B. A.

FINAL EXAM & INTERMEDIATE EXAM (POSTUPOVÁ ZKOUŠKA),

IN AMERICAN LITERATURE
Rules for B.A. and Intermediate Examinations
The questions in the oral part of the B.A. and Intermdiate exams will be asked on the basis of the student’s
reading list. To help you with reading a model list has been compiled which orientates you both in The
Norton Anthology, and in choosing other books. To obtain individual texts, consult first The Norton Anthology
(referred to in the list as “N”) which includes a majority of them. If the title is not specified, read the selection
of texts in The Norton Anthology. Students are encouraged to include all other relevant works of American
literature they have read. Individual reading lists do not have to be identical with sections of the list given
below, but they must correspond to them in terms of quantity, range of reading, and historical as well as
esthetic importance of selected texts.

1. Beginnings to 1800
Anne Bradstreet, poems N
Edward Taylor, poems N
Cotton Mather, from The Wonders of the Invisible World N
Samuel Sewall, from Diary N
Jonathan Edwards, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,
Images or Shadows of Divine Things N
Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography Q 92, N
J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, from The Letters from an American Farmer N
Thomas Paine, Common Sense,
The Crisis N
Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence,
The Federalist # 1, 10 N
One earlier American poet (Freneau, Barlow, Bryant, Wheatley) N

2. 1800-1865
Washington Irving, “Rip van Winkle,” Q 69, Ef 1271, Ef 179/XXVIII., N,
“The Legend of a Sleepy Hollow” Q 69, Ef 1271, Ef 179/XXVIII., N
James Fenimore Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans Q 315
Edgar Allan Poe, “The Raven” Ef 1234, N,
Tales: “The Fall of the House of Usher”, “William Wilson”, “The Purloined Letter”, “The Black Cat”, “The
Cask of Amontillado”, “Ligeia” Ef 223, Ef 224, Ef 225, Ef 1234, N;
Essay: “The Philosophy of Composition” N
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature, The American Scholar, “Self-reliance”, “The Divinity School Address”, “The
Over-Soul”, “Experience” poems N, Ef 100 e
Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave Q 317
Henry David Thoreau, “Resistance to Civil Government” N, “Life without Principle” N;
Walden, or Life in the Woods Q 84, Ef 465, Ef 2677, N
Nathaniel Hawthorne, tales Q 28, Q 395, Q 73, N;
The Scarlet Letter Q 62, Ef 1305-1310, Q 28, N
Herman Melville, “Hawthorne and His Mosses” N;
“Bartleby the Scrivener” or “Benito Cereno” N, Ef 454, Ef 1209, Ef 1229, Ef 1359, Ef 1675, Ef 503, Q 112;
Moby Dick Q 27, Ef 1222, Ef 2545
Walt Whitman, from Leaves of Grass Q 417, Q 61, Ef 267, N
Emily Dickinson, poems Q 416, N

3. 1865-1917
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg Q 58, N OR Pudd’nhead Wilson Q 440;
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Q 315, Q 386, Q 63, N
Bret Harte, “The Outcasts of Poker Flat” N
Henry James, “The Real Thing” OR “The Beast in the Jungle” N, Ef 466, Ef 1215, Ef 1388, Ef 1647; The
American Q 391, N OR The Portrait of a Lady Q 414, Q 438 OR Washington Square; “The Art of Fiction”
Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage Q 312, Ef 1520;
“The Open Boat” OR “Blue Hotel” Ef 1532, N
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper” Q 398, N
Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth Q411 OR The Age of Innocence
Henry Adams, from The Education of Henry Adams N
Kate Chopin, The Awakening Q 111, Ef 2296, N
Willa Cather O, Pioneers! Q 410
W.E.B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk, Chapters 1-4, 13-14,
http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/DubSoul.html
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, “The Solitude of Self”
1
4. 1918-1945
Robert Frost, poems N
Ezra Pound, poems (including Norton selection of The Cantos) Ef 2246, Ef 2685
William Carlos Williams, poems N
Wallace Stevens, poems N
Hart Crane, Norton selection from The Bridge N
T.S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” Ec 169, Ec 282, Ec 739, Mi 667, Ec 666, Ef 2512,
The Waste Land Q 202
F.Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby Q 221, Ef 1622
Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms Q 223 OR The Sun Also Rises Q 399;
a selection of short stories
Eugene O’Neill, one major play N
Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God Q 379
William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury Q 12 OR As I Lay Dying Q 14, N OR Light in August Ef 1008 OR
Absalom! Absalom! Q 13

5. 1945-2001
Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman Q 65, N
Edward Albee, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Ef 1322 OR Zoo Story Ef 1612, Q 33, Ef 1279, Ef 2344
Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire Ef 2271, Ef 2310, Ef 2679, N
One recent American play
Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man Q 17, Q 318
Sylvia Plath OR John Berryman, poems N
Robert Lowell, poems N
Elizabeth Bishop, poems N
Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita Ea 2202, Q 401
Joseph Heller, Catch 22 Ef 1372
James Baldwin, from The Fire Next Time N
Flannery O’Connor, stories OR Eudora Welty, stories N
Truman Capote, stories OR Tennessee Williams, stories
(choose either one longer or a few shorter stories
Adrienne Rich, poems N
John Ashbery OR James Merrill, poems N
Jack Kerouac, On the Road
Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
Bernard Malamud, one novel OR Philip Roth, one novel
Saul Bellow, one novel
William Styron, one novel OR John Updike, one novel
Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49 Q 325
Toni Morrison, Beloved Q 337 OR Alice Walker, Color Purple Ef 1947