English 305-01
Survey—American
Literature
Bro. Tom Wendorf, S.M.
229-4038 (office)
E-mail: Thomas.Wendorf@notes.udayton.edu
Office Hours: Wednesday and Friday, 11-2; Thursday 2-4; and
by appointment.
Required Texts:
Baym, Nina, et al., The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Shorter Sixth Edition
Class handouts
Course Description: This course will focus on the literature of the American people from the Colonial period to the recent past. We will pay particular attention to the ways literary works both respond to and shape their historical and literary moments and “American” identity; how they reflect their authors’ connections with an historical and literary past; and how they relate to contemporary American culture in the 21st century. We will periodically raise questions about the American literary canon and how it is determined over time, including in this course. Amid this great sweep of literary history, we will still give as much careful attention as possible to the written works at hand.
Objectives: Upon completion of this course, you should have demonstrated your abilities to:
· identify and describe the major periods and developments in American literary history.
· understand the significance of each author in American literary history.
· analyze and synthesize the literary/aesthetic, historical, psychological, and religious concerns reflected in the works of these authors (in other words, trace connections and identify differences and developments among various authors in relation to these concerns).
· develop skills in reading and analyzing literature.
· employ various methods of criticism.
· write critical essays on the works of several authors.
· relate issues raised in the literature to each author’s historical moment, to his or her past, and to concerns of our own age.
· debate the selection of authors to the American canon and discuss the value and provisional nature of literary canons.
· argue for the inclusion of a particular author in the canon of American literature and situate that author, through research, in the American literary scene.
Evaluation: Daily Work 40%
(including regular attendance, homework, quizzes, and in-class writing)
Tests (three, including final exam): 40%
Semester Research Project: 20%
Class Guidelines:
Our American Literature Survey course will involve all of us as readers, thinkers, and writers. I expect your regular preparation and engagement. Since they are completely timely, quizzes and in-class writing missed because of absence cannot be made up. Basically such work, as well as homework, is worth 10 points a shot, and at the end of the term I add up all these assignments to calculate your “Daily Work” grade. At the end of the semester I will drop one assignment or your lowest quiz grade to account for a bad day. The goal here is for you to read well and be prepared for class regularly. In fact, if you’re reading well right now, you can earn five extra points immediately. Just e-mail me anytime before our second class this Friday with the subject line “Critical Reading” to say you’ve read the syllabus carefully, and you’ll receive the extra points. Attentive reading will help keep you on your toes in this class. Your contribution to class discussion will also be a helpful factor in the end. All tests and all parts of the research project must be completed in order to fulfill the basic requirements of the course, and all assignments must be turned in on time—during class on the due date (you need to make special arrangements with me ahead of time for the rare exception). I am available for help during office hours and at other times by appointment—if at any time during the semester you want to talk with me about what we are studying or about other concerns, feel free to see me. You can also contact me by e-mail.
Course Schedule (subject to adjustments as needed):
Wednesday, August 27
Introduction
Friday, August 29
“Literature to 1700”
Flannery O’Connor, “Fiction Is a Subject with a History—It Should Be Taught That Way”
Monday, September 1
Labor Day—No Classes
Wednesday, September 3
William
Bradford, “Of
John Winthrop, “A Model of Christian Charity”—Part II (103-105)
Selections from The Journal of John Winthrop (106-114)
Anne Bradstreet (all)
Friday, September 5
“American Literature 1700-1820”
Jonathan Edwards, “Personal Narrative,” “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”
Monday, September 8
Benjamin
Franklin, “The Way to Wealth,” “Remarks Concerning the
Savages of
Introduction to Autobiography (231); “Autobiography Part Two” (276-292)
Wednesday, September 10
Thomas Paine, “Common Sense”
Thomas Jefferson (all)
Friday, September 12
Continue with Literature and the Enlightenment
Monday, September 15
TEST #1
Wednesday, September 17
“American Literature 1820-1865”
Preliminary
Selection of Two American Authors for Research Project Due
Friday, September 19
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature
Emerson and Transcendentalism
Monday, September 22
Emerson, “
Wednesday, September 24
Henry David Thoreau, “Resistance to Civil Government”;
“Where I Lived, and What I Lived For” (Walden, Chapter 2)
Annie Dillard, “Heaven and Earth in Jest”—handout
Friday, September 26
Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Young Goodman Brown” and “Rappaccini’s Daughter”
Monday, September 29
Wednesday, October 1
Edgar Allan Poe, “Sonnet—To Science” and “The Fall of the House of Usher”
Friday, October 3
Abraham Lincoln (all) and Harriet Jacobs (all)
Monday, October 6
Walt Whitman, “Preface” to Leaves of Grass, “Spontaneous Me”;
Song of Myself (1881 edition), sections 1-24 and 49-52.
Wednesday, October 8
Walt Whitman, “The
Wound-Dresser”; “Reconciliation”; “As I Ebb’d
with the
Friday, October 10
Emily Dickinson (all)
Monday, October 13
Herman Melville, “Bartleby, the Scrivener”
Wednesday, October 15
TEST #2—LITERATURE 1820-1865
Friday, October 17
“American Literature 1865-1914”
Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Chapters I-VII.
Monday, October 20
Twain, Huckleberry
Finn, Chapters VIII-XIX
Wednesday, October 22 (MIDTERM)
Twain, Huckleberry Finn, Chapters XX-XXIX
Friday, October 24
Twain, Huckleberry Finn, finish the novel
Monday, October 27
Henry James, “Daisy Miller”
Wednesday, October 29
Kate Chopin “At the ‘Cadian Ball” and “The Storm”
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “The Yellow Wall-Paper”
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY ON AN AMERICAN AUTHOR DUE
Friday, October 31
Stephen Crane, “The Open Boat” and poetry selections (handout)
Monday, November 3
Jack London, “To Build a Fire”
Wednesday, November 5
“American Literature Between the Wars”
Friday, November 7
Robert Frost (all), including “The Figure a Poem Makes”
Monday, November 10
F. Scott
Fitzgerald, “
Wednesday, November 12
William Faulkner, “A Rose for Emily”; “That Evening Sun”
Friday, November 14
Ernest Hemingway, “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”
Monday, November 17
Langston Hughes (all)
Countee
Cullen (all)
Wednesday, November 19
Eugene O’Neill, Long Day’s Journey into Night
Friday, November 21
Eugene
O’Neill, Long Day’s Journey into Night
RESEARCH PROJECT DUE
Monday, November 24
O’Neill, Long Day’s Journey into Night
Wednesday, November 26}
Friday, November 28
} Thanksgiving Break—No Classes
Monday, December 1
O’Neill, Long Day’s Journey into Night
Wednesday, December 3
Flannery O’Connor, “Good Country People”
Friday, December 5
Toni Morrison, “Recitatif”
Monday, December 8—Feast of the Immaculate Conception—No Classes
Wednesday, December 10
Wrap-up
Last Day of Class!
Monday, December 15
FINAL EXAM