2021. tavaszi félévében nem tart kurzusokat / No courses in the 2021 Spring semester
KORÁBBAN TANÍTOTT KURZUSOK / FORMER COURSES TAUGHT
AN34102: TOPICS IN AMERICAN LITERATURE AFTER 1900: The Life and Art of William Faulkner
Seminar, 2 hrs; graded The seminar will involve a detailed study of William Faulkner's art of fiction through discussions of five major novels (The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying, Light in August, Absalom, Absalom, and Go Down, Moses) and some of his short stories. Special attention will be paid to the intertextuality of these two genres and to Faulkner's creation of the fictional Yoknapatawpha County saga. The social and regional background as well as those features of Faulkner's art that make him a representative of American modernism and of the Southern Renaissance will also be examined. The critical readings will represent a broad range of theoretical schools, blending Freudian, Lacanian, myth criticism, phenomenological, reader's response, imagist, symbolist, linguistic, structuralist, hermeneutic, feminist, intertextual, and narratological approaches with some classics of Faulkner criticism. Course requirements are occasional quizzes, an in-class essay, an eight-page out-of-class essay, one-page position paper (combined with presentation), and a final test.
AN23102BA, AN28006BA: AMERICAN LITERATURE 3 (1945 to the present)
This course is designed to be a full survey of mid- and late 20th century as well as early 21st century American literature. Significant developments as well as representative authors in fiction, poetry, and drama will be introduced. The social, political, and intellectual background, characteristic features of decades, the various literary trends, tendencies, labels, genre debates as well as the cultural debates and reconceptualizations relating to race, gender, and identity will be highlighted.
AN34105: Topics in Criticism and Literary Form: Modernism in Fiction
Seminar, 2 hrs; graded The course is designed to trace the development of modernist fiction from early-modernist Gustave Flaubert through late-modernist/postmodernist Alain Robbe-Grillet. It will be studied through discussions of selective works of Dostoevsky, Conrad, Mann, Joyce, Kafka, Faulkner, Camus, and Robbe-Grillet. Some of the historic manifestations on the agenda will be the polyphonic novel, the symbolist novel, the novel of the absurd, the stream-of-consciousness novel, the existentialist novel, and the “nouveau roman.” Students will also be introduced to the various theoretical and technical aspects of modernist fiction as well as to some important debates. Course requirements will include occasional quizzes, an oral presentation, in-class essay, eight-page out-of-class essay, and final test.
AN35104 Studies in North American Poetry: American Poetry from 1945 to the Present
Seminar, 2hrs, graded This course is designed to be a close study of major figures and works marking significant movements in mid- and late 2Oth century American poetry, including traditionalism, avante- and arrière-garde poetry, late modernism, postmodernism, the Black Mountain School, the Beat Generation, the New York School, ethnic/multicultural/new identity poetry, women’s poetry, confessionalism, deep imagism, and language poetry. Besides emphasizing major poets from 1945 to the present, some poetic theory and criticism will also be incorporated as well as relevant sociopolitical, cultural, and intellectual developments examined.
AN33000BA01: AMERICAN LITERATURE 4: Inner Growth in Post-WWII American Fiction: A Multicultural View
Seminar, 2 hrs; graded The focus will be on one genre (the novel), and our work will be tailored to the (straightforward or ironic) theme of inner growth, examined in its multicultural manifestations, and, in turn, as it reflects on multicultural experience in America. If we are going for the panoramic view, it is in this latter (multicultural) aspect. General historical and intellectual features, as well as technical and theoretical aspects will also be studied beside the thematic concern. Novels authored in the post-WWII period by eminent representatives of the five American pan-ethnicities will be discussed, one from each ethnic group, in this order: Jewish American E. L. Doctorow, Native American N. Scott Momaday, Hispanic American (Chicano) Rudolfo A. Anaya, Asian American Maxine Hong Kingston, and African American Toni Morrison.
AN34109, The Life and Art of Toni Morrison
Seminar, 2hrs, graded The seminar will be a figure course, involving a detailed study of Nobel-laureate Toni Morrison’s art of fiction, through discussions of some major novels as well as some of her theoretical writing and interviews. The world of her fiction confronts us with, is also thematically representative and technically illustrative of, much that has been at the centre of social-cultural as well as literary debates in America the past four decades. Thus, reading and discussing her texts requires immersion in, or, at least basic familiarity with theories of theories of race and ethnicity, Cultural Studies and Cultural Criticism, postcoloniality, self and (cultural) identity, psychoanalysis, Gender Studies and Black Feminism, modernity and postmodernity, deconstruction, intertextuality, dialogism, orality and the vernacular, magical realism, reader-response criticism, rhetorical criticism, genre theory, narrative theory, and reconceptualizations in (New) American Studies.
PA11101AK Introduction to Advanced American Studies
Ph.D. seminar, 1 hr, graded The course will focus on American Studies (hence AS) as a branch of philology; on its history and theoretical background earlier and today; on questions of interdisciplinarity and method; the AS movement, traditional topics and new directions (including canon debates and reconceptualizations); reference literature, journals, resource collections, and technology (web sites); AS in the U.S., Europe, and Hungary; as well as professional associations and fellowships.
BTPA10327AV and BTPA10327BV Theories of Postmodernism (PhD course)
Postmodernism entered the vocabularies of all the human sciences—besides literature, philosophy of history, and the fine arts—decades ago. Thus, while being an aesthetic and a style of thinking, it is a key to undrestanding our age as a cultural epoch. The course has been designed to reveal the roots of, and theories regarding, postmodernism. Questions central to aesthetics, critical theory, and literary texts, as well as the way postmodernity relates to modernism, feminism, popular culture, and so on will be studied; debates concerning terms as related to “postmodernism” like “late modernism,” “poststructuralism,” “deconstruction,” “academic postmodernism” will be highlighted. The texts introduced will inform students not only of the postmodern discourse and the variety of forms “postmodernisms” take but also of the critical stance which questions postmodernism.