MODULE SPECIFICATION TEMPLATE
MODULE DETAILS
Module title
Postwar American Literature
Module code
LL604
Credit value
20
Level
Level 4
Level 5
Level 6 X
Level 7
Mark the box to the right of the Level 0 (for modules at foundation
appropriate level with an ‘X’
level)
Entry criteria for registration on this module
Pre-requisites
none
Specify in terms of module
codes or equivalent
Co-requisite modules
none
Specify in terms of module
codes or equivalent
Module delivery
Mode of delivery
Taught
X
Distance
Placement
Other
Pattern of delivery
Weekly
X
Block
Level 8
Online
Other
When module is delivered
Semester 1
X
Semester 2
X
Throughout year
Other
Brief description of module This module introduces students to the broad range and diversity of
content and/ or aims
American Literature from the postwar period to the end of the twentieth
Overview (max 80 words)
century. Through an exploration of the genres and forms of Postwar
American literature, e.g. the modern American novel, poetry and the short
story, the module examines the ways in which American literature both
documents and responds to the changing social, cultural and political
contexts of the twentieth century (from the crises of two World Wars to the
cultural impact of the Cold War and Postmodernity).
Module team/ author/
John Wrighton
coordinator(s)
School
Humanities
Site/ campus where
Falmer
delivered
Course(s) for which module is appropriate and status on that course
Course
Status (mandatory/ compulsory/
optional)
BA (Hons) English Literature
Optional
BA (Hons) English Language and Literature/ Media/ Linguistics Optional
BA (Hons) English Language
Optional
BA (Hons) Film and Screen Studies
Optional
BA (Hons) Media and English Literature
Optional
MODULE AIMS, ASSESSMENT AND SUPPORT
Aims
The aims for this module are set into the context of the QAA
Framework for Higher Education Qualifications and they relate to the
SEEC level descriptors for level 6 study. This module aims to:
1. study a range of writings in American literature from the
postwar period to the end of the twentieth century;
2. explore how texts reflect and respond to underlying
preoccupations of American culture and society in the period;
3. examine the development of genre and form in modern
American Literature
Learning outcomes
In relation to the QAA Framework for Higher Education Qualifications
and the SEEC level descriptors for level 6 study, by the end of the
LL604 Postwar American Literature
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Content
Learning support
module students should be able to demonstrate:
 Critically engage with a range of writings in American literature
(including fiction, poetry, and short stories) from the postwar
period to the end of the twentieth century (LO1)
 Evidence critical understanding of the ways in which American
literature both documents and responds to the changing social,
political and historical contexts of the period (LO2)
 Engage in critical understanding of the development of genre
and form in modern American Literature (LO3)
A range of texts in a variety of genres will be selected, which might
typically include some of the following authors: Donald Barthelme, John
Berryman, Elizabeth Bishop, Allen Ginsberg, Gish Jen, Arthur Miller,
Toni Morrison, Vladimir Nabokov, Charles Olson, Sylvia Plath, Annie
Proulx, Thomas Pynchon, Kurt Vonnegut. Topics to be discussed might
typically include: civil rights; consumerism; suppression & subversion;
the American city & suburbia; regionalism; multicultural and ethnic
voices; the Great American novel; the state of the American nation;
modern & postmodern fiction.
Altieri, Charles. The Art of Twentieth-Century American Poetry:
Modernism and After. (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2006)
Baym, N. (ed.) The Norton Anthology of American Literature (6th Ed.).
(New York: Norton, 2003)
Beach, Christopher. The Cambridge Introduction to Twentieth-Century
American Poetry. (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2003)
Bran, Nicol. The Cambridge Introduction to Postmodern Fiction.
(Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2009)
Costello, Bonnie. Shifting Ground: Reinventing Landscape in Modern
American Poetry. Cambridge (MA: Harvard Univ. Press, 2003)
Epstein, A. Beautiful Enemies: Friendship and Postwar American
Poetry (Oxford: OUP, 2009)
Hamilton, G. and Brian Jones (eds) Encyclopedia of the Environment in
American Literature (Toronto: Macfarland, 2013)
Heale, M. J. The Sixties in America: History, Politics and Protest.
(Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univ. Press, 2001).
