COURSE UNIT TITLE

: CITY AND NATURE WRITING IN AMERICA

DEGREE PROGRAMMES

Description of Individual Course Units

Course Unit Code Course Unit Title Type Of Course D U L ECTS
AKE 5055 CITY AND NATURE WRITING IN AMERICA ELECTIVE 3 0 0 5

Offered By

American Culture and Literature

Level of Course Unit

Second Cycle Programmes (Master's Degree)

Course Coordinator

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR YEŞIM BAŞARIR

Offered to

American Culture and Literature

Course Objective

Examine city and nature in American fiction, nonfiction and poetry.

Learning Outcomes of the Course Unit

1   Define the cultural values that pertain to American city and nature
2   Analyze the structural and ideological patterns of urban America, the frontier, and wilderness
3   Observe city vs. nature opposition in American cultural context and literary imagination
4   Define the intellectual and critical parameters of American perception of natural environment
5   Examine various representations of city and nature in American poetry and fiction

Mode of Delivery

Face -to- Face

Prerequisites and Co-requisites

None

Recomended Optional Programme Components

None

Course Contents

Week Subject Description
1 The New World as the Cornucopia Abundance of Nature: "A Map of Virginia" (Captain John Smith, 1612), "A Character of the Province of Mary-Land" (George Alsop, 1666)
2 The Idea of Garden and the Sublime The Garden as the Civilized Nature: "History and Present State of Virginia" (Robert Beverley, 1705) The Idea of the Sublime: "Notes on the State of Virginia" (Thomas Jefferson, 1784)
3 The Place Where Culture Meets Nature The Frontiersman, or the Archetypal American: "Notes on a Journey in America" (Morris Birkbeck, 1817), "Travels in New England and New York" (Timothy Dwight, 1821), "Recollections of the Last Ten Years" (Timothy Flint, 1826)
4 The Place Where Culture Meets Nature The Frontier, or the Archetypal America: "A Tour On the Prairies"(Washington Irving, 1835), "The Big Bear of Arkansas" (Thomas Bangs Thorpe, 1841), "The Significance of the Frontier in American History" (Frederick Jackson Turner, 1893)
5 Communion of City and Nature in Walt Whitman The Poet as the Urban Enthusiast: "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" (1856) The Poet as the Cosmopolitan Observer: "Salut au Monde" (1856)
6 Communion of City and Nature in Walt Whitman The Poet as the Man of Open Air: "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking," "As I Ebb'd with the Ocean of Life" (1860)
7 Wisdom of Open Air Pilgrimage into the Exotic: "Travels of William Bartram" (William Bartram, 1791) Making a Life in Nature: "Where I Lived and What I Lived For," Walden (H.D.Thoreau, 1854)
8 MIDTERM EXAM MIDTERM EXAM
9 Nature as Man's Companion and Communal Utopias Transcendental Spirit: "Nature" (Emerson, 1836) Critical Reading of Brook Farm Experiment: "Transcendental Wild Oats" (Louisa May Alcott, 1876)
10 Industrial Society and Existential Alienation of Man Ghosts of Downtown and the Urban Misfit: "Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street" (Herman Melville, 1853) Devil's Machine in the Garden: "The Tartarus of Maids" (Herman Melville, 1855)
11 Urbanization and Its Discontents The Unholy City and Westward Expansion: "The Celestial Railroad" (Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1843) "Our Country: Perils--The City" (Josiah Strong, 1885)
12 Urbanization and Its Discontents Urban Poverty: "How the Other Half Lives" (Jacob August Riis, 1890) Modern City as a Waste Land: "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (T.S. Eliot, 1917)
13 Modern American Urban Poetry "Chicago," "The Harbor" (Carl Sandburg), "To Brooklyn Bridge" (Hart Crane), "Paterson" (William Carlos Williams), "The Bean Eaters," "Kitchenette Building" (Gwendolyn Brooks), "Breakfast in Bowling Alley in Utica, New York" (Adrienne Rich), "A City Winter" (Frank O'Hara)
14 Back to the Origins: A Pastoral Escape Return of the American Adam: Robert Frost Simplicity and Nature Mysticism: Gary Snyder

