American Literature Survey, ENG 342 Fall 1998
Dr. Gerlach
Office: Rhodes Tower 1810.
Office hours: Monday, Wednesday, Friday 11-11:50;
Monday 5-6.
Phone: 216-687-3973. On days when I'm not on campus
I try to check my messages in the late afternoon.
Texts:
Norton Anthology of American Literature,
Shorter Fourth Edition.
I also recommend that you own a hardback college
dictionary, a Bible (any translation), and a Freshman
handbook such as Allyn & Bacon.
Prerequisites: completion of Freshman English.
| Goals: |
|---|
|
Note: I try to give complete directions in this syllabus. Before asking me questions about assignments, please review what I've said here, and then ask about the parts that aren't clear to you.
The quizzes will be given after lecture/discussion, and will consist of questions that need only short answers, passages for identification (identify the author and comment), identifications of authors of specific texts, and author identifications based on a cluster of information from the introductions. There will be seven quizzes, and your best five will count. Quizzes may include material assigned on the day the quiz is given. There are no makeups; if you take fewer than five quizzes, missed quizzes will count as zero.
Research Journal (two or more typed pages) This journal reflects your search of secondary material (books or articles about an author or theme) related to something on the syllabus. Starting with the bibliography at the back of your text, as well as Scholar at the library (including the MLA database), read a total of about 50 pages of material from at least two sources (books or articles). Begin your journal by explaining why you were interested in further research on the author you have chosen, and what you might hope to find. Then explain what you do actually find during your research, and what further questions those discoveries raise for you. At the end, attach a bibliography, indicating the author and title book(s) or articles you are using, and the pages you read. Remember that the downtown Cleveland Public Library (E. 6 and Superior) is an outstanding resource. Start early on the project, and remember that you can use Ohio Link or Interlibrary loan to find resources CSU does not have. Your grade will be based on the quality of your sources, your ability to define an interesting and workable question to research, and your resourcefulness in finding the answer to your initial question, or redirecting that question after your reading. (An example of a good research question: what kind of difficulties did Phillis Wheatley face in becoming the first published black poet?) Please follow the directions for this assignment carefully. The journal is due on Nov. 30.
Take-home examinations: Instructions will distributed with the examinations. I'll set 3 typed double-spaced pages as the minimum; you may write as much more than that as you wish.
For all written assignments the quality of your writing matters.
| Grading: |
|---|
| Quizzes: 5 at up to 8 points each = 40 maximum |
| Examinations : 2 at 50 points each = 100 maximum; the second exam deals with material studied since the first examination, but you are encouraged to see connections to the first half of the course. |
| Research Journal: 25 points |
| Attendance: 35 points maximum: 1 point each day. Since there are 39 meetings you can skip four days without losing points. If you come in after I've taken the roll, it's your responsibility to check with me after class to see if you've been counted present. If you leave early, I cancel the point unless you've spoken to me at the beginning of class and have my permission to leave. |
| 200 maximum points for the course. |
You need to attend steadily--there are no makeups for missed attendance. If you have worked and attended steadily, and then circumstances beyond your control interfere with attendance after the drop deadline, speak to me about an incomplete grade.
Note: the individual introductions to authors are important; please read them even though they are not always listed on the schedule.
Aug 31 Frost's "Gift Outright" and Brooks' "kitchenette building." Not used for any examination.
Sept 2 Columbus 8-15; Cabeza de Vaca 14-26; Native American creation stories, 26-34. Bible: Genesis, chapters 1 through 3.
Sept 4 Literature to 1860, 1-8; Bradford 96-100; Winthrop 111(start at the top)-112 (designed to focus on the City on the Hill passage). Mary Rowlandson 139-156.
Sept 7 Holiday (Labor Day)
Sept 9 Anne Bradstreet, Prologue 120-121, poems and letters, 127-139; Edward Taylor, 156-166.
Sept 11 Ben Franklin, 211-213; 219-222 (Remarks Concerning Savages); 224-225, letter to Stiles; Autobiography 232 (start at the bottom) to 249 (end at the bottom); 269-270; 277 middle to 286.
Sept 14 Crevecoeur, 308-322; Jefferson 337-345. Quiz 1
Sept 16 Olaudah Equiano 354-365; Phillis Wheatley 371-384.
Sept 18 Washington Irving, 399-413; James Fenimore Cooper, 413-421. Within the next few days, read Essay on American literature 385-399.
Sept 21 Emerson, Divinity 480-492: Poet, 509-523; letter to Carlyle 544-545; 540, "The Rhodora." <
Sept 23 Hawthorne, My Kinsman 552-563; Wakefield 592-598.
