ENGLISH 338: SURVEY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE I
Section 3
Fall 2008: COB 136, 3:05-4:20, Tuesdays and Thursdays
Course Webpage: http://web.uccs.edu/english338
Dr. Lesley Ginsberg
Office: 1007 Columbine Hall E-Mail:
Office Phone: 262-4004 Mailbox: 1042 Columbine Hall
Office Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays 12:15-1:15, and by appointment.
Course Description:
This course surveys the makings of American literature. From its beginnings in the literatures of European encounters with new world peoples, we will explore the evolution of American literature from the literatures of discovery and the early American writings of the Puritans through the American Romantics with attention to the cultural and social contexts in which all of these literatures were produced. The course includes a survey of Puritan literary forms (the Captivity Narrative, the metaphysical poetry of Bradstreet and Taylor) and touches on Revolutionary and Enlightenment ideas, while reflecting on how these forms and ideas were revised in the post-revolutionary period by such authors as Poe, Hawthorne, Emerson, Thoreau, Apess, Douglass, Whitman and Davis in light of antebellum engagements with questions of race, gender, and class.
Required Texts:
1. The Norton Anthology of American Literature, 7th Ed., Vols. A & B. All readings assigned in the Norton INCLUDE THE HEADNOTES that discuss the life and the work of each author profiled. Always skim them. Additionally, the Norton also includes valuable historical essays as well as timelines, which may be found in A1-16 & A357-367, and B929-950. Refer to these timelines throughout the semester. Available at the Campus Bookstore. It is important that you use the SEVENTH Edition.
2. All HANDOUTS listed in the syllabus; these are attached to your syllabus.
3. The course website is available at http://web.uccs.edu/english338. It provides detailed study questions to aid your reading—please make use of them. I’ll be updating the website regularly; please check it weekly or bi-weekly throughout the semester.
Course Requirements:
The University is regulated with the practice of academic integrity. The ingredients of academic integrity are listed below.
1. Regular Attendance. Each student is allowed a maximum of FIVE absences without penalty. With the SIXTH absence, the grade is lowered by two-thirds of a letter grade (e.g. from B+ to B-). With the SEVENTH absence, the student fails the course. There are no “excused” absences, except under the most extraordinary circumstances. Each day I will pass around an attendance sheet. Always sign in. As with papers, the attendance sheet is governed by the Honor Code policy. Signing the name of someone who is not in class will be treated as plagiarism; both students will fail the course.
2. Timeliness. Although tardiness is sometimes unavoidable, especially as our campus continues to grow, please make every effort to arrive at class on time. Chronic tardiness is disruptive and disrespectful. On the other hand, in cases of unavoidable tardiness, it always better to attend some portion of class rather than to miss a whole class. Please see me if you have concerns about timeliness.
3. Participation in discussions. I ask you to make every effort to come to class, to ask questions, and to take advantage of my office hours (or make appointments).
4. Bring the appropriate volume of the Norton with you to class each and every class.
5. Courtesy. Text Messaging during class, side conversations with your neighbor, accepting non-emergency cell phone calls and/or surfing the web are all examples of discourteous behaviors that impede class discussion and disrupt intellectual experience. Please quiet your cell phones. More importantly, we will be covering difficult and controversial topics in this course—please be courteous to your peers, especially if you disagree with them. Passionate but respectful debate is at the heart of the University experience.
6. Quizzes promote integrity and test reading comprehension and writing skills. They cover all of the assigned readings for the whole week in which they are given. There will be 6 throughout the semester, as indicated on the syllabus. Each is worth 2.5% (for a total of 10%) of your final grade; the lowest two scores will be discarded. There will be no make-ups for the quizzes.
7. One Journal of Discovery/Exploration Entry and In-Class Presentation. Please see attached instructions, or see me if you have questions. This assignment will be worth 10% of your final grade. Please choose the date and topic for this assignment as soon as possible.
