Auteurs des Etats-Unis d'Amérique

The course explores the vision of the "Beat Generation," a literary sensibility that paved the way for the sixties' counterculture and whose creativity peaked in between 1944 and 1960. Representative texts will be discussed in class to explore how the Beats re-invented the concept of the American “Frontier” in terms of a mental and aesthetic threshold to be constantly pushed further and recrossed.  On the basis of these texts, we will see that the Vision of the Beat Generation combines cognitive, spiritual, aesthetic, ecological and political dimensions.  In a number of cases, we will also discuss how this multi-faceted quest for a deconditioning of ordinary perception harks back to earlier Romantic ideals. 

Poetry will remain the predominant medium, but the programme also includes novelistic prose and non-fictional essays. 

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

Required and Corequired knowledge and skills

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

Dr. Franca BELLARSI's weekly Monday lectures will be complemented and reinforced by weekly Wednesday tutorials given by Mini-ARC Doctoral Research Fellow Mathieu GOVAERTS. Formal lectures and tutorials given in English and focusing on texts in close reading. This is not a virtual class (attending and participating in classes and tutorials are both highly recommended). 

 

References, bibliography, and recommended reading

The Set Reading list changes slightly from year to year and is accessible through the Virtual University.

Course notes

• Université virtuelle

Contacts

e-mail: franca.bellarsi@ulb.be & mathieu.govaerts@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

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 2027 (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 texts covered in class & 25% for quality of oral expression in English.

Language(s) of evaluation

• english