American Literature 230-01

2010 FALL SEMESTER

Reading Schedule

NOTE: The readings for the first half of the course are
in Vol. 1; for the second half of the course, in Vol. 2.

WEEK ONE
Monday, 8/23

• Introduction

Pre-Colonial to Romantic

Wednesday, 8/25

• Background: Beginnings to 1700 (Native American Oral Lit. 4-5).
• Online: Native American Origin/Creation Tales: "Introduction to Native American Origin Tales," "The Woman Who Fell from the Sky" (Seneca), "Creation" (Hopi).
• Online: Native American Trickster Tales: "Introduction to Native American Trickster Tales," "Great Spirit Names the Animal People" (Okanogan), "Manabozho and the 'Hell-Diver'" (Menomini); modern trickster poem (hand-out)
• Online: Native American Goddess Tales: "Introduction to Native American Goddess Tales," "White Buffalo Woman" (Sioux).
• Online: Native American Revitalist Visions: "Introduction to Native American Revitalist Visions," Handsome Lake's "How Columbus Discovered America" (Iroquois).

Friday, 8/27

• Background: Beginnings to 1700 (Literary Consequences of 1492 7-9; Pilgrim and Puritan 9-11).
• William Bradford, Biography 57-58 (skim); from Of Plymouth Plantation 58-75 (Chap. 9 Of their Voyage; Chap. 10 Showing How They Sought Out a Place; Chap. 11 Remainder of Anno 1620 [Difficult Beginnings; Dealings with the Natives]; Chap. 12 Anno 1628 [The First Thanksgiving]; Chap. 19 Anno 1628 [Mr. Morton of Merrymount]; Chap. 23 Anno 1632 [Prosperity Weakens])
• Short biography of Thomas Morton

WEEK TWO
Monday, 8/30

• Anne Bradstreet, biography 97 (skim); "Prologue" 98-9; "The Author to her Book" 106-7.
• Mary Rowlandson, biography 117-18 (skim); from Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson 118-34.

Wednesday, 9/01

• No class. However, there is a reading and writing assignment.
• Background: American Lit. 1700-1820 (Expanding World 151-3; Enlightenment Ideals 153-4).
• Benjamin Franklin, biography 218-20 (skim); from The Autobiography, Part I, 231-52 and Part II, 280-92.
• Short Write--250+ words, due 9/03. See online Paper Directions.

Friday, 9/03

• Background: American Lit. 1700-1820 (Pursuing Happiness 158-9).
• J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, from Letters from an American Farmer (Letter IX: Charles-Town . . . slavery . . .) 320-24.
• Olaudah Equiano, biography 355-6 (skim); from Interesting Narrative of the Life of . . . 358-68.
• Phillis Wheatley, biography 419-20 (skim); "On Being Brought from Africa" 420-21; "To the Right Honorable William, Earl of Dartmouth ..." 428-9.

WEEK THREE
Monday, 9/06

• LABOR DAY HOLIDAY (no class)

Wednesday, 9/08

• Background: American Literature 1820-1865 (An American Renaissance? 431-2).
• Edgar Allan Poe, "Fall of the House of Usher" 689-701; "The Raven" 675-78.

Friday, 9/10

• Nathaniel Hawthorne, biography 589-92 (skim); "The May-pole of Merry Mount" 615-22.
• PAPER ASSIGNED: Hawthorne's "May-pole" (2+ pp)-- due Wed., 9/13. See online Paper Directions.
• Begin VIDEO: Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Rappaccini's Daughter"; hand-out on "Rappaccini's Daughter."

WEEK FOUR
Monday, 9/13

• VIDEO: Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Rappaccini's Daughter"

Wednesday, 9/15

• Discuss Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Rappaccini's Daughter"
• PAPER #1 DUE

Friday,9/17

• Background: American Lit. 1820-1865 ("Renaissance," Reform, Conflict 440-41).
• Ralph Waldo Emerson, biography 488-92 (skim); from Nature, Introduction 492-93; Chap. 1 Nature 493-95.
• Henry David Thoreau, biography 825-29 (skim); from Walden: from "Economy" 844-47; from "Where I Lived" 886-92.
• William Cullen Bryant, "To a Waterfowl" 479; To Cole the Painter . . . (online).
• Browse Art-Tour: Hudson River Painters (online).

