AMERICAN LITERATURE, ENGLISH 311A, FALL 2007

 

Instructor:      Dr. Rodney Allen

                        

Office:           102

 

Office

Hours:            MWF: 10:00-11:00, 2:00-3:00; TTR: 9:00-9:30, 10:45-11:15;

                       and by appointment. Guided Study, Wednesday, Room 208

 

Text:              The Norton Anthology of American Literature, 5th ed.

                                           

Course description:

Either American Literature or British Literature counts as one of the two required English courses for LSMSA seniors. As a senior course, English 311A presupposes that students have acquired a good knowledge of literary terms and genres in their year of English 210, and that their writing is competent in terms of grammar, organization, and style. One of the principal aims of English 311A, however, is to provide students with further practice in refining their writing and research skills. English 311A students will write at least two major essays involving research, and will take at least three major exams (two during the semester and a final) involving writing answers to essay questions.

311A will cover the major periods, figures, and genres of American literature to the extent possible in a single semester. Readings will come from the Colonial period, the American Literary Renaissance, the Realist period, the Modern Period, and the Postmodern period. The course reflects the cultural diversity present in American literature while not slighting traditional major figures like Emerson, Hawthorne, Dickinson, Twain, Faulkner, and O’Connor. 311A should provide students with a grasp of such divergent worldviews as Calvinism, deism, transcendentalism, realism, and modernism. The heart of the course will be the close reading and discussion of sophisticated literary texts that reveal the intellectual complexity of the American experience.

 

Grading:

You will have 5 major grades: 2 essays of at least 1,000 words each, 2 exams (possibly 3) during the semester, and a final exam. I will announce exact due dates for exams and essays at least 10 days in advance. You must turn in both essays and take the 3 exams in order to pass the course. I will count off for late papers. YOU MUST TAKE EXTREME CARE NOT TO PLAGIARIZE FROM SECONDARY OR PRIMARY SOURCES WHEN WRITING YOUR ESSAYS. IF YOU PLAGIARIZE, YOU RISK FAILING THIS COURSE AND POSSIBLY EVEN EXPULSION FROM LSMSA. On any class day you may have a pop test on your reading assignment. You can fail 2 of these pop tests without penalty: thereafter, each one you fail will lower your final grade 5 points.

 

Approximate dates for exams and essays:

Exam 1—the last week of September

Essay 1--the first week of October

Exam 2--the third week of October

Essay 2--the first week of November

 

SYLLABUS

 

Readings: (read the Introduction to each writer as well as the selection indicated)

 

   1.  “Literature to 1620," 1-10.

 

   2.  “Iroquois Creation Story," "Pima Creation Story," 25-31.

 

   3.   Christopher Columbus, 11-14.

 

   4.  “Early American Literature, 1620-1820," 77-86

 

   5.   Mary Rowlandson, “A Narrative of Captivity,” 147-163.

    

   6.  Jonathan Edwards, "Personal Narrative, 176-185, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," 200-210.

 

   7.  Ben Franklin, “The Way to Wealth,” “The Savages of North America,” 211-222;

        from the Autobiography, 273-49.

 

   8.  Thomas Paine, 308-321.

 

   9.  Thomas Jefferson, 322-341.

 

 10. “American Literature, 1820-1865,” 409-424.

 

 11.  Ralph Waldo Emerson, "The Divinity School Address," 538-49.

 

 12.  Nathaniel Hawthorne, "The Birthmark," 639-49.

 

 13.  Frederick Douglass, from Narrative of an American Slave, 967-1000.

 

 14.  Abraham Lincoln, 760-63.

 

 15.  Henry David Thoreau, “Resistance to Civil Government,” 849-67.

 

 16.  Emily Dickinson, poems 241, 258, 303, 435, 448, 465, 712, 1129.

 

 17. “American Literature, 1865-1914,” 1241-1257.

 

 18.  Mark Twain, "How to Tell a Story," “Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses,” 1453-1464.

 

 19.  Stephen Crane, “The Blue Hotel,” 1720-39.

 

 20.  Jack London, "How to Build a Fire," 1743-1754.

 

 21. “American Literature Between the Wars, 1914-1945," 1799-1811.

 

 22.   Robert Frost, “Mending Wall,” “The Road Not Taken,” “Stopping by Woods,”

        “Desert Places,” “Design.”

 

 23.   William Carlos Williams, “1919-1931.

 

 24.   Langston Hughes, 2224-2230.

 

 25.   Ernest Hemingway, “The Snows of Kilimanjaro,” 2005-2223..

 

26. “American Prose Since 1945," 2261-2271.

 

27.  Grace Paley, "A Conversation with my Father, " 2386-90.

 

28.  Raymond Carver, "Cathedral," 2488-2498.

 

29.  Robert Lowell, 2655-59.

 

30.  Li-Young Lee, selected poems.