AMST100a FALL 2017
GENERAL INFORMATION
CLASSIC TEXTS IN AMERICAN CULTURE THROUGH 1900
Instructor: Thomas Doherty
Office: 315 Brown; phone: 63032; email:
Office Hours: TF 10:00-12:30 or by appointment.
COURSE GOALS: The purpose of this class is twofold: 1) to acquaint you with the literary and cultural traditions of America in the years through 1900; and 2) to provide you with some useful ways to think critically about these traditions.You will demonstrate your progress towards these goals in two critiques, two comprehensive but noncumulative exams, and class discussions. As a general rule of thumb, success in this 4 credit hour course is based on the expectation that students will spend a minimum of 9 hours of study time per week in preparation for class-- readings, papers, study for exams, etc.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS: The minimum requirements are: two critical papers (45 pages each, due on OCT 10thand NOV 17th respectively), a midterm and a final exam (noncumulative), and active awareness. The two essays and the exams are occasions to demonstrate a critical insight into the aesthetic quality, historical meaning, and cultural significance of the American tradition through 1900.
GRADING: Critique #1: 20%; Critique #2: 20%; Midterm: 20%; Final: 30%; Active Awareness: 10%. After having completed the two required papers, you have the option to do an extra, third critique due no later than the beginning of class on DEC 8th. The grade for this paper may be substituted for your lowest previous paper grade. An "Incomplete" grade for the class can be negotiated only in advance and only in the most extreme cases. Finally, a word on active awareness: because AMST100a is a seminar class, your alert attendance and participatory spirit are essential. Leave your cellphones, smartphones, blackberries, laptops, food, and beverages at home.
DISABILITY AND ILLNESSES: Every reasonable attempt will be made to insure the full participation of every student in this class. If you are a student with a documented disability at Brandeis University and wish to have a reasonable accommodation made for you in this class, please see me immediately. Please keep in mind that reasonable accommodations cannot be provided retroactively. Should a problem arise in the course of the semester, such as illness or family emergency, inform me of it as soon as possible.
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: You are expected to be honest in all of your academic work. The university policy on academic honesty is distributed annually in the Rights and Responsibilities handbook. Instances of alleged dishonesty will be forwarded to the Office of Campus Life for referral to the Student Judicial System. Potential sanctions include failure in the course and suspension from the University. If you have any questions about any of this, please ask.
AMST100A FALL 2017
CLASSIC TEXTS IN AMERICAN CULTURE THROUGH 1900
REQUIRED TEXTS:
The Norton Anthology of American Literature 1820-1865 (8th Edition), Vol. A&B
Nathaniel Philbrick, In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex
Harold Holzer, Lincoln at Cooper Union: The Speech That Made Lincoln President
COURSE SCHEDULE:
[Note that in addition to the readings below, you are responsible for the relevant introductions and biographical sketches]
SEPT 1 What Makes a “Classic American” Text?
SEPT 5 Men of God, Men of Gold:
Cabeza de Vaca (43-51) and John Smith (81-99)
SEPT 8
12 Puritanism and Its Discontents:
William Bradford (121-156), Thomas Morton (157-165),and John Winthrop (165- 186)
SEPT 15
19 The Indian Captivity Narrative:
Mary Rowlandson (256-288)
SEPT 26 The Salem Witch Trials:
Cotton Mather (256-288)
SEPT 29 The Great Awakening:
Jonathan Edwards (396-441)
OCT 6
&10 The Self-Made Man:
Benjamin Franklin (455-596)
OCT 10 *FIRST CRITIQUE DUE*
OCT 13 The Slave Narrative
Olaudah Equiano (687-721)
OCT 17 A Decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind
Thomas Paine (639-659); Thomas Jefferson (659-677), andThe Federalist Papers (No. 1 and 10) (677-686)
OCT 20 What then is the American, this new man?
St.Jean De Crevecoeur (604-625)
OCT 24 *MIDTERM EXAM*
OCT 27 Creating a Usable Past:
Washington Irving (25-62)
James Fennimore Cooper (62-86)
OCT 31 The Great Mutant of American Literature:
Edgar Allan Poe (644-653; 667-680;714-719)
NOV 3 Transcendentalism:
Ralph Waldo Emerson (211-256) and Margaret Fuller (740-786)
NOV 7 Exploring the other Frontier:
Philbrick, In the Heart of the Sea
NOV 10 The Puritan Past:
Nathaniel Hawthorne (369-386; 401-409)
NOV 14
17 The Counter Culture:
Henry David Thoreau (961-1155)
NOV 17 *SECOND CRITIQUE DUE*
NOV 21 The Artist as Philosopher (I):
Herman Melville (1483-1509; 1526-1582)
NOV 28 The Artist as Philosopher (II):
Emily Dickinson (1659-1704)
DEC 1 Gender, Genre, and the Slave Narrative:
Frederick Douglass (1170-1239) and
Harriet Jacobs (920-942)
DEC 5 The Great Emancipator
Harold Holzer’s Lincoln at Cooper Union
DEC 8 Democratic Vistas and the Brooklyn Bridge (to the 20th Century)
Walt Whitman (1310-1424)
Ken Burns, Brooklyn Bridge (1981)
DEC 8 *OPTIONAL THIRD CRITIQUE DUE*
DEC 18 *FINAL EXAM at1:30-4:30pm