BA Seminar: Varieties of the American Short Story

B.Sc. seminars
obligatory courses

The subject matter of seminar meetings is presentation of the finished chapters of BA theses and their critical discussions by all the seminar participants. The preceding proseminar made some participants focus on the problematic of trauma in fiction in terms of Dominick LaCapra’s trauma theory. The theses discussed consist of an introduction that specifies a research question, presents a conceptual frame of reference, and explains the selection of primary literature.

1. Presentation of the first draft of introduction and discussion (2 students)

2. Ditto.

3. Ditto.

4. Ditto.

5. Ditto (1 person). General commentary: advisor.

6. Presentation of the first draft of the first analytical chapter (2 students)

7. Ditto.

8. Ditto.

9. Ditto.

10. Ditto (1 person). General commentary: advisor.

11. Presentation of the first draft of the second analytical chapter and conclusions (2students)

12. Ditto.

13. Ditto.

14. Ditto.

15. Ditto (1 person). General commentary: advisor.

Edgar Allan Poe, Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque

Ernest Hemingway, 49 Stories

Francis Scott Fitzgerald, [selected stories]

William Faulkner, Collected Stories

Carson McCullers, Collected Stories

Flannery O'Connor, Complete Stories

Donald Barthelme, Sixty Stories

Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carried

Dominick LaCapra, Historia w okresie przejściowym

Antologia studiów nad traumą, red. Tomasz Łysak

Sigmund Freud, „Mourning and Melancholia”

Eva Illouz, Cold Intimacies: The Making of Emotional Capitalism

G.R. Thompson, Poe’s Fiction: Romantic Irony in the Gothic Tales

Wolfgang Kayser, The Grotesque

Knowledge: A graduate possesses comprehensive knowledge and understanding of:

- the significance of cultural studies and religious studies within the scholarly system, including their specific subjects and methodologies, relationships with other disciplines and fields, and future development directions

- terminology, methods, tools, and techniques for data acquisition, selected research traditions, schools, and directions of development specific to cultural and religious studies for researching cultural and social phenomena in the United States

- major trends and works of American literature, essential foundations of American literary history that are an integral part of studying North American culture, as well as theoretical and methodological basics of literary studies

Skills: A graduate is able to:

- formulate and solve complex research problems, recognizing, understanding, interpreting, explaining, and analyzing the causes and course of cultural processes and phenomena in the United States using sources and standard research methods and tools within the humanities

- interpret works of American literature in the context of broadly understood American culture

- communicate on American topics related to the United States using specialized terminology in the English language and advanced information and communication techniques

- participate, under the supervision of a scientific supervisor, in the preparation of research projects (individual and group) in the broad field of cultural studies in the United States

Social Skills: A graduate is able to:

- utilize interdisciplinary knowledge acquired in American Studies concerning the United States to formulate own opinions and recognize its significance in solving cognitive and practical problems

- responsibly fulfill professional roles, taking into account changing social needs; act in accordance with professional ethics and expect it from others

- develop professionally, continue learning and engage in the development of American Studies

Introduction: 20 pts; chapter I: 20 pts; chapter II and conclusions: 30 pts, discussion: 30 pts.