WEEK FIVE
Monday, 9/20

• Walt Whitman, biography 991-95 (skim); "One's-Self I Sing" 1010-11; "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" 1057-62.

Wednesday,9/22

• Emily Dickinson, biography 1197-1200 (skim);
  NATURE: #207 "I taste a liquor" 1203; #291 How the Old Mountains Drip (online); #122 "These are the Days" 1201-2.
  WOMAN REBEL: #409 "Soul Selects" 1212; #508 I'm ceded (online). #269 "Wild Nights" 1205;
  GOTHIC: #355 "It was not Death" 1209; #670 One need not be a chamber (online); #591 "I heard a Fly buzz" 1215.

Friday,9/24

• Background: American Literature 1820-1865 (Reform 442-45).
• Rebecca Harding Davis, "Life in the Iron Mills" 1227-53.

WEEK SIX
Monday, 9/27

• Frederick Douglass, biography 920-23 (skim); from Narrative of the Life of . . . an American Slave, Chap. I, 931-34; Chap. VII, 946-50; Chap. X, 956-75.

Wednesday,9/29

• EXAM

NOTE: The following readings are in Vol. II of your textbook.

Realist to Modernist

Friday, 10/01

• Background: American Lit. 1865-1914 (Transformation. . . 1-4; Realism and Naturalism 569-70).
• Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, "A New England Nun" 444-52.
• Mark Twain, Huck Finn Ch. I-X, 101-34.

WEEK SEVEN
Monday, 10/4

• Kate Chopin biography 426-28 (skim); "At the 'Cadian Ball" 428-35 AND "The Storm" 435-39. (NOTE: Read as one story in two parts.)
• Mark Twain, Huck Finn Ch. XI-XV, 134-53;
  [Omit part of Ch. XVI, 153-62, about some further encounters on the river];
  Ch. XVI (beginning "There warn't nothing to do") through Ch. XVII, 162-73.

Wednesday, 10/6

• Mark Twain, Huck Finn Ch. XVIII-XX, 173-91;
  [Omit Ch. XXI-XXVIII, 191-228, about various scams by the Duke and the Dauphin];
  Ch. XXIX-XXXIII, 228-50.
• Short Write--250+ words. See online Paper Directions.

Friday, 10/8

• Mark Twain, Huck Finn, Ch. XXXIV--CHAPTER THE LAST, 250-87.

WEEK EIGHT
Monday, 10/11

• Frank Norris, A Deal of Wheat (online)

Wednesday, 10/13

• Stephen Crane, "Blue Hotel" 619-38.

Friday, 10/15

• Prayer from the Navajo healing ceremony called Night Chant (online).
• Ghost Dance Poems: "Introduction to Native American Revitalist Visions," "Ghost Dance Poems" (online)
• Paul Lawrence Dunbar, "Sympathy" 646 and "We Wear the Mask" 646-47.

WEEK NINE

Monday, 10/18

• Emma Lazarus, "The New Colossus" 426;
• Sui Sin Far, "In the Land of the Free" 545-51;
• Carved on the Walls: Poetry by Early Chinese Immigrants;
• Ox Poem; Departing Poem; Hero Poem; Revenge Poem (online);
• More Angel Island poems (online)

Wednesday, 10/20

• Charlotte Perkins Gilman, biography 506-7 (skim); "The Yellow Wallpaper" 508-19.

Friday, 10/22

• FALL BREAK (no class)

WEEK TEN
Monday, 10/25

• Background: American Lit. 1914-1945 (Two Wars 705-7).
• Susan Glaspell, Trifles 792-801.