Recomended or Required Reading

Campbell, Neil, Alasdair Kean. "American City," American Cultural Studies: An Introduction to American Culture. New York: Routledge, 1997.
Gelfant, Blanche Housman, "The City Novel as Literary Genre," The American City Novel, University of Oklahoma Press, 1954.
Mumford, Lewis. The City in History. Harcourt, Brace & World, 1961.
Hurm, Gerd. Fragmented Urban Images: The American City in Modern Fiction From Stephen Crane to Thomas Pynchon. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 1991.
Infante, Guillermo Cabrera. Şehirler Kitabı. Istanbul: Türkiye Iş Bankası Yayınları, 2003.
Kılıçbay, Mehmet Ali. Şehirler ve Kentler. Imge Kitapevi Yayınları, 2000.
Machor, James L. Pastoral Cities: Urban Ideals and the Symbolic Landscape of America. Madison: The U of Wisconsin P, 1987.
Marx, Leo. The Machine in the Garden. New York: Oxford U P, 1999.
Siegle, Robert. Suburban Ambush: Downtown Writing and Fiction of Insurgery. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins U P, 1989

Planned Learning Activities and Teaching Methods

1. Lectures: Of all the teaching strategies, lectures are the primary components of instruction to lay the theoretical basis of subject and introduce the reading material relevant to the studied topic. Lectures play a central role in getting to know the terms and concepts defining the topic.
2. In-class discussions: In-class discussions aim at questioning the applicability of course material to diverse situations, thus increasing the factual tangibility of the information. The last hour of each weekly lecture is reserved for discussions.
3. Visual presentations and films: It includes the in-class projection of visual data such as pictures, illustrations, photographs, and maps as well as films and documentaries complementing the topic when necessary.

Assessment Methods

SORTING NUMBER SHORT CODE LONG CODE FORMULA
1 MTE MIDTERM EXAM
2 FCG FINAL COURSE GRADE
3 FCGR FINAL COURSE GRADE MTE * 0.40 + FCG* 0.60
4 RST RESIT
5 FCGR FINAL COURSE GRADE (RESIT) MTE * 0.40 + RST* 0.60


Further Notes About Assessment Methods

Exams are to inquire the correct use of terms and concepts profiling the course material and question the major thinking patterns acquired in the course.

Assessment Criteria

1. Exam questions aim at measuring student's performance on discussing the social, cultural and literary controversies, and help develop an analytical and critical viewpoint.
2. Depending on analytical approach, questions may require multiple responses.
3. Questions examine the student's ability for combining theory with literary and intellectual history in handling issues of discussion.

Language of Instruction

English

Course Policies and Rules

1. Students are required to attend 70% of the course schedule.
2. Exam questions are based on open-book and open-note principle to improve students' thinking abilities and encourage them for higher cognitive responses.
3. Any form of cheating in the exam will result in a zero grade and also in disciplinary action.
4. Midterm exam covers the topics instructed in class from the beginning of semester to the day of the exam. Final exam covers the topics instructed in class after the midterm exam to the end of the semester, with some vital references to the content of the midterm exam.

Contact Details for the Lecturer(s)

yesim.basarir@deu.edu.tr
Office phone: (232) 301 8513

Office Hours

By appointment

Work Placement(s)

None

Workload Calculation

Activities Number Time (hours) Total Work Load (hours)
Lectures 13 3 39
Preparation for midterm exam 1 10 10
Preparation for final exam 1 10 10
Preparations before/after weekly lectures 13 1 13
Reading 13 2 26
Web Search and Library Research 13 1 13
Midterm 1 3 3
Final 1 3 3
TOTAL WORKLOAD (hours) 117

Contribution of Learning Outcomes to Programme Outcomes

PO/LOPO.1PO.2PO.3PO.4PO.5PO.6PO.7PO.8PO.9PO.10PO.11PO.12PO.13PO.14PO.15PO.16
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LO.2545553455
LO.3545553455
LO.4545553455
LO.5545553455

CONTACT INFORMATION
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Phone: +90(232) 412 12 12 - Fax: +90 (232) 464 81 35

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