of literary selections
informal writing in the form of a reader response journal
writing a couple of short essays about literature and cultural topics that interest us
From the beginning, in hindsight at
least, our social
direction is clear. We have moved to
become one people out of many. At
intervals, men or groups, through fear of people or the desire to use
them,
have tried to change our direction, to arrest our growth, or to
stampede the
Americans. This will happen again and
again. The impulses which for a time
enforced the Alien and Sedition Laws, which have used fear and illicit
emotion
to interfere with and put a stop to our continuing revolution, will
rise again,
and they will serve us in the future as they have in the past to
clarify and
strengthen our process. We have failed
sometimes, taken wrong paths, paused for renewal, filled our bellies
and licked
our wounds; but we have never slipped back--never.
--John
Steinbeck, from America and the
Americans
ENH111
Literature and the American Experience (3 Credits)
1. Identify
and explain literary descriptions of American culture in the
nineteenth,
twentieth, and twenty-first centuries. (I)
2. Describe
the roles of literature as both a formulator and reflection of American
culture. (II)
3. Identify
and describe important roots of American culture. (III)
4. Explain
the
influence of place or region on American culture and literature. (IV)
5. Identify
and describe the contributions of diverse groups of people to American
culture
and literature. (V)
6. Analyze
current trends in American culture as reflected in literature, and
speculate
about possibilities in American culture. (VI)
| Instructor's Note: Although all eras mentioned in this outline will be discussed in class, we will be skipping back and forth in time and place. We will be using a “connect-the-dots” (gathering information or facts from different sources to make a coherent whole) approach to developing an understanding of American culture and literature. |
MCCCD Official Course Outline:
I. Literary
Descriptions of
American Culture
A. 19th century
B. 20th century
C. 21st century
II. Literature
and Culture
A. Formulator of American society
B. Reflection of American society
III. Roots of
"American" Culture
A. Puritanism and work
B. Revolution and democracy
C. Frontiers and mixing cultures
D. Civil War and slavery
E.
Immigration, industrialization and "The American Dream"
IV. The Influence of Place
A. The agrarian ideal
B. The smothering small town
C. The wicked city
D. Regional views
1.
2. The South
3. The
4. The Southwest
5. The West
V. The Influence
of People
A. Native Americans
B. American Blacks
C. Hispanic Americans
D. Asian Americans
E. Immigrants
F. Women
VI. American Society Today and Tomorrow