•                     A topic becomes a critical argument when stated as an interpretation that must be proven to be accepted.  Not all such statements make good arguments.  For example, to say, “Whitman is the greatest American poet” would not work well for a 4 or 5-page paper.  The remark is largely a matter of opinion; to form it into an argument would require a lengthy clarification of what is meant by “greatest poet” and a comparison to a very large number of other poets, both before Whitman and after.  A better way to approach Whitman might be to say, “Whitman uses catalog technique to establish relations between seemingly unrelated items and therefore creates meanings not directly stated.”  This is a more limited statement; it can be argued by using one poem, “Song of Myself”; and it can be shown by using a few examples only.  We can glimpse Whitman’s “greatness” by your focus on something a reader can grasp relatively quickly, and we can learn things about Whitman’s verse that we might not see the first time we read it.

 

•                     Citations to sources must be precise in order to guide your reader and to preserve your integrity as a writer of original material.  The method we use in English classes, the MLA (Modern Language Association) parenthetical style, requires a two-part citation procedure: 1.  internal reference; 2. full bibliographic entry in a list of sources entitled Works Cited.  If you quote or refer to a passage by the Spanish author Antonio de Otermín, you would first indicate internally in the body of your paper a shorthand reference to your source: 

 

                        One European writer expresses the brutality of the Spanish in simple language: “seeing that they [the Indians] were being set afire and that they would be burned to death, those who remained alive surrendered. . . .  The deaths . . . exceeded three hundred Indians” (Otermín 202).

 

This internal reference tells your reader that the precise words in quotation marks can be found on page 202 of a bibliographic entry listed alphabetically in the back of the paper under the name Otermín.  Under Works Cited, then, your reader would find this listing:

 

Otermín, Antonio de.  “Letter on the Pueblo Revolt of 1680.”  Heath Anthology of American Literature.  5^th ed.  Ed. Paul Lauter, et al.  Vol. A.  Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2002.  196-203.

 

Therefore, every use of a source other than your own thinking and common knowledge should be indicated by an internal reference that identifies author and page and full listing of the whole source under Works Cited.  This includes Internet sources or those from electronic databases such as JStor, Expanded Academic Index, and Project Muse.

 

•                     Papers are due on the scheduled date.  Essays received after that date are subject to penalty or may, if excessively late, be refused.  Therefore, preparing a paper in advance is crucial.  Use your time wisely to brainstorm, draft, and revise your paper well before the due date.  Grades will be assessed based on the quality of the argument, the accuracy of examples and citations, and the overall proficiency in writing.  If writing formal papers has been a problem in the past or you are struggling, you can either talk with me outside of class or visit Writing Tutorial Services in BAL 311.  Best to call them first (x4013) for an appointment.

 

3. Attendance is important: chronic absence (over 3) or lateness will lead to loss of discussion grade and further penalties.

 

4.  Critical Reading Notebook is a structured exercise in which you record your own thought on works before we actually discuss the texts.  Each entry should identify an interpretive problem and respond to that problem in one or two developed paragraphs–about one page, double-spaced.  Grades will be assigned on depth of thought and degree of challenge you set out for yourself.  For example, Edwards’s “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” and how he seems to damn souls in such literary language might puzzle you.  Your paragraph would attempt to make sense of that, or suggest the problems with such a rhetorical strategy.

 

The notebook gives you the opportunity to take risks with interpretation.  If you write something down shortly after reading a text, you are more likely to remember the work and develop ideas about it.  My hope is that students who have written a Blackboard entry on a work will be the most active in class discussion and share perspectives.  A good entry will usually amount to a full paragraph, not just one or two fragments.  By isolating a problem– something that troubles you, or does not make sense–you are teaching yourself about how to figure it out, but you are also taking the first step toward writing a paper.  Indeed, you can use entries as beginning points toward a formal essay.  If you put it off until just before it is due, the comments will be of limited value; if you space out entries and do them before class, they will make more sense.  The point is not to be right but to think; you can even add a comment later if you decide in class that you changed your mind or learned something that you had not thought of before. 

 

5.  Class Discussion includes comments made in class and on Blackboard  that advance our understanding of a text.  In both cases, I will pose questions or problems, but in neither case are you limited to simply that starting point.  On Blackboard, class members may respond to a prompt by offering thoughtful responses, posing other questions for the class, or adding comments (courteous) to other class responses.  The goal is a lively out-of-class discussion that will help everyone learn something about class material.  I expect everyone to participate on Blackboard at least once before each quiz day, and I will look at the quality of participation in determining discussion grade.

 

The class works best when people arrive on time, are prepared, remain for the whole class period, and actively participate in discussion.  For the latter, a well-phrased question can be as provocative and useful as an actual interpretive remark.  Sometimes, a good question can lead to some additional lecture that will help fill out information that we need to answer the question.  All of this depends on courtesy and respect for each other.  Please mute cell phones before class begins–and please do not leave in the middle of class: ringing phones and noisy departures disrupt class discussion.

 

6.  Quizzes and exams test both recall and ability to interpret and compare.  The quizzes will ask you to answer limited questions; for instance, a question might include a quotation, ask you to identify where it comes from and what it signifies.  The midterm and final are essay only and will ask you to discuss several works together under a common theme.  Studying for quizzes amounts to keeping up with reading (including introductions in the textbooks) and lecture notes; studying for exams involves looking for ideas or themes that link works together.  If something is repeated in two or three classes, chances are that is something to think about as a potential test question.

 

7.  Contact me if you have difficulties or you want help understanding material.  E-mail is fine for many things; conferences can be arranged if needed.

