English 320: American Literature
I
Fall
2008
Dr. Sonya Lancaster
2:00-2:50
MWF
Office: 2111 Wescoe (864-2515)
4019 Wescoe Mailbox:
2108 Wescoe
e-mail:
sonyal@ku.edu
Office Hours: 3:00-4:00 MWF
and by appointment
Course Description: This course is an introduction to
American Literature from the Colonial Period to the Civil War. We will
read from the major genres of the period: stories, tales, poetry, history,
letters, autobiography, travel literature, captivity and slave narratives, etc.
Students will be involved in the process of syllabus formation and have a
chance to both choose texts for class reading and prepare texts for class
discussion. Students should expect to do quite a bit of reading and
writing in this course. The literature of this time period presents a
unique opportunity to inquire in to issues of identity, nationality, power
relations, conflicts among groups of people, and other issues that concern the
many people who encountered each other during this time and in this
place. Students will be expected to develop interesting questions for us
to explore as we work through the literature. Often the questions are
most interesting when they reveal the complexity of a situation and cannot
readily be answered. Together we ask questions and practice critical
analysis. Students should expect to think deeply and broadly, and to
discuss quite often with classmates in class.
Admission
to English courses numbered 300 and above is limited to students who have
completed the freshman-sophomore English requirements or their equivalents.
The
Department of English reserves the right to terminate administratively the
enrollment of any student who misses two consecutive class meetings during the
first two weeks of the semester. Should an emergency situation cause the
student to miss two consecutive class meetings, the student should contact the
instructor(s) or the English Department, 864-4520, immediately. Students are
expected to submit promptly requests to drop should they decide to disenroll from English classes.
Course Goals:
By the end of English 320,
students should be able to do the following:
Demonstrate broad background
knowledge of American literature from the Colonial period to 1865
- Contextualize a text generically and historically/culturally
- Inquire into individual and cultural issues explored in these
literary texts
- Engage confidently in scholarly conversations about texts
Closely engage literary texts
- Demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of a text's rhetorical
situation
- Respond to literature through different writing genres appropriate
to the study of English
Required Text:
The Heath Anthology of American
Literature,
Volume One A and B (5th Edition)
Recommended Text:
Lunsford,
Andrea. The Everyday Writer or
Faigley, Lester. The Brief Penguin Handbook.
Evaluation:
Paper 1:
25%
Final Exam: 20%
Paper 2:
25%
Participation:
10%
In-Class
Writings:
10%
Discussion
Preparation Writings: 10%
In this course we will be using
the new +/- grading scale, approved by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
to describe intermediate levels of performance between a maximum of A and a minimum of F. Intermediate grades represented
by plus or minus shall be calculated as .3 units above or below the
corresponding letter grade.
Papers: Students will write two 6-9 page
papers, one that is based on inquiry and one that requires close engagement
with a text or texts. Students are encouraged to come up with their own paper
topics within the parameters of the assignment. Students should clear
topics with me before they begin writing, and we will have conferences to
discuss the inquiry paper. The papers will be due by 5:00 pm in my office
on the day that is indicated on the schedule. Late papers will lose a
letter grade for each day they are late.
In-Class Writings: On most class days, you will
write something at the beginning of class to generate discussion. These
writings will help you to keep up with the reading and will take the place of a
midterm exam, as will the discussion preparation writings discussed below.
Discussion Preparation Writings: About once a week in first half
of the semester, we will have discussions of materials related to the
readings. These discussions are to give you practice with inquiry and
will prepare you to write the first paper. To prepare for these discussions you
will complete an assignment located on Blackboard and bring it with you to
class on the day of discussion.
Participation: On the days that we have
discussion of the readings or materials related to them, one group member
should be assigned to take notes each time, and these notes will be turned in
at the end of the class. Students will either respond to discussion
questions from me or generate discussion questions themselves to answer in the
groups. The participation portion
of your grade will comprise of the quality of your participation in discussion
and attendance.
Final Exam: The final exam will be a take
home final due on the day of the scheduled final (December 19) by 4:00
pm. Questions for the final will be generated from discussion, and I will
give you more information about it as we get closer to
its date.
Attendance: Class participation and
discussion are an important part of this class; therefore, attendance is
essential. What we do in class is important for meeting the course's goals, and
all of our class sessions will depend on your participation in some activities
that will ensure that you understand and perform well on graded
assignments. Therefore, you cannot expect to do well if you do not attend
class. Of course, speak to me if you have a medical or other crisis that will
make you miss several classes or if your absence is for a religious holiday or
University-sponsored event. I give special consideration to attendance
when determining borderline grades.
Academic Dishonesty: Stealing and passing off as your
own someone else's ideas or words, or using information from another's work
without crediting the source, is called "plagiarism." Some
specific examples of actions that constitute plagiarism include pasting
together uncredited information or ideas from the
Internet or published sources, submitting an entire paper written by someone
else, submitting a paper written for another class (and thus not original
work), and copying another student's work (even with the student's permission).
In order to avoid unintentional plagiarism and to represent your work honestly,
you will need to be meticulous about giving credit to any and all sources,
whether directly quoted (even a few words) or paraphrased. Please see
your instructor if you have any questions about documenting sources.
Because
one of the goals of this course is to help you improve your writing, plagiarism
hurts you as much as it does anyone. If you plagiarize another's work,
you will not be receiving the needed feedback to improve your own
writing. There will be a zero tolerance policy for any type of plagiarism
in this class. All incidents of plagiarism will be penalized,
reported, and kept on file in the English Department, the College of Liberal Arts
and Sciences, and the University Provost's Office.
