American Literature Course
Levis
Leonardo Lozano Hoyos.
American Literature is one of the
courses of the Program “Bachelor of Foreign Languages with Emphasis in English”
The course was designed to provide
an introduction to and selective study of authors who represent the enduring
traditions and styles from the beginning of American Literature, (The Colonial
Period 1492–1700) to contemporary.
Nowadays, due to the pandemic, the
course is worked from a dynamic that allows synchronous and asynchronous
encounters with students through official university platforms such as
https://cintia.unicordoba.edu.co/ and some dynamic spaces that allow
interaction between teachers and students through https://meet.google.com/.
Talking about the course
methodology, it is important to say that one of the pedagogical approaches with
which the course has been developed is Flipped Learning or flipped classroom:
“The flipped classroom is a
“pedagogical approach in which direct instruction moves from the group learning
space to the individual learning space, and the resulting group space is
transformed into a dynamic, interactive learning environment where the educator
guides students as they apply concepts and engage creatively in the subject
matter. (Flipped Learning Network, 2016).
Through this pedagogical approach,
American literature students have flexible
learning environments, which help to create a learning culture. Thanks to
these Flexible environments students are the center of the process. In
addition, the course was developed through established content. However, students
are allowed to explore other sources of information, Intentional Content.
Finally, in the synchronous
meetings, students socialize their work and receive feedback from their own to
enrich their learning, Professional
Educator. (Four Pillar of flip, TM, Flipped Learning Network, (2016).
In order to show you what we are
doing in this course let’s have an example of a simple task:
In one of the classes, students were
required to find out information about Walt Whitman to write a composition, and
do a presentation about his life and work, presenting the literary analysis of
one of his works or books, including their point of view about the context in
which this book was written and the literary movement that the author was part
of. In addition, I encouraged them to be inspired by one of the author's poems
to write one.
Here you are, a short part of one of my student’s tasks:
Walt Whitman, The Father of the Free Verse
Yurleidys Rosa Fabra
Jaraba
Walt Whitman is known as
the father of free verse. He was a successful American poet, essayist, and
journalist. He is thought of as a model for those who didn’t have the resources
to study and prepare themselves professionally since he could prepare on his
own to be the man we are studying today, part of the history of American
Literature. (Voigt, n.d.).
He was born in Long Island on May
31st, 1819, and died in Nueva Jersey; 26 de Marzo de 1892. According to Nehuén, (2018) he was the older
child of 9 children. He couldn’t finish his studies as he was part of a humble
family. Therefore, he had to leave his studies and start to work in different
jobs. One of his jobs was on a diary called “The Patriot” where he got
recognized for his writing, this helped him to grow and was vital for him to
develop authentic and transformative poetics.
Despite being born into
a traditional family, Whitman knew how to face the conventions to build his
life. It was not easy for him to reach popularity, however, due to the quality
of his letter and unique style, he finally made a space in the letters of American literature (Nehuén, 2018). Between
1930 and 1950 his work started to be published, and in his poem, he expressed
his ideas of how money affects people’s soul, mind, and spirit (Poetry
Foundation, n.d.).
He wrote for passion and
with the intention to transmit the reality of the world and with the necessity
of changing the world for those who were not part of the privileged groups of
the society. He didn’t write from conformism so that from his necessity of
showing the value of simple things (Nehuén, 2018).
His most important work
was Leaves of Grass, it was not well received among the critics of its time,
being labeled obscene and censored, because it is a manifesto in favor of
cultural heterogeneity, sexual liberation, and the value of little things. (Allen & Jeffares 2021).
After knowing some interesting facts about Whitman’s life, let me share with you one of his most
beautiful poems:
O Me! O Life!
Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill’d with the
foolish,
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than
I, and who more faithless?)
Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the
struggle ever renew’d,
Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I
see around me,
Of the empty and useless years of the rest, with the rest me
intertwined,
The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me,
O life?
That you are here—that life exists and identity,
That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.
Now, let’s
analyze and talk about important aspects of the poem, taking some words that
could help us to better understand the
situations Whitman talked about and mentioned
in the poem O Me! O Life!, I chose this
poem because I feel identified with the lamentation of the character and the
wandering moments it has.
Whitman didn’t include a
rhyme scheme; and it starts with an atmosphere of lamentation (Grade Saver,
n.d.), that represent some regrets and sufferings of the character, wondering
why life is so cruel, why we have to face bad things, and what is the real
purpose we have in life and even worse, why things don’t get better although
when we have been facing difficult things for too much time.
