Université de Poitiers

Faculté des Lettres et des Langues Département d’anglais

Anglais L3/UE5

Group - A

Room A113 (subject to change)

10:30 - 12:30 Thursdays

Room A315 11- 1pm (select) Tuesdays

Jeanette Lamb

Semester 2

15 Jan –11 April 2019

Contact information:

Jeanette Lamb Email: jeanette.lamb@univ-poitiers.fr // +(33)0786588712

You should feel free to contact me with any questions.

If you are ill or must miss class (or will be late), please WHATSUP me or a classmate who can relay information to me.

If it is a planned absents, email is fine.

Description: Over the duration of the semester, the class will be presented with a variety of contexts that challenge their English language skills and develop a deeper comprehension of factors that shape South & North American cultures.

Excerpts will be drawn from a cross-selection of interdisciplinary sources, including Spanish & English literature, poetry, philosophy, television, film, video, art and music.

Objectives: Students will expand their cultural, artistic, and historical understanding of English & Spanish speaking countries and deepen their contextural insights & ability to comprehend linguistic references, phrasing, word meanings, cultural codes, and influential events.

Learning Outcomes: This course (L3) is a continuation of varies skills practiced in (L1 & L2), as such, a range of Oral Comprehensive and Expressive exercises will be used in concert with student presentations, discussions, writing, and research activities, the culmination which will enhance student comprehension of English Civilization, Language, & Literature in both a historical and contemporary framework.

Grades are made from a culmination including Class Attendance, Discussion/Participation, Written Assignments, & An Oral Presentation

35% CLASS DISCUSSION Participation in class discussion includes verbal input, taking notes, and active listening.

If you talk during lectures, if you do not add comments and questions, if you use electronic devices for activities not related to the class-- you will fail the Discussion Element.

30% PRESENTATION Each student will put together a well composed, well-researched presentation in English on one of the listed topics:

1. Chilean artist, Alfredo Jaar.
2. American artist, Barbara Kruger
3. Georgia O’keefe, American Artist
4. Politics & Music
5. Music & History
6. Politics & Art
7. Manufacturing Consent
8. The Banana Republic
9. Literature, Culture & Politics: John Steinbeck, Jack Kerouac, e.e. Cummings, Sylvia Plath, Toni Morrison, Maya Anglou, Kurt Vonnegut, William Faulkner, Cormack McCarthy, Walt Whitman, Edgar Allen Poe, Herman Melville, TS Eliot, Flannery O'Connor, Author Miller, Charles Burkowski, James Joyce, Thomas Jefferson, Hunter S Thomson, Henry Miller, Kate Chopin, Louis L'amour, Erza Pound, Gabriela Mistral, Pablo Neruda, Gabriel García Márquez, Octavio Paz, Mario Vargas Llosa)
10. The Harlem Renaissance
11. Route 66: History of the USA Highway System
12. Henry Ford's relationship with Nazi, Germany
13. Radio Waves (history of the radio)
14. 1960's Art-house Films
15. Greenwich Village, cafe society & Beatniks
16. "The Open Road"
17. Magic Surrealism in South American Literature & Art
18. Manifest Destiny
19. The United States Civil War
20. The state of Mississippi

15% A clearly outlined, well-researched theme that addresses the following with an in-depth analysis, example points to consider:

1. The Name of the Project/Art Work (deconstruct the name and analyze why it was chosen)
2. Where does the project take place?
3. What political or social event does the project address?
4. What role does the personal history of the artist play in their work?
5. Is the project successful?

10% between 5 & 20 minutes in length (the time allotted is dependant on a variety of factors:

1. How many people are presenting (it is a group or a single person)?
2. The level of the presenter’s English skills -- the class is made from students whose skill levels are at different stages. An advanced speaker will create a presentation that is more complex and longer and challenges their skill level.
3. Likewise, a speaker whose skill level is not advanced will create a shorter presentation that challenges their skill level.

• 35% WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT
• 1 paper (a rough draft is due 7 March & a final draft of that same paper is due 4 April)
• DIGITALLY TYPED
• DIGITALLY SUBMITTED (using Google Docs)
• 500-word count minimum or higher

Analyze a film, book, poem, video game, graphic design, architecture, artwork, television drama, political system, international economy of your choosing.

Aspects to consider:

Date when the piece was created? By whom the piece was created? For what audience was the piece created? The author? Author’s background? Does the piece have a political message? What is the overarching theme? What are some unifying devices or tropes used? Who are the main characters? Is it a travel tale? A moral tale? An epic?

● 12 point

● Cite sources using APA citation style

Course Outline (updated weekly):

WEEKS 1 -2 Introduction to the session and course overview. The students will reference their cultural relationship with English speaking countries, discuss activities, sign up for presentations, and at this time will be free to ask questions about the class outline, structure, expectations, and timelines.

Week 1

Lecture #1 The Trouble with Texas: This lecture takes a glimpse into a complex stratosphere of overlapping histories that shaped The Americas begins long before European colonization. We examine Mayan, Aztec, Inca, and other Native American "Aboriginal" people before, during, and after the arrival of the outside world. We examine how architecture is used as a means of invasion, and in what ways the US and Mexican War has never come to a close.

No presentations

Week 2

Lecture #2 Hour 1: The power of words: Decoding Maps. Examining a map of North America, what can conclusions can be drawn about the history of any given area by the names of the cities and towns? Is the act of naming a landscape the same as claiming possession over it?

Hour 2: A quick review of western history, politics, civilization, religion, art, literature and philosophy will be presented. Major turning points in history that catapult humanity in new and exciting directions: the evolution of cities, transition pantheism to monotheism, rise of individual wealth, global commerce, inventions such as the printing press all impact how human’s see themselves and their place in the world and all impact how colonization shaped North America.

No presentations

Week 3

Lecture #3 Manifest Destiny.

Hour 1: The Thirty Year’s War redefines religions and religious spheres of power. How does this event play into the European desire to immigrate to “The New World?” In what ways is the individual desire to immigrate different than that of a colonizing country? Who were the early settlers in the Americas and under what circumstances did they decide to make their voyage? How did that shape the way new cities understood their purpose? How did these ideals bleed into the political sphere during the 1800’s?

Hour 2: Choose presentation topics & schedule expose

Film: The Century of Self (Part 1) 45 mins

No Presentations