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final examination topics: MA, American literature

Canonical periods, genres, and traditions of American literature (Puritan literature, Enlightenment writing, the American Renaissance, late-19th century realism, modernisms, postmodernisms)
Indigenous genres of American literature (the escape narrative, the slave narrative, nature writing, the passing novel), the theme of individuality, and the myth of the frontier
Extending the canon of American literature: women’s traditions and African American traditions (19th century, modernist, postmodernist)
Alternative traditions of American literature: the American female gothic, feminist utopia and dystopia, the passing novel, multicultural identity fiction
Feminist literary and cultural theories
Reading literature after deconstruction: feminist, African American, and queer approaches
The myth of the American Eden, the Promised Land
The American Dream or the topos of “making it”
Representations of the American family and family values
Travel and mobility in American literature
Race, class and ethnicity in American literature
Counter-culture and alternative lifestyles
The topos of inititation
The machine and the garden

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.