8. UCCS has recently obtained a license for the anti-plagiarism software TurnItIn.com. All students are REQUIRED to register and to use it for the two papers that you’ll be writing. Log onto www.turnitin.com, select “New User” in the upper right hand corner; select “student” from the drop-down box. Our Class ID is 2368771; our Class Enrollment Password is english338.
9. One in-class Midterm Exam. The midterm will cover the readings through week seven. Please bring a blue book or several sheets of lined paper stapled together. The Midterm will be worth 20% of your final grade.
10. Two Papers, due as indicated on the syllabus. Paper topics will be posted in a timely manner. Each Paper is worth 20% of your final grade.
11. One Final Exam. It will be an open-book essay test (no notes except what’s in your books; dictionaries OK). The exam will be held as indicated on the syllabus in our regular classroom (COB 136). The Final Exam will be worth 20% of your final grade.
12. Finally, a good sense of humor—while not a requirement per se—is heartily and enthusiastically encouraged!
Grading Policy:
Four Quizzes @ 2.5% each = 10%
One Journal of Discovery/Exploration Entry and In-Class Presentation = 10%
First Paper = 20%
One Midterm Exam = 20%
Second Paper = 20%
One Final Exam = 20%
Please see the “Explanation of Grading Scale in English 338.” Plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty will result in an “F” for the entire course. Read the “Honor Code” section in the Fall 2008 schedule of courses, page 23. Academic integrity will be discussed in the first week of class. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have questions about this important issue.
Other Considerations:
1. All the reading assignments are due on the dates when the readings appear in the syllabus.
2. If you have a disability for which you are requesting an accommodation, please contact the Disability Services Office at 262-3354 or (Main Hall 105) within the first week of classes.
3. If you’re a student athlete or an active member of the military who requires special scheduling accommodations, please let me know about your needs as soon as possible, preferably within the first week of classes. If you are in the military, please see the UCCS military student website for more information: www.uccs.edu/~military.
4. If class is cancelled due to snow or other emergency, please keep up with the reading.
Schedule
Week One
Tues., 26 Aug. When Worlds Collide: The European Discovery of the Americas.
Thurs., 28 Aug. Contexts: Skim Norton A, 1-14; Read “The Iroquois Creation Story” (A 17-21); Christopher Columbus, “Letter…Regarding the First Voyage” & “Letter…Regarding the Fourth Voyage,” (A 31-35); Bartolomé de las Casas, from The Very Brief Relation of the Devastation of the Indies (A 35-39).
Sample Quiz (diagnostic only)
Week Two
Tues., 2 Sept. Holiday, Labor Day.
Thurs., 4 Sept. Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, from The Relation of…Cabeza de Vaca (A 40-48); John Smith, from The General History of Virginia… (A 55-66).
Week Three
Tues., 9 Sept. William Bradford, from “Of Plymouth Plantation” (A 104-105 [headnotes only]; 107-110; 114-123; 126-130; 136-137); Thomas Morton, from New English Canaan (A 138-146—Skim chapter XIV, Read chapter XV, Skim chapter XVI).
Thurs., 12 Sept. John Winthrop, Selections from “A Model of Christian Charity,” and selections from his “Journal” (“Model,” A 147 [whole page] and 156-158, and “Overcoming Satan,” “Charges Made…,” “A Warrant,” “The Case of Anne Hutchinson,” “Charges Brought,” “Hutchinson Banished,” “Hutchinson Delivers a Child,” “Speech to the General Court” 159-167); Edward Taylor, “Huswifery” (A 285-286).
Quiz 1.
Week Four
Tues., 16 Sept. Anne Bradstreet (A 187-188), “The Flesh and the Spirit,” “The Author to Her Book” (A 202-205), “To My Dear and Loving Husband” (A 206), “Here Follows Some Verses upon the Burning of Our House…” (A 212-213); The New-England Primer (A 353-356).
