Duration
30h Th
Number of credits
Lecturer
Language(s) of instruction
English language
Organisation and examination
Teaching in the second semester
Schedule
Units courses prerequisite and corequisite
Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program
Learning unit contents
This course explores contemporary US coming-of-age narratives by minority authors dealing with the fraught question of growing up 'non-white' in the USA. Starting with Franco Moretti's definition of the genre of the (European) Bildungsroman, this course investigates how coming-of-age stories such as Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye (1970), Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior (1976) and Edwidge Danticat's Breath, Eyes, Memory (1994) unsettle the taken-for-granted relationship between formation and nation and narrate the fit and/or misfit of marginalized individuals within the changing fabric of contemporary USA. Principally concerned with issues of growing up non-white in the USA, the course also looks at issues of transgenerational transmission by discussing Ta-Nehisi Coates's letter to his adolescent son, Between the World and Me (2015), and linking it back to the mainstreaming of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Learning outcomes of the learning unit
- To acquire a nuanced understanding of the cultural, political and historical contexts of the texts under study
- To be able to formulate one's own critical insights
- To report insights orally and in writing using an appropriate academic register.
- To be able to offer in-depth analyses of literary works discussed in class, using specific theories and concepts
Prerequisite knowledge and skills
A very good knowledge of English.
Planned learning activities and teaching methods
The course is taught in seminar format.
Mode of delivery (face to face, distance learning, hybrid learning)
Face-to-face course
Further information:
Face-to-face. Tuesday 13:00 - 15:00 pm in Room 2/66 (A1j)
Course materials and recommended or required readings
Platform(s) used for course materials:
- eCampus
Further information:
Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye (1970)
Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior (1976)
Edwidge Danticat, Breath, Eyes, Memory (1994)
Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me (2015)
Franco Moretti's "The Bildungsroman as Symbolic Form" (excerpts - circa 20 pages)
Exam(s) in session
Any session
- In-person
oral exam
- Remote
written exam
Written work / report
Continuous assessment
Further information:
1. 4 blog posts (300-500 words each) that students will rework at the end of the semester so they can submit four pieces (700-800 words each) on each book of the corpus towards the end of the semester
2. Active participation in a workshop in early May during which students will build bridges between secondary literature and primary literature and do group presentations
3. An oral exam conducted as a follow-up to the reworked blogposts
Work placement(s)
Organisational remarks and main changes to the course
About AI
Please note that using ChatGPT and other AI tools 'as is' is plagiarism. It is prohibited to present the production of any generative AI as your own. Any external contribution to personal academic work must be duly acknowledged by providing bibliographic references pointing to these primary sources. Also bear in mind that AI tools often come up with incorrect quotations and do not know how to integrate quotations into an essay - something which will be assessed in your talk and blogposts.
However, it is possible to use AI as a linguistic assistant. Should you use ChatGPT or any other AI tool to improve your English (formulation, formatting, translation, etc.), you still need to acknowledge it at the end of your work.
Contacts
Delphine Munos, Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, Place Cockerill, 3-5 (A2), Room 6/12, B-4000 Liège.
Delphine.Munos@uliege.be