Those questions have an
answer that is given by a mysterious voice that in this case could represent
the conscience telling that it is necessary to take part in the
game called existence and that we have to be grateful for the simple fact of
being alive and have the opportunity of being part of the history of times (Lit
Charts, n.d.).
This poem also refers to
a journey everyone
has to do, the word that was used to refer to this journey is “train” as our life, the train will be in different places and situations, some will be good, while
others will be bad.
Finally, this poem gives
and advice that it is really common to ask ourselves what is happening in our
lives and feel how the world crumbled down over us, but even all those bad
things are part of our growth and we need to face it to understand that we have
a real and important purpose, so we have to be grateful of being here in the
world.
The following is a poem
written by me, Yurleidys Fabra, inspired by the poem O Me! O Life! by Walt
Whitman, as it encouraged me to think about life and take part in it. That is the main reason I wrote the poem in the
following way.
Looking
at the Skyline,
(Poem
inspired by O Me! O Life! By Walt Whitman)
What’s going on in this life?
Is this just for me? Or for all of
us?
Are these one the battles I have to
fight?
After that fights, does life get
better?
I am here looking at the skyline
And wonder for the awesome things
other presume
Why does this seem to be just for
me?
I am doing
things ok, and I deserve a good life.
This could
be part of destiny
Could be
life trying to tell me something
Or just that
I deserve everything, the bad, and the good things.
It could be,
I deserve this, all this.
But
something tells me that the bad shall pass.
And the good
things will live in my mind
Thanks to
that
I will get
stronger, every single day
Although now
I am already strong.
Another poem to be read in class was Oh Captain! My
Captain! by Walt Whitman. This helped to inspire my student Liliana Bulasco to
write the following poem:
To
A Mom!
Hello my real and wonderful love
We are here because I need a guide
We need a guider, in my life
The one who teach us to walk
The one who teach us to love
You were the guide, you were the teacher
You are not with us now
You are in a better place I guess
That place in which your fears cannot beat you
The same place in which we will be together one day
The place that you mentioned to us, as the better
place someone can stay
That place is your home now
But we are not there with you
We are here, trying to overcome the challenges
Trying to honor you
The same way you honor us when we needed it
We are here in your place again
It seems a dream
A dream in which we see you open the door of that
place
Walking to us, and telling us
I am here, I always will be here
I will be the guide of your life
But that’s not true, we know that
However, we will be here
In your grave, reading your name
as if you were here with us
As you always do.
REFERENCES
Flipped
Learning Network, (2016). Retrieved
November 21st, 2021 from https://flippedlearning.org/definition-of-flipped-learning/
Allen, G. & Jeffares, A. (2021,
May 27). Walt Whitman. Encyclopedia
Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Walt-Whitman
Grade Saver. (n.d.). Walt Whitman: Poems Summary and Analysis of
"O Me! O Life!” Retrieved November 23rd, 2021 from https://www.gradesaver.com/walt-whitman-poems/study-guide/summary-o-me-o-life
Lit
Charts. (n.d.). O Me! O Life! Summary
& Analysis. Retrieved November 23rd, 2021 from https://www.litcharts.com/poetry/walt-whitman/o-me-o-life
Poetry Foundation.
(n.d.). O Me! O Life! Retrieved
November 23rd, 2021 from https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/51568/o-me-o-life
Poetry Foundation.
(n.d.). Walt Whitman. Retrieved
November 22nd, 2021 from https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/walt-whitman
Universidad de Córdoba, 2021. Plan de Curso Literatura Amaricana. Retrieved November 23rd, 2021 from https://cintia.unicordoba.edu.co/pluginfile.php/664444/mod_resource/content/1/088%20%20LITERATURA%20II.pdf
Whitman’s photo
by photographer George C. Cox. in
1887 in New York. En: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Whitman#/media/Archivo:Walt_Whitman_-_George_Collins_Cox.jpg.
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ResponderEliminarThis course have been really helpful for me because I have been improving not only my reading but also my writing skill due to the amount of reading reports we have developed. Regarding the strategies used by the teacher, They are quite interesting and I like them because it allows us to learn many different things about American Literature and the different authors through the history.
This course had been a good experience to find out that reading does not have to be boring. Through this short period of time, I had improved my reading and writing skills, and at the same time I'm learning a lot things through the stories shared in the classroom and their analysis. Thus, I am expecting to learn more about those American writers and what they will be able to teach us through their amazing stories.
ResponderEliminarBy: Jesus David Carvajal Diaz
This course has been so far a pleasant experience because I have had the opportunity to share my knowledge and to learn new information about the authors that compound or are the most important in the American Literature context. In addition, I could relate previous knowledge that I had regarding British Literature with American Literature; In fact, we have been reading about authors in the American literature that are related to British Literature, who also have served as models and inspiration for American authors. It is fantastic to read how the stories changed in every different period, showing that each of them has its own characteristics; indeed, authors also show through their stories their life experiences, problems, traumas, and critics of their period of age. Finally, I would like to keep learning from the stories and the authors to keep creating a critical mindset, and what is most important keep enjoying reading the stories.
ResponderEliminarThis literature course has been more interesting than I thought it would be. The way in which this course is addressed allows to discover and read works of great relevance in history, while allowing individual and group reflection on the events surrounding a work, such as: Its author, the literary movement and the cultural characteristics of its time. A clear example of this was the analysis made on Walt Whitman who, in spite of being criticized for his work, was a writer who followed his own style, shaping what is known as American free verse; this writer expressed himself freely on the topics he felt attracted to, in spite of the controversy of these in his time.
ResponderEliminarBy: Jose D. Sibaja Corena
This course has been too enriching, thanks to the class debates I have learned to value opinions different from mine and to discover new perspectives of the same reading. In addition to the above, I have also managed to discover new readings that have resulted in a new experience in my training process. On the other hand, I have improved my writing skills, which is a great advantage for my future professional development. *Gabriela Marchena Demoya*
ResponderEliminarThis course has been a really good opportunity to come back to the basics of reading and analyzing texts. Sometimes we take for granted our hability to read, analyze and understand the meaning beyond some of the english literature classics, but at the end of the day it is always good to challenge ourselves and keep learning.
ResponderEliminarThe American Literature Course has been a meaningful experience so far as it has helped me a lot to improve my writing skills and also to find some joy in reading, as I don't actually like reading that much. It has been interesting to investigate about some important author's life and their works and then, share our thoughts with the rest of the class as if we were on a conversation where everyone can freely express while the rest listen and learn about it.
ResponderEliminarMy experience with the American literature course has been very significant for my learning since with the help of the professor I have been able to discover magnificent literary works of great American writers whom I did not know before, and knowing a little about the life and work of these writers I can feel identified in many aspects of my life and in addition to knowing the writings that we see in this course, I can entertain myself reading some of these great works of American literature
ResponderEliminarFor our point of view the sentence about not caming back to the war mean not been expose to put your live in risk for no a season important because the most relevant is our live since we just have one opportunity to live it. There is important to highlight that the life in war cause many damage to the soldier and some injuries.
ResponderEliminarOn the other hand, we want to mention that the multiple layers of irony of the text that the story represents are the medals: that is an ironic way to compensate the sacrifice and honor of soldiers that suffers a lot during the war, also the machines represent a way to fix the soldier's life seen them as machines too trained to kill people. (Gina Solano)
I find quite interesting the fact that literature works as an art form used to express and describe life and the events that help us to understand more about the world itself. The way in which the authors used their skills to produce texts that are nowadays the basis of the american literature and how these texts became in a particular element of the cultural background of the country.
ResponderEliminarthis art form took place through its letters at the same time that the country faced different changes in terms of political, social, economical aspects which also took place after the encounter with the new world, the wars, revolutions and also the industralization.
It is important to recognize the descriptive character of literature, as a way in which the authors could offer to their readers a more accurate view of the cultural and social background of early american societies in a particular set or context and how American Literature was influenced by the most relevant events of those times.
I can say that I learned much more about American literature, the changes of that period of time and how influential literature was, in addition, I read about different works by different authors, I investigated the lives of authors who caught my attention a lot. I recognized each of the periods of time that occurred in American literature, and at the same time I improved my vocabulary with each of the searched readings. I was able to recognize how important it is to look at the smallest details of the context, since great works can come out of those.
ResponderEliminarAfter researching American literature, I can say that it has been very important for humanity due to its relevant events in the past that have contributed a lot to; poetry, poems, arts, culture, social and political life, literary texts, plays and films. This literature had great writers and authors who were characterized by using essential elements, which generated the pleasure of reading and awakened the reader's imagination and were capable of moving it to unimaginable places.
ResponderEliminarIt was really interesting for me to know the begginings of American literature and how it emerged as a mixture and influence of different cultures, life experiences and events. It's well known that in the USA there are a variety of million lifestyles, beliefs and customes as they have experienced industrial, economic, social and cultural changes so writers try to represent their diverse life in their writing style.
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