COURSE UNIT TITLE

: AMERICAN IDEAS AND VALUES

DEGREE PROGRAMMES

Description of Individual Course Units

Course Unit Code Course Unit Title Type Of Course D U L ECTS
AKE 3025 AMERICAN IDEAS AND VALUES COMPULSORY 3 0 0 4

Offered By

American Culture and Literature (English)

Level of Course Unit

First Cycle Programmes (Bachelor's Degree)

Course Coordinator

DOCTOR CARL JEFFREY BOON

Offered to

American Culture and Literature (English)

Course Objective

This course is designed to expose students to literary works that deal with American values, lifestyles, cultural practices, beliefs and ideas that have shaped the meaning as well as the process of being AMERICAN.

Learning Outcomes of the Course Unit

1   Understand the cultural and intellectual milieu of the United States by analyzing the major American intellectual writers and their works.
2   Analyze the issue of Americannes in works written by American and foreign writers.
3   Distinguish major American values that have been passed from the colonial period to our time.
4   Understand the values, beliefs and ideas that have formed the American identity.

Mode of Delivery

Face -to- Face

Prerequisites and Co-requisites

None

Recomended Optional Programme Components

None

Course Contents

Week Subject Description
1 Introduction to American Values
2 The Chosen People Reading The Myth of the Chosen Nation. The Colonial Period, in Myths America Lives By, by Richard T. Hughes.
3 The Covenant Tradition Reading: The Marrow of Puritan Divinity, pgs: 48-98 in Errand into the Wilderness by Perry Miller.
4 Natural Rights Reading : The Myth of Nature s Nation: The Revolutionary Period. Pgs: 19-65, in Myths America Lives By, by Richard T. Hughes
5 The Frontier Reading: Eighteenth Century Origins: Prologue pgs: 1-12, The Garden of the World and American Agrarianism pgs. 123-132 and The Myth of the Garden and Turner s Frontier , pgs: 250-260, in Virgin Land: The American West as Symbol and Myth by Henry Nash Smith
6 American Exceptionalism Reading: American Exceptionalism: A Double-Edged Sword, by Martin Lipset
7 America s Religious Roots Reading: America s Religious Tradition has Five Roots, by Martin E. Marty, pps: 175-181, in American Values: Opposing Viewpoints
8 Mid-term
9 Civil Religion Reading: America Has a Civil Religion, by Robert Bellah, pps: 189-195, in American Values: Opposing Viewpoints
10 American Individualism Reading: Finding Oneself , pps: 113-141, in Habits of the Heart by Robert Bellah.
11 American Individualism Reading: Reaching Out , pps: 55-84, in Habits of the Heart by Robert Bellah.
12 Social Relationships Habits of the Heart by Robert Bellah
13 The American Individual from the Past to the Present Reading: A Changing American Character* pgs. 101-139 The First New Nation. By Martin Seymour Lipset
14 Final Exam

Recomended or Required Reading

Bellah, Robert Neelly and et al. Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life.
Berkeley: U of California P, 1985.
Bender, David and Bruno Leone, eds. American Values: Opposing Viewpoints. San Diego: Greenhaven, 1989.
Breidlid, Anders and et al, eds. American Culture: An Anthology of Civilization Texts. London:
Routledge, 1996.
Colombo, Gary, Robert Cullen and Bonne Isle, eds. Rereading America: Cultural Contexts for
Critical Thinking and Writing. New York: St, Martin s, 1995.
Hughes, Richard T. Myths America Lives By. Urbana: Univery of Illinois, 2003.
Lipset, Seymour Martin. American Exceptionalism: A Double-Edged Sword. New York: Norton, 1996.
---. The First New Nation: The United States in Historical and Comparative
Perspective. New York; Norton, 1979.
Luedtke, Luther S, ed. Making America: The Society and Culture of the United States. Washington
DC.; USIS, 1987.
Miller, Perry. Errand into the Wilderness. Cambridge: Belknap, 1956.

Planned Learning Activities and Teaching Methods

1. Courses: Courses are the primary components of instruction among teaching strategies to lay the theoretical basis of subject and introduce the reading material relevant to the studied topic. Courses display 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 and 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.

Assessment Methods

SORTING NUMBER SHORT CODE LONG CODE FORMULA
1 MTE MIDTERM EXAM
2 FIN FINAL EXAM
3 FCGR FINAL COURSE GRADE (RESIT) MTE * 0.40 + FIN * 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. Midterm exam covers the topics instructed in class from the beginning of semester to the day of the exam.
2. 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.
3.Some exam questions are essay type questions that require students to use their analytical and comprehension skills.
4. Students are expected to reference the primary sources that they use.
5. Students are required to complete the exam in the given period of time.

Language of Instruction

English

Course Policies and Rules

1. Students are required to attend 70% of the course schedule.
2. No textbooks or notes are allowed during the exam.
3. No dictionaries are allowed during the exam. All vocabulary used in the exam are covered previously in the class and expected to be familiar to the student.
4. Any form of cheating in the exam will result in a zero grade and also in disciplinary action.

Contact Details for the Lecturer(s)

korpez@hotmail.com

Office Hours

Tuesadys: 14:00-16:00

Work Placement(s)

None

Workload Calculation

Activities Number Time (hours) Total Work Load (hours)
Lectures 12 3 36
Preparation for midterm exam 1 10 10
Preparation for final exam 1 15 15
Preparations before/after weekly lectures 12 3 36
Final 1 3 3
Midterm 1 3 3
TOTAL WORKLOAD (hours) 103

Contribution of Learning Outcomes to Programme Outcomes

PO/LOPO.1PO.2PO.3PO.4PO.5PO.6PO.7PO.8PO.9PO.10PO.11PO.12PO.13PO.14
LO.14553
LO.234545
LO.3553555355
LO.45444

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