Writing Help: For help with your writing, I
strongly encourage you to contact KU's writing centers, called Writer's
Roosts. At a Writer's Roost you can talk about your writing with trained
tutors or consult reference materials in a comfortable working
environment. You may ask for feedback on your papers, advice and tips on
writing (for all your courses), or for guidance on special writing
tasks. Please check the website at <http://www.writing.ku.edu/students/> for current locations and
hours. The Writing Center welcomes both drop-ins and appointments, and there is
no charge for their services. For more information, please call 864-2399 or
send an e-mail to writing@ku.edu. The website is
loaded with helpful information about writing of all sorts, so even if you
consider yourself a good writer, check it out!
Disabilities Statement: Students with disabilities that
may interfere with completing your course work should consult with me as soon
as possible to discuss accommodating your needs. You should also contact
the Office of Disability Resources in 22 Strong Hall or contact them at
785-864-2620 or consult the website at <http://www.achievement.ku.edu/disability/>.
Important Dates (to be included
in the reading schedule):
8/29
begin Unit I: Colonial Period to 1700
9/1
Labor Day
10/13
begin Unit II: Eighteenth Century
10/17
Fall Break
10/22
first paper due date
11/3
Unit III: Early Nineteenth Century: 1800-1865
11/26-28 Thanksgiving Break
12/8
second paper due date
12/10
last day of class
12/12
Stop Day
12/19
Final exam due 4:00 pm
Schedule of Assignments
(subject to change)
(DPA=
date a Discussion Preparation Assignment is due
Assignments
can be found on Blackboard)
Week 1:
August 22F No Class – look
at assignment on Blackboard and read through syllabus
Week 2:
25M
Introduction to the class; DPA 1 due
27W
distribute reading schedule; paper assignments; DPA 2 due
Unit I: Colonial to
1700
29F
Native American Oral Literatures and Narrative (18-22) "Talk Concerning the First Beginning" (22-36), "Changing
Woman and the Hero Twins" (36-48), "Raven and Marriage" (59-63),
"The Bungling Host" (64-65) and "Creation of the Whites"
(65-66)
Week 3:
Sept.
1M Labor
Day
3W Cluster: American in the European
Imagination (106-12); DPA 3 due
5F
discussion groups – meet at
Spencer Research Library to look at maps; DPA 4 due
Week 4:
8M
Columbus (119-31); de Vaca (139-52); Champlain
(219-24)
10W
Cluster: Cultural Encounters: A Critical Survey (132-38); Pueblo Revolt
(195-207); DPA
5 due
12F
John Smith (255-69); Handsome Lake (802-4)
Week 5:
15M
Bradford Of Plymouth Plantation (324-46)
17W
Morton New English Canaan (294- 307)
19F
discussion groups – creative responses to texts DPA 6 due
Week
6:
22M
Rowlandson A Narrative of Captivity and Restoration (437-68)
24W
John Williams Redeemed Captive Returning to Zion (533-43); Briton Hammon "Narrative of Uncommon Sufferings"
(1137-43)
26F
discussion groups – read Tompkins article on Blackboard; DPA 7 due
Week 7:
29M
Cotton Mather (507-33); Sewall (496-506)
Oct.
1W Increase Mather (readings on Blackboard)
3F
discussion groups – pedagogy; DPA
8 due
Week 8:
6M Bradstreet (394-413)
8W Sor Juana
(186-195)
10F discussion groups; DPA 9 due
Week 9:
Unit II: Eighteenth Century
13M
Knight (584-602)
15W
Crevecoeur (921-59)
17F
Fall Break
Week 10:
20M Jefferson Notes on
the State of Virginia (990-1010)
22W
Franklin Autobiography, Part I (828-76); Paper
1 due date
24F
Franklin Autobiography, Parts II and III (876-90)
Week 11:
27M
Equiano Interesting Narrative (1152-1185)
29W
discussion groups; DPA 10 due
31F
Foster The Coquette (1340-59)
Week 12:
Nov.
3M
Brockden
Brown "Somnambulism" (1373-87)
Unit III: Early Nineteenth
Century, 1800-1865
5W
Emerson "American Scholar" (1609-21) "Self-Reliance"
(1621-38)
7F Thoreau "Walking"
(1803-24)
Week 13:
10M
Douglass Narrative (1879-1945)
12W
Douglass Narrative (1879-1945)
14F
Jacobs Incidents (2029-56); Sojourner Truth (2092-99); Extra Credit DPA due
Week 14:
17M
Irving "Rip Van Winkle" (2153-65), "Sleepy Hollow"
(2165-84)
19W
Hawthorne "Minister's Black Veil" (2267-75), "The Birthmark"
(2276-87), "Rappaccini's Daughter"
(2287-2306)
21F
Poe "Ligeia" (2459-72), "The Black Cat"
(2495-2501), "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar"
(2515-21)
Week 15:
24M Melville "Benito Cereno"
(2669-2726)
26W
Thanksgiving Break
28F
Thanksgiving Break
Week 16:
Dec.
1M Stoddard "Lemorne
vs. Huell" (2823-36)
3W
Whitman "Song of Myself" (2937-82)
5F Dickinson's
selected poems
Week 17:
8M Paper
2 due; Dickinson's selected poems
10W
evaluations and preparation for final exam
Final exam time: Friday, December
19, 1:30-4pm
Mather, Increase. A Further Account of the Tryals of the New-England Witches. and Cases of
Conscience Concerning Witchcraftes adn Evil Spirits Personating Men. 1693. Boston: J. Dunton. EEBO: Early English Books Online. 25 July, 2008.