CLASS SCHEDULE                                                                                      

 

Note: Readings and other assignments are to be completed by the date on the syllabus.  Page numbers follow titles.  Curved brackets {} indicate required reading that cannot be used for notebook entries.

 

8/30            Introduction: “American,” “Literature,” Content, Methodology

 

I.  LITERATURE TO 1800

            A.  NATIVE AMERICAN CULTURE AND EUROPEAN SETTLEMENT TO 1700

9/1       Pre-colonial and Colonial America

                        {Colonial Period: to 1700, 1-}

            Native American Oral Literatures

                        {Native American Oral Literatures, 16-, and Narrative, 19-}

                        Zuni, “Talk Concerning the First Beginning,” 22-

                        Tlingit, “Raven and Marriage,” 59-

                        Seneca, “The Origin of Stories,” 51-

—

6          New Spain

                        Columbus, Journal and Narrative (sel.), 119-

                        Perez de Villagrá, History of New Mexico (sel.), 159-

                        Hopi, “The Coming of the Spanish,” 203-

 

8          The Chesapeake and American Creoles

QUIZ 1 (First class through today’s reading); 1^st BLACKBOARD COMMENT due

                        Smith, Generall Historie (sel.), Book III, chs. 2 and 8, 255-

                        Frethorne, letters, 270-

                        Revel, “Poor, Unhappy, Transported Felon,” 280-

                        Cook, “The Sot-Weed Factor,” 723-           

—

13        New England

                        Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation (sel.), 324-

                        Morton, New English Canaan (sel.), 294-

 

15        Puritan Poetics

Bradstreet, all selections, 394-

                        Taylor, “Meditation 26” (Second Series), 456-           

—

20             Captivity Narrative

                        Rowlandson, Narrative of the Captivity, 437-

 

B.  THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

 

22        QUIZ 2 (Bradford through Edwards). 2^nd BLACKBOARD COMMENT due

A Great Awakening

                        Edwards, A Faithful Narrative (sel.), 645-; “Personal Narrative”       

—

27        Many Muses

Wright, “To Elizabeth Norris,” “On the Benefit of Labour,” “My own Birth Day,” 741-

                        Lewis, “A Journey from Patapsko,” 748-

                        Dawson, “The Wager,” 758-

                        Stockton, “A Poetical Epistle,” “The Vision,” 771-

                        Warren, “To Fidelio,” 890-

                        Anon., “Rights of Woman,” 1063-

 

29             Revolution and Nationalism

                        Crèvecoeur, Letters from an American Farmer (sel.), 921-    

—

10/4            “American” Lives

                        Occom, A Short Narrative of My Life, 1115-

                        Wheatley, “To the Right Honourable,” “On Being Brought,” “To the University,”

                                    “Philis’s Reply,” Letter to Occom, 1238-

 

6          FIRST 5 ENTRIES FOR CRITICAL READING NOTEBOOK DUE

            Franklin, Autobiography, Parts 1 and 2, 804-

—

11        NO CLASS.  FALL BREAK.

 

13        QUIZ 3 (Wright through Murray); 3^rd BLACKBOARD COMMENT due

Post-War Culture: The Drama

                        Tyler, The Contrast, 1257-.

                        Murray, “Occasional Epilogue,” 1185-

—

18             MIDTERM EXAM.  Bring bluebooks

 

II.  LITERATURE 1800-1860

 

20                    {Early Nineteenth Century, 1389-}

            Native Americans and Print Culture

                        {Native America, 1420-}

                        Apess, “An Indian’s Looking-Glass for the Whites,” 1459-

                        Quinney, “Quinney’s Speech,” 1465-

                        Schoolcraft, “Mishosha,” 1422-

—

25        PAPER 1 (on topic from Section I) due

Romantic Nature

                        Sigourney, “The Indian’s Welcome,” “Indian Names,” “Niagara,” 1561-

                        Bryant, “Thanatopsis,” “The Prairies,” 2886-

                        Irving, “Rip Van Winkle,” 2143-

 

27                    Emerson, Nature, 1578-

—

11/1                 Thoreau, Walden (sel.), 1735-

 

3          QUIZ 4 (Apess through today’s reading); 4^th BLACKBOARD COMMENT due

            Dark Romance

                        Poe, “Ligeia,” “Fall of the House of Usher,” 2459-  

—

8                      Poe, “Man of the Crowd,” “Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar,” “Raven”

 

10                    Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, chs. 1-12, 2242-

__

15                    Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, chs. 13-end

 

17        QUIZ 5 (Poe through Melville); 5^th BLACKBOARD COMMENT due

            Melville, “Bartleby the Scrivener,” “The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus

                        of Maids,” 2621- 

__

22        The Slave Question

                        Walker, Appeal (sel.), 1826-

                        Harper, “The Slave Mother,” 1997-

                        Douglass, “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” 1879-

           

24        NO CLASS.  THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY.

—

29             Abolition and Resistance

                        Thoreau, “A Plea for Captain Brown,” 1787-

                        Douglass, Narrative of the Life, 1882-

 

12/1            Slavery and the Literary Imagination

                        Melville, Benito Cereno, 2669-

—

6          PAPER 2 (on topic from Section II) due

The Woman Question

                        Fuller, Woman in the Nineteenth Century (sel.), 1692-

                        Child, Letters from New York, no. 34 [50, 51], 1842-

                        Fern, “The Working Girls of New York,” 2100-

 

8          LAST 5 ENTRIES FOR CRITICAL READING NOTEBOOK DUE

QUIZ 6 (Walker through today’s reading); 6^th BLACKBOARD COMMENT due

            An American Bard

                        Whitman, “Song of Myself,” 2920-

___

13        FINAL EXAM, 12:30-3:30. [Tuesday] Bring bluebooks.