E-mail: kelley_griffith@uncg.edu

Your work for the course will consist of the readings plus the following written assignments and class activities:

In-class responses (25% of final grade): These consist of brief, informal responses to the weeks readings. Well have about one per week (a total of 12-15). At the end of the semester, Ill drop the two lowest grades.

Interpretive papers (70%): These papers, five in all, should be about 4-6 typed pages long and should develop an interpretation of the one or two novels we have read most recently. See the Schedule of Readings for due dates. Unless you make an A on the first three of these papers, you will need to rewrite them. The higher of the two gradesoriginal version and rewriteis the one that counts.

Class activities (5%): Each of you will take some responsibility in leading discussions of the novels.

You can cut three times without explanation. Beyond that, Ill reduce your final grade by 2% for each unexplained absence.

When you have completed this course you should have

1. Read, discussed, and written about important and representative American fiction published from the early 19thC to the early 20thC

2. Gained an understanding of the cultural and intellectual context of this fiction (most significantly, its manifestation of artistic and philosophical movements such as Romanticism, Realism, Naturalism, and Modernism).

3. Considered this fiction in relationship to at least one concept that has been central to the American experience and identitythe "gone primitive" theme, which emerged during the first settlements of North America and is still with us today.

4. Become more aware of how the components of fiction work together to communicate ideas and reflect and comment on real-life situations

5. Gained more experience in speaking your ideas and listening to the ideas of others

6. Increased your skill in developing written arguments, using reasoning and clarity of expression to convince others of the believability and value of your ideas.

8/21 Introduction

8/23 The Gone Primitive theme

Practical criticism

8/28 Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan of the Apes (1914)

8/30 Burroughs

9/4 Catherine Maria Sedgewick, Hope Leslie (1827)

Preface, Chapters 1-10

9/6 Chapters 11-Vol.2, Ch. 6

9/11 Chapters 7-end

9/13 Herman Melville, Moby Dick (1851)

Etymology, Extracts, Chapters 1-25

9/18 Paper 1 on Tarzan and/or Hope

Chapters 26-44

9/20 Chapters 45-92

9/25 Chapters 93-end

9/27 Henry James, The Bostonians (1886)

Chapters 1-15

10/2 Chapters 16-23

10/4 Chapters 24-34

10/9 Fall Break (no class)

10/11 Chapters 35-end

10/16 Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court (1889)

Preface, A Word, Chapters 1-17

10/18 Chapters 18-28

10/23 Paper 2 on Moby and/or Bostonians

Chapters 29-end

10/25 Sarah Orne Jewett, The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896)

10/30 Jewett

11/1 James Weldon Johnson, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (1912)

11/6 Paper 3 on Yankee and/or Firs

Johnson

11/8 Edith Wharton, Summer (1917)

11/13 Wharton

11/15 Wharton

11/20 Jack London, The Son of the Wolf (Oxford World Classics): "The Son of the Wolf," "In a Far Country," "The Wisdom of the Trail," "The Wife of a King," "The Great Interrogation," "The Law of Life"

11/22 Thanksgiving (no class)

11/27 Paper 4 on Man and/or Summer

"At the Rainbows End," "The Story of Jees Uck," "The League of the Old Men," "Love of Life," "Like Argus of the Ancient Times"

11/29 Willa Cather, My Antonia (1918)

Cathers Intro, Books I-II

12/4 Books III-V

12/6 Conclusion

12/13 Examination Day, 3:30-6:30