Sept 25 Poe, Raven 648-651; Philosophy of Composition, 714-721. Quiz 2 Sept 28 Harriet Beecher Stowe and Harriet Jacobs, 736-768.
Sept 30 Henry Thoreau, selections from Walden, 830-839; 845-858; section on the sandbank, 869-871; 876-884.
Oct 2 Frederick Douglass, 884-916.
Oct 5 Walt Whitman: read 2 pages of the 1855 Preface (922-926, an arbitrary point to stop). Emerson's letter to Whitman 546-547. The first 11 sections of "Song of Myself," 936-943; poems on 985-992; 1004-1008.
Oct 7 Emily Dickinson, 1123-1129. Poems numbered 131, 216, 303, 348, 465, 501, 640, 712, 754, 1463: use your dictionary!
Oct 9 Clemens, 1191-1194; Huckleberry Finn 1202-1220; chapter 11: 1234-39; 1247-54 (Huck and Jim on the raft); 67-73 (the Grangerfords). Midterm take-home exam distributed. Quiz 3
Oct 12 Holiday (Columbus Day). During the week read 1181-1191. No class. Start working on your research journal.
Oct 14 Continue with Huckleberry Finn: 1280-81 (the dawn), 1295-98 (Sherburn and Boggs); 1301-05; Start Henry James, Daisy Miller 1421-1442 (end of section II).
Oct 16 No class; time to prepare for first exam
Oct 19 Finish Daisy Miller, to 1462. First Exam due
Oct 21 Kate Chopin 1539-1550; Charlotte Perkins Gilman 1569-1582.
Oct 23 W.D. Howells 1395--1406; Stephen Crane 1607-1609, 1626-1645. Last day to drop the course. Quiz 4
Oct 26 Booker T. Washington 1560-69; W.E.B. Du Bois 1597- 1607; Charlot 1415-18; Bonnin (Zitkala Sa) 1686-1688 (chap 1, My Mother), 1696-98 (VII Big Red Apples).
Oct 28 Black Elk 1721-1728; Henry Adams 1698-1708. Read within a week: 1709-1720.
Oct 30 Willa Cather 1733-55; Robert Frost 1762-63 plus poems: "Mending Wall," "After Apple-Picking," "Birches," "Nothing Gold Can Stay," "Design."
Nov 2 T.S. Eliot 1867-69; 1874-90 (Waste Land, Tradition)
Nov 4 William Carlos Williams 1818-1830
Nov 6 Wallace Stevens 1797-1813. Review instructions for the Research Journal and begin working on it. Quiz 5
Nov 9 Zora Neale Hurston 1982-1915; Langston Hughes 2098-2104.
Nov 11 Veteran's Day, no class
Nov 13 Eugene O'Neill 1898-1973.<
Nov 16 Eugene O'Neill, continued. Nov 18 Faulkner 2030-32; 2050-2062 (Barn Burning); Hemingway 2062-2080. Nov 20 Eudora Welty 2144-2154; Flannery O'Connor 2269-2283. Sometime soon read he introduction on prose 2135-2144. Nov 23 Norman Mailer 2244-2255; James Baldwin 2256-2268. Quiz 6
Nov 25 N. Scott Momaday 2325-2336; Louise Erdrich 2413-2422; Maxine Hong Kingston 2365-2374. Nov 27 Thanksgiving Holiday
Nov 30 Robert Lowell 2488-2501; Sylvia Plath 2606-2615. Research Journal is due. Sometime during the week read the poetry introduction, 2423-2431.
Dec 2 Alan Ginsberg 2557-67; Robert Creeley 2550-2557.
Dec 4 Levertov 2526-2532; Adrienne Rich 2585-2602; Alice Walker 2375-2382
Dec 7 Ann Beattie 2382-2394; Bobbie Ann Mason 2356-2365. Second examination distributed.
Dec 8 Because of a quirk in university scheduling, we may have a class this day. More about this later!
Dec 9 Selected poems by a variety of poets: page numbers indicate
only the beginning of the introductions to these writers:
Elizabeth Bishop 2451, "The Fish";
Ammons 2532 "Corson's Inlet";
James Wright 2580 "A Blessing"; "A Finch Sitting";
Rita Dove 2639, "The Event"; "Straw Hat";
Alberto Rios 2647; "Seniors";
Li Young Lee 2658 "Persimmons";
Native American Night Chant 1671, then 1674-1677
("Dance of the Thunderbirds").
Quiz 7
Dec 11 As far as I can tell, we do not have a class on this day
Dec 14 Your second examination is due in my office by 2pm. (Dec 14 is the regularly scheduled day for Block VIII examinations).
[filing notes: 342 syl 98 fall, home: courses]