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American Literature: Course Content

ENG 322

Aims & Objectives

American writers came to the spotlight in the twentieth century with their resonant pieces of literature. Hence, it is significant to impart their notions about the changing world to students.

  • To acquaint the students with American history, culture and literature in general
  • To impart a comprehensive knowledge of the themes and techniques employed in American Poetry
  • To familiarize  students with American Novel, its concerns and techniques

Course Outline

UNIT 1

  • Emily Dickinson as a poetess (Any 3 poems)
  • Obsession with death in Dickenson’s poetry
  • Transcendentalism
  • Feminism

UNIT 2

  • Detailed study with critical analysis of the following poems: 
  • Success is Counted Sweetest
  • A Light Exists in Spring
  • Because I could not Stop for Death
  • I Felt a Funeral in my Brain
  • A Route of Evanescence
  • A bird Came Down the Walk

UNIT 3

  • Robert Frost as a Modern American poet
  • Illusive simplicity in Frost’s poetry
  • Concept of nature

UNIT 4

  • Detailed study with critical analysis of any 3 of the following poems:  
  • Birches
  • The Road not Taken
  • The Death of the Hired Man
  • Home Burial
  • Mending Wall
  • An Old Man’s Winter Night

Course Outline

UNIT 5                                  

  • Sylvia Plath:  Critical appreciation of any 3 of her poems

UNIT 6

  • Ted Hughes: Critical appreciation of the following poems:
  • The Road Not Taken

Crow

  • Hawk Roosting

UNIT 7

  • Autobiographical elements in the play
  • Characterization
  • Pessimism

UNIT 8

  •  Earnest Hemingway as a novelist                             
  • Old Man and the Sea :its detailed study with critical analysis

UNIT 9

  • Theme of resilience and courage
  • Symbolism
  • Significance of dreams

UNIT 10

  • Tennesse Williams: The Glass Menagerie

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