= final examination topics: MA, American literature

# 19th century American poetry: Whitman and Dickinson. Discuss the most important features of their poetry, representative works, and respective modes of innovation.
# The American Renaissance: its literature and philosophy. Discuss the main principles, philosophical background, and at least four representative texts (one from Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, and Melville each).
# Nature and the frontier in American literature. Discuss representative early and mid-19th century fiction and essays by Cooper, Emerson, and Thoreau.
# 19th century women writers: discuss relevant topics and perspectives, with examples from Gilman and Glaspell.
# Two traditions of modernism in American poetry: discuss high modernism and radical modernism by highlighting the relevant tenets as expounded in essays and practiced in poetic texts.
# The high realism of Henry James. Discuss at least one novel and one short story.
# Traditions of modernism in American fiction: discuss tenets and modes of writing; bring examples from at least three novels and three short stories written by Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Faulkner, and Stein.
# African American modernism: discuss tenets and modes of writing; bring examples from at least two novels and two short stories written by Wright, Hurston, Larsen, and Johnson.
# 20th century women fiction writers: discuss tenets and modes of writing; bring examples from at least one novel and two short stories written by O’Connor, McCullers, and Morrison.
# The passing novel in 20th century American fiction: discuss race and gender passing; bring examples from at least three major texts written by Johnson, Larsen, Hwang, and Roth.
# Formalism and New Criticism
# Structuralism and narratology
# Poststructuralism: postmodernism and deconstruction
# Feminist, gay and lesbian criticism
# Performative theory and intersubjective theory

== recommended readings

* Bollobás Enikő, Az amerikai irodalom története. Budapest: Osiris, 2005.
* Gray, Richard, A History of American Literature. Oxford: Blackwell, 2004.
* Elliott, Emory, ed., Columbia Literary History of the United States. New York: Columbia UP, 1998.
* Bercovitch, Sacvan, ed., The Cambridge History of American Literature , I, II, VIII. New York: Cambridge UP, 1994, 1995, 1999.
* Abádi Nagy Zoltán, Mai amerikai regénykalauz. Budapest: Intera Rt., 1995.
* Ruland, Richard, and Malcolm Bradbury, From Puritanism to Postmodernism. London: Routledge, 1991.
* Bercovitch, Sacvan, Reconstructing American Literary History. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1986.
* Bigsby, C. W. E., A Critical Introduction to Twentieth-Century American Drama. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1985.
* Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., Black Literature and Literary Theory. New York: Methuen, 1984.
* Fauchereau, Serge, Századunk amerikai költészetérõl. Budapest: Európa, 1974.
* Fiedler, Leslie, Love and Death in the American Novel. New York: Criterion, 1960.
* Matthiessen, F.O., The American Renaissance. New York: Oxford UP, 1941.
* Scott, Bonnie Kime, ed., The Gender of Modernism: A Critical Anthology. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1990.
* Baym, Nina, Feminism and American Literary History. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 1992.
* Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., and Nellie Y. McKay, ed., The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. New York: Norton, 1997.
* Lauter, Paul, ed., Reconstructing American Literature: Courses, Syllabi, Issues. New York: Feminist Press, 1983.
* Martin, Steven-Paul, Open Form and the Feminine Imagination. The Politics of Reading in Twentieth-Century Innovative Writing. Washington, D.C.: Maisonneuve P, 1988.
* Singh, Amritjit, Joseph T. Skerrett, Jr., and Robert E. Hogan, ed., Memory and Cultural Politics: New Approaches to American Ethnic Literatures. Boston: Northeastern UP, 1996.
* Singh, Amritjit, Joseph T. Skerrett, Jr., and Robert E. Hogan, ed., Memory, Narrative, and Identity: New Essays in Ethnic American Literatures. Boston: Northeastern UP, 1994.
* McHale, Brian, Postmodernist Fiction. London: Methuen, 1987.
* Greenblatt, Stephen, and Giles Gunn, ed., Redrawing the Boundaries. The Transformation of English and American Literary Studies. New York: MLA, 1992.
* Waugh, Patricia, ed., Literary Theory and Criticism. An Oxford Guide. Oxford UP, 2006.
* Leitch, Vincent B., ed., The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. New York: Norton, 2001.
* Wolfreys, Julian, ed., Literary Theories. A Reader and Guide. New York: New York UP, 1999.
* Richter, David H., ed., Falling Into Theory. Conflicting Views on Reading Literature. Boston: Bedford Book of St. Martin's Press, 1994.
* Lauter, Paul, Canons and Contexts. New York: Oxford UP, 1991.
* Lodge, David, ed., Modern Criticism and Theory. London: Longman, 1988.
* Harner, James H., ed., Literary Research Guide. Baltimore: New York: MLA, 2002.
* Kopley, Richard, ed., Prospects for the Study of American Literature. A Guide for Scholars and Students. New York: New York UP, 1997.