Fall Semester

Week 1. B.Franklin as a universal genius, peculiarities of his style in “Autobiography” and in “Poor Richard’s sayings”.
Week 2. W.Irving - America’s “first man of letters”. Humour and irony in his romantic tales (“Rip Van Winkle”, “The Devil and Tom Walker”). Introduction to basic stylistic devices: metaphor and simile; irony and satire; personification, etc...
Week 3. N.Hawthorne’s “Twice-told tales” and his principles of short story writing. Allegory and symbols in “Dr. Heidegger’s experiment”.
Week 4-5. E.Poe’s standards of short story writing. Narration in his stories of terror (“M.S. Found in a bottle”, “The cask of Amontillado”) and detection (“The Purloined letter”).
Week 6. S.Crane as a naturalist and impressionist in short stories. Means of characterisation. Round and flat characters. Speech portrayal and its significance.
Week 7. Studying novels. Plot and story. Plot elements. Plot and narrative structure. Analysis: H.James “The American”.
Week 8. Studying novels. Characters and characterisations. Description of the character’s appearance, gestures, movements, clothes. Character’s inner speech. Analysis: H.James “The American”.
Week 9. Studying novels. The peculiarities of narration in H.James’s “The American”. Types of narration. Narrators and points of view. Chronological order and flashbacks.
Week 10. W.Faulkner’s short stories. The importance of setting in W.Faulkner’s “Dry September”, “The Bear”. Setting and theme.
Week 11. Studying poetry. H.Longfellow as a ”master technician”. Words and meaning in poetry: personification, paradox and ambiguity. Images and imagery. Stanza forms.
Week 12. W.Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass”. Free verse. Rhythm and lines in his poetry. Types of lines (end-stopped and run-on);caesura.
Week 13. W.Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass”. Alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia in free verse.
Week 14. E.Dickenson’s poetry. Rhyme and form. Rhythm and rhyme schemes. The hymnal form of her verse.
Week 15. Final exam.

Spring Semester

Week 1. Studying poetry. E.Robinson, his ability to manage rhythm and sounds to convey the meaning and mood of his poems.
Week 2. C.Sandburg and his “Chicago poems”. Close analysis: “The Harbour”, “Chicago”, “The people will live on”. Presentation.
Week 3. C.Sandburg’s poetry and W.Whitman’s poetry: differences and similarities in ideas, poetic form, imagery, diction. Presentation: select some poem by C.Sandburg and dwell upon W.Whitman’s traditions in his poetry.
Week 4. Contrasting the poetry of R.Frost and C.Sandburg: language, rhythm, themes. R.Frost’s works and the traditions of E.Dickinson. Presentation: select some poem by R.Frost or C.Sandburg and explain the ways in which it is typical of this poet’s work.
Week 5. Newer voices in American poetry: T.Roethke, R.Lowell, E.Bishop, R.Jarrell.
Week 6. Studying prose: T.Draiser as a naturalist. The role of details in his prose. Close analysis: “The second choice”, “Married”.
Week 7. E.Hemingway as a representative of the “lost generation” writers. The “single effect” of his works, his principles of short story writing.
Week 8. J.Steinbeck as a realist, naturalist and symbolist in his prose. Close analysis: “The winter of our discontent”. The structure and plot of the novel. Presentation.
Week 9. Characters and means of characterisation in J.Steinbeck’s novel. Traditions and novelties. Presentation.
Week 10. The peculiarities of narration in “The winter of our discontent”. The role of the narrator in J.Steinbeck’s novel in S.Fitzgerald’s novel “The Great Gatsby”. Presentation.
Week 11. New voices in American prose. Cinematographic devices in W.Allen’s prose. New methods of characterisation. Close analysis: W.Allen “The Kugelmass episode”; K.Oates “Capital punishment”, “Shopping”.
Week 12. Studying drama: T.Williams “The glass menagerie”. Plot in drama. Scenes and sub-plots. Expectation and surprise.
Week 13. T.Williams “The glass menagerie”. Characters in drama. Characters’ speech portrayals. Presentation.
Week 14. T.Williams “The glass menagerie”. Staging: scenery, costume, lighting, age, size, voice. Performance and atmosphere. Realistic and non-realistic techniques in the play.
Week 15. E.O’Neil “The Long Voyage Home”. The setting in “Ile”. The writer’s specific stage directions and their importance.
Week 16. Final exam.

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