An Honest Review: Imagining America

In a new series, The Tab explores the ins-and-outs of various Arts modules. This week, it’s the first year’s AMS module, Imagining America.

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A module outline, while giving you all the facts and precise details of a module, can never give a true insight into what your experience of a module will be. So here’s a warts-and-all review of what was my favourite and most interesting first year module.

The module is split into two very different parts for each semester of first year, the first being ‘Imagining America’ and the second ‘Imagining America II’.

We’ve got all bases covered

‘Imagining America’ deals with texts, themes and issues in America from the Colonial period to the end of the nineteenth century. This historical period brought in some really interesting topics and issues which I had never studied before, ranging from the plight of the Native Americans to the gilded age of Henry James.

However, a warning: first years should not underestimate the difficulty of this seemingly straightforward introductory module. I found this difficulty stemmed not so much from its content, but from the sheer amount of reading outside of class.

Prioritise your reading and don’t let it get on top of you!

From personal experience, as long as you prioritise your reading and don’t let it get on top of you, this is a wholly enjoyable and fascinating module.

For me, the module really came alive in its second part ‘Imagining America II’. Covering US literature of the twentieth century, it ranged from the literary movements of modernism and post-modernism and everything in between. Particular highlights were the opportunity to study literature by less well-known multi-ethnic writers and controversial texts on events such as 9/11.

Without a doubt, my favourite lecturer was Sarah Garland, whose exuberance captured everyone’s interest and attention. The reading for this module was, surprisingly, a lot more manageable than the first. By being given smaller extracts of more difficult texts, I found I was able to remain absorbed in the reading week on week.

A big book for a big module

Rather than having to trawl through Amazon finding the best deals for dozens of second hand books, the majority of the reading for both semesters was included in five volumes of ‘The Norton Anthology of American Literature’. There is no need to buy separate volumes, as you are able to buy value packs of the anthologies. Handy if you’re on a budget, which I’m sure you are!

For the thrifty student, there is always the option of looking for used editions of the books. However, I found that these large volumes, although expensive, were actually very friendly to even the most meagre student budget – you are getting a lot of book for your buck!

Any other reading for both modules was posted on blackboard, meaning it could either be read online for free or printed off for relatively little on the library printers.

Overall, ‘Imagining America’ is an insightful and interesting module that acts as a highly useful introduction to the kinds of themes studied in more depth in second year. However, it’s also praiseworthy as a stand-alone module due to its variety and ability to encapsulate all that is great about American literature.