Thurs., 19 Sept. Mary Rowlandson, A Narrative of the Captivity and the Restoration… (A 235-255, including the 18th remove).
Week Five
Tues., 23 Sept. Mary Rowlandson, A Narrative… (A 256-267); Cluster of Primary Texts on Hannah Dustan (A 343-353).
FIRST PAPER DUE.
Thurs., 25 Sept. Cotton Mather, from The Wonders of the Invisible World (A 307-313). Contexts: Skim Norton A, 357-367; Begin Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography (A 449-451, 472-491).
Week Six
Tues., 30 Sept. Finish Franklin, The Autobiography (A 491-518, 522-534).
Thurs., 2 Oct. Thomas Paine, from Common Sense (A 629-637); John and Abigail Adams, J. Sullivan, “Letters 1776” (one page, HANDOUT attached to syllabus).
Quiz 2.
Week Seven
Tues., 7 Oct. Phillis Wheatley, “On Being Brought from Africa to America” (A 751-753); “Letter to Occom” [the natural rights of negroes] (A 763-764).
Thurs., 9 Oct. MIDTERM EXAM
Week Eight
Tues., 14 Oct. Contexts: Skim Norton B 929-950; Washington Irving, “Rip Van
Winkle,” “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (B 951-985).
Thurs., 16 Oct. Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance” (B 1106-1110, 1163-1180).
Week Nine
Tues., 21 Oct. Henry David Thoreau (B 1853-1857), selections from Walden (“Economy,” “Where I Lived…,” “Conclusion” B 1872-1924, 2038-2046).
Thurs., 23 Oct. Lydia Sigourney, “Indian Names” (B 1033-1035); William Cullen Bryant, “The Prairies” (B 1048-1051); William Apess, “An Indian’s Looking-Glass for the White Man” (B 1051-1058).
Quiz 3.
Week Ten
Tues., 28 Oct. * Group One: Read Cluster of Primary Texts on “Native Americans: Removal and Resistance” (B 1252-1271).
* Group Two: Read Cluster on “Slavery, Race, and the Making of American Literature” (B 1682-1698).
Be prepared for small group discussion.
Thurs., 30 Oct. Begin Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life… (B 2060-2094).
Week Eleven
Tues., 4 Nov. Finish Douglass, Narrative of the Life… (B 2094-2129); Read Thomas R. Gray, The Confessions of Nat Turner (HANDOUT attached to your syllabus).
Thurs., 6 Nov. Edgar Allan Poe (B 1528-1532), “The Tell-Tale Heart” (B 1589-
1592), “The Fall of the House of Usher” (B 1553-1565).
Week Twelve
Tues., 11 Nov. Herman Melville, “Benito Cereno” (B 2304-2308, 2045-2430).
Thurs., 13 Nov. Finish Melville, “Benito Cereno” (B 2430-2461).
Quiz 4.
Week Thirteen
Tues., 18 Nov. SECOND PAPER DUE.
Begin Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter (B 1272-1275; 1377-1405).
Thurs., 20 Nov. Continue Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter (B 1405-1450).
Quiz 5.
Week Fourteen
Tues., 20 Nov. Finish Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter (B 1450-1493).
Thurs., 25 Nov. Holiday, Thanksgiving.
Week Fifteen
Tues., 2 Dec. Skim Whitman, preface to Leaves of Grass (“Song of Myself”) (B 2190-2209). READ Whitman, Leaves of Grass (“Song of Myself”) (B 2210-2221).
Thurs., 4 Dec. Whitman, Leaves of Grass (“Song of Myself”) (B 2221-2254).
Quiz 6.
Week Sixteen
Tues., 9 Dec. Rebecca Harding Davis, “Life in the Iron Mills” (B 2597-2625). Be prepared for small group discussion.
Thurs., 11 Dec. Review.
Finals Week
Thurs., 18 Dec. FINAL EXAM: 1:40-4:10.
You may pick up your finals at the English Dept. Office (Columbine 1045) after Christmas.