Hendin, J. (ed). A Concise companion to postwar American literature
and culture (Oxford, MA: Blackwell, 2004)
Howe, S. The Birth-mark: Unsettling the wilderness in American literary
history (Wesleyan Univ. Press, 1993)
Morley, C. Modern American Literature (Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univ.
Press, 2012)
Patterson, A. Race, American literature and transnational modernisms.
(Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2008)
Philip, J. American Literary Regionalism in a Global Age (Louisiana
State University Press, 2007)
Trodd, Zoe. American Protest Literature (Cambridge, Mass. Bellknapp
Press, reprint 2008)
Yannella, P. American Literature in Context after 1929 (Chichester:
Wiley-Blackwell, 2011)
Wrighton, J. Ethics and Politics in Modern American Poetry (New York
and London: Routledge, 2010)
Zhou, Xiaojing. The Ethics and Poetics of Alterity in Asian American
Poetry (Iowa City: Univ. of Iowa Press, 2006)
Journals:
American Literary History
American Literature
Journal of American Studies
LL604 Postwar American Literature
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Online Resources (Accessed March 2014)
http://myweb.uiowa.edu/rhorwitz/ (American Studies Recommendations
by Richard P. Horwitz, University of Iowa)
http://kclibrary.lonestar.edu/decade50.html (20th Century American
cultural history by decade, Lonestar College, Kingswood)
http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/home.html (The Literature
and Culture of the American 1950s, University of Pennsylvania)
Teaching and learning activities
Details of teaching and
learning activities
Contact Time: Lectures, seminars, small group-work, presentations, 11 tutorials
Non-contact Time: Reading of primary and secondary texts
Allocation of study hours (indicative)
Study hours
Where 10 credits = 100 learning hours
SCHEDULED
This is an indication of the number of hours students
40
can expect to spend in scheduled teaching activities
including lectures, seminars, tutorials, project
supervision, demonstrations, practical classes and
workshops, supervised time in workshops/ studios,
fieldwork, external visits, and work-based learning.
GUIDED INDEPENDENT
STUDY
All students are expected to undertake guided
independent study which includes wider reading/
practice, follow-up work, the completion of assessment
tasks, and revisions.
PLACEMENT
The placement is a specific type of learning away from
the University that is not work-based learning or a year
abroad.
TOTAL STUDY HOURS
160
200
Assessment tasks
Details of assessment for
this module
Assessment will be in the context of the University of Brighton
Assessment Policy and the Faculty Code of Practice in Assessment,
and students will be required to complete the following task:
Task 1 (20%)
A short presentation (7-10 minutes) on one text in its social, political
and historical context
(LO2)
Task 2 (80%)
A critical essay (2,500 words) exploring at least two texts from
the module (not including those presented on in task 1) in the light of
the development of genre and form in American Literature
(LO1, LO3)
Referral task: Reworking of original task(s)
The task will be marked on a percentage basis
Assessment Criteria
General criteria for assessment are framed by the SEEC descriptors for
level 6. Against specific criteria, credit will be awarded for ability to:
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


Critically engage with at least two American texts from the
postwar period to the end of the twentieth century (LO1)
Evidence critical understanding of the ways in which American
literature both documents and responds to the changing social,
political and historical contexts of the period (LO2)
Engage in critical understanding of the development of genre
and form in modern American Literature (LO3)
Referral task: Reworking of original task(s)
Types of assessment task
Indicative list of summative assessment tasks which lead to the award of credit or
which are required for progression.
% weighting
(or indicate if
component is
pass/fail)
WRITTEN
Written exam
COURSEWORK
Written assignment/ essay, report, dissertation,
portfolio, project output, set exercise
80
PRACTICAL
Oral assessment and presentation, practical skills
assessment, set exercise
20
EXAMINATION INFORMATION
Area examination board
Literature, Screen, Media
External examiners
Name
Position and institution
Date appointed
Claire Nally
Senior Lecturer, Northumbria
University
2014
QUALITY ASSURANCE
Date of first approval
July 2014
Only complete where this is
not the first version
Date of last revision
Only complete where this is
not the first version
Date of approval for this
March 2015
version
Version number
2
Modules replaced
Specify codes of modules for
which this is a replacement
Available as free-standing module?
Yes
X
Date tenure
ends
2018
No
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