Required Texts:
Absalom, Absalom!--William Faulkner
Leaves of Grass and Other Writings--Walt Whitman
The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson--Emily Dickinson
Selected Tales and Sketches--Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Short Stories--Ernest Hemingway
Outer Dark--Cormac McCarthy
Beloved--Toni Morrison
Course Goals: This course will focus on the work of major American writers who have helped define and create American Literature. Obviously, there are gaps in such an undertaking, however, I will augment the readings with lectures on literary and cultural contexts such as Puritanism, romanticism, modernism, feminism, postmodernism, realism and naturalism in order to give you as complete an understanding of the history of American Literature. I will expect that your experience with theory in ENGL 206 will contribute to your interpretation of these texts. This course will continue to build on your knowledge of theory. What we want to achieve in this course is a happy balance between theory, literary history, and interpretation. First and foremost, it is essential that you master the works themselves.
Course Description: These interpretive abstractions will become much more tangible when we begin studying Hawthorne's life and work. What do we make of his legendary reclusiveness? Was it a lack of "manliness" as some have claimed, or was he just intensely introspective? Did you know that Toni Morrison's real name is Chloe Wofford? Will Beloved make you believe in ghosts? Much is made of Whitman's homo-social and homosexual passages, but we need to remember the political work of the greatest poet of our Democratic Republic? We will also engage the beguiling and decadent work of Emily Dickinson who as much a poet of the interior as Whitman was of the exterior. Harold Bloom claims that Dickinson and Whitman comprise the center of the American Canon. As for Cormac McCarthy, what can we say about a writer of whom virtually nothing is known. He is reported to have lived on lake-water and beans, and that was after he quit his job at auto-parts store. Faulkner, who is the progenitor of both Morrison and McCarthy, is a genius who probably didn't understand himself--so claims Steven King. Faulkner briefly attended college yet became one of the great writers of American Literature in the 20th century. Absalom, Absalom! will be the most challenging novel of the course. Be ready.
Course Requirements: You will write four papers; each will be worth 15% percent of your grade. You will have two exams, a mid-term and a final; each will be worth 20%. There will be handouts for each paper. The exams will cover the lectures, readings, and discussions. Note taking is essential in order to achieve passing grades on the exams. I do not accept e-mailed papers, unless there are extenuating circumstances.
Attendance Policy: Be on time to class. You are permitted one unexcused absence. For each subsequent absence, your final grade will drop by a letter. For example, if you have an A and miss two classes, your grade will be lowered to a B.
Week 1
1/13--Hawthorne: Wakefield, Alice Doane's Appeal, Young Goodman Brown
1/15--My Kinsman, Major Molineux, Roger Malvin's Burial
Week 2
1/20--The Minister's Black Veil, The Birth-Mark, Egotism; or, The Bosom-Serpent.
1/22--Dickinson, 1-178(I will assign specific poems from these pages)
Week 3
1/27--Dickinson 366-544.
1/29--Dickinson 544-622.
2/1--Paper #1 Due.
Week 4
2/3--Whitman 616-646. 2-14.
2/5--Whitman(Calamus) 96-116.
Week 5
2/10--Whitman 26-78. Song of Myself.
2/12--Campus Day
Week 6 Hemingway
2/17--The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber. Big Hearted River, I&II. A Clean Well-Lighted Place.
2/19--Up in Michigan, Snows of Kilimanjaro, Indian Camp. Hills Like White Elephants.
2/20--Paper #2 Due.
Week 7
2/24--Mid-term Exam.
2/26--Faulkner. 1-75.
Week 8
3/2--75-150.
3/4--150-225.
SPRING BREAK
Week 9
3/16--225-303.
3/18--Morrison, 1-68.
3/19--Paper #3 Due.
Week 10
3/23--69-136.
3/25--136-204.
Week 11
3/30--204-272.
4/1--Outer Dark, 1-80.
Week 12
4/6--80-160.
4/8--160-242.
4/9--Paper #4 Due.
Final Exam.
Monday April 12. 9-11 am.