Wednesday, 10/27

• Background: American Lit. 1914-1945 (American Versions of Modernism 712-15). See also: Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase and Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon.
• Robert Frost, "Mending Wall" 777-78; "Birches" 785-6; "Stopping by Woods" 787; "Desert Places" 788; "Design 788."

Friday, 10/29

• William Carlos Williams, "Red Wheelbarrow" 838; "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus" 840;
• Wallace Stevens, "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" 821-23;
• H.D. (Hilda Doolittle), "Mid-day" 850-1; Sheltered Garden (online); Eurydice (online)

WEEK ELEVEN
Monday, 11/01

• EXAM

Modernist to Contemporary

Wednesday, 11/03

• Ernest Hemingway, biography 1065-67 (skim); "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" 1067-87.

Friday, 11/05

• T.S. Eliot, biography 861-3 (skim); "Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" 863-6; "The Hollow Men" 881-84.

WEEK TWELVE

Monday, 11/08

• Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye--read 40 pp; discussion of opening techniques.
• PAPER #2 ASSIGNED: Morrison (5 pp)--due 11/27. See online Paper Directions.

Wednesday, 11/10

• William Faulkner, "A Rose for Miss Emily" 1042-48.
• Continue reading Morrison--40 pp

Friday, 11/12

• William Faulkner, "Barn Burning" 1048-60.
• Continue reading Morrison--40 pp

WEEK THIRTEEN
Monday, 11/15

• Eugene O'Neill, biography 889-92 (skim); Long Day's Journey into Night (VIDEO).
• Continue reading Morrison--40 pp

Wednesday, 11/17

• Eugene O'Neill, Long Day's Journey into Night (VIDEO).
• Finish reading Morrison.

Friday, 11/19

• Eugene O'Neill, Long Day's Journey into Night (VIDEO).
• Short Write--250+ words. See online Paper Directions.
• Begin drafting your Morrison paper--due Mon., 11/27.

WEEK FOURTEEN
Monday, 11/22

• Eugene O'Neill, Long Day's Journey into Night (VIDEO).

Wednesday, 11/24

• THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY (no class)

Friday, 11/26

• THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY (no class)

WEEK FIFTEEN
Monday, 11/29

• MORRISON PAPER DUE
• Background: American Literature 1914-1945 [Harlem Renaissance 708].
• Langston Hughes, biography 1087-89 (skim); "Negro Speaks Rivers" 1089; "I, too" 1090; "The Weary Blues" 1090; "Song of a Black Girl" 1092; "Note on Commercial Theatre" 1093-4; Harlem/Dream Deferred (online).

Wednesday, 12/01

• Background: American Literature since 1945 (The U.S. and World Power 1130-1).
• Flannery O'Connor, biography 1392-3 (skim); "Good Country People" 1393-1407.

Friday, 12/03

• Background: American Literature since 1945 (Literary Developments 1134-5).
• Allen Ginsberg, biography 1414-16; "Howl," Part I, 1416-21.
• Sylvia Plath, biography 1475-77; The Disquieting Muses; "Daddy" 2781-83; The Applicant.
• Adrienne Rich, "Diving into the Wreck" 1450-52.

WEEK SIXTEEN
Monday, 12/06

• Background: American Literature since 1945 [Contemporary 1137-8].
• Maxine Hong Kingston, "No Name Woman" 1568-77.
• Li-Young Lee, "Persimmons" 1670-2.
• Janice Mirikitani, Suicide Note and Breaking Tradition (online).

Wednesday, 12/08

• Rudolfo A. Anaya, Message from the Inca (online).
• Gloria Anzaldua, biography 1586 (skim); To Live in the Borderlands means you (online).
• Jimmy Santiago Baca A Daily Joy to Be Alive" (online).

Friday, 12/10

• Leslie Marmon Silko, biography 1608-9; "Lullaby" 1609-15.

FINAL EXAM:
Friday, Dec. 17, 1:00-2:50, Grubbs 301.

Course Syllabus

Paper Directions

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