COURSE UNIT TITLE

: THE AMERICAN WEST

Description of Individual Course Units

Course Unit Code Course Unit Title Type Of Course D U L ECTS
AKE 4045 THE AMERICAN WEST ELECTIVE 3 0 0 5

Offered By

American Culture and Literature

Level of Course Unit

First Cycle Programmes (Bachelor's Degree)

Course Coordinator

DOCTOR CARL JEFFREY BOON

Offered to

American Culture and Literature

Course Objective

I envision AKE 4045 as a course that focuses on both cultural history and literature, and the ways in which they intertwine. Our subject will be the state of California, historically a place of opportunity, innovation, and risk. Among the topics of cultural history we will study include the following:

The Gold Rush
The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake
The Donner Party
The Okies
Hollywood
Haight-Ashbury / Counterculture
Race Relations
Immigration

Learning Outcomes of the Course Unit

1   Students will gain a knowledge of:
2   the history of the State of California
3   the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake
4   the railroad and westward expansion
5   major literature to come of the West
6   contemporary and 20th-century Western literature

Mode of Delivery

Face -to- Face

Prerequisites and Co-requisites

None

Recomended Optional Programme Components

None

Course Contents

Week Subject Description
1 Course Introduction lecture
2 California: An Historical Timeline lecture
3 The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake lecture and video documentary
4 John Steinbeck, selected short fiction lecture and discussion
5 Leslie Marmon Silko, selected fiction lecture and discussion
6 The Native American Experience in the West lecture and video documentary
7 The Railroad and Expansion lecture and video documentary
8 Midterm
9 Jack Kerouac, selected writing lecture and discussion
10 Allen Ginsberg, selected poems lecture and discussion
11 Allen Ginsberg, selected poems lecture and discussion
12 California Today lecture and discussion
13 O.J. and Race Relations lecture and discussion
14 The Latino Experience lecture and dicussion
15 Selected Latino Writings lecture and discussion
16 Final

Recomended or Required Reading

The Collected Poems of Allen Ginsberg
A selected novel by Jack Kerouac
An anthology on Native American Literature

Planned Learning Activities and Teaching Methods

Lecture, class discussion, the viewing of historical documentaries, literary analysis.

Assessment Methods

SORTING NUMBER SHORT CODE LONG CODE FORMULA
1 MTE MIDTERM EXAM
2 ASG ASSIGNMENT
3 FIN FINAL EXAM
4 FCGR FINAL COURSE GRADE (RESIT) VZ * 0.30 + ODV * 0.30 + FN * 0.40
5 RST RESIT
6 BBN Bütünleme Sonu Başarı Notu VZ * 0.30 + ODV * 0.30 + BUT * 0.40


*** Resit Exam is Not Administered in Institutions Where Resit is not Applicable.

Further Notes About Assessment Methods

None

Assessment Criteria

Students will be assessed in terms of: class attendance and participation, journals to be kept with responses to the historical documentaries, and midterm and final exams.

Language of Instruction

English

Course Policies and Rules

Class policies: attendance and the submission of journal entries regarding the historical documentaries.

Contact Details for the Lecturer(s)

carl.boon@deu.edu.tr

Office Hours

Wednesdays, 12:00-13:00

Work Placement(s)

None

Workload Calculation

Activities Number Time (hours) Total Work Load (hours)
Lectures 14 3 42
Preparations before/after weekly lectures 13 4 52
Preparation for midterm exam 1 15 15
Preparation for final exam 1 20 20
Final 1 3 3
Midterm 1 3 3
TOTAL WORKLOAD (hours) 135

Contribution of Learning Outcomes to Programme Outcomes

PO/LOPO.1PO.2PO.3PO.4PO.5PO.6PO.7PO.8PO.9PO.10PO.11PO.12PO.13PO.14
LO.1555555
LO.2555555
LO.3555555
LO.4555555
LO.5555555
LO.6