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GERM-B430

Auteurs des Etats-Unis d'Amérique

academic year
2024-2025
2025-2026

Course teacher(s)

Franca BELLARSI (Coordinator)

ECTS credits

5

Language(s) of instruction

english

Course content

The course explores the visionary quest of the so-called "Beat Generation" writers, forerunners of the Sixties' Counterculture and whose creativity peaked in between 1944 and 1960. A majority of texts on the reading list will be poems, since Beat experimentalism particularly privileged the genre of poetry.

Objectives (and/or specific learning outcomes)

To introduce students to contemporary American poetry and poetics, as well as to some major poetic works and their socio-historical context; to strengthen students' literary analysis skills and their ability to analyse a poetic text by themselves.

Prerequisites and Corequisites

Required and Corequired knowledge and skills

Very high level of English required (the course demands engagement with complex experimental texts).

Teaching methods and learning activities

Formal face-to-face lectures supported by individual reading at home. 
 

References, bibliography, and recommended reading

In 2025-2026, the set reading list will include texts by Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Michael McClure, Gary Snyder and others. See Virtual University for a detailed list and complete bibliographical references. 

Course notes

  • Université virtuelle

Contribution to the teaching profile

  • Consolidating the techniques of literary analysis and interpretation.

  • Understanding literary genres and their transformation over time.

  • Understanding intertextuality.

  • Understanding some of the links between aesthetics and social issues.

  • Learning to formulate a research hypothesis; learning how to structure the result of individual research/reflection for oral presentation.

Other information

Contacts

e-mail: franca.bellarsi@ulb.be

Tél.: 02/650 67 47 (office) ou 02/650 38 24 (secretariat)

Interviews by personal appointment only (Office no.: AZ4.117)

Campus

Solbosch

Evaluation

Method(s) of evaluation

  • Oral examination

Oral examination

  • Open question with short answer
  • Open question with long development

There will be an oral examination in January 2026 (75% for texts covered in class + 25% for quality of oral expression in English).

Mark calculation method (including weighting of intermediary marks)

The breakdown of the final mark is as follows: 75% for contents + 25% for quality of oral expression in English.

Language(s) of evaluation